The Power Line Show, Ep. 63: How Charles Murray Became Charles Murray

Charles Murray, unquestionably one of the premier social scientists of the last generation, turned 75 last fall, and in January gave a valedictory lecture at AEI upon becoming an emeritus scholar there that you can listen to here. I was curious to speak with him further about the arc of his life story, and last week we sat down for a fascinating conversation that ran from his childhood in Iowa to Harvard, the Peace Corps in Asia, graduate school at MIT, and evaluating social programs in the 1970s where his growing doubts and misgivings started him on the road to his many pathbreaking books. I think this may be the best Power Line podcast ever.

Maybe my favorite part of this conversation is our detour into NASA and the Apollo program. Few people know that Charles and his wife Catherine Cox wrote a terrific narrative about the Apollo program, Apollo: The Race to the Moon. Highly recommended.

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