In 1871, Chicago was reduced to ashes in just two days.

The fire devoured more than three square miles of the city—destroying 17,000 buildings, killing hundreds of people, and leaving 90,000 homeless.

But Chicago residents refused to surrender. They put their minds to work—identifying causes, solving problems, and rebuilding smarter, bigger, and better.

They pioneered steel-frame construction, invented the skyscraper, revolutionized industry and commerce, and transformed city life forever. Chicago rose like a phoenix—and became a symbol of human resilience, creativity, and drive.

What can we learn from this awe-inspiring comeback? That human beings can rise and thrive—even under devastating circumstances.

And this truth isn’t just about cities—it’s about you. When guided by reason, driven by purpose, and inspired by a love of life, you can transform your world and thrive.

LevelUp 2026: Ideas for Thriving

Next July, in the city that rose from the ashes, hundreds of active-minded young people will gather to explore the principles that fuel human flourishing.

At LevelUp, you will:

• Learn practical tools for thinking clearly, choosing wisely, and living fully.

• Connect with thinkers, creators, and entrepreneurs who are building lives they love.

• Enjoy unforgettable conversations, karaoke, dancing, and late-night laughter.

• Leave inspired and transformed—with powerful new knowledge, new friends, and a mindset geared for lifelong flourishing.

Join Objective Standard Institute next July in Chicago.

Discover the ideas that will help you rise, thrive, and live beautifully.

P.S. Scholarships—covering travel, hotel, and banquets—are available to young adults aged 18–29.

Apply Now

OSI just added another can’t-miss session to the LevelUp 2025 program in Orlando, Florida (July 16–19).

Craig Biddle and Alex O’Connor will debate whether people have free will.

Craig thinks people have it—meaning they initiate and control certain mental and physical actions, such that they could have done otherwise. Alex thinks all human actions, mental and physical, are necessitated by forces beyond our control, such that no one ever could have done other than he did.

Join them for a lively discussion followed by an audience Q&A—bring your toughest questions!

Register now

Sammy Davis, Jr. was one of America’s greatest entertainers—and one of its most tragic.

At 3 years old, he started performing in his father’s vaudeville show. By 7, he was proficient in tap, trumpet, and comedy.

The group dealt with rampant racism—but Sammy’s father shielded him from its effects.

At 18, Sammy was drafted to fight in World War II. For the first time, he felt the full reality of racism. Fellow soldiers refused to sleep next to him, ordered him to polish their boots, and routinely beat him.

After the war, Sammy’s fame continued to rise—culminating in an invite to open for Frank Sinatra.

Success continued: chart-topping hits, Broadway leads, and Hollywood roles. Yet the same casinos that paid him millions barred him from sleeping in their hotels. Sammy wouldn’t stand for it, and he refused gigs until the casinos desegregated.

Fueled by a desire for justice, Sammy became a staunch supporter of civil rights— raising money for Martin Luther King Jr.’s work.

But his success carried a dark side. Sammy struggled with a lifelong battle of poor self-esteem and an insatiable desire to be liked. He turned to self-destructive behaviors—spending lavishly, infidelity, and eventually losing his marriage. His life spiraled into drugs, alcohol, and debt. By 1990, he owed 15 million dollars.

But he bounced back. After a tough conversation with Sinatra, Sammy quit drugs and returned to the stage.

Sammy’s life is a testament to the human spirit, struggle, failure, and success.

Timothy Sandefur will discuss “The Heartbreak and Heroism of Sammy Davis, Jr.” at LevelUp 2025. If you’d like to learn more about his amazing yet tragic life, then register now.

PS: Listen to Sammy’s song, “I Gotta Be Me”. It encapsulates his view of life beautifully, and it’s one of the most incredible songs I’ve ever heard.

Examine and discuss George H. Smith’s arguments against the existence of God and the validity of religion—and see whether they make sense.

Whether you were born into a religious family, grew up in a religious culture, read religion-infused books, watch religion-infused movies, or all of the above—your life is affected by the idea that there’s an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good being whose existence you must accept and whose laws you must obey.

Christianity, the world’s largest religion, has influenced Western thought, morality, and politics for millennia. But all three monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—are actively affecting your world today. And all three have similar basic claims about God’s existence, how we can know it, and what we should and shouldn’t do individually and socially.

In this discussion of George H. Smith’s Atheism: The Case Against God, you will explore questions such as:

• What is God?

• What are the strongest arguments for God’s existence—and do they make logical sense?

• Can morality exist without God? Can it exist with God?

• Is faith a means of knowledge? Is reason a means of knowledge? Can you truly know anything? If so, how?

• Given the evidence for and against God, how should you deal with religious claims and commandments? How should you live?

Join Maddox Locher and other inquiring minds to explore these and related questions. You’ll assess some of the strongest arguments for and against God, and see what makes sense to your own reasoning mind.

Enhance your love of literature by viewing it through a philosophic lens.

What if the stories you love could offer even more meaning, more inspiration, more fuel for living? They can. This course will show you how to deepen your love of literature by approaching it philosophically.

Literature uniquely dramatizes the values that shape human life. Through the integrated elements of plot, character, style, and theme, it explores the deepest questions about what it means to live, to struggle, to triumph.

By examining literature philosophically, you’ll gain a richer understanding of stories and characters as well as the ideas and choices that cause people to act as they do. This approach not only enhances your appreciation of great stories, it also teaches you to think more clearly and live more deliberately.

Guided by Angel Walker-Werth and co-instructors Carrie-Ann Biondi, Tim White, Luc Travers, and Timothy Sandefur, this course will explore key scenes and themes from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and We the Living, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, and a selection of powerful poems and short stories. (The poems, short stories, and excerpts will be provided prior to the relevant session.)

If you love literature—and want to love it even more—this course is for you.

The program for LevelUp 2025 (Orlando, July 16–19) has been posted—and it’s all about living fully, loving life, and advancing liberty.

Here are some of the talks and discussions in the lineup (more coming soon):

• How to Get the Most out of LevelUp, with Sarah and Craig Biddle

• Thinking Tools for Loving Life, with Craig Biddle

• Facts and Myths About Independence, with Thomas Walker-Werth

• Aristotle and Ayn Rand on the Nature and Art of Friendship, with Carrie-Ann Biondi

• Judging the West: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful, with Andrew Bernstein

• Walt Disney and the Business of Creativity, with Tim Chermak

• AI and the Future of Higher Education, with Carl Barney

• Fiction as Soul-Fuel: Why Stories Move Us, with Angel Walker-Werth

• Highway to Health: Exercise and Nutrition for Living Your Best Life, with Lee Sandstead

• Liberalism vs. Nationalism: Which Road Leads to Freedom?, with Kiyah Willis

• Heroes of Innovation and Progress, with Jason Bateman and Thomas Walker-Werth

• AI and Philosophy: Flourishing in Our New Age, with Ely Lassman

• How to Level Up Year-Round with OSI, with Craig Biddle, Angel Walker-Werth, and Justyna Piątek-Pawłowska

Read the talk descriptions here.

Register now and save 35% with April Ascent pricing.

Scholarships are available to young adults aged 18–29. These are going fast—apply now.

Excel in life. Fight for liberty. If these are your goals, this conference is for you!

See you in Orlando for the most life-enhancing conference of the year!

How can you decide what to make of your life? How can you choose among the countless alternatives? And, when you do decide, what must you do to follow through and build a life you love? Answering such questions is essential to making your life the best it can be. And it isn’t easy.

At LevelUp Europe 2025, Thomas Walker-Werth will provide a step-by-step plan for deciding what you want, organizing your goals with respect to their relative importance, and achieving a life of happiness.

Register Now

If you’re under 30, you can apply for a scholarship to cover accommodation costs.

See you in Sofia, April 11–13!

In 2021, Africa Brooke left the cult of wokeness.

In an open letter, she wrote, “If there’s one thing I’m NOT afraid of, it’s being ‘cancelled’.…​What I’m truly afraid of is existing in a world that forces me to submit to an ideology without question… this absolutist, authoritarian world is being fiercely crafted under the guise of ‘social justice’, and I want no part in this. I AM OUT.”

In 6 months, the letter had been read more than 3.5 million times.

How did Africa come to this decision?

She never strongly identified with the left, but some of her friends did. So she frequently heard claims such as “all white people are racist,” and that started to make her uncomfortable. But, she was afraid to say what she actually thought. She was “self-censoring.” And she went along with what they said.

During the peak of the Black Lives Matter protests, Africa felt immense pressure to conform. At the same time, she started to buy in to the narrative that blacks were being hunted down in the United States, and began sharing and posting about it on social media.

When a man criticized what she was sharing, she publicly attacked him. “How dare you question a black woman!” She screenshot his message and shared it with her followers.

She felt validated—thousands agreed with her.

20 minutes went by. And then she felt sick.

She didn’t actually hate this man—but she felt like she had to. She didn’t understand the ideas she was advocating, and never felt comfortable to question them.

She removed the post and finally started questioning the ideas she had accepted and why she had accepted them. Her introspection formed the base for her famous letter “why I left the cult of wokeness.”

The rest is beautiful history.

Now, Africa is a writer, consultant, and credentialed coach with a unique focus: tackling self-sabotage and self-censorship. This is the subject of her talk at LevelUp Europe.

Africa will share personal stories, timeless principles, and practical tools to help you overcome fear of judgment. She’ll also offer guidance on how you can manage the discomfort of challenging the status quo, and contribute to the conversations that shape our world.

Register Now and Save 25%

See you in Sofia!

Cheers,

Angel

PS: If you’re 18–29, you can apply for a scholarship here.

PPS: You can read Africa’s letter about her leaving the cult of wokeness here.

Welcome to the Winter 2024 issue of The Objective Standard.

While attending LevelUp 2024 in Atlanta earlier this year, I went for a walk to explore the area. The conference hotel was linked to several other buildings by an elevated, air-conditioned walkway—ideal in Atlanta’s June heat—so I headed across to see where it led. On the other side, I found one of the most dramatic indoor spaces I’ve ever encountered: the towering forty-eight-story atrium of the Marriott Marquis hotel, designed by Atlanta native John C. Portman. Further along was his earlier Hyatt Regency hotel, which also boasted a voluminous atrium replete with balconies, shining glass elevators, and towering sculptures. Determined to learn more about the man who had designed these phenomenal buildings, I started researching him—and discovered a renegade architect who was shocked by the “sterile, inhuman” style of his day and made it his mission to instead design buildings that people would enjoy using and visiting. In “‘Make It Something That Enhances Life’: The Architectural Philosophy of John C. Portman,” I examine some of Portman’s most exceptional buildings in the United States and beyond, his distinctive approach to architecture and business, and the individualism that fueled his many achievements.

Such individualism—and the individual rights that are supposed to protect it at the political level—have long been under attack. Unfortunately, those who speak out to defend freedom, individual rights, and capitalism often underestimate the philosophic depth of their opponents’ arguments. They make practical, economic arguments for capitalism, failing to answer the many moral and epistemological arguments arrayed against them. This is “worse than futile,” writes Jon Hersey, “because it convinces those who matter in such a setting—the audience—that advocates of freedom cannot be taken seriously, that all the intellectual power in today’s world is on the side of statists who deny any factual basis for individual rights and seek to violate those rights in sundry ways.” In “Ayn Rand and the Future of Freedom,” Hersey outlines several key philosophic problems and their political consequences, the failures of past thinkers to resolve these problems, and how Rand succeeded.

The shorts in this issue are:

• “The Obscenity of Banning Books” by Angelica Walker-Werth;

• “Dreaming of America: The Art of Hiroshi Nagai” by Ligeia Rose;

• “Mark Knopfler: Sultan of Song” by Jon Hersey.

The reviews in this issue are:

• Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;

• Star Trek: Prodigy, created by Kevin and Dan Hageman, reviewed by me.

I hope you enjoy the issue!

Welcome to the Fall 2024 issue of The Objective Standard.

Today’s schools, media, and culture are rife with the idea that Western civilization’s legacy is primarily one of racism, imperialism, and oppression. To defend Western civilization against such charges is an act of bravery. Fortunately, Dr. Andrew Bernstein has that in abundance, plus a remarkable knowledge of history. In “The Case for Western Civilization,” he illustrates the many ways in which it has improved human life and shows that, although far from perfect, it is by far the best in recorded history.

One of the wonderful products of Western civilization is classical music. Although many of the great composers—Bach, Mozart, Beethoven—are still well-known today, others do not get the recognition they deserve. One such is Antonín Dvořák, a Czech visitor to the United States whose music uniquely captured the spirit of America. In “The Song of the New World,” Timothy Sandefur explores Dvořák’s life and works, shining a well-deserved light on this often-overlooked hero of American music history.

Another hero of American history is John Quincy Adams. In “John Quincy Adams and the Sacred Fire of Liberty,” Tom Malone explores the life, values, and career of the sixth president who, as Malone writes, was “a fount of moral courage who helped his country establish a noninterventionist foreign policy, end the War of 1812, defeat the 'slaveocracy’s' gag rule, and give national prominence to the abolitionist cause.”

Sadly, America is no longer the paragon of freedom and limited government it was in John Quincy Adams’s time. Today, the federal government routinely meddles in people’s business, destroying companies and preventing entrepreneurs from inventing new services and technologies. Such is the case with the government’s efforts to clamp down on cryptocurrency innovation. In “The War on Crypto,” Michael Dahlen details recent government regulations on the cryptocurrency industry and exposes the great harm that such policies do to businesses, people’s lives, and our chances of building a freer, more prosperous society.

Few people today make the case for free societies, innovation, and the benefits of Western civilization as powerfully as Swedish author and historian Johan Norberg. But despite how outspoken he is today in his defense of these values, he didn’t always believe in them. In “My Conversion from Anti-Industrialist to Lover of Human Progress,” Norberg describes his journey from opposing capitalism and its fruits to becoming a staunch advocate for both—and he discusses many of the ideas and thinkers that helped him along the way. His mission “is fueled in part by my gratitude for the people who keep on working and thinking and producing, even when people like my old self denigrate them. I had always taken progress for granted,” he reflects. “I did not recognize it, and I did not understand it, and now I am trying to make up for it.”

The reviews in this issue are:

• The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery; A Rediscovered Narrative by John Swanson Jacobs, edited by Jonathan D. S. Schroeder, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;

• On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors by Elizabeth Weiss_,_ reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;

• Pudd’nhead Wilson with Those Extraordinary Twins: The Authoritative Edition by Mark Twain, edited by Benjamin Griffin, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;

• Star Trek Discovery, created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, reviewed by me;

• Fly Me to the Moon, directed by Greg Berlanti, reviewed by Angelica Walker-Werth.

I hope you enjoy the issue!

Welcome to the Summer 2024 issue of The Objective Standard.

I hope to see you at LevelUp 2024, hosted by Objective Standard Institute in Atlanta, June 19–22. With talks on building a flourishing life, developing a happiness plan, defending freedom, getting maximum enjoyment from your romantic life, and much more, this will surely be a life-changing event. Register before the end of May to take advantage of 30 percent savings.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is witnessing other developing writers level up. This issue’s cover article—“Thomas Paine: Defender of the Rights of Man”—is a fascinating study of an important historical figure by a writer I’ve seen make massive strides over the past several years: Thomas Walker-Werth. Here, he discusses Paine’s vital role in the American Revolution, his powerful defense of reason, and the ways his ideas are often twisted by today’s advocates of welfare statism. If all you know about Paine is that he wrote Common Sense, you’re missing out big-time. Dive into Paine’s life and ideas, learn about the many interesting intersections between his story and that of other American founders, and enjoy a hero’s tale often neglected in today’s schools.

Next up, Thomas’s better half (are you still allowed to say that?), Angelica Walker-Werth, shines a light on key aspects of healthy romantic relationships via the love lives of several characters in Ayn Rand’s magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. “By examining a few of the most important relationships in the book,” she writes, “we can better understand how sacrifice is incompatible with love, and how a totally different approach paves the way for strong, loving relationships.” Learn about this approach in “Love in Atlas Shrugged,” and start improving your love life today. (By the way, Angelica and Thomas will be discussing “Love as Trade: What’s in It for You—and Me?” at LevelUp 2024.)

Saul Zimet then weighs in on one of the most prominent recent legal battles in “Disney versus DeSantis and the Fairy Tale of Conservatives Defending Freedom.” Zimet shows why, even if the company’s positions on certain issues are ill-founded, its conservative critics are entirely wrong to undermine its political freedom, as they have done. The common conservative justification of DeSantis’s crusade against Disney—that he is upholding free-market principles—is pure fiction.

Of course, the destructive impacts of today’s conservative statists are in many ways outdone by their “Progressive” counterparts. In “The Biden Administration’s Demon-Haunted World,” Elizabeth Weiss exposes that administration’s effective destruction of the barrier between church and state. “On the basis of an unholy alliance of ‘white guilt,’ virtue signaling, and political correctness, Biden has mandated that ‘indigenous knowledge’—meaning, the religious beliefs of Native American tribes—be treated as objective and scientific, and that it be used to set policies for such agencies as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).” Weiss, a professor of anthropology at San José State University, reveals how the administration’s “epistemological egalitarianism” is destroying scientific research, infecting K–12 science classes, and even threatening NASA’s Moon missions.

Such mystical nonsense was always in the crosshairs of the greatest orator of the post–Civil War era, Robert Ingersoll. “Suppose the church had had absolute control of the human mind at any time, would not the words liberty and progress have been blotted from human speech?,” he asked. “How fortunate it is for us all that it is somewhat unnatural for a human being to obey. Universal obedience is universal stagnation; disobedience is one of the conditions of progress.” His speech “Individuality” is a moving ode to those who throw off the shackles of dogma and popular opinion and push the world further by thinking for themselves and acting with integrity to the truths that they uncover. In a world increasingly engulfed by the collectivism and irrationalism of identity politics, his message is more needed than ever, and we relish the opportunity to reprint it here. Enjoy, and share it far and wide.

Rounding out our features, Thomas Walker-Werth interviews Ivan Ko, a Hong Kong real-estate developer who fled after the Chinese government imposed the ominous, rights-violating national security law. Ko is seeking to build a New Hong in northern England—not a mere cultural enclave but a thriving industrial hub, just as that tiny almost resourceless “pearl of the Orient” became under substantially rights-protecting British governance.

The reviews in this issue are:

• Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders by Dennis C. Rasmussen, reviewed by me;

• Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary J. Bass, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;

• Slow Productivity:The Lost Art of Accomplishment without Burnout by Cal Newport, reviewed by Tim White;

• Brooklyn Stories: A Rousing Collection from New York’s Most Colorful Borough by Andrew Bernstein, reviewed by Dan Sullivan;

• Jojo Rabbit, Written and Directed by Taika Waititi, reviewed by Lucas Voltolini.

Last, I provide some updates on what’s been happening in the world of music—bad and good:

• “The Triumph of Defeat: Lust, Wine, and Rock ’n’ Roll”

• “The New Guitar Storytellers: ‘Bringing Back the Instrumental.’”

Enjoy the issue, and I hope to see you at LevelUp!

Objective Standard Institute fellow Kiyah Willis has launched a YouTube channel, where she’ll be posting commentary on cultural trends and current events from a rational philosophic perspective.

In her first video, “Why I Left the Left,” she explains the start of her journey. Her future videos will elaborate her thinking and her continuing efforts to make sense of the world so she can think clearly, live fully, and help others to do the same.

Join Kiyah as she explores issues of the day applying the principles of reason, individualism, and capitalism—and debunks false alternatives such as wokeism vs. religion, feelings vs. faith, and socialism vs. conservatism.

Check out her first video. Subscribe to her channel. And let people—especially young people—know about this new and important voice of reason.

I was delighted to see that Alex O’Connor recently debated Sam Harris about whether ethics is objective and, if so, on what grounds.

This is the same subject Alex and I will debate at LevelUp 2024, in Atlanta, June 19-22. It’s also among the most important and urgent subjects we face today—both as individuals and as societies.

Is it factually moral or factually immoral to pursue your own happiness—or is it a matter of opinion? Is it factually wrong to rape, mutilate, kidnap, and murder people—or does it depend on the context or norms of a given cultural? Are women properly regarded as sovereign individuals with absolute rights to their lives, bodies, and minds—or are such claims merely expressions of emotion?

The answers to all such questions depend on whether we can show that morality is objective.

Alex and Sam’s discussion is well worth a listen because, among other things, it highlights the need for genuine proof of an objective standard of moral value. Sam claims that the standard is “human well-being,” but he doesn’t prove it or even define the phrase clearly. And Alex is not convinced by the unproven claims.

I look forward to discussing these matters with Alex at LevelUp, where I’ll argue that morality is provably objective because it is based on and derived from the demonstrable fact that the requirements of human life constitute the objective standard of moral value.

Alex, with his sharp and critical mind, will marshal the most pointed questions and strongest arguments to determine whether or not my case makes sense and is supported by evidence.

Of course, both Alex and I are after the same thing: clarity and truth. So there will be no “winner” here. Or, more precisely, both of us—and everyone in the audience—will win, as we bring reason to bear on one of the most important issues of the day.

Come and join us for this vital discussion—along with the rest of the program at the most life-enhancing conference of the year.

Register now and save 40% during the April Ascent.

See you in Atlanta!

I recently discovered that the review of the Barbie movie published in TOS in September 2023 was largely plagiarized from a video by YouTuber Will Jordan (aka “The Critical Drinker”). I have apologized to Mr. Jordan and removed the review from TOS’s website, and TOS has discontinued its relationship with the person who submitted the review.

I regret not detecting the problem prior to publication. And I take full responsibility for that failure.

Effective immediately, TOS is implementing a more rigorous review process, including the use of AI technology, to ensure the originality and integrity of all material we publish.

Sincerely,

Craig Biddle

Editor in Chief

The Objective Standard

When I heard that two friends and highly successful businessmen—Tim Chermak and Mitchell Broderick—had launched a new venture called John Galt Mortgage Company, I immediately thought, Brilliant! But I didn’t realize then how brilliant their idea really is. They aim to simultaneously upend an industry and improve American culture by promoting rational philosophic ideas. Impossible, you say? Wait until you hear their idea. (What follows is an edited, condensed version of the conversation we had on my podcast, “Philosophy for Flourishing.” Listen to the full version here).

Hersey: One of the first things visitors to your site will see is this: “For purely selfish reasons, we want to save you as much money as possible so you tell your friends and family about us. That’s why we cap our profit on every mortgage and use the ‘leftover’ savings to help you qualify for a better interest rate.” Could you say a bit about your approach to business?

Tim Chermak: When you think back to some of the most successful entrepreneurs in American business history—Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Ford—they built products and services at price points that were major wins for consumers. Rockefeller brought the price of kerosene—the main source of light—down 80 percent for the average person. The narrative that businessmen are evil and built their riches by screwing people turns out to be totally false. If you spend even two minutes researching how these guys built their businesses, that becomes apparent. Vanderbilt, for instance, decided to go into the steamship business, which was the main method of transportation at the time. His competitors were cronies who had used political pull to get government-granted monopolies in certain areas. But he essentially said, “I don’t care if opening this company is technically illegal—I’m not going to follow these unjust laws. I’m just going to give consumers such a good deal that it becomes political suicide to oppose me.” And he became known as a people’s champion. You could almost call him a populist hero because he brought down the price of steamship travel so much. He is responsible, in the modern era at least, for the idea of a loss leader: He would sell a fare at cost or at a loss and then make money back on sales of concessions and the like. He realized that if you scale this, you can have lower profit margins but still make a ton of money by giving consumers a win-win deal that they would choose over competitors.

This is really what inspired us to launch John Galt Mortgage Company (JGMC). We saw an opportunity to apply this idea in the mortgage industry: Lower the margins and pass the savings on to customers. They win, and if we can attract enough customers, we win, too.

Hersey: One of the prominent subheads on your site is: “Finally, A Company That Doesn’t Hate American Values.” What values are those?

Mitchell Broderick: Tim and I were discussing launching this company in 2020, right before widespread government lockdowns. When those were implemented, we realized that American values such as liberty and personal responsibility were more eroded than we thought. It was kind of a punch in the gut. On top of that, there were (and still are) all these companies bragging about how many “diversity hires” they’ve made, or how much they’ve donated to climate change initiatives or “social justice” initiatives. They’re promoting all kinds of awful, corrosive ideas in attempts to curry favor. We think that changing the landscape requires creating parallel economic structures, meaning places where you can do business with people who don’t hate you or your ideas. We think it’s important that when people go to get a mortgage, they can work with a company that not only gives them a great deal but also helps perpetuate such values as entrepreneurialism, freedom, self-reliance.

Chermak: We don’t just tout these values, either; we run our company based on them. Most mortgage companies and real estate companies push whatever policies seem likely to make them the most money, even if it violates their supposed values. The name of our company comes from Ayn Rand, of course, from her novel Atlas Shrugged. But, more deeply, so does our view of values and integrity to those values. So, what does self-reliance mean with regard to a mortgage company? For instance, are we going to offer overly generous down payment assistance programs to help people buy homes—people who could not even save a couple thousand dollars on their own? No. That’s not in our best interest or theirs.

Hersey: Why did you choose to name your company after a character in Atlas Shrugged?

Broderick: Well, “John Galt” sounds like somebody who could own a mortgage company [laughs]. It really was in homage to Rand and the fundamental values at the base of this company. Tim and I connected over our shared love of Ayn Rand when we met in 2014. Of course, a small percentage of people will hear “John Galt Mortgage Company” and get the reference. Many of them are likely to say, “I have to work with them!” Another small percentage will say, “I would never work with that company.” But the vast majority will have no idea what the John Galt reference is. (In fact, as the president of the company, I get a lot of mail addressed to John Galt. That’s entertaining.) So, this is an opportunity for us to introduce those people to Rand’s ideas in a way that, hopefully, is intriguing. We want to plant a seed in people’s minds, because we think that if more people read Rand’s books, it will make the world a better place. I never discount how much reading one book could change the trajectory of someone’s life, because I’ve personally experienced it.

Hersey: Could you say more on that?

Broderick: I didn’t grow up in the most fortunate childhood situation. We were not well off. For instance, I lived in Michigan, and there was a winter when we couldn’t afford propane to heat our home. But I was always interested in ideas, and this wonderful teacher who got to know me a bit through coaching my speaking and debate team handed me Anthem. When I finished that, she handed me Atlas Shrugged. She said, “I think you’re going to really enjoy these books.” And, boy, was she right! The protagonists were so straightforward with one another, and they really modeled for me what love and respect look like. You don’t respect people if you’re not willing to be honest and upfront with them. The book also helped me to see how I could forge my own path. For instance, people told me I couldn’t make it in the world without a college degree. But I thought it through and concluded—to hell with that—and I never thought about it again.

So, I started applying the ideas immediately. My first job was at Taco Bell. If you see a teenager working the register at Taco Bell, you might expect him to be kind of shy, almost embarrassed, like he hopes you don’t see him. I was not that kid. I was proud of my job at Taco Bell. I would tell myself, as I had learned from Atlas, there’s no such thing as a lousy job, only lousy people who don’t care to do the work. I loved working at Taco Bell; I gave it my best, and I was easily among the top three or four employees at that location. Ever since, I have always applied that same thinking: I’m going to work, this is the work I have to do, and I’m going to learn whatever I can while I’m here. And I’m going to apply what I learn to whatever I do next. I internalized the view that I’m in charge of my life, and I don’t have to resign myself to the sort of conditions in which I was raised.

Hersey: When Googling your company, one of the first things people will see is a link to your site with the words, “Contradictions do not exist.” For those unfamiliar, why those words?

Chermak: In all our marketing, we want to leave these sort of Easter eggs or hints pointing back to Atlas Shrugged. If you’ve read the book, you’ll understand the references, but if you haven’t, you’ll probably think, “Contradictions don’t exist?” What does this have to do with mortgages? We want to get people asking those sorts of questions because, ultimately, we want to point people back to the book. If people Google “Who is John Galt?,” maybe they end up going to some other website that tells them about Atlas Shrugged or about Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism. That’s awesome—that’s a win for us.

Broderick: The great thing about being John Galt Mortgage Company is that all our ad dollars—every ad that we create—goes toward advancing our values, whether by gaining us customers or simply by getting Rand’s ideas in front of more people. In fact, most of the people who see our ads probably won’t be in the market for a mortgage at that exact moment. But perhaps we’ll introduce them to ideas that change their lives, and if so, then when they are in the market for a mortgage, perhaps they’ll remember us.

Chermak: Our ten-year goal is to have a Superbowl commercial. We’re aiming for that level of brand awareness. This is not going to be some tiny, niche mortgage shop that no one has heard of. We want to make it a household name. Long term, we’re thinking about opening a chartered bank offering a wider array of financial services. More short term, we’d like to send copies of Atlas to everyone who fills out an application and is pre-approved for a mortgage with us. People will get this thousand-plus page book in the mail from a mortgage company and think, what on Earth? And, of course, the larger our company becomes, the more we can get these ideas out into the world. That’s an incredibly motivating mission for Mitch and me and the entire JGMC team. Going back to your earlier question, the reason we started this company and named it after John Galt is that we zoomed out and imagined fast-forwarding twenty-five years into the future. Let’s say that we become very wealthy—we’ve achieved our wildest financial dreams. What a lot of us would probably do is invest much of our money back into organizations that we care about, that we think are promoting our values. But why have this split between making money and using it to advance our values? Couldn’t we build a company that checks both boxes? That’s what we’re doing.

Hersey: Wow, a John Galt Mortgage Superbowl ad? That’s incredibly exciting. I think I speak for many of our readers when I say: I wish you massive success! Thanks for taking the time to share what you are doing. I’m sure many will be inspired by this integrated view of what a business can be.

Chermak and Broderick: Thank you, Jon.

Welcome to the Winter 2023 issue of The Objective Standard, which caps the journal’s eighteenth year in print, providing clarity on all manner of important issues.

You’ll no doubt recognize the architectural gem adorning the cover as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. But do you know the incredible story of Wright’s life—the struggles, the scandals, the triumph? Timothy Sandefur’s “Frank Lloyd Wright: Rebel Architect,” illustrated with more than thirty images, presents the man and his context in vivid color. It will deepen your appreciation not only for the buildings but for the innovator whose soul and creative ethos they symbolize.

Next up is Craig Biddle’s “Defend Israel and Civilization or Keep the Faith—You Can’t Do Both” in which he addresses three questions surrounding the October 7 jihad against Israel: (1) Why did Hamas do this—what is its motive? (2) What, most fundamentally, underlies and gives rise to this motive? (3) Who is willing to fight Hamas and its supporters at the most fundamental level and who is not? You’ll gain greater clarity about the cause of the savage attack and about what we can do to stop such nightmares from happening again.

Few fiction genres offer such starkly opposed philosophic views on the future of humanity as does sci-fi. Those works that look askance at man’s power to reshape the world have envisioned all manner of man-made disaster. Those that are pro-reason, by contrast, offer such optimistic outlooks that they’ve inspired people to create world-changing technologies, from cellphones to submarines. In “Ten Great Sci-Fi TV Shows That Promote Reason and Individualism,” Thomas Walker-Werth counts down the best of the latter. Get ready to fill your streaming queue!

In “Ayn Rand on ‘Moral Sanction’: What Bryan Caplan Gets Wrong,” I discuss the economist’s article “‘Sanction’: The Triumph of Ayn Rand’s Worst Idea” and how it badly misconstrues Rand’s view of what justice demands. Is it morally necessary, in Rand’s view, to launch into the sort of denunciations of one’s enemies that are common on the internet today? Is Rand really “responsible for modernity’s moral intolerance,” as Caplan posits? Read the article for my thoughts on this thorny issue and what Rand’s ideas truly call for.

Rounding out our features are two interviews, both with founders of groundbreaking new companies. In “Hannah Frankman: Rebel Educator,” I talk to Frankman about her lifelong journey in the alternative education sphere and how her latest venture is helping more parents exit America’s broken education system. Then, in “Who Is John Galt Mortgage Company,” I sit down with Tim Chermak and Mitchell Broderick to discuss how their new company is working to upend an industry while simultaneously improving American culture by promoting Rand’s reason-centered philosophy of Objectivism. I hope you take as much inspiration from these exciting ventures and the people leading them as I do!

The reviews in this issue are:

• Against the New Politics of Identity by Ronald A. Lindsay, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;

• Barbie, Written and Directed by Greta Gerwig, reviewed by Lorence Olivo;

• Ahsoka, Created by Dave Filoni, and Killers of the Flower Moon, Directed by Martin Scorsese, both reviewed by Thomas Walker-Werth;

• The Creator, Written and Directed by Gareth Edwards, and The Great Escaper, Directed by Oliver Parker, both reviewed by Angelica Walker-Werth.

Finally, we wrap up with several installments of my new music review column, “Noteworthy”:

• New Music from Joe Bonamassa, Vikingur Ólafsson, and More

• The Dueling Philosophies of Two New Guitar Albums

• New Music From The Rolling Stones, Robbie Robertson, Glen Hansard, and More

• A Parting Message from The Beatles, and More

• The Musical Time Machine of Julian Lage

I hope you enjoy the issue. From all of us at The Objective Standard, have a wonderful holiday season!

The TOS and Objective Standard Institute (OSI) teams recently returned from our LevelUp 2023 conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where hundreds of people from all over the world gathered to sharpen their minds and improve their lives. James Clear, Bari Weiss, Craig Biddle, Timothy Sandefur, and a dozen more speakers shed light on vital subjects from self-development to freedom of speech to architecture, nutrition, and choosing a philosophy for loving life. Evening activities included live classical music, swing dance lessons, karaoke, and more. A wonderful time was had by all.

OSI will hold two LevelUp conferences in 2024—one in Prague (March 23–24) and one in Atlanta (June 19–22). Visit OSI’s website for details and register soon to save money with early-bird pricing.

This issue of TOS is brimming with goods—including the cover article by my wife, Angelica Walker-Werth, “GMOs: Good, Man-Made Organisms.” The article explains what GMOs are, addresses arguments against their use, and shows that GMO technology and the products it enables are not only safe but an enormous boon to agriculture and human life. But, she adds, GMOs can serve human life only to the extent that governments keep their coercive hands off the scientists, businessmen, and farmers who seek to provide this “biological gold.”

Also on the theme of reason in service of human flourishing is my article “Star Trek Inspires People ‘to Boldly Go'.” My piece examines the pro-science optimism of the series and of its creator, Gene Roddenberry, and shows some of the ways in which this wide-ranging ongoing story has influenced the culture and inspired innovations—from Google to commercial spaceflight. With new Star Trek productions still drawing audiences nearly sixty years after the first episode aired, the show's positive influence continues improving our world. Whether or not you’re a Trekker, I think you’ll appreciate this concise retrospective.

Of course, as people “boldly go,” they need homes and buildings that reflect and accommodate their advancements. Architectural design should reflect technological progress. In “The Flower of Forest Park: Innovation in Architecture,” Seamus Riley profiles a new residential tower in St. Louis, Missouri, called One Hundred Above the Park, which incorporates new design elements made possible by recent developments in construction technology to create beautiful and highly functional living spaces in a breathtaking addition to the St. Louis skyline.

Robert P. McCulloch is best known for his invention of the personal chainsaw. But his innovations went far beyond that. Among other things, he founded a glistening resort city in the middle of the Arizona desert. In “Robert P. McCulloch: The Man Who Bought London Bridge,” I profile the life of this visionary industrialist and his many achievements, which included moving an iconic London landmark halfway around the world.

All such great advancements—GMOs, world-changing TV shows, innovative living spaces, and cities in the desert—require a certain mind-set. They require confidence in the efficacy of one’s mind, in one’s ability to understand the world, to overcome challenges, and to reshape reality in the image of one’s values. Another exemplar of this mind-set was Helen Keller, who, though rendered blind and deaf at nineteen months old, succeeded in life, became a great writer and speaker, and set an example from which we all can learn. In “Helen Keller’s Five Keys to Being Happy,” Craig Biddle examines Keller’s prescriptions for overcoming adversity and loving one’s life.

Another advocate of reason and self-development was Richard Mitchell, also known as “the underground grammarian.” In his speech “Writing against Your Life,” the transcript of which is reprinted in this issue of TOS, Mitchell hilariously addresses a writers’ group, highlighting the power of reason and free will in seeking truth, self-knowledge, and a life of self-generated light. As Biddle notes atop the article, it contains some cynicism, which we normally would not permit in TOS. But the value of the article outweighs this drawback. Read it to the end and see.

Topping off these inspiring feature articles are “Nine Inspiring Poems about the Future,” including works by Edgar Guest, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, D. H. Lawrence, Langston Hughes, and several more.

The shorts in this issue are “George Lucas Gets the Moral Meaning of Star Wars Wrong,” by me; and “On Choosing to Be a Younger Son,” by Craig Biddle. The reviews are of Sound of Freedom, directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde (reviewed by Tim White); and Oppenheimer, written and directed by Christopher Nolan (reviewed by Angelica Walker-Werth).

I hope you enjoy the articles, poems, and reviews. Let us know what you think. And be sure to let your friends know about the journal for people of reason. There’s nothing else like it. —Thomas Walker-Werth

The humorist, professor, and grammarian Richard Mitchell wrote that “Who speaks reason to his fellow men bestows it upon them. Who mouths inanity disorders thought for all who listen.” He continued, “There must be some minimum allowable dose of inanity beyond which the mind cannot remain reasonable. Irrationality, like buried chemical waste, sooner or later must seep into all the tissues of thought.” Ayn Rand identified several common forms of such chemical waste, including what she called “package-deals” and “anti-concepts.” In “Navigating Today’s Seductive and Destructive Language (A Study of Package-Deals and Anti-Concepts),” Craig Biddle shows that today’s culture and popular discourse are littered with such refuse. After touring the debris fields with such an able guide, you’ll be equipped to defuse these threats to clear thinking and good living, and to point out the dangers to others.

Over the past year or so of speaking at liberty conferences throughout the United States, Europe, and South America, I’ve met many young people eager to fight for freedom and flourishing. However, many of them—including college students majoring in economics—regard Adam Smith as the patron saint of their cause while knowing little or nothing about the man’s deeper philosophy. They are thus ignorant that the foundation Smith provided for what he called the “system of natural liberty” actually undermines the case for freedom—and that many of Smith’s arguments are leveraged by opponents of liberty. (Indeed, Smith adopted some of his ideas and arguments from one of history’s most influential critics of human progress and civilization). In “Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, and the Philosophic Foundation for Freedom,” I set these two thinkers side-by-side, compare five areas of their thought, and show what each brings to the table for those seeking to promote freedom and flourishing today.

Rand wrote that “an error made on your own is safer than ten truths accepted on faith, because the first leaves you the means to correct it, but the second destroys your capacity to distinguish truth from error.” William Kingdon Clifford said much the same some seventy years earlier, in 1877. Just thirty-one years old at the time, the English philosopher and mathematician penned a beautifully argued ode to intellectual independence, “The Ethics of Belief.” “Every time we let ourselves believe for unworthy reasons,” he wrote, “we weaken our powers of self-control, of doubting, of judicially and fairly weighing evidence.” In addition to showing why “it is wrong always, everywhere and for any one, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence,” Clifford shed light on the tricky topic of dealing with the accounts of others, including subject matter experts. The piece, reprinted here, includes interesting parallels with the other features in this issue. Enjoy!

The shorts in this issue are:

• “Schools Foment Shootings by Undermining Self-Esteem,” by me;

• and “Brits Should Reject Monarchy and Embrace Rights” by Thomas Walker-Werth.

The reviews in this issue are:

• Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life by Emily A. Austin, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;

• The Stasi Poetry Circle: The Creative Writing Class That Tried to Win the Cold War by Philip Oltermann, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;

• The Case for Nukes: How We Can Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future by Robert Zubrin, reviewed by Thomas Walker-Werth;

• How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, reviewed by Tim White;

• What’s Love Got to Do With It? Directed by Shekhar Kapur, reviewed by Thomas and Angelica Walker-Werth.

I hope you enjoy the issue—and that you’ll join the six hundred or so people coming to Phoenix for 2023’s most life-enhancing conference!

Welcome to the Winter 2022 issue of The Objective Standard, which rounds out the journal’s seventeenth year providing conceptual clarity on the basis of rational philosophy.

One of the most rewarding aspects of editing this journal is seeing young intellectuals grow, and that’s particularly so in the case of Angelica Walker-Werth, author of this issue’s cover article on abortion. Commentators and decision makers on all sides of the abortion debate misconstrue what rights are and where they come from, then cite these misunderstandings in defense of their positions. In “Does Abortion Violate Rights?,” Walker-Werth unpacks some of the most influential of these arguments, shows where they go wrong, and answers many pressing moral questions about abortion.

Next up, in “Mike Rowe and Ayn Rand on the Virtues of Thinking and Producing,” Carrie-Ann Biondi shows the similar ideas that led Rowe and Rand to spotlight hardworking heroes. Shortly after the article was published online in late September, Rowe responded by writing:

Thirty-five years ago, a librarian in Baltimore County handed me a novel the size of a telephone book and told me to read it. It took me two weeks, and it kept me up for more than a few nights, but when I finally finished Atlas Shrugged, I knew I had read an important book. I also knew, in the years that followed, that many of the decisions I made in life were impacted by the characters that Ayn Rand had created, and the philosophies they espoused. What I didn’t know, and would have never dared to imagine, was that three and a half decades later, a noted expert on Ayn Rand would devote a few thousand words and a considerable amount of research comparing the underlying themes of Dirty Jobs with those of Atlas Shrugged. . . .

I guess what I feel after discovering this in my newsfeed and reading every word, twice, is a weird mix of delight and gratitude. I’m grateful to the librarian in Baltimore, whose name I don’t even remember, for handing me a book that would inform a lot of what I’ve come to believe is true and good about human nature. And I’m delighted—profoundly delighted—to see the underlying themes of Dirty Jobs, Somebody’s Gotta Do It, and the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, compared and contrasted with two of the most important books ever published. It’s always gratifying when someone looks beyond the dad jokes and the potty humor to examine the real reasons these shows are still on the air.

Big thanks to Carrie Ann-Biondi for taking the time to research such a thoughtful piece, and for making my Saturday morning an unmitigated delight. Guess it’s time to re-read The Fountainhead.

The article is a delight. And another was seeing Rowe’s praise for it and “two of the most important books ever published” go out to his six million Facebook followers. Even if only a few pick up Atlas or The Fountainhead and are inspired by them to do great things, as Rowe was, the world will be a significantly better place.

Speaking of rereading The Fountainhead, Andrew Bernstein takes a unique look at it and four other great works of literature—Oedipus the King, Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet—in the next article, “Life Lessons from Literary Tragedies.” He walks us through each story, examining tragic characters and identifying principles for avoiding their fates. “Oscar Wilde once remarked that life imitates art,” he writes. “Studying tragedies of great literature can help us ensure that our lives do not imitate such art.” Which character is most tragic, and why? Read the article to find out.

Another tragic character, though for reasons largely outside his control, was Vasily Grossman. Like Ayn Rand, he was born in 1905, lived under Soviet oppression, and became a famed novelist and critic of statism. Unlike Rand, though, Grossman (born in Berdichev, Ukraine) never escaped Soviet tyranny. Most of his works were marred by the many-thousand edits of Soviet censors. Ironically—as Timothy Sandefur explains in “The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman, Banned Russian Novelist”—his last and most outspoken work, Life and Fate, “became his greatest novel, precisely because the KGB confiscated the manuscript from Grossman’s apartment in 1960 and banned it outright, thereby sparing it the official mutilation” that his other books endured. Thanks to scholars Robert and Elizabeth Chandler for translating and, in many cases, reconstructing Grossman’s works, and to Sandefur for bringing to light Grossman’s story—“a tragedy worthy of his own novelistic skills.”

Next, in “Elihu Palmer’s Journey from Religion to Reason,” Thomas Walker-Werth profiles a thoughtful heretic of the American Revolutionary era. Palmer was among the minority of 18th-century thinkers who not only rejected mystical religion but sought to replace it with a fully rational philosophy. That’s a laudable goal, one that many today could still benefit from adopting.

This is especially true in countries governed by Islam, such as Iran. The irrationalities of that faith recently led Iranian “morality” police to murder the twenty-two-year-old Mahsa Amini for the crime of allowing a lock of hair to escape her hijab. This set off protests in Iran and across the globe. In “Iranian Freedom Fighters and the Winds of Reason,” I examine how the spread of rational culture has once again put Iran at a crossroads between “faith, force, and the vast desert of ignorance that has so long swallowed the potential of the Persian people—or reason, freedom, and, perhaps, a second golden age in the Middle East.”

Then, in “Why I Changed My Mind on Abortion,” I retrace the steps that led me from thinking, in early adulthood, that abortion was immoral and should be illegal, to a polar opposite view today.

We wrap up our features with “Six Wistful Winter Poems,” including gems from Sara Teasdale, Eliza Cook, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and more. I hope they brighten your holiday season.

The shorts in this issue are:

• “Russian Tyranny and Conscription—Courtesy of Altruism” by Thomas Walker-Werth;

• “Does Gorbachev Deserve All the Praise?” by Nicholas Baum;

• “Smearing Israel from the Ivory Tower” by Faith Quintero.

The reviews in this issue are:

• The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan by Elliot Ackerman, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;

• What Went Right? An Objectivist Theory of History by Robert Tracinski and Declassified: A Low-Key Guide to the High-Strung World of Classical Music by Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch, both reviewed by me;

• Hocus Pocus 2, directed by Anne Fletcher, reviewed by Angelica Walker-Werth;

• The Orville: New Horizons, created by Seth McFarlane, reviewed by Thomas Walker-Werth;

• Soul Celebrations and Spiritual Snacks by Alexandra York, reviewed by Andrew Bernstein.

I hope you enjoy the issue. From all of us here at The Objective Standard, have a wonderful holiday season!

Welcome to the Summer 2022 issue of The Objective Standard.

Articles in this issue address economics, war, abortion, space travel, literature, film, music, and more. Also included is a brief report on the advancement of Ayn Rand’s ideas in Europe and beyond. I hope you enjoy the articles!

I also hope you will join us for TOS-Con 2022 in Denver, CO, June 22–25. This will be the largest TOS-Con to date, and the program is amazing.

Speakers and presentations include:

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali on “‘Wokeism’ and How to Counter It”

• Eric Daniels on “Saving Capitalism From Its Defenders”

• Yeonmi Park on “Becoming Free, Becoming Human”

• Greg McKeown on “Essentialism: Why and How to Do a Few Things Superbly”

• Peter Boghossian on “How to Engage in Difficult Conversations”

• Craig Biddle on “Free Will and Flourishing”

• Timothy Sandefur on “How Isabel Paterson Helped Ayn Rand Find Atlantis”

• Amala Ekpunobi on “My Journey from the Regressive Left to Independent Thinking”

• Jason Crawford on “Toward a New Philosophy of Progress”

• Adam Carolla on “If I Can, You Can (a Comedy of Truths for Thriving)”

• Zilvinas Silenas on “Generation Z and Causes for Optimism”

• Jon Wos on “Realizing Romanticism”

• Wolf von Laer on “Bitcoin as a Freeway to Freedom”

• Jon Hersey on “Music, Mind, and Morality”

• Craig Biddle on “The Virtue of Black-and-White Thinking”

• Panel Discussion: Hirsi Ali, Boghossian, Sandefur, and Biddle on “The Future of Civilized Society”

Plus, there are evening events including salsa dancing, a jam session, karaoke, and more.

Registration is still open, and if you sign up by May 31 you’ll save 10 percent (register at TOS-Con.org).

Also, after sharpening your mind and fueling your soul at TOS-Con, you can extend the experience by joining us for a few days in Ouray, CO, the model for Galt’s Gulch in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. The picturesque valley is an hour’s flight from Denver, and writers and staff from both Objective Standard Institute and The Objective Standard will be there from June 27 to July 5. Many conference attendees are coming, too—and we invite you to join us for as much of that time as you can.

In the meantime, enjoy the start of your summer. And keep loving life!

Craig Biddle

Editor in Chief