Jennifer Burns: belief

Transcript context

…I recall at age 13 visiting the Foundation for Economic Education, and Leonard Read boasting to me in his office that he had Ayn Rand on his desk and pointing to where that happened. What was the equilibrium in her love life? How did that work? Let’s see. I’m sure she flirted with Leonard Read; that would make sense. The equilibrium was she was always drawn to younger men, and that is true from the beginning. She was very much drawn to her husband, and she was the aggressor in that relationship. Then there are a couple before Nathaniel Branden, who was her student and then her collaborator and her longtime lover, I think 25 years her junior. There are a couple of other young men who she was testing as potential romantic partners. I found a couple reminiscences at the archive. She would start a friendship. They would come visit her, and then in retrospect, they were like, “You know what, if I had wanted to pursue this romantically, she would have been willing,” or “She was trying to set me up. She was trying to seduce me, but she was going a little slow, and I didn’t know what was going on.” I think there are maybe two people that were in that position before Nathaniel Branden. Then I think once she was with Branden, she was pretty content with him. She wasn’t looking elsewhere. I think her equilibrium was what she achieved briefly, which was a doting and supportive husband and an exciting secret lover, much younger than her. She had it briefly, but it didn’t last. What was the role of the Roy Childs “Open Letter to Ayn Rand”?…

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