Peikoff, along with Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Barbara Branden, and a number of other close associates, who jokingly called themselves "The Collective", met frequently with Rand to discuss philosophy and politics, as well as to read and discuss Rand's then-forthcoming novel, Atlas Shrugged, in her Manhattan apartment.

[9] Discussions with Peikoff and Allan Gotthelf in the 1960s motivated Rand to complete an extended monograph on concept-formation, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.

[12] Peikoff later used the transcripts of these workshops to create an expanded edition of Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, which he co-edited with Harry Binswanger.

[11] Following the dissolution of NBI in 1968, Peikoff continued to give private lecture courses on a variety of topics to large Objectivist audiences, and recordings of these have been sold for many years.

As the executor of Rand's will, Peikoff handles the copyrights to all of her works, with the exception of Anthem, which has passed into the public domain.

[19] Peikoff's lectures or books have been used extensively in the works of Allan Gotthelf, Harry Binswanger, Andrew Bernstein, and Tara Smith, writers who are associated with the Ayn Rand Institute, and also in works such as David Kelley's The Evidence of the Senses, George H. Smith's Atheism: The Case Against God, and the treatise, What Art Is: the Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kahmi, despite these authors' other differences with him.

The Ayn Rand Institute promotes Peikoff's view of Objectivism[citation needed] The closed vs. open issue came to the fore when David Kelley, a philosopher then affiliated with Peikoff and ARI, published his essay "A Question of Sanction", arguing for greater open-mindedness in working with other groups.

On August 16, 1998, the Los Angeles Times published an article about Peikoff, including a joke he made about "stealing" the pages from the Library of Congress.

A complaint from the United States Department of Justice followed in October 2000, claiming over a million dollars in damages unless Peikoff turned over the pages.

[24] Peikoff supports laissez-faire capitalism, arguing that the role of government in society should be limited to night-watchman state conceptions of protecting individuals from the initiation of force and fraud.

He advocates bringing an end to what he claims are "terrorist states" and has routinely lobbied for regime change in Iran "as quickly as possible and with the fewest U.S. casualties, regardless of the countless innocents caught in the line of fire," not ruling out the use of nuclear weapons, arguing that moral responsibility for innocent deaths would lie with their governments rather than the United States.

[30] In April 1992, Peikoff endorsed "any Democrat nominated by his party for the Presidency", citing President George H. W. Bush's "truly disgraceful" record, specifically tax hikes, support for new employee protections, his foreign trade policy, foreign aid to Russia, alleged hostility to Israel, the Gulf War, anti-abortion and anti-obscenity views, and alleged failure to defend Salman Rushdie's freedom of speech during The Satanic Verses controversy.

"[32]Of the 2008 United States presidential election, Peikoff said, "I wouldn't dream of voting", saying that the Republicans should be "wiped out" or "severely punished" for their association with the religious right.

Furthermore, he characterized Barack Obama as "anti-American" and a "lying phoney" with troubling connections to both Islam and Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

He labelled Obama's running mate Joe Biden an "enjoyably hilarious windbag", and their Republican opponents John McCain and Sarah Palin as a "tired moron" and an "opportunist", respectively.

[35] In another 2010 podcast, Peikoff explained that he does not support the building of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, arguing that property rights are always contextual and that preventing the construction is a wartime necessity.

However, Peikoff was not enthusiastic in his endorsement of Romney, calling him an "appeasing, directionless" candidate with "no political convictions" who would be useful for buying time.

[38] Afterwards, he called Obama's re-election a "catastrophe", "the worst political event ever to occur in the history of this continent" and "worse than the Civil War".