Today we’re launching a new multimedia feature on New Ideal, a series of videos featuring New Ideal editors and writers in conversation about works in progress. In these pre-recorded but unscripted sessions, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at forthcoming pieces: the writer’s interest in the topic, a preview of some of the content of the article, and interesting material connected to the topic but beyond the scope of the written piece.

In the first of the series, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss a forthcoming in-depth piece about Ayn Rand’s comments on “conspiracy theories.” 

Topics discussed include: what “conspiracy theories” are and how they have become more mainstream in recent years; why “conspiracy theories” are not really theories but anti-theories; the difference between “conspiracism” and “the conspiracy theory of history”; Rand’s view of the impotence of evil vs. the conspiracy theory of history; the applicability of Rand’s perspective to communist conspiracies in the 20th century and Islamist conspiracies today; how pragmatism fuels conspiracism; the connection between conspiracism and tribalism; and the difficulty of identifying the ideas that move the world, even when they are accepted openly.