I have done a podcast with Kevin D. Williamson, always a pleasant and interesting thing to do. Our Q&A is here. I have headed this podcast, our conversation, “Talking the World.” In the 1990s, there was a documentary, about Daniel Bell, Irving Kristol, et al.: Arguing the World. I have never seen it, but intend to. I have never seen, or read, many things, but intend to.
Kevin and I don’t quite talk the world, but we do some dippings-in. Subjects include Kanye West (about whom Kevin wrote a piece for NR, in 2019: here). Abortion. Elitism, anti-elitism. The “workers” and “working-class politics.” Swastikas. Swastikas? Yes. There was an interesting report from the Associated Press the other day: “Asian faiths try to save swastika symbol corrupted by Hitler.” Kevin once lived and worked in India, where the swastika is a normal part of life, in a non-Kanye way.
Near the end of our talk, I ask Kevin what I have asked many people over the years: “What is your media diet? Do you have one?” Answers to this question can be useful. I also ask him about books and thinkers who had an impact on him. A few years ago, Mario Vargas Llosa wrote a kind of memoir. It’s about his political development. He has chapters paying tribute to Hayek, Aron, and others. Vargas Llosa’s book is now available in English, and I wrote about it last month (here).
In high school, Kevin was assigned Free to Choose, by the Friedmans. That was clarifying, instructive. He was also reading National Review — not so much for the politics as for the culture, and the intellectual matters, and the literary matters. The New Criterion, too, was an influence.
Like me — like a lot of us — Kevin inhaled opinion columns, by Bill Buckley, George Will, and others. He also discovered Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson — who illustrated, who exemplified, a new kind of journalism.
In a recent Q&A, I asked George Will whether he had ever been starstruck by anybody. Many have been starstruck by him. Has it ever been the other way around? It has, once. A young Will encountered Isaiah Berlin at Oxford and was duly wowed.
KDW came along a little late for Sir Isaiah. But he has interesting stories to tell about Manmohan Singh and Gwyneth Paltrow. Appreciators of Kevin D. Williamson — and they are happily legion — will appreciate this Q&A. Again, here.