Cultural Update (MP3 download)

By Ayn Rand In this 1978 lecture delivered at Boston’s Ford Hall Forum, Ayn Rand reviews the themes she had explored in seventeen years of lectures at the Forum since her first appearance in 1961. Introduced as the “most popular speaker the forum has ever had,” Rand offers updates on the issues raised in those lectures, asking the question: "Have things changed since then, and, if so, in what direction?"   Briefly reviewing each of her previous lectures (listed below), Rand offers further analysis on a wide range of topics, including  abortion, capitalism, censorship, ethnicity, current events, war and economics, returning often to her theme that “the heart of the battle lies in philosophy.” She closes her penultimate Ford Hall Forum appearance by passing the torch, asking: “What do we do next? I don’t think it’s up to me any longer, it is up to you.”   The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Our Age (1961)   America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business (1961)   Is Atlas Shrugging? (1964)   The