1. The big story in 2025 was the continuing controversy over the situation between Leonard Peikoff and his daughter Kira. In 2024, Kira filed a conservatorship action against Leonard arguing that he was so mentally impaired that he was not competent to make decisions. She dropped the action toward the end of 2024 stating that her relationship with her father was so strained that continuing the case would be pointless. This generated a fair amount of discussion on the internet and even an article in The Atlantic about the matter. It doesn’t appear that the two have reconciled.
2. In recent years, Objectivists have been big on publishing books. I can’t think of any in 2025 that were all that significant. There were a few anthologies of various essays, but that’s about it.
3. In what will not come as a shock to anyone, the long-anticipated biography of Rand by Shoshana Milgram failed to appear. Years ago, it was billed as an authorized biography of Rand; however, in more recent years, all that’s been reported is that the biography will end in 1957 (the publication date of Atlas Shrugged) and no mention of whether it will be authorized. I’ve asked around but can’t find any information about it.
4. Carl Barney’s “Great University” that was supposed to rock the Objectivist world in March 2025 hasn’t appeared.
5. ARI Objectivists have doubled down on their dislike of President Trump. Granted, there are substantive issues (such as immigration and tariffs), but it looks like the main objection to Trump is that he is an anti-intellectual populist.
6. Objectivists are famous for their schisms. I can’t think of any “official” schisms in 2025, but with Peikoff’s continuing support of Donald Trump and perhaps some fallout over the conservatorship action, it looks as if Yaron Brook has had something of a split with Peikoff and others in the Peikoff orbit.
7. The ARI continues to financially support Yaron Brook’s YouTube podcast. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but one wonders why the ARI thinks that the most prominent YouTuber in the world of official Objectivism should be a person who, by his own admission, goes out of his way to be abrasive.
8. In the milestone category, it was reported that Allan Blumenthal and his wife Joan Mitchell Blumenthal passed away.
-Neil Parille
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