The Atlas Society Presents - Objectively Speaking

What does it truly mean for a nation to act in its rational self-interest on the world stage? Join Atlas Society Senior Scholar Richard Salsman, Ph.D., for a discussion on why America is right to adopt self-interested foreign-military policies, as captured in the phrase “America First.” The U.S. national interest entails preserving liberty and capitalism. Salsman explains how this egoistic principle fueled the launch of the U.S. war with Iran and so far has guided its conduct. But U.S. victory must be swift, definitive, and devoid of the “nation building” which violates the America First principle. Salsman argues that a future Middle East without dominance by theocratic Islamism could prove as beneficial to U.S. interests as did the end of the U.S.S.R. and the Cold War in the 1990s.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 293rd episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with podcast host and Bitcoin advocate Natalie Brunell to discuss her new book "Bitcoin is for Everyone: Why Our Financial System is Broken and Bitcoin is the Solution."  A journalist, podcaster, and longtime friend of The Atlas Society, Brunell joins Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman to make the case that Bitcoin’s decentralized, transparent, and rules-based design offers a powerful tool for financial freedom, individual sovereignty, and long-term economic stability. Her book examines how inflation, centralized control, and opaque monetary policy have eroded trust in traditional finance.

‍It was March 2016—only 10 short years ago—when Jennifer Grossman reported for her first day on the job as CEO of The Atlas Society.   Usually the one asking questions on Objectively Speaking, Grossman will swap seats with longtime friend of The Atlas Society, Naomi Brockwell, President and Founder of the Ludlow Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting privacy in the digital age. Naomi will chat with JAG about her chief accomplishments, challenges, and impact over the first 10 years of growing the organization, and share her vision for the decade to come.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 291st episode of Objectively Speaking as she sits down with Uyghur rights advocate and political leader Salih Hudayar, Foreign Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, to discuss China’s persecution of the Uyghur people, the fight for East Turkistan’s independence, and efforts in the international community to confront authoritarian repression and defend human rights. Born in a Uyghur village under Chinese rule, Hudayar was forced to flee with his family at just seven years old to escape persecution. Now serving as Foreign Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, Hudayar has been at the forefront of international efforts to expose and oppose the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of repression, mass detention, and cultural eradication against the Uyghur people.

All political labels are abused—some more than others. When should a label be abandoned, and when not? In contemporary American political journalism, liberal is one such contested word. In the 290th episode of Objectively Speaking, Stephen Hicks will discuss its value and prospects.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 289th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by Professor Richard Vedder to talk about his book, "Let Colleges Fail: The Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education," which makes the case that higher education must embrace market discipline—learning from the private sector, ending federal control of student loans, questioning accreditation, and allowing creative destruction to drive innovation, affordability, and genuine educational value. Vedder is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Economics at Ohio University. His work has appeared in scholarly journals and in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and National Review. He is the author of several books, including "Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America" and "Going Broke By Degree: Why College Costs Too Much."

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 288th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with the President and CEO of Laitram, LLC, as well as Board Chair for Atlas Society, Jay Lapeyre to discuss the moral foundations of a free society and the values needed to sustain it. In an age of deep polarization and growing skepticism toward freedom itself, what core values can still unite Americans around a shared moral foundation for a free society? That’s what Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman and President and CEO of Laitram, LLC, Jay Lapeyre sit down to discuss in this special episode of Objectively Speaking. Along with serving as Board Chair for both the Cato Institute and The Atlas Society, Lapeyre is a founding leader of the Free Society Coalition, a new alliance of thinkers and institutions committed to clarifying and defending the ethical principles that make freedom possible. Drawing on the Coalition’s Philadelphia Declaration for Freedom and Responsibility, the duo will explore how individual dignity, moral agency, objective truth, and constitutional limits on power can provide a unifying alternative to collectivism, nihilism, and authoritarianism on both the left and the right.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 287th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by professor Anna Krylov to discuss the dangers when institutions dedicated to truth-seeking come to prioritize ideology over scientific rigor, and what that means for the future of science. How did institutions dedicated to truth-seeking come to prioritize ideology over scientific rigor, and what does that mean for the future of science? That’s what Anna Krylov examines in a recent article, “How Science Became Corrupted,” for the Heterodox STEM Substack. In a powerful critique of modern scientific publishing, Krylov argues that identity-based policies, “citation justice,” and editorial censorship have undermined peer review, distorted the production of knowledge, and replaced merit with social engineering. Krylov is a theoretical chemist and professor known for her outspoken defense of scientific rigor, open inquiry, and the pursuit of objective truth.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 286th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she sits down with sociologist Musa al-Gharbi to discuss his book "We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite," which examines the history and political economy of the symbolic professions from the interwar period through the present, tracing how journalists, academics, activists, and knowledge-sector professionals came to wield outsized cultural influence. A sociologist and associate professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University, Al-Ghabri brings a rigorous, data-driven approach to understanding today’s ideological battles. He is also a prolific writer of many articles, including those posted to his Substack, Symbolic Capital(ism).

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 285th episode of Objectively speaking where she sits down with three-time returning guest Timothy Sandefur to talk about his latest book "You Don’t Own Me: Individualism and the Culture of Liberty," which explores how the idea of individual freedom has shaped not only politics and economics but also the arts—from pop music to poetry, from “Star Trek” to the blues, and from Western novels to architecture. Returning for a third time on Objectively Speaking, Sandefur is no stranger to The Atlas Society, having joined us previously to discuss his books Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man and Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Patterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness. Sandefur is the Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute and holds the Duncan Chair in Constitutional Government. He is the author of nine books as well as more than 50 scholarly articles on a wide variety of legal subjects.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 284th episode of Objectivley Speaking where she interviews historian Barry Strauss about his book "Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire," which offers a gripping account of one of the most momentous eras in human history: the two hundred years of ancient Israel’s battles against Rome that reshaped Judaism and gave rise to Christianity. Barry Strauss is Corliss Page Dean Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and Bryce & Edith M. Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies Emeritus at Cornell. As a historian, Strauss has spent years researching and studying the leaders of the ancient world and has written and spoken widely of their mistakes and successes. Some of his previous titles include "Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine," "The War That Made the Roman Empire," and "Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and the Genius of Leadership."

Join Atlas Society Senior Fellow Robert Tracinski for the 283rd episode of Objectively Speaking when she sits down with Roosevelt Montás to talk about his book "Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation," which describes how four authors―Plato, Augustine, Freud, and Gandhi―had a profound impact on Montás’s life, driving home why a liberal education can still remake lives. Roosevelt Montás is a Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English at Columbia University and the director of the Center for American Studies’ Freedom and Citizenship Program, which brings low-income high school students to the Columbia campus to study political theory and then helps them prepare successful applications to college. He speaks and writes on the history, meaning, and future of liberal education and is the author of "Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation."

Join Atlas Society Senior Scholar Stephen Hicks and Senior Fellow Robert Tracinski for a conversation on emerging trends in conservative political philosophy. Together, they’ll explore the ideas of post-liberal, national conservative, and integralist thinkers, discuss influential American theorists driving the conversation, and contrast them with leading European voices such as Roger Scruton and James Orr.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 281st episode of Objectively Speaking, with historian Arthur Herman as they discuss his book "The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization," which answers the question of how the competing visions of Plato and Aristotle shaped the very way we think about politics, art, science, and the modern world. A senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute, Herman is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist historian and biographer, authoring nine books, including the New York Times Best Seller How the Scots Invented the Modern World, Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, and 1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder. 

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 280th episode of Objectively Speaking when she sits down with Josh Hammer to talk about his book "Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West," which makes a case for why the key to the prosperity of the West is the flourishing of the Jewish State of Israel. Josh Hammer is the Senior Editor at Large of Newsweek, where he hosts “The Josh Hammer Show.” A frequent pundit and essayist on political, legal, and cultural issues, Josh is also a research fellow with the Edmund Burke Foundation, a fellow with the Palm Beach Freedom Institute, and senior counsel for the Article III Project and Internet Accountability Project.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 279th episode of Objectively Speaking where she is joined by three-time returning guest Johan Norberg to talk about his latest book "Peak Human: What We Can Learn From History’s Greatest Civilizations," which explores the rise and fall of past societies to uncover the ideas, institutions, and innovations that fueled their success—and the mistakes that led to their decline. Johan Norberg is a Cato Senior Fellow and the author and editor of more than 20 books that focus on globalization, human progress, and intellectual history. He previously joined The Atlas Society Asks to discuss his books "Open: The Story of Human Progress" and "The Capitalist Manifesto."

Join Atlas Society founder and Senior Scholar David Kelley, Ph.D., along with Senior Scholar and Professor of Political Economy at Duke Richard Salsman, Ph.D., for a special webinar exploring the relationship between concepts, propositions, and objective knowledge—central themes in Kelley’s new essay Concepts and Propositions. Together, the duo will unpack why propositions are essential to reasoning, how Kelley’s work builds upon Rand’s theory of concepts, and what this expanded epistemology means for understanding truth, logic, and the pursuit of rational ideas in today’s intellectual climate.

Join Atlas CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 277th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she interviews founder and CEO Darcy Olsen about the Center for the Rights of Abused Children and its mission to “protect children, change laws and inspire people – to ensure every abused child has a safe and loving home." A former foster mom, who adopted four of the children that she fostered, Darcy founded the Center after witnessing firsthand the injustices and systemic failures within the child welfare and family court systems. Olsen prevously served as CEO of the Goldwater Institute where she wrote the book, “The Right to Try: How the Federal Government Prevents Americans from Getting the Lifesaving Treatments They Need,” which resulted in a national law giving people with terminal illnesses the right to try investigational medicines. She joins Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman to talk about the Center for the Rights of Abused Children and mission to give children a voice, an advocate, and the opportunity to thrive.

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 276th episode of Objectively Speaking where she interviews author Dan Flynn about his new book "The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer," which unveils one of the twentieth century’s great untold stories: a Communist turned conservative, an antiwar activist turned soldier, and a free-love enthusiast turned family man whose big idea captured the American Right. A senior editor with The American Spectator, Flynn has authored seven books, including "Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas," "10 Days That Shook San Francisco," and "Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America."

Join Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Grossman for the 275th episode of Objectively Speaking, where she is joined by Wilfred McClay, Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College, to discuss his book "Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story" along with his latest release, "Jewish Roots of American Liberty: The Impact of Hebraic Ideas on the American Story." A historian having taught at Georgetown, Tulane, and Johns Hopkins, among others, Wilfred McClay now serves as the Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College. A prolific author, McClay’s books include The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America, A Student’s Guide to U.S. History, and his newest book, Jewish Roots of American Liberty: The Impact of Hebraic Ideas on the American Story.