The Troubadour Podcast
"It is the honourable characteristic of Poetry that its materials are to be found in every subject which can interest the human mind." William Wordsworth The Troubadour Podcast invites you into a world where art is conversation and conversation is art. The conversations on this show will be with some living people and some dead writers of our past. I aim to make both equally entertaining and educational.In 1798 William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads, which Wordsworth called an experiment to discover how far the language of everyday conversation is adapted to the purpose of poetic pleasure. With this publication, he set in motion the formal movement called "Romanticism." 220 years later the experiment is continued on this podcast. This podcast seeks to reach those of us who wish to improve our inner world, increase our stores of happiness, and yet not succumb to the mystical or the subjective.Here, in this place of the imagination, you will find many conversation with those humans creating things that interest the human mind.
The Troubadour Podcast
Why Atheism Failed (and How Ayn Rand Can Save It)
Proudly presented at the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) Austin Chapter—learn more and get involved here:
FFRF Austin Chapter: [https://austinffrf.org/]
Main FFRF Site: [https://ffrf.org/]
In this lecture, I explore how Ayn Rand’s Objectivism can strengthen atheist thought by offering a positive, reason-grounded moral framework. I cover:
Why Rand is so often misunderstood by atheists
A critique of the current Rand quote on the FFRF site—and five powerful alternatives
My personal journey from agnosticism to atheism via Rand’s devotion to truth and George H. Smith’s Atheism: The Case Against God
Rand’s reclaiming of “sacred” values—reverence, exaltation, and moral passion—for secular life
The cultural resurgence of religion (Jordan Peterson, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, trad-wife and “new Age” trends) and why atheism must offer more than negation
Rand’s famous letter to Congressman Bruce Alger: “I am fighting for reason, not against religion.”
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