WEBVTT - Why is Ayn Rand a Political Rock Star? 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.880 Guess what will? What's that? So? I just want to 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:05.320 warn you this might be the most controversial thing I 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:08.640 ever say on this show. Here it is. I don't 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:12.280 think iron Rand's that funny. Wait, that's your controversial statement. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.040 I don't think there's anyone out there debating that. Well 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:18.600 you think that. But iron Ran was such a polarizing figure, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.800 and the people who love her, they love her. I mean, 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.240 she basically had groupies who treated everything she did like gospel. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:27.960 I was reading this oral history of her life and 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:30.800 her secretary said that when Rand bought a new dining table, 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:33.640 all her disciples noticed, and the next day a bunch 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:35.519 of them went out and bought the same table for 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.080 their homes because they were convinced it was the only 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.959 real dining table. Wow. Well, she definitely had some devoted followers, 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.080 but that's not what makes learning about her so hard. 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.680 Either people hated her or they worshiped her, So you 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.559 get quotes about how completely humorous she was, or on 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:52.320 the other hand, you get quotes about how riotously funny 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.160 she could be. But the examples of her being funny, well, 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:58.520 they just sound like people have cute funny confusion. What 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.560 does that mean? Like the examples of her being funny 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:03.600 or like, someone saw her do a little dance when 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.039 she was happy, and that's not funny, that's cute. I mean, 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.240 I really hunted. And this is the only joke of 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.360 her as I could find. Are you ready for it? Yeah? 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.039 I think so because it is hilarious. So what's a 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.800 four letter word ending in I T that embodies Eleanor 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.280 Roosevelt and is found at the bottom of a bird cage? 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.040 First of all, I kind of love that even her 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:28.640 jokes are overwritten. But anyway, and whenever she started telling 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.240 this joke, she started giggling and could barely get through it. 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:36.199 But the answer is grit, which I guess to iron 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.280 Rand was objectively funny. Like, the only really funny thing 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.080 about that joke is that she hated Eleanor Roosevelt, but 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.520 the punch line kind of praises her. Yeah, I don't 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.280 see iron Ran getting a Netflix comedy special anytime soon. 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.760 But she was charismatic and smart and she had a 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.240 really fascinating life. But here's my question, why does she 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.960 seem to be the most talked about novelist of our times? 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.760 Even though she wrote her novels more than fifty years ago, 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.920 and why is it that Washington can't get enough of her? 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:22.080 I think it's time we find out. Hey there, podcast listeners, 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.000 I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:27.200 good friend Mangoes Hot Ticketer, Hey there, Mango, Hey, and 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.720 this is Part Time Genius Now. Today we're asking the 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.120 question how did Iron Rand become such a political rock star? 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:35.040 Which is going to be fun, I know. And in 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.480 addition to all things Rand will be joined by someone 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.000 who may rival Rand and his ability to capture the 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.040 hearts and minds of teenagers everywhere, the mega best selling 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.160 author of The Fault in Our Stars and our good 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.480 friend John Green. Now, do we have a really bad 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.360 quiz for him to play today? Mango the worst? Good god? 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.400 Who's playing our part time Genius quiz today? Well, and 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:55.320 sticking with the Iron Rand theme, we've got a couple 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:57.519 of architects competing for the big prize. And if you 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.919 don't know why architects are appropriate for a show on RAN, 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.880 well you'll understand soon. That's true. All right, Well, let's 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.200 get to it. So. Biographer Jennifer Burns described Rand as 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.959 the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right David Nolan, 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:12.400 one of the founders of the Libertarian Party, commented that 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.680 without Iron Ran, the libertarian movement would not exist, and 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.880 one twentieth century philosopher said that in the entire history 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.520 of philosophy, there were really only three philosophers worth paying 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.560 close attention to. They were the three A's Mango. It 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.360 was Aristotle, A Quintas and Iron Rand. In fact, that 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:34.240 philosopher called Ran the most creative thinker alive. So tell 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.440 me who said this, Well, it was Iron Ran, but 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.320 she might have been a little bit biased, but still, 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.840 I mean that's a pretty big endorsement. Yeah, she didn't 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:44.880 just give out endorsements to anyone. She earned that endorsement. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.160 So in honor of that, we should recommend the only 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.360 things worth listening to today, and that's the Three piecee 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:54.280 P Yeah, Prince Paula Abduel and part Time Wow. That's 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.200 part of the playlist, Mango. Actually, do you know what 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.960 Iron Rand's quote reminds me of? What's that? So there's 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.560 great a season Sorry where he talks about walking into 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.160 Kanye west house and Kanye is in his living room 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:08.520 just nodding his head to his own music and when 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:10.880 he sees his ease. He just points out the speaker 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.160 and says, these pets are dope. Like of all the 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.240 music out there, Kanye only really needs Kanye. He's that genius. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:20.680 And I feel like I'm Rand had a similar opinion 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.560 of herself in this book, A Hundred Voices and Oral 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.160 History of an Rand. Her friends say she'd often read 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.520 and reread her own books, like she'd pick up one 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.160 of her books to find a quote, and then she 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:32.599 wouldn't be able to pull herself away because she found 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.360 out her own writing was that captivating. But you just 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.280 have to keep reading the novel and Atlas shrugged his laws, 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.160 it take the average person thirty six hours to read it. Yeah, 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.159 but I think Iron Rand would be quick to remind 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.200 you that she was no average person. That's definitely true. 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:49.719 And to be clear, just like Kanye, she wasn't the 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.440 only one captivated by her own work. It's kind of 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:54.760 surprising that whenever there's a big list of the most 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.240 influential books in history where readers, not critics are weighing in, 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.200 she tops the list. In the nineties, the Library of 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:03.360 Congress and the Book of the Month Club teamed up 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.240 to ask readers what book had influenced them the most. 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.640 Not surprisingly, number one on the list was The Bible, 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:11.880 you know, because it's hard to vote against God's writing. 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.680 But in second place at Las Shrugged. Yeah, but reader 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.400 polls are notoriously the worst. I mean, when I was 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:20.640 in high school, Delaware Today had a reader poll of 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.480 the best Mexican restaurants in the state, and Taco Bell 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.240 came in second place. I don't know what's your point is, 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.159 Taco Bell is delicious, but but that book isn't the 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.880 only one iron fans are passionate about. When the Modern 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.160 Library did a survey asking readers to vote on the 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.720 twentieth centuries best works of fiction, at Las Shrug came 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.440 in first. Again, The fountain Head was right behind it 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.240 in second, Anthem was seventh, and We the Living was 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.320 in eighth. Those are all Rand works. This is crazy, 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:49.800 but most scholars don't agree, right, I mean, none of 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.000 those four Iron Rand books showed up on the Modern 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:54.600 Library survey of critics, not a single one. You're right, 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:56.680 I mean there's a clear divide between the world of 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.960 critics and Iron Rand's massive fan base, which might be wise. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.960 She hated critics so much. Scholars and critics in general 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.840 never took her that seriously, right, But after seeing how 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.880 many people she had influenced and how passionate her fans are, 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.960 I realized that ignoring her is clearly a mistake. Like 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.280 millions of people intensely identified with their stories, and I've 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.000 always just assumed it was purely like bankers and politicians 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.840 and the band Rush that wasn'to her. But she also 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.760 influenced like Billy Jean King and even Mendez. You might 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.800 not expect. I mean, Rand's goal from the start was 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.000 to create these page turning, action adventure novels layered with 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.360 mystery and passion that spread her philosophy, and it's kind 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.960 of amazing that she actually did that. Like, for whatever 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.200 you think about her, she got a whole world of 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:44.040 people to rethink their values and also maybe believe in themselves. Sure, 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.120 I mean, her whole notion was to sell people on objectivism, 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.279 which is built on the idea that man is a 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:53.279 heroic being. And Ran identified man's own happiness as the 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.440 moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:00.279 noblest activity and reason as his only absolute which sounds 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.640 lovely on the surface, right, You're like, who can't get 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:06.480 behind working hard and achieving and being happy and living rationally. 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.359 That's what she truly believed. But she also thought she 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.200 was only writing to reach a few extraordinary people in 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.520 every generation. And when you play Rand's philosophy out, she's 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.760 advocating that selfish behavior is the most moral behavior and 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.840 that altruism is inherently evil. It's a little like the 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.880 anti Mr Rogers, right, it's not everyone special, but more 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.280 only a few of you are special. And also, instead 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.760 of sharing, why don't you hoard your toys? Exactly? Actually, 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.480 there's this great quote from Christopher Hitchens that I scribbled down. 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.239 He said, I've always found that quaint and rather touching, 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:39.520 that there's a movement in the US that thinks Americans 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.440 are not yet selfish enough. I love that. But back 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.000 to Rand, So she rejected altruism. She was completely against 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:50.400 any government overreach, whether that meant curbing your rights or 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.840 redistributing wealth into social services. So you can also see 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.360 why TEA Party members and conservatives started regularly quoting her 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.960 work after the financial meltdown. And to clear Rand did 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.200 not like to be described as a conservative or a libertarian. 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:06.960 She was a strident atheist who preferred to be called 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.320 a radical for capitalism, which is why she wore all 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.840 those radical jewelry pieces shaped like giant dollar signs, right right, 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:16.600 I think that's I just love how big and how 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.200 gold they were. I think those were from the Scrooge 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.320 make Duck collections. So but it's clear that iron Rand 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.480 loved capitalism and extraordinary people. So who are some of 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:28.280 the geniuses she was talking about? Well, in vague terms, 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.240 she admired great artists and captains of industry, people who 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.280 produced versus the moochers and the takers. So, according to 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:38.319 her friend Susan Ludell, for Iron, Aristotle and Victor Hugo 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.560 were basically the tops. Then she also loved Greta Garbo 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.160 and Muhammad Ali Michelangelo and the chess player Bobby Fisher. 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.880 I mean, those are all talented people. But her favorite 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.960 contemporary hero, and this comes from multiple sources, Morris the Cat. 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.160 This is the finnicky cat from those Nine Lives Cat 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.719 Food Dads. Yeah, apparently she couldn't get enough of those commercials, 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.480 and not just because it featured a big, fluffy tabby, 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.679 but because she loved Morris's distinct form of aggressive personality. 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.880 Of course, she loved that he didn't stand for nonsense 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.880 and that he had strong opinions, and she liked his face. 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.440 I mean, some might say that's reading a lot into 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:20.640 a TV cat, but she loved him so much that 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.560 she went out and bought the novelty biographies about him. Right, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:25.559 of course, I ran as a cat person. I mean, 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.280 she's not going to like something as needy as a dog. Yeah, 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:30.000 and she did have a number of cats. But you 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.800 know what's funny is that as cold as Iron's philosophy 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:34.600 can sound, there are a lot of accounts of her 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.240 being downright nice, like I mean, she's very much lived 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.320 by her principles. She didn't like to be contradicted, she 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.560 didn't give to charity, she was radically direct with people. 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:46.840 But in the accounts I read, I don't think she 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.600 was intentionally mean very often. Well that may be, but 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.280 it's definitely fun to read how famous people react to 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.040 her work. In fact, maybe we should dedicate an episode 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.080 to this alone. All right, maybe not. But people were 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.480 not always very kind so to Flannery O'Connor, for example, 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.600 she wrote in a letter to a friend that the 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.320 fiction of Iron Rand is as low as you can get. 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:08.840 Regarding fiction, I hope you picked it up off the 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:10.959 floor of the subway and through it and the nearest 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:15.600 garbage tail out. Flannery, I actually kind of like saying, ouch, Lanery, 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.720 that might be a new thing for me. And Gourvidel 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.800 once described Rand's view of the world is nearly perfect 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.920 and its immorality Ouch Flannery. See it works there too, 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:27.480 But then you hear the stories of people who are 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.400 just obsessed, like Ted Turner once paid for nearly two 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.640 d and fifty billboards that simply asked who is John Galt? Again? 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:36.640 If that reference doesn't make much sense to you now, 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.640 it will after we dive into Rand's works. But before 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:41.520 we do that, we should probably give a little bit 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.079 of background on Rand's early years, because they do help 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.960 us understand where her philosophy came from. So, Mango, what 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.280 do you say, I give you hundred and eighty four 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.560 seconds to talk about rans early life. I'm not sure 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.080 that's going to cover it. Well, I'm setting my four 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:58.360 second clock anyway, so you're ready, go okay. So, in 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:00.480 some ways it's not hard to see how some of 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:06.360 Rand's views developed. Rand was born Alisa Rosenbaum in in St. Petersburg, Russia. 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:09.760 Her situation was pretty comfortable. Her dad was a pharmacist 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:11.760 and owned his own shop. Her mother came from an 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.040 important family, and her sisters even had a Belgian governess, 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.679 and the girls went to an elite school. The Rosenbombs 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.760 took grand vacations across the continent, which is not to 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.439 say that there weren't hardships. I mean, Russia was deeply 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.680 anti Semitic and Jews were often persecuted, but the family 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:28.719 was so well connected, and for the most part, the 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.599 girls had a sheltered upbringing. So that all changed in 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.400 nineteen seventeen when her father's pharmacy was taken over by 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.800 the Soviets during the Bolshevik Revolution. I mean, to watch 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.839 a government take over your family's business and to simultaneously 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.480 witness people preached the importance of the state over individual rights, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:46.679 I mean, I think that changed you forever well. And 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.599 I think her family really struggled after that, right definitely. 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.800 So they moved into an apartment with no electricity. Rand 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:54.959 reportedly told friends that at one point they were even 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.640 wrapping their feet in newspaper because they couldn't afford shoes, 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.760 there was no running water. It was a super different time. Well, 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.040 I suppose one good thing that came about for her 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.439 was the ability to attend college. So after the Russian Revolution, 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.000 universities opened up to women, and Ran was one of 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.080 the first female students at Petrograd State University, that's right, 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.000 which is where she studied history and discovered one of 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.640 her biggest influences, the works of Aristotle. But she didn't 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.320 stay in Petersburg for long, right, that's right. She had 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.000 the opportunity to come to the US when she was 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:26.440 twenty to visit relatives, and after stops in New York 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.199 City in Chicago, she eventually found her way to Hollywood. Well, 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.200 and it turns out she was a huge movie lover 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:33.439 that she'd been seeing as many movies as she could 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.760 before she even got to the US. And then when 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.120 she was in Chicago, she had a relative who owned 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.200 a movie theater letter see films for free. So it's 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.000 no big surprise that she'd want to work in the 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.520 film industry. But she didn't exactly thrive there. No, she didn't. 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.079 I mean, I struggled in Hollywood in her early years. 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:50.640 But I want to pause for a second, to talk 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.160 about her mom. Now, didn't she model some of her 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.240 petty and superficial characters in her novels after her? I 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.880 mean that that's kind of a classic literary bird, right, Yeah, 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.360 that's right. So his mom was pretty hard on her, 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.200 and rand was super smart, the head of her class. 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.000 She wrote provocative essays in school and knew early that 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.320 she wanted to be a writer. From like age eight 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.000 or something, she'd internalized the story of Catherine the Great, 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.120 this woman who's overlooked and underestimated because she was homely 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.320 but clearly smart and savvy enough to grab power. Yeah, 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:20.040 and I knew from a young age she was going 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.160 to be great. I mean, she absolutely believed that exactly. 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.520 But she wasn't athletic or popular. And Anna Rosenbaum wanted 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.080 her daughter to succeed socially, so she nagged a lot, 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.120 and she could be pretty mean. Like once, when I'm 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.440 was four or five, she and her sister had strewn 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.480 toys all over the room, and Anna was irritated, so 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.200 she told her daughters to pick a few of their 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.920 favorite toys, give her the rest, and then one year 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.720 later they'd be able to trade them in. So i'n 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:46.880 sister kept a few of her favorites and gave the 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.800 rest to her mom. Meanwhile, I'm being a thinker, decided 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.040 to delay her gratification. She thought about how happy she'd 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.040 be a year from now to get her favorite toys back, 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:58.160 so she kept her least favorite ones, and then a 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.280 year later, when she asked her mom about the trade, 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.160 her mom laughed and said she'd given them all to 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:06.240 an orphan. Oh no, that's pretty rough, I know. So 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:08.720 it's this memory that's a little unfair, probably because most 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.280 people have a similar gripe with their parents. But for 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:13.920 iron Rand, who throughout her life found it really hard 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:16.720 to forgive even the smallest of slights against her, she 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.480 really held onto that grudge. And of course the story 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.040 is all about the unfairness of having your possession snatched 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.600 and given away to the poor. So I'm no shrink, 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:26.720 but you see how that shows up in her work. Yeah, 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:28.800 it's pretty easy to see how she was against altruism 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.240 when not only was her family's pharmacy being given to 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.280 other people, but her stuffed animals were too. I mean, 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.640 what's funny is that as much as she hated her mom, 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.560 her mom also played a big part in her ideology, 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.400 Like she wrote things to I'm like every man is 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.280 an architect of his own future, and every person is 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:47.920 the maker of her own happiness. And that sounded very 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.600 much like Randy and philosophy, I know. And so I 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.440 talks about everything like it just sprang from her own mind, 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.960 maybe with an assist from Aristotle or Nietzsche. For example, 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.440 she talks about how Russia was just a circumstance she 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:01.800 was born too, but how she would have developed the 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.320 exact same ideas in a vacuum because they're all perfectly 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.280 rational and reasonable, which I find hard to believe. What 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.160 that they're all reasonable. No, that she would have come 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.200 up with the same principles if she'd been born into 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.480 a different circumstance, or that she could have come up 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.120 with that philosophy without her mom's influence. But the other 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.080 thing that's interesting and also a little vexing, is how 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.080 rand believes she never got any help along the way. 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:25.400 I mean, I have to say, that's one thing that 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.160 really bothers me about her story too, Like her personal 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.840 mythology plays nicely into her ideology, but she got so 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.480 much help along the way, and her mom as much 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.720 as she nagged did a ton for She ordered foreign 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:40.760 magazines for as a child to stoke her interest in writing. 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.200 To get her into a film program, her mother joined 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.640 a communist society and shed all her elitist ties. I 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.720 wouldn't have been admitted had her mom that made that sacrifice. 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.160 It was I's mother who had figured out a way 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.400 to get her daughter out of Russia to study film 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.160 in the US. She sold the last of her jewelry 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:59.760 to fund Iron's trip to the States. Even when I'm 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.720 was struggling in Hollywood, she and E'n's dad were saving 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:06.120 and sending twenty five dollars a month to E'n from Russia, 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.800 which is crazy, just so she could eat and cover 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.000 her expenses. And they were already scraping just to get by. Yeah, 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.320 And in the U. S Sens extended family made all 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.480 sorts of incredible sacrifices for her to like They fed 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:19.200 her and lent her quite a bit of money that 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.000 she never even paid back apparently, And they made the 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.200 introduction for her to Cecil de Mills Studio in Hollywood, 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:27.480 which is how she got the job in California in 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.200 the first place. And they allowed her to type at night, 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.200 even though it disrupted the whole family's sleep, like they 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.760 did so much for her, and she was always just 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.200 aloof and kind of ignored them when she became famous, 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.120 although she did send them some free copies of her books, 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.360 and she said she didn't believe in charity. All right, 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:46.160 speaking of books, how about we take a break for 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:54.760 a little literature quiz. So our guest today is a 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:56.640 very good friend and one of the most brilliant people 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.280 man guest and I know. But more importantly, he's also 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:01.360 a very good due. He was one of the very 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.000 first contributors to Mental Flaws magazine when Mangesh and I 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.720 started it back in two thousand one. But not long 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.040 after that he informed us he'd be leaving Mental Flaws 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.760 to go write a novel. We just laughed and laughed 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:13.399 and said, we'll see you back in a few weeks. 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.360 But holy crap if he didn't write several great novels, 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:18.600 though it did take him a whole decade before he 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:20.720 hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.439 with a publication of The Fault in Our Stars. A 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:25.399 couple of years ago, Time magazine named in one of 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.400 the one most influential people in the world. But even 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:30.960 after all this success, he's still mostly a good dude. 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.280 So John, welcome to Part Time Genius. Thanks great to 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.080 be here. It's always fun to hang out with you guys. 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.199 So we joke about you taking a decade to hit 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.159 number one on the list. But the life of a 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.919 struggling writer is something You've talked a good bit about, 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:46.400 and I'm curious just to hear from you how your 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.439 perspective has changed on what it means to be a 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.040 successful writer in today's publishing world. Yeah. I mean, I 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:53.879 to be honest, like, when my first book came out 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.360 in two thousand five, it only sold like two thousand 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.000 copies in its first year, but I thought that was 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.040 very successful find I mean, you know, I've always had 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.000 a day job, and I always figured I would have 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:08.199 a day job, so I wasn't thinking that I was 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.119 ever going to make a living from writing books. And uh, 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.560 the surprise development that I guess I have been able 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.000 to have been wonderful. But honestly, I'm still going to 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:21.439 the office every morning to work on crash course and 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:23.680 the video stuff that we do, and I like having 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:25.960 a day job, and I wouldn't want to give it up. Yeah, 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:27.680 and it seems like you do spend a fair amount 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.960 of time encouraging other writers and talking to other writers 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.400 about that, whether it's a struggle or whatever it is. Yeah, 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:36.600 I do want to be encouraging to young writers, especially 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.320 because I don't think it's like an unrealistic gold published 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.760 a novel. Like for many years I worked at this 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.159 magazine called book List, which was the review journal the 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:48.080 Marithon Library Association, and book Lists comes out every two weeks, 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.320 and every two weeks it reviews four or five novels 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:53.680 or books at least, And so there's lots of people 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.800 writing books, and there's no reason, um that that any 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.359 of us can't be one of them. Obviously, you love reading, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.720 Like what writers have you fallen in love with recently? 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.920 And who should we be reading right now? The best 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.040 book I've read, the best young adult book I've read 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:13.640 in ages is uh The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:15.720 I just think it's phenomenal. I think it's I think 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:18.760 it's going to be remembered as a classic in the 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.200 way that we talked about The Outsiders Catcher in the Rye. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:23.840 I think it's a very special book. It just came 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:25.359 out a couple of months ago, so you still you 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:29.160