ZadekpediaAtlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand. On The Bob Zadek Show it appears not as a topic of literary criticism but as a recurring reference point: Bob Zadek cites it to promote its theatrical release, to frame doctors’ withdrawal from government payment systems, and to open a discussion of economic liberty. The excerpts do not discuss the novel’s plot, characters or publication history beyond the phrase “Who is John Galt?” and the figure of John Galt.
The 2011 theatrical release
In the closing seconds of an episode featuring Gary Johnson, Bob Zadek reminded listeners that April 15th, besides being income tax day, was the grand opening of Atlas Shrugged in theaters around the country, adding that there would be more about it the following week Straight Talk with Gary Johnson (2011). The remark comes at the end of the hour, after a caller’s argument that the United States has not had a declared war since World War II and that recent military actions are unconstitutional police actions. Zadek’s mention of the film is a sign-off item, not a discussion; the excerpt records no comment from Johnson on the novel or the film.
Going Galt: medicine and the IPAB
The novel supplies the episode’s central metaphor in a 2013 conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Singer about government payment regimes in medicine. Zadek, describing a health system that he says was a free market before government intervention, predicted that the free market would not allow itself to be crushed by Obamacare and said that doctors would simply go Galt Will Americans Accept Second Class Medicine? (2013). Singer replied that they were going Galt already, and added that if the government tried to act against a two-tiered system, as he said Canada had, he doubted the United States Supreme Court would rule any differently than the Canadian Supreme Court, which he said held that a person cannot be prevented from using their own means to seek their own healthcare, nor penalized for providing it.
Singer described doctors quitting the system — taking no insurance or Medicare — and setting up private hospitals that take nothing. He said that as part of a deal to get the Hospital Association to endorse Obamacare, the legislation prevents any new doctor-owned private hospitals from coming into existence, and that Medicare will not certify any new physician-owned hospitals, while existing ones are grandfathered Will Americans Accept Second Class Medicine? (2013). He attributed the provision to physician hospitals competing too well with large general hospitals and skimming off better-paying patients. He predicted waiting lists for routine care, rising premiums, and a growing private system as more people able to pay leave the government-run system, which he said would become more burdened and eventually collapse.
The same episode turns to the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which Zadek called the scariest element of Obamacare. Singer said the board, described as 15 individuals appointed by the President, would review evidence and make recommendations to Medicare, with insurance companies following Medicare’s lead, and that it would ration care through payment — advising Medicare to drop payment for a service low enough to discourage providers from performing it Will Americans Accept Second Class Medicine? (2013). He gave as examples a total hip operation in someone over 70 and dialysis for someone over 65, which he said is denied to people in England. Zadek said the statute provides that a future Congress cannot eliminate the board except during a three-month period in 2017, and Singer said it is not subject to judicial or congressional review. Zadek closed by saying that more and more doctors are going Galt and retiring ahead of plan, and Singer said he tells people asking why he plans to retire early that he loves medicine too much to want to be part of the world that will exist in a few years.
”Who is John Galt?” as an opening
In a 2022 episode on the case of Mark Shirley, a North Carolina food truck owner, Zadek opened by telling listeners who have read Atlas Shrugged that they will remember the iconic line, “Who is John Galt?” Food Truck v. Farmville (2022). He invited those who do not know who John Galt is to dust off their copy, calling it a quick, easy 1,100-page read, and said they would learn who John Galt actually is. He then said the morning’s question would be more modest than “Who is John Galt?” — namely, who is Mark Shirley, and why the listener should care. The excerpt breaks off at that point, before the guest, Jessica Thompson of the Pacific Legal Foundation, begins discussing the competitor’s veto, protections for economic liberty in the North Carolina Constitution, certificate of need laws and occupational licensing.
Across episodes
Three episodes touch on Atlas Shrugged: the 2011 Gary Johnson episode, the 2013 episode with Dr. Jeffrey Singer, and the 2022 episode with Jessica Thompson. The episodes show no development in the treatment — in each, the novel is invoked in passing as a shared libertarian reference, and no speaker on the show analyzes the book itself.