Max Roberts, after looking at the list of MKBHD’s all-time most popular videos, and noting that his Duo first-look is #3, and a Duo follow-up is already at #36:

Apple enters the category and in a week it blows past every other folding video.

Now, this doesn’t translate to sales and folding phones taking over the entire smartphone market, but it does highlight a few things to me about tech and the viewers of Marques’ channel.

1. Apple is the most popular brand Marques talks about.
2. New products and form factors from Apple are the most popular Apple videos.
3. When the iPhone comes in a new form, watch out.

There’s no need to overthink it. Humans are decidedly visual animals. Our brains evolved to notice and take interest in novelties. “New” will forever be the most powerful word in marketing. If something looks new, it feels new. If something doesn’t look new (like, say, the iPhone 18 Pro), it doesn’t feel new.

The Duo looks totally new.

It doesn’t matter that Samsung and Google and a bunch of Chinese companies have made foldable Android phones for a decade. Almost nobody cares. The Duo is a fucking iPhone. That makes people care.

In 1946, Ayn Rand published Screen Guide for Americans. Her analysis of how collectivist ideas can penetrate American art and culture remains as relevant today as when she published it seventy-nine years ago. Written while Rand was working in Hollywood and actively opposing communist influence in the motion-picture industry, the original Screen Guide was a brief, roughly seven-and-a-half-page pamphlet addressed to filmmakers who opposed communism but often regarded politics and philosophy as irrelevant to their work. Rand argued that propaganda does not consist only of explicit political slogans. It can be conveyed through a story’s underlying moral assumptions, shaping how audiences understand the world.

In this discussion, Elan Journo and Brandon Lisi explore the historical circumstances that led Rand to write the essay, the deeper philosophical ideas behind her analysis, and the significance of ARI Press’s new authoritative edition. They also discuss Michael Berliner’s new afterword and the archival materials that illuminate Rand’s work in Hollywood, including additional documents now available through the Ayn Rand Archives.

Topics include:

• What’s new in ARI Press’s authoritative edition of Screen Guide for Americans

• Why Ayn Rand wrote Screen Guide for Americans in 1947

• Communist influence in 1940s Hollywood

• How propaganda can influence a culture without explicit political slogans

• How to access additional archival materials related to the “Screen Guide” online

Resources:

• Ayn Rand, Screen Guide for Americans

• Archival Supplement: Screen Guide for Americans archival supplement

Recorded on August 25, 2026.

Thumbnail image: Bettmann via Getty Images