OSI advanced its mission—and your values—beautifully in 2024. Here are some highlights of our projects and programs throughout the year.
Courses
OSI taught 13 in-depth courses to 258 students. These were:
- The Heavens and How We Know What We Know (with Joseph Tabenkin)
- Secular Spirituality: Principles and Practices for a More Meaningful Life (Carrie-Ann Biondi)
- Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand Reading Group (Jon Hersey)
- How to Build a Social Media Brand (Hannah Frankman)
- How to Get More Out of Great Movies, Take Two (Andrew Bernstein)
- Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal Reading group (Martin Hooss)
- The Art of Nonfiction Workshop: Learn to Write More Clearly and Persuasively (Thomas Walker-Werth)
- The Virtue of Selfishness Reading Group (Martin Hooss and Thomas Walker-Werth)
- Defenders of Capitalism (Eric Daniels)
- Philosophy: Who Needs It Reading Group (Angel Walker-Werth)
- Romance in Art: What Paintings Can Show Us about Love (Luc Travers)
- The Fountainhead Reading Group (Martin Hooss)
- “Understanding Objectivism” Listening Group (Martin Hooss)
Junior Fellowship Program
OSI launched its new Junior Fellowship program in October 2024 (this replaced our Internship program). Our first cohort of junior fellows included Serhan Dalarslan, Tobias Zander, and Mathew Lloyd. A second cohort, to begin in January 2025, includes Nadav Sternheim, Harrison Griffiths, and Daria Topchii. This three-month program gives potential professional intellectuals an opportunity to test the waters as an OSI fellow—discussing ideas, writing articles, giving lectures, and producing videos. The junior fellows get to test their mettle in a professional intellectual environment, and we get to see who might be a good fit for a full fellowship position at OSI. This is a brand new program from which we expect great results.
Internship Program
Although it has been replaced by our Junior Fellowship program, OSI’s Internship program (launched in 2022) helped to develop several budding intellectuals. Graduates of the program in 2024 included:
- Michaela (Ela) Richmond, who hosts a self-development podcast called “In Bloom”;
- Lucas Voltolini, who is now is the marketing manager at Objetivismo Brasil;
- Irakli Iagorashvili, who is now CEO of Ayn Rand Center Georgia;
- David Chavez Salazar, who continues his work as both a professor at Universidad Gabriela Mistral and principal chief financial officer at Libertas Phyle (a think-tank focusing on free-market ideas applied to business and policy);
- Paramie Jayakody, who is now an instructor at the National Institute of Business Management in Sri Lanka;
- Ligeia Rose, who wrote “Dreaming of America: The Art of Hiroshi Nagai,” which was published in The Objective Standard (Winter 2024);
- Dominique Lazzaro, who now works for SFL North America as an outreach associate;
- Lautaro Soza Torrijos, who now works in marketing for Students For Liberty;
- Victória Souza da Luz, who is now a leadership associate with SFL Brazil.
OSI Conferences and Outside Conferences
We held two LevelUp conferences in 2024—in Prague, CZ, and Atlanta, GA.
LevelUp Atlanta had 370 attendees (including speakers and staff). The program and speakers included:
- Loving Your Life: A Framework for Flourishing (Craig Biddle)
- Feminism: Zero Sum? (Ayaan Hirsi Ali)
- Thriving Through Adversity and Trauma (David Hardy)
- The Art of Breaking Rules (Hannah Frankman)
- The Future of Liberalism: Religious or Secular? (Ayaan Hirsi Ali, David Wolpe, Craig Biddle, and Timothy Sandefur)
- How to Develop Your Happiness Plan (Carl Barney)
- How and Why DEI Must Die (Craig Biddle, Wilfred Reilly, Eric Daniels, and Christopher Rufo)
- Love as Trade: What’s in It for You—and Me? (Angel and Thomas Walker-Werth)
- The Roots of War and the Path to Peace (Kiyah Willis)
- Is Morality Objective or Subjective? (Craig Biddle and Alex O’Connor)
- Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, and the Philosophic Foundation for Freedom (Jon Hersey)
- The Song of the New World (Timothy Sandefur)
- Optimizing Your Health for Happiness (Max Lugavere)
- The History of Philosophy as a Tool for Flourishing (Ely Lassman)
- Filling The Self-Shaped Hole (Craig Biddle)
(Watch a sizzle reel of the Atlanta conference here.)
LevelUp Prague had 95 attendees (including speakers and staff). The program included:
- Genuine Justice vs. “Social Justice” (Andrew Doyle)
- Reason and Emotion in Harmony for Happiness (Thomas Walker-Werth)
- Why Making Money Is Profoundly Moral (Stephen Davies)
- Deep Values in Dystopian Literature (Angel Walker-Werth)
- Ancient Greek Lessons for Modern Times (Ely Lassman)
- Rational Resilience: Growing Through Adversity (Tetiana Rak)
- Individualism and War: What about Innocents? (Kiyah Willis)
- Invisible Chains: Psychological Control in Dictatorships (Agnieszka Płonka)
- Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Education (Jess Gill)
Evening activities and nightlife at these conferences included karaoke, board and card games, dance lessons, music jam sessions, late night conversations, and the forging of friendships for life.
In addition to our LevelUp conferences in 2024, OSI intellectuals spoke at 55 outside (non-OSI) conferences and events around the world, where they engaged in a total of 66 talks, panel discussions, and debates. Some were live and some virtual, and together they involved more than 2,889 attendees.
These events included:
- Prometheus Summit, in Washington, DC (Jan 31–Feb 2)
- LibertyCon, in Washington, DC (Feb 3)
- Ladies of Liberty Alliance Europe Leadership Retreat, in Lisbon, Portugal (May 31–June 3)
- Active Mind Conference, in Atlanta, Georgia (June 12–14)
- Prometheus Fellowship Summit, in Nairobi, Kenya (July 23)
- NICON, in Budapest, Hungary (Sept 21–25)
- Battle of Ideas, in London, UK (Oct 20)
- Radical Liberal Bookfair, in London, UK (Dec 7)
- John Galt School events, throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia (various dates)
OSI intellectuals’ talks at these events included:
- The Rise of Political Violence: Is There An End In Sight, Or Will It Only Get Worse? (Jon Hersey)
- Sci-fi and Visions of the Future (Thomas Walker-Werth)
- Music and Freedom (Jon Hersey)
- Dystopian Fiction: Worlds without Rights Protections (Angel Walker-Werth)
- Should Space Be the Government’s Domain? (Thomas Walker-Werth)
- Feminism and Objectivism (Angel Walker-Werth)
- Introduction to Objectivism (Thomas Walker-Werth)
- Objectivist Epistemology (Angel Walker-Werth)
- Objectivist Aesthetics (Angel Walker-Werth)
- Appreciating Ayn Rand’s Philosophic Achievement (Jon Hersey)
Booklets Distributed
OSI distributed more than 1,200 booklets to young adults at various events in 2024. These included:
- What is Objectivism? by Craig Biddle
- Ayn Rand’s Theory of Rights: The Moral Foundation of a Free Society by Craig Biddle
- Capitalism in One Lesson by Andrew Bernstein
- A Woke New World by Michael Dahlen
- Does Abortion Violate Rights? by Angel Walker-Werth
- Heroes and Villains in Philosophy by Andrew Bernstein
- Israel: To Be, or Not to Be by Craig Biddle
- Liberty: What Is It? Why Is It Good? On What Does It Depend? By Carl Barney and Craig Biddle
- Navigating Today’s Seductive and Destructive Language by Craig Biddle
- On Purpose: Creating a Meaningful Life by Craig Biddle and Jon Hersey
- Purpose Comes from Reason, Not Religion by Craig Biddle
- The Is-Altruism Dichotomy by Craig Biddle
- Ayn Rand Contra Nietzsche by John Ridpath
Social Media
OSI social media engagement in 2024 included:
- Instagram: 3,103 followers, 1,433,581 views
- Facebook: 1,800 followers, 23,616 views
- YouTube: 5,780 followers, 460,963 views
- LinkedIn: 750 followers, 18,907 views
- TikTok: 29,900 followers, 2,300,000 views
- Twitter: 3,572 followers, 116,170 views
- Total: 44,905 followers, 4,353,237 views
Social media stats including Fellows’ accounts:
- Instagram: 8,672 followers
- Facebook: 2,876 followers
- YouTube: 11,493 followers
- LinkedIn: 804 followers
- TikTok: 68,936 followers
- Twitter: 71,446 followers
- Substack: 1,594 followers
- Total: 165,821 followers
Podcast Appearances
OSI fellows appeared on 11 outside podcasts, including Kiyah Willis’s appearance on The Easy Way podcast, which garnered 30,000 views.
Our Team
OSI’s staff in 2024 included:
- Sarah Biddle, President
- Craig Biddle, Executive Director
- Juan Navarro, Operations Manager
- Jackson Upmann, Director of Marketing
- Justyna Piątek-Pawłowska, Social Media Manager
- Dylan Fritts, Design and Media Specialist
- Maddox Locher, Newsletter Manager
- Mariusz Karpowicz, Marketing Specialist
- Senuri Jayasinghe, Fundraising Assistant
- Angelica Walker-Werth, Fellow, Programs Manager
- Thomas Walker-Werth, Fellow, Editor
- Jon Hersey, Fellow, Instructor
- Kiyah Willis, Fellow
- Martin Hooss, Fellow, Instructor
OSI’s Board of Directors
Our board in 2024 included:
- Sarah Biddle, President of OSI, General Manager of The Objective Standard
- Craig Biddle, Executive Director of OSI, Editor in Chief of The Objective Standard, Executive Director of Prometheus Foundation
- Robert Begley, Director of Development at OSI
- Annie Vinther-Sanz, Director of Operations at Prometheus Foundation
- Pete Masterson, retired businessman and investor.
Your Support Makes OSI’s Vital Work Possible
Objective Standard Institute is the only organization dedicated to teaching the rising generation about the importance of philosophy, the principles of Objectivism, and related ideas for living fully and advancing liberty. We love what we do, and we do it well. If you appreciate OSI’s mission, please support our work with a tax-deductible contribution.
If you have any questions about OSI or how you can help, I’d love to speak with you. Email me at [email protected], and let’s schedule a call.
Craig Biddle
Executive Director
