NEWS THE ATLAS SOCIETY
Issue 1 | Volume 1 | atlassociety.org | info@atlassociety.org
NO BANNED BOOKS THIS FALL, TAS launched No Banned Books, a provocativelytitled, ambitious pilot program comprised of a seven-part process to help students gather grassroots support from peers to lobby faculty to include Ayn Rand in curricula.
PROGRAMS
LIVING HISTORY EVENTS ONE OF TAS’ most exciting new programs is our “Living History” events. Living history has been used to introduce audiences to a variety of historically eminent figures and TAS is seizing the medium to promote Rand’s ideas.
In the first two months, TAS recruited 30 student leaders on over 25 high school and college campuses to gather over 500 signatures from classmates. We also secured twelve teacher commitments and helped coordinate a dozen studentorganized reading groups. As a result students and teachers have ordered almost 1,200 books generously provided by the Ayn Rand Institute.
Jeffrey Tucker “interviewed” Ayn Rand in front of a live Facebook audience of over 5,000 that was organized by Students for Liberty (SFL). Jeffrey and Jennifer Grossman repeated the performance at SFL’s international conference in Prague and at TurningPoint USA’s regional conference in Cleveland. Our biggest living history event took place in
THE ATLAS SOCIETY
July at FreedomFest: a “debate”
ON OCTOBER 10TH, over 100 friends and supporters came together to toast the 60th anniversary of the publication of Atlas Shrugged -- and the first annual Gala hosted by The Atlas Society.
highest ranked session and was
In addition to a keynote speech by Andy Puzder, and comedy stand-up by Grover Norquist, TAS Chairman Jay Lapeyre gave a Lifetime Achievement Award to TAS Founder, David Kelley, as he
between Ayn Rand and Benjamin Franklin (played by Mark Skousen) -- this main stage skit was the third attended by over 800 people!
looks forward to his long planned retirement. Mark your calendars for the next gala on October 10, 2018!
THE ATLAS SOCIETY
PROGRAMS
THE ATLAS SUMMIT THE 28TH ANNUAL Atlas Summit was held in conjunction with FreedomFest this past July in Las Vegas. This year we more than quadrupled the percentage of students attending the Summit -- 38% of attendees were students, compared to just 7% the previous year.
CAMPUS SPEECHES THIS YEAR TAS touched thousands of students nationwide. • On April 18, David Kelley delivered the BB&T Lecture on Capitalism to 125 students and faculty at Radford University. • At TPUSA’s Midwest Regional, Jennifer addressed 350 students. • Jennifer guest lectured at Chapman University Business School where she spoke about John Allison’s use of Ayn Rand’s philosophy toward business. • In Dallas, Jennifer addressed nearly 1,000 students at TPUSA’s Young Women’s Leadership Summit. In Chicago, Jennifer was invited to speak at TPUSA’s Chapter Leaders Summit. • As part of the Ronald Reagan Lectures series, Jennifer was invited to join a panel on “Making Liberty Fun Again,” live-cast on Remso Republic in Washington, DC. • At the TPUSA Western Regional Summit in Newport Beach addressed 350 hand-picked students in September. • In October, Jennifer debated Dr. Mike Powelson -- a communist -- at California State University, Northridge in a jam-packed event organized by TPUSA. • Jennifer spoke to college students at TWO SFL Regional Conferences - the first in Salt Lake City on October 28 and the second in Columbus, Ohio on November 4. • Last month Jennifer addressed Dr. Russ McCullough’s Entrepreneurial Economics class at Ottawa University, KS -- which is currently reading Atlas Shrugged.
2
Speakers included John Stossel; Andy Puzder, former CEO of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.; Jim Caruso, CEO of Flying Dog Brewery and Peter Copses, founding partner at Apollo Management. Right after the Summit, we kicked off FreedomFest where TAS was a dominant presence. Jennifer was tapped for seven panels while David and George H. Smith spoke on several others.
2017 NEWSLETTER
VISUAL ARTS
DRAW MY LIFE TAS STARTED the year off with a new Draw My Life video on Hank Rearden that received over 614,000 views and over 2,900 shares in a few weeks! Our second video on Dagny Taggart received over 1 million views and 1,500+ shares and comments within days. Both videos are available on our website: atlassociety.org.
ANTHEM: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL TAS ENGAGED Dan Parsons, an award-winning illustrator from Marvel Comics, to work with Jennifer in adapting Rand’s dystopian novella into graphic format. We have already signed with a publisher and expect to have the graphic novel published in time for the 2018 academic school year.
ONLINE OBJECTIVISM COURSE IN NOVEMBER, TAS released an online introductory course on Objectivism on the newly revamped SFL Academy. The short films covered topics such as: • • • •
Philosophy: What it is and why you need it. Reason: Your ultimate digital tool. Achievement vs. Envy: Which side are you on? What is Love? Hint: It isn’t blind.
NEW VIDEOS TAS IS EXCITED to report that two NEW live-action comedic STD (Socially Transmitted Disease) videos on the theme of ENVY. Both films are three minutes, and involve a doctor and a patient who is presenting various symptoms of the Envy STD. The “cure” are treatments -- IV drips and pill regimens -- labeled with Open Objectivist values, and for “maximum protection for your mind,” a prophylactic of Atlas Shrugged.
3
THE ATLAS SOCIETY
MEDIA
TELEVISION AND RADIO TAS’ MEDIA PRESENCE skyrocketed this year and is expected to continue to grow! A few highlights include: • • • • • • • • • •
March 8: David on The Scottish Liberty Podcast. March 23: David on Common Sense Radio. June 8 and September 13: David was interviewed twice by Steve Patterson for his “Patterson in Pursuit” podcast. June 13: David was interviewed by Leonard Robinson for an Accuracy in Media article, on Ayn Rand and Objectivism. June 17: Jennifer was interviewed by Joshua Thifault for TPUSA’s HypeLine news. November 3: David was interviewed by Vinay Kolhatkar for his blog, The Savvy Street. November 10: Jennifer was interviewed on Fox and Friends. November 16: David was interviewed by Nigel Howitt for his Lawful Rebel podcast. November 18: Jennifer appeared on Fox News’ America’s News HQ, debating Michael Starr Hopkins.
SOCIAL MEDIA TAS IS PROUD to report that our social media presence has skyrocketed! Every week more than 400,000 are seeing our daily posts on Facebook.
ACADEMIC
POCKET GUIDE TO OBJECTIVISM THIS SUMMER, TAS released our new Pocket Guide to Objectivism. This book provides an engaging introduction to the core principles of Objectivism in an easy-to-read format. Within days our entire stock was depleted as hundreds of people sought out our booth to pick up their own copy (and copies to hand out to their friends). We are in our third printing so be sure to order your copy on TAS’ website (atlassociety.org) where you can ALSO download the Pocket Guide in audio format.
Equally as impressive are the significant gains in audience engagement! TAS went from about 600 people engaging with our content monthly to 390,000 people. Most importantly, our social influence has skyrocketed, catapulting The Atlas Society to the second most influential Facebook page in the liberty movement! In addition, our website traffic has grown to more than one million visitors a year, with 18-to-24-year-olds as the largest cohort using our resources. TAS has leapfrogged other non-profits in digital and social content and, as a result, we’ve connected with millions online this year to introduce them to our ideas.
PRINT MEDIA IN 2017, TAS published a total of 82 commentary pieces applying Objectivism to topics ranging from dating to dieting, art to economics, and politics to popular culture. The quality of our research and writing has led to national papers seeking out our opinion and asking us to weigh in on culturally relevant topics. In November alone, Jennifer was published three times in The Daily Caller including an opinion piece on sexual harassment entitled “Not #MeToo, But #MeFirst” and another on “The GOP Tax Bills Are Passable Policy but Philosophical Train Wrecks”.
atlassociety.org | info@atlassociety.org | 833-AYN-RAND | 800 Rockmead Drive Ste 200 Kingwood, TX 77339-9958