I have no memory of this story, but my cousin Laura says it occurred.
I was fifteen and visiting family in Rapid City, South Dakota. Laura asked me the question every young person has repeatedly heard, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
I said I wanted to work at the Cato Institute.
When Laura told me this story a few years ago, I asked her what she thought of my answer at the time. She responded, “Honestly, we just kinda laughed at ya.” The harshness of familial love.
I’m still a bit embarrassed by the answer, in part because I wonder what would make me consider such a turn of events even possible. I suspect it was that in whatever I might have been reading at the time, the Cato Institute presented itself as an institution of serious scholarship in defense of the primacy of the individual. It was and remains an inspiring institutional bearing.
I’ve received an incredible education in the philosophical underpinnings (and realpolitik) of what it takes to provide a consistent defense of a free society in my time here.
We released my final original episode of the Cato Daily Podcast today. I selfishly arranged to have my colleague, friend, and certified Caleb O. Brown Superfan Deirdre McCloskey do me the honor of conducting the interview.
The Cato Institute remains the most important organization in Washington. I’ll be cheering for its continued success from my new perch at Kentucky’s Bluegrass Institute.
To regular listeners, I say it every day, but I mean it now more than ever: Thank you for listening.