Angelica Walker-Werth

Angelica is a fellow at Objective Standard Institute, an assistant editor and writer for The Objective Standard, and an Ayn Rand Fellow with Foundation for Economic Education’s Hazlitt Project. Her roles at OSI include managing the internship and Active-Mind scholarship programs, course administration and development, and editing On Solid Ground. She writes nonfiction articles and speaks; you can see her work at walker-werth.com. She is a voracious reader of fiction in her spare time, and writes about the ideas in fictional works at fictionosophy.substack.com.
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Ludovico Einaudi: Artistic Integrity and Harmonious Music

“When I need to feel like I’m in a beautiful place, that is the music I go to.” This is how one listener described the experience of listening to music by Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi. His music is elegant and simple, yet innovative. Although he...

The Delights of Dance: Health, Expression, and Musicality

In today’s busy world, having fun life-enhancing hobbies can drastically improve one’s quality of life. Dance is one such hobby for me. It has always fascinated me because it uses human movement as a means of artistic expression. Dance is everywhere: formal ballet...

Cassey Ho doing the splits

Build the Best Version of You with Cassey Ho

Imagine turning two things you love doing into a brand worth millions of dollars. That’s exactly what thirty-four-year-old Cassey Ho has done with designing clothes and teaching Pilates, and that’s why I admire her. She runs the YouTube channel Blogilates, which is...

How We Strengthened Our Relationship in Times of Lockdown

We had just started our long-distance relationship when governments closed borders in response to COVID-19—with one of us in the United States and the other in the UK. The pandemic and the lockdowns imposed in response to it could not have come at a worse time for...

Art as Inspiration: Lang Lang at the Prado

Great musicians can inspire students of music to improve their own playing and artistry. I experienced this myself in 2017 when, as a novice piano student, I went to see the world-renowned pianist Lang Lang on tour. I was awestruck by his technical skill, fluidity,...

Cara E Yar Khan giving talk at TED

Cara E. Yar Khan on the Value of Courage

“Courage and confidence are practical necessities . . . courage is the practical form of being true to existence, of being true to truth, and confidence is the practical form of being true to one’s own consciousness.” —Ayn Rand I love listening to people...

“Pick Yourself Up” with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

Performers who love what they do can invoke a pure, soul-fueling joy in their audiences. Two performers who exemplify this are Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The pair starred together in ten musical films between 1933 and 1949.  Astaire and Rogers were both...

Patrick Buggy’s Excellent Exercises for Self-Honesty

For many people, being totally honest with themselves about their lack of progress toward their goals can be extremely uncomfortable. This is the opening point Patrick Buggy makes in his article “The Clarifying Power of Self-Honesty.” Self-honesty is a...

Admiral William McRaven

Motivation from a Navy SEAL: Admiral McRaven’s Commencement Speech

In 2014, Navy Admiral William McRaven returned to his alma mater, the University of Texas, to deliver its commencement address. McRaven trained as a Navy SEAL, and he uses stories from basic training to illustrate the lessons he shares. His speech is motivating and...