In this 1962 recording, Ayn Rand argues that America’s intellectuals have defaulted on their responsibility to understand and defend capitalism. Rand contends that intellectuals failed to grasp the source of businessmen’s productivity and the destructive effects of collectivist schemes implemented by government coercion. By failing to uphold the value of individual liberty, intellectuals paved the way for authoritarian states and the decline of freedom in the twentieth century.

In a separate program, Rand answers questions prompted by her talk, addressing such topics as charity in a free society, the nature and evils of altruism, what she had in common with liberals, Nietzsche’s subjectivism, economic regulation, pollution remedies and the need for television airwaves to be recognized as private property.