Jennifer Burns on Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand

Jennifer Burns on Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand

Jennifer Burns is a professor of history at Stanford who works at the intersection of intellectual, political, and cultural history. She's written two biographies Tyler highly recommends: her 2009 book, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right and her latest, Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, provides a nuanced look into the influential economist and public intellectual.

Tyler and Jennifer start by discussing how her new portrait of Friedman caused her to reassess him, his lasting impact in statistics, whether he was too dogmatic, his shift from academic to public intellectual, the problem with Two Lucky People, what Friedman's courtship of Rose Friedman was like, how Milton's family influenced him, why Friedman opposed Hayek's courtesy appointment at the University of Chicago, Friedman's attitudes toward friendship, his relationship to fiction and the arts, and the prospects for his intellectual legacy. Next, they discuss Jennifer's previous work on Ayn Rand, including whether Rand was a good screenwriter, which is the best of her novels, what to make of the sex scenes in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, how Rand and Mises got along, and why there's so few successful businesswomen depicted in American fiction. They also delve into why fiction seems so much more important for the American left than it is for the right, what's driving the decline of the American conservative intellectual condition, what she will do next, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded August 30th, 2023.

Other ways to connect

Avsnitt(283)

Edward Luce on The Retreat of Western Liberalism (Live)

Edward Luce on The Retreat of Western Liberalism (Live)

Edward Luce has a new book out about the rising crisis in Western liberalism, so naturally Tyler's first question to him dealt with James II and William of Orange. #gloriousrevolution In this bonus au...

21 Juni 201754min

Jill Lepore on Traveling through Time

Jill Lepore on Traveling through Time

Is time like a line, a stretched out accordion, buried silos, or a flat circle? We concoct many ways to think about the relationship between the present and the past, but according to Jill Lepore one ...

14 Juni 20171h 8min

Tyler Cowen and Steve Davies talk Theresa May, Brexit, and Europe (Live)

Tyler Cowen and Steve Davies talk Theresa May, Brexit, and Europe (Live)

The UK is holding a big election on June 8, so today we're bringing you some bonus audio on that topic featuring Tyler and Steve Davies of the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs. They talk abo...

7 Juni 201723min

Raj Chetty on Teachers, Social Mobility, and How to Find Answers to Big Questions

Raj Chetty on Teachers, Social Mobility, and How to Find Answers to Big Questions

A high school teacher once told Raj Chetty he'd some day serve on the Federal Reserve Board. At the the time Raj thought the comment was silly, since he was busy working in the laboratory on staining ...

24 Maj 20171h 2min

Garry Kasparov on AI, Chess, and the Future of Creativity

Garry Kasparov on AI, Chess, and the Future of Creativity

The chess grandmaster, political activist, and author joins Tyler for a conversation on artificial intelligence, Russia, Putin, how education must change, favorite cities for chess, the most likely ch...

10 Maj 20171h 7min

Patrick Collison has a Few Questions for Tyler (Live at Stripe)

Patrick Collison has a Few Questions for Tyler (Live at Stripe)

A few months ago, Tyler asked Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, to be on the show. Patrick agreed, but only under the condition that the be the one to do the interviewing. Thus, what follows is the con...

12 Apr 20171h 33min

Malcolm Gladwell Wants to Make the World Safe for Mediocrity (Live at Mason)

Malcolm Gladwell Wants to Make the World Safe for Mediocrity (Live at Mason)

Journalist, author, and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell joins Tyler for a conversation on Joyce Gladwell, Caribbean identity, satire as a weapon, Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden, Harvard's under-theoriz...

15 Mars 20171h 32min

*The Complacent Class* with Katherine Mangu-Ward (Live at Mason)

*The Complacent Class* with Katherine Mangu-Ward (Live at Mason)

In this bonus episode, Editor-in-chief of Reason Katherine Mangu-Ward interviews Tyler about *The Complacent Class.* Make sure to listen all the way to the end for an answer Katherine describes as #Pe...

13 Mars 201756min

Populärt inom Utbildning

rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
historiepodden-se
det-skaver
alska-oss
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
nu-blir-det-historia
roda-vita-rosen
johannes-hansen-podcast
allt-du-velat-veta
sektledare
rss-viktmedicinpodden
not-fanny-anymore
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
sa-in-i-sjalen
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rss-basta-livet
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd
sex-pa-riktigt-med-marika-smith
rss-pa-insidan-med-bjorn-rudman
rss-ar-det-rimligt