Don Watkins (the Ayn Rand Institute) has done a series of valuable podcast interviews with a number of the contributors to Blackwell’s Companion to Ayn Rand and Her Thoughts. All of those interviewed are past contributors to ARS sessions or members of the ARS board of directors. These include:
- Gregory Salmieri (Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship/Rutgers University) on editing the volume with the late Allan Gotthelf, and on his contributions to the volume on ethics, especially on Rand’s conception of valuing and her defense of egoism:
- Adam Mossoff (George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School) on his contribution with Fred Miller (University of Arizona) on Rand’s view of rights and capitalism, with special emphasis on her view of intellectual property rights:
- Tara Smith (University of Texas) on her contribution on Rand’s view of objective law, with special emphasis on Smith’s own recent work on this topic:
- Jason Rheins (Loyola University Chicago) on Rand’s metaphysics, with special emphasis on the practical implications of this abstract branch of philosophy, and on the relationship between metaphysics and physics:
- Harry Binswanger (the Ayn Rand Institute) on Rand’s esthetics, including an interesting discussion of how studying philosphy of art helps increase one’s own appreciation for art:
On a related note, it’s worth mentioning one previous interview by the editor of the Companion which this blog has not yet publicized. Check out the Elucidations podcast (produced by grad students at the University of Chicago) interviewing Greg Salmieri about Rand’s ethics, her status as a radical philosopher, and her reception by academic philosophers.