As a television news reporter, Richard Speer hosted an hour-long documentary-style report about The Atlas Society, a Washington, D.C. think tank devoted to the philosophy of late author/philosopher Ayn Rand.  As part of this production, Richard interviewed Barbara Branden, author of the biography The Passion of Ayn Rand.

    A longtime friend (and sometime adversary) of Rand, Barbara was on the scene when Rand wrote her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, which rocketed the philosopher to new heights as an intellectual provocateur.  Barbara, along with husband Nathaniel Branden, helped spread Rand's reason-centric philosophy, Objectivism, throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, until a rift developed between Rand and the Brandens in 1968.

Barbara chatted with Richard about her heady days with Rand, the schism that tore them apart, their eventual reconciliation, and Barbara's thoughts about the influence of Rand's thought on philosophy, politics, and popular culture.

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