September 11, 2001 — and America’s response to it — shaped the 21st century. Confidence in America’s ability to win wars cracked, trust in leadership and experts went down, and, in response, populism, nihilism, and conspiracism raised their ugly heads. From day one, the Ayn Rand Institute’s experts grasped the meaning of the attacks and the significance of a proper response. They called for war with Iran and opposed Bush’s altruistic wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their advice was not followed, but their predictions held.

In this special livestream marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Yaron Brook, Elan Journo, and Onkar Ghate — the Institute’s three leading experts on the attacks — trace what went wrong in its lead-up and aftermath, and how Ayn Rand’s philosophy let them foresee what most people still struggle to understand.

Topics include:

• The events and evasions that led up to 9/11.
• How shocking 9/11 was, given the atmosphere in the 1990s.
• The corrupt failure of intellectuals to warn of and explain 9/11.
• How both the government and academia whitewashed religion and Islam.
• Why and how ARI commented on 9/11 and its aftermath.
• How Objectivism helped ARI’s experts to predict America's failures.
• The disgraceful Western response to the Danish cartoons of Muhammad.
• The rise of populism and nihilism as a result of 9/11.

Resources recommended in the episode:

• Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo, Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong After 9/11.

After the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy released its entry on capitalism, critics online slammed it for apparent Marxist bias. However, if there is a scandal here, it is not merely that one entry is lopsided; it is that contemporary academic philosophers are willfully blind to the real-world phenomenon of capitalism, seeing it only through the unquestioned lens of the altruistic morality.

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Robertas Bakula, Ben Bayer, and Onkar Ghate discuss the entry’s Marxist leaning, Ayn Rand’s absence from the entry, and more broadly the failure of academic philosophy to understand the subject. They argue that Ayn Rand’s view of capitalism should have played a more prominent role in the entry, and how Rand succeeded in defining “capitalism” while the entry does not bother trying. They conclude that the entry should give more serious attention not only to Rand, but also Locke, Smith, and economic scholarship more broadly.

Topics include:

• The Stanford Encyclopedia’s cultural impact
• Marxist dominance in academic philosophy
• Academic philosophy’s economic ignorance
• The failure to define capitalism
• Ayn Rand vs. intellectuals
• Ayn Rand’s definition of capitalism
• How to reform the SEP entry

Resources:

• Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
• Ayn Rand, “What Is Capitalism?” in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
• Ayn Rand, “ For the New Intellectual” in For the New Intellectual
• The Ayn Rand Lexicon entry on "Capitalism"

This episode was recorded on August 24, 2026.

9/11 was one of the most consequential events of the 21st century. Yet twenty-five years later, the attacks and their aftermath are still widely misunderstood. In two consecutive talks at our student conference in Austin, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo analyzed America’s failures before and after 9/11, drawing on more than two decades of work on the subject. They show how the self-abasing morality of altruism shaped American policy, leading the US to betray its ideals, appease its enemies, sacrifice its soldiers, and lose its wars. This double lecture is a must-watch for anyone who cares about America and wants to make it secure.

Topics include:

• Introduction by ARI’s CEO, Tal Tsfany
• How 9/11 was experienced and perceived in the immediate aftermath
• The religious, modernity-hating motivation behind 9/11
• America’s emboldening of Islamists in the decades before 9/11
• America’s abject, craven response to the Danish cartoons of Muhammad
• The intellectual rot 9/11 exposed and Objectivism’s potential to change it
• How American altruism crippled its troops’ ability to fight
• How America refused to recognize or defeat its enemies
• The devastating consequences of our altruistic approach to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars
• Q&A

Resources:

• Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo, Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong After 9/11.