The Power Line Show, Ep. 112: Fred Siegel—An Origin Story

Three years ago I sat down with Fred Siegel with my video camera and conducted a long interview with him about nearly everything, which I then edited down to five short installments on Power Line (you can take in the first episode again here and find the rest in our search window if you prefer vide0), but I realized that our complete conversation would make a great podcast.

The result is another in our periodic series of “origin stories,” since I get Fred to explain how he shed the liberalism of his youth. Along the way, he provides a grand tour of some of the leading intellectuals he knew or read in the 1960s and 1970s, how he regarded the Vietnam War, what it was like working as a field rep for George McGovern’s 1972 campaign, and the many things wrong with leftist thought today. This is the first of a two-part show. The second episode, which I’ll post in a few days, covers urban policy and the political scene as we saw it in early 2015. Quite interesting to compare what we were thinking then (before Trump) with what has taken place.

Since the show talks a lot about the sixties, the choice of exit music was obvious: “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield.

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