Highlights of OSI’s Activities and Achievements in 2021

Objective Standard Institute had a highly productive 2021, full of extraordinary achievements.

In just twelve months, we brought Ayn Rand’s ideas to nearly ten million people through projects with PragerU; taught twenty-one courses to 438 students; produced 109 episodes of four podcasts; hosted TOS-Con 2021 with sixteen world-class speakers and hundreds of attendees (despite travel restrictions); published forty-three articles on LevelUp; held weekly thinking, writing, and editing sessions for OSI’s fellows; gave presentations and taught seminars for organizations such as the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), Students For Liberty (SFL), National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS), and Liberty International; and much more.

OSI’s Courses

OSI’s instructors taught twenty-one courses to 438 students. These included:

• Introduction to Ayn Rand’s Philosophy for Loving Life, with Craig Biddle
• How to Get More Enjoyment from Great Literature, with Andrew Bernstein
• The Art of Finding and Creating Opportunity, with Hannah Frankman
• The History and Philosophy of Liberty in America, with Eric Daniels
• Workshop on “Forbidden Facts,” with Craig Biddle
• Your Supersystem for Flourishing, with Robert Begley
• How to Write Powerfully in Defense of Liberty, with Jon Hersey
• Henry Hazlitt Meets Ayn Rand: Economics and Objectivism, with Raymond Niles
• Entrepreneurial Living: How to Profit in Business and Life, with Tim Chermak
• Teaching Objectivism with the Principle of Purpose, with Craig Biddle
• Advanced Writing Workshop: Lead People to Liberty, with Jon Hersey

LevelUp (OSI’s Blog)

OSI’s writers published forty-three articles on LevelUp in 2021, including:

• The Road to Success Is Paved with Grit, by Angelica Walker-Werth
• Staying on Track: Bodybuilder Ashley Kaltwasser’s Lessons for Success, by Maggie Bird
• Ted Lasso Inspires Success through Benevolence and Competence, by Robert Begley
• How to Generate Motivation, by Angelica Walker-Werth
• The Source and Value of Self-Esteem, by Angelica Walker-Werth
• Drawing on Past Passions for New Opportunities, by Joseph Kellard
• Sales Mastermind Lessons for Non-Sales People, by Gabriel Mitchell
• For Maximum Success, “Eat That Frog,” by Robert Begley
• David Goggins’ Key to Perseverance, by Aaron Briley
• Five Steps for Building Lasting Habits/Routines, by Maggie Bird

OSI’s Podcasts

OSI’s podcasting team produced 109 episodes among four podcasts. Some highlights:

• On “Philosophy for Flourishing,” Jon Hersey presented practical ideas for loving life and interviewed great thinkers such as Michael Strong on education; Cal Newport on personal productivity; Lawrence Reed on moral character, freedom, and flourishing; Rajshree Agarwal on purpose and profit; and Luc Travers on art.
• On “The Hero Show,” Andrew Bernstein and Robert Begley celebrated all manner of great men and women, including Walt Disney, Marva Collins, Babe Ruth, Clint Eastwood, Edmond Rostand, Cecilia Payne, Vivien Thomas, and Francis Bacon.
• On “Culture and Causation,” Aaron Briley interviewed intellectuals such as Mary Grabar on the 1619 Project, Neal McCluskey on school choice, Alex Nowrasteh on immigration, Kerry McDonald on nontraditional schooling, Charles Murray on racially disproportionate outcomes, and Casey Mulligan on how regulation negatively affects the poor.
• On “Innovation Celebration,” Thomas and Angelica Walker-Werth (recently married!) celebrated the individuals and ideas behind innovations in robotics, vaccines, 3-D printing, rocket engines, gene editing, magnet-controlled prosthetics, cancer-detecting blood tests, and more.

TOS-Con: Philosophy for Freedom and Flourishing

OSI held TOS-Con 2021 in July in Boston, with 230 attendees. Travel restrictions prohibited approximately one hundred more people from attending. For those who made it, however, the conference was a highlight of their year. Speakers included Cal Newport, Gloria Álvarez, Doug McGuff, Brad Thompson, Rajshree Agarwal, Andrew Bernstein, David Crawford, Mitchell Earl, and more.

Here’s an indication of what attendees said:

• “This conference was a rejuvenating and intellectually stimulating experience unlike anything I’ve ever encountered.” —Leisa
• “The speakers and topics were outstanding.” —Rodney
• “It was wonderful to be in such a rational and truly benevolent environment.” —Mary
• “Going forward, I will approach my goals with a new sense of purpose.” —Ken
• “The experience was incredible. Enlightening and electric.” —Albulena
• “After this conference, I will not waste a single moment of my life.” —Raja

(TOS-Con 2022 will be in Denver, Colorado, June 22–25. Speakers include Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Peter Boghossian, Timothy Sandefur, Yeonmi Park, Greg McKeown, Eric Daniels, Wolf von Laer, Jason Crawford, Amala Ekpunobi, Zilvinas Silenas, and Adam Carolla. See the full roster and program here.)

OSI’s Republic of Letters

OSI’s Republic of Letters (RoL), a writers’ group led by Jon Hersey, met twice monthly throughout 2021, helping participants to level up their craft by discussing article ideas, getting and giving feedback on works in progress, addressing writing challenges, sharing resources, and networking. RoL has been the genesis of various articles published in The Objective Standard, Quillette, FEE, and elsewhere. Several RoL participants are now writing books.

OSI’s Projects with PragerU

OSI worked with PragerU to create three videos, which were produced and released on PragerU’s various channels in 2021. These videos currently have 9.7 million views and more than 5,500 comments. They are:

• “Understanding Ayn Rand,” a five-minute video narrated by Gloria Álvarez, which currently has 6.3 million views and more than 3,000 comments;
• “A Book Club episode on Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged,” with Michael Knowles and Eric Daniels, which now has a million-plus views and more than 1,000 comments; and
• “A Dialogue about God and Ayn Rand,” with Dennis Prager and me, which currently has 2.4 million views and more than 1,500 comments.

In addition to reaching millions of people with Rand’s ideas, these videos have had a significant effect on the sales of Rand’s books. For instance, according to the top three Amazon book sales calculators (TCK Publishing, WildFire Marketing, and Kindlepreneur), in the week following the release of the Book Club episode on Atlas Shrugged, sales of the audio edition of Atlas nearly doubled, sales of the Kindle edition increased threefold, and sales of the paperback increased fourfold. Every time PragerU promotes the videos, which they’ve done several times for each, sales of Rand’s books spike again. And because OSI is credited in each video and our website is linked under each on YouTube, they have driven and continue to drive significant traffic to OSI’s website, where many visitors have joined OSI’s mailing list, enrolled in OSI courses, and/or registered for TOS-Con. (More projects with PragerU are in the works for 2022.)

Other Engagements

Here’s an indication of other projects that OSI and its fellows engaged in during 2021:

• In April, Craig worked with SFL to produce a three-part video series for their international students about Ayn Rand’s ideas on the foundations of liberty.
• In June, Craig gave a presentation on Ayn Rand’s ethics to the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) in conjunction with FEE.
• In August, Jon gave three in-person talks at Liberty International in Medellin, Colombia: “How to Sell Marxists on Markets”; “John Locke: The Father of Liberalism”; “Ayn Rand: The Future of Liberty.”
• In October, Jon appeared on Liberty International’s “Liberty Connection Chats” with Kris Mauren (executive director of Acton Institute) to discuss “Morality, Self-Interest, and Free Markets.”
• Also in October, Craig gave a presentation to FEE’s Hazlitt Fellows about writing, creating a career as an intellectual, and the importance of objective morality and philosophy in defense of liberty.
• OSI speakers gave six presentations in October at SFL’s “Freer Future Fest” in Nashville, Tennessee, with more than 400 attendees and 600,000 livestream views. These included a keynote talk by Craig on “Ayn Rand and the Future of Freedom”; a panel discussion by Jon and Craig on “Government as a Necessary Good”; an interview by Angelica with economist Bryan Caplan on “Freedom and Innovation”; a presentation by Robert Begley on “Frederick Douglass: Role Model for Freedom Fighters”; and two breakout sessions, one led by Jon and one by Craig, in which they discussed the vital importance of Rand’s ideas in the fight for freedom with SFL’s top leaders and event coordinators from around the world.
• In November, Thomas gave a presentation for the John Galt School UK on how Objectivism can help people thrive in their careers and relationships; Angelica and Thomas participated in a discussion on Rand’s ideas as part of SFL’s “New Frontiers of Objectivism” program; and Angelica taught two sessions of a JGS course hosted by Ayn Rand Center Ukraine—one on Rand’s We the Living, the other on her theory of concept formation.
• In December, Angelica taught an online session on Rand’s ethics for a JGS course in Israel.

What’s in Store for 2022

OSI’s 2022 is off to an amazing start. Here’s an indication of what’s in store:

We have new courses underway and more planned for every month of the year—including “OSI Reading Group: The Fountainhead”; “Ayn Rand Integrations: Aristotle, Locke, Reid, and Herbert”; “Six Perspectives on Writing in Defense of Liberty”; “Romantic Music and Literary Inspiration”; and “Conceptual Precision and Conceptual Fallacies.”

The program for TOS-Con 2022 is like nothing you’ve ever seen—a mixture of world-class speakers from various disciplines and perspectives, all committed to applying reason to the goals of freedom and flourishing. (Early-bird pricing ends February 28, so the time to register is now.)

OSI fellows will be speaking and teaching seminars on philosophy for freedom and flourishing at various conferences and events around the world throughout the year.

OSI’s video team is producing videos explaining and concretizing the principles of rational, life-serving philosophy. The first of these will be released in the spring.

OSI’s marketing team is working smart to reach our worldwide target audience of active-minded 18- to 35-year-olds who have not yet discovered or integrated the principles of Objectivism.

And OSI will continue to hire the brightest, most active-minded young people we can find and help them to become deeply knowledgeable ambassadors of Ayn Rand’s philosophy for living on earth.

This is how we make the world a better place to live.

If you appreciate what OSI is doing, please make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work. If you would like to discuss a major contribution or estate planning, please contact Craig directly at [email protected] to schedule a call at your convenience.

Thank you for your interest in OSI.

Sincerely,

Sarah Biddle
President

Craig Biddle
Director of Education and Programs

Contribute Now

Objective Standard Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. OSI’s federal identification number is 84-3575279.