Yaron Brook Show

Live August 25, 2026  | Yaron Brook Show
(Season 12, Episode 144)
Moscow; Iran; Canada; Data Centers; Bessent; Amargi ; Sit Awareness; Achievement | Yaron Brook Show

Why did America's top spy make a secret four-hour trip to Moscow — and is Putin about to test NATO while Trump's own Treasury Secretary admits he's bluffing on Iran?

America's CIA Director just made an unannounced trip to Moscow. Within hours, Yaron Brook is connecting it to a chilling possibility: Putin may be gearing up to test NATO on the ground, not just in rhetoric. Then he turns to Treasury Secretary Bessent, who just admitted on camera that the U.S. won't actually impose the Iran sanctions it announced — because Washington doesn't want to "blow up the global financial system." Add a real trade war with Canada started by a president who, in Yaron's words, "has the economics understanding of a five-year-old," a Texas AG who wants to make data centers criminally liable for what kids type into chatbots, and a 24-year-old hedge fund manager who turned $45 billion into ash through leverage — and you've got one of the most consequential news days of the year.

Yaron Brook breaks down foreign policy, economics, and culture through the lens of reason, individual rights, and capitalism. No spin. No both-sides-ism. Just the argument.

🔴 Watch live every weekday: https://youtube.com/live/rzNFI4uKqcY

Timestamps:
0:00 — Is Trump's foreign policy actually worse than everyone feared?
~3:30 — Why did the CIA Director secretly fly to Moscow for four hours — is Putin testing NATO next?
~15:00 — Bessent admits the quiet part out loud: are Iran sanctions just an empty threat?
32:46 — Trump says the U.S. "lost" $60 billion to Canada — but where exactly did that money go?
35:36 — Is a trade deficit ever actually a loss?
52:32 — Should data centers be criminally liable for what a kid types into a chatbot?
58:05 — Is Bessent the least serious man in the Trump administration?
1:18:49 — Should the U.S. just cancel the national debt like ancient Sumer did?
1:21:50 — Is taxing the rich harder ever going to fix the deficit?
1:27:54 — How did a 24-year-old turn a hedge fund into $45 billion — and then torch it in weeks?
1:41:59 — What does this collapse prove about the danger of leverage?
1:47:00 — Remembering Dolly Parton and the quiet global win of polio eradication.

#Iran #Russia #NATO #Canada #TariffWars #DataCenters #ArtificialIntelligence #NationalDebt #Capitalism #ForeignPolicy #Ukraine #FederalReserve #FreeMarkets #AynRand #Objectivism 

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Yaron is the executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a world class speaker. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, Equal is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance. He speaks around the world on a variety of topics including the morality of capitalism, Ayn Rand and her philosophy, finance and economics, and the value of inequality.

Live August 24, 2026  | Yaron Brook Show
(Season 12, Episode 143)
Bonds; Gerontocracy; Canada; Iran; Ukraine; DSA; Nvidia; Achievement  | Yaron Brook Show
Watch Now: https://youtube.com/live/KkFrGluzXhk

"The U.S. Treasury just started buying back its own debt — is this the first sign of a bond market panic Washington can't admit to?"

The U.S. government has no cash lying around, no surplus, and no plan to ever run one — so how is the Treasury now buying back its own long-term bonds? Yaron Brook opens this episode tearing into a debt shell game that swaps long-term bonds for short-term ones, leaving America exposed the moment interest rates climb. Then he turns to the people running the country: a gerontocracy of octogenarian leaders clinging to power while the next generation waits.

From there — Canada's tariff standoff, the real state of the Iran ceasefire and whether "regime change" ever left the table, why Russia's gamble in Ukraine keeps backfiring, the Democratic Socialists of America's quiet takeover of blue America, whether Nvidia is riding a real AI boom or an inflating bubble, and the human achievement story that'll restore your faith in progress. Not a fan of hedging — Yaron tells you exactly what he thinks and why.

Timestamps:
2:15 — Bonds: is the Treasury's buyback scheme a debt-crisis warning sign?
16:40 — "If the government is broke, why isn't anyone in Washington saying so?"
22:00 — Gerontocracy: why is America run by 80-year-olds?
34:10 — Canada: is Trump's tariff war a self-inflicted wound?
47:30 — "Should Canada just ignore Trump and go it alone on free trade?"
53:00 — Iran: did the ceasefire hand Tehran a win?
1:08:15 — Ukraine: is Putin's war strategy collapsing from within?

 🎤 Live Audience Questions:
1:19:40 — "Does Ukraine actually have a path to winning, or are we funding a stalemate?"
1:27:00 — DSA: is socialism quietly capturing the Democratic Party?
1:41:20 — Nvidia: AI boom or AI bubble?
1:53:10 — "Is Nvidia's valuation rational or the next dot-com moment?"
2:02:00 — Achievement: the story that proves human progress isn't dead

#USDebtCrisis #IranPolicy #Ukraine #DemocraticSocialists #Nvidia #AIBubble #bondmarket #Ukraine #FederalReserve #ArtificialIntelligence #DataCenters  #Capitalism  #Objectivism #FreeMarkets 

Like this episode?
Subscribe, share it with friends, and become a Patreon supporter to access monthly AMAs, exclusive content, and commercial-free audio.

The Yaron Brook Show is Sponsored by
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[Hendershott Wealth Management](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4lfC...) &
(https://hendershottwealth.com/ybs/)
[Michael Williams & The Defenders of Capitalism Project](https://www.DefendersOfCapitalism.com)

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Want to learn more about Ayn Rand and Objectivism? Visit the [Ayn Rand Institute](https://bit.ly/35qoEC3)

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/yaron-brook-show--3276901/support.

Yaron is the executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a world class speaker. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, Equal is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance. He speaks around the world on a variety of topics including the morality of capitalism, Ayn Rand and her philosophy, finance and economics, and the value of inequality.

Live Aug 23, 2026
(Yaron & Nikos Dialogues, Episode 11)
Patrick Deneen & The Post Liberal Right | Yaron & Nikos Dialogues

Patrick Deneen says liberalism failed because it succeeded — freedom gave people too much of it, and now he wants a new elite to rule in the name of the "common good." Is that a critique of the West, or the oldest excuse for tyranny wearing a Notre Dame faculty badge?

Patrick Deneen says America needs "regime change" — not at the ballot box, but a quiet takeover by a new elite who'll rule for the "common good" instead of individual rights. He calls it postliberalism. Yaron Brook calls it what it actually is: aristocracy with a syllabus.

Deneen's bestselling books — Why Liberalism Failed and Regime Change — have become the intellectual bible of the post-liberal right, blurbed by Obama, quoted by JD Vance, cited by the "common good conservatives" reshaping the GOP. His argument: individual freedom itself is the disease. The cure is a ruling class willing to override your choices for the sake of the collective.

In this episode of Yaron & Nikos Dialogues, Yaron Brook and Nikos Sotirakopoulos take Deneen's ideas apart line by line — where "common good" politics actually leads, why every attack on individualism ends up defending the same thing (power over you), and why the post-liberal right and the woke left are closer than either side wants to admit. If you've heard people say liberalism "went too far," this episode explains exactly what they mean — and why they're wrong.

Main Topics: 
00:00 — Cold open: what "regime change" actually means in Deneen's own words 
06:30 — Who is Patrick Deneen, and why did Obama put him on a reading list? 
15:00 — "Liberalism failed because it succeeded" — unpacking the core claim 
26:00 — The "common good" con: how collectivism always smuggles itself in through a nice-sounding phrase 
38:00 — Aristopopulism: Deneen's plan for a new elite to rule over the "many" 
50:00 — Is this Catholic integralism with a populist paint job? 
1:02:00 — Where the post-liberal right and the woke left secretly agree

Live Audience Questions: 
1:14:00 — Is Deneen just describing real problems badly, or is his solution the actual danger? 
1:20:30 — Does JD Vance actually believe this stuff, or is he just borrowing the vocabulary? 
1:27:00 — Can a "new elite" ever rule for anyone but itself? 
1:34:00 — Is national conservatism just socialism with incense and a flag? 
1:41:00 — What's the actual liberal (classical) answer to the loneliness and rootlessness Deneen describes?

🔴 Watch: https://youtube.com/live/CReo-p--qJ8

#PatrickDeneen #PostLiberalism #Objectivism #AynRand #Individualism #Conservatism #WhyLiberalismFailed #CommonGoodConservatism #NikosSotirakopoulos #integralism #faith #jdvance #catholicism #Capitalism 

More from Nikos Sotirakopoulos: https://www.nikos.org/
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Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/yaron-brook-show--3276901/support.

Yaron is the executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a world class speaker. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, Equal is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance. He speaks around the world on a variety of topics including the morality of capitalism, Ayn Rand and her philosophy, finance and economics, and the value of inequality.

Live Aug 22, 2026 | Yaron Brook Show
(Season 12, Episode 142)
AMA & Hangout with Contributors (Aug 2026) | Yaron Brook Show
Watch Now:  https://youtube.com/live/PrpBxeosgoQ

No topic. No script. No filter. Once a month, Yaron Brook opens the mic to the people who fund the show and lets them ask anything — geopolitics, philosophy, current events, or "Yaron, was I wrong to argue with my brother-in-law about tariffs at dinner." This is that episode.

There's no guest, no prepared topic, and no safe question in this one. This is the monthly AMA & Hangout — contributors only get to run the show, and Yaron Brook answers live, unfiltered, on whatever's actually on their minds this week.

Expect the format to jump: a philosophical question about Objectivism one minute, a hot take on that day's headlines the next, then straight into someone's personal dilemma about applying rational self-interest in real life. No teleprompter. No do-overs. Just direct answers from someone who's spent 30 years defending capitalism and doesn't flinch from a hard question.

If you want to see how Yaron thinks in real time — not the polished monologue, the actual reasoning — this is the episode to watch.

Timestamps
00:00 — Cold open: why the AMA format exists and what makes it different from a normal show
05:20 — Housekeeping: contributor shoutouts and how to submit future questions
09:45 — 🎤 "What's the one position you've changed your mind on in the last year, and why?"
18:30 — 🎤 "Is there a moral case for voting third-party, or is that just moral posturing?"
27:10 — 🎤 "How do you defend capitalism to someone who thinks it's already failed them personally?"
36:00 — 🎤 "Where do you draw the line between healthy self-interest and being a jerk?"
45:15 — 🎤 "What's a philosophical idea you think is badly misunderstood even by people who agree with you?"
54:40 — 🎤 "If you were 22 again, what would you actually do differently?"
1:03:20 — 🎤 Rapid-fire: current events lightning round
1:12:00 — 🎤 "What keeps you optimistic about the culture right now, if anything?"
1:20:30 — Closing thoughts and what's coming next on the show

Subscribe for more analysis on politics, economics, philosophy, technology, and the ideas shaping the future.

#AMA #Objectivism #AynRand #Capitalism #IndividualRights #Philosophy #FreeMarkets #LiveQA #criticalthinkingmatters #AnarchoCapitalism #ConstitutionalLaw #USHistory #EconomicFreedom #Philosophy

The Yaron Brook Show is Sponsored by
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Join this channel to get access to perks: / @yaronbrook

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/ yaronbrookshow or https://yaronbrookshow.com/ or / yaronbrookshow

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Continue the discussion by following Yaron on Twitter (https://bit.ly/3iMGl6z) and Facebook (https://bit.ly/3vvWDDC )

Want to learn more about Ayn Rand and Objectivism? Visit the Ayn Rand Institute: https://bit.ly/35qoEC3

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/yaron-brook-show--3276901/support.

Yaron is the executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a world class speaker. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, Equal is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance. He speaks around the world on a variety of topics including the morality of capitalism, Ayn Rand and her philosophy, finance and economics, and the value of inequality.

Live August 21, 2026  | Yaron Brook Show
(Season 12, Episode 141)
Stanford Lets a Socialist Define Capitalism -- Answering Chiara Cordelli | Yaron Brook Show
Watch Now: https://youtube.com/live/RdW7wmHwW6w

A political philosopher stood in front of Stanford students and told them capitalism's real sin isn't exploitation — it's that free people get to decide their own future without asking permission first. Nobody in that room challenged her. Yaron Brook does.

Chiara Cordelli says the "wrong" of capitalism isn't profit, isn't inequality, isn't even exploitation — it's that private investors, not the collective, get to decide what the future looks like. Her fix? Democratize investment. Plan it. Take that decision out of your hands and put it in the state's.

Yaron Brook takes her argument apart at the root: capitalism was never an "investment system," it's a rights system — the first social order in human history built on the principle that force has no place between people. Cordelli isn't describing a flaw in capitalism. She's describing the thing that makes it moral, and she wants it gone.

If you've ever wondered how elite universities keep producing "sophisticated" cases for socialism dressed up in academic language, this is the episode that shows you the trick — and the answer.

Timestamps 
00:00 — Cold open: Why a Stanford philosopher's "critique" of capitalism is really an argument for central planning 
06:30 — What capitalism actually is — and why markets and competition aren't it 
14:15 — Cordelli's real claim: capitalism "alienates" you from control over the future 
23:40 — The switch — "alienation" is just exploitation with a Ph.D. 32:10 — Why "democratizing investment" means putting a gun behind every business decision 
41:00 — Individual rights vs. collective control: the actual fight nobody at Stanford will name 
50:25 — How elite academia launders socialism as "normative political theory" 

🎤 Live Q&A:
1:02:15 —  "Isn't some collective input on investment just democracy?" 
1:09:40 — "If capitalism causes inequality, isn't that itself an alienation?" 
1:17:05 — "What do you say to students who've never heard a defense of capitalism?"
1:26:30 — Closing: The one sentence Cordelli can't get around

#Capitalism #Socialism #AynRand #IndividualRights #FreeMarkets #StanfordUniversity #Objectivism #EconomicFreedom #ObjectivismExplained #WealthInequality #MixedEconomy 

Like this episode?
Subscribe, share it with friends, and become a Patreon supporter to access monthly AMAs, exclusive content, and commercial-free audio.

The Yaron Brook Show is Sponsored by:
[The Ayn Rand Institute](https://www.aynrand.org/starthere)
[Energy Talking Points, featuring AlexAI, by Alex Epstein](https://alexepstein.substack.com/)
[Express VPN](https://www.expressvpn.com/yaron)
[Hendershott Wealth Management](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4lfC...) &
(https://hendershottwealth.com/ybs/)
[Michael Williams & The Defenders of Capitalism Project](https://www.DefendersOfCapitalism.com)

[Support the Show]( / yaronbrookshow )
[Sponsor the Show](askyaron@yaronbrookshow.com/)
[One-time donation](https://bit.ly/2RZOyJJ)

Join the [Yaron Brook Show YouTube channel]( / @yaronbrook )

Like what you hear? Like, share, and subscribe to stay updated on new videos and help promote the [Yaron Brook Show](https://bit.ly/3ztPxTx)

Continue the discussion by following Yaron on [Twitter](https://bit.ly/3iMGl6z) and [Facebook](https://bit.ly/3vvWDDC )

Want to learn more about Ayn Rand and Objectivism? Visit the [Ayn Rand Institute](https://bit.ly/35qoEC3)
Explore

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/yaron-brook-show--3276901/support.

Yaron is the executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a world class speaker. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, Equal is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance. He speaks around the world on a variety of topics including the morality of capitalism, Ayn Rand and her philosophy, finance and economics, and the value of inequality.