A Liberty Career Q&A

For the FEE Employee Spotlight

Here's a brief Q&A I did for FEE's employee spotlight on LinkedIn.

What originally got you interested in free-market economics?

Oddly enough, it was a UC Berkeley public policy professor who introduced me to free-market thinking. That led me to the libertarian blogosphere and then to Mises.org which introduced me to Austrian economics and anarcho-capitalism. It was love at first read. I voraciously finished every single book by Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard and wrote articles about their ideas to solidify my understanding. A couple years later, I got to embark on my dream career: working as a writer, editor, and educator at the Mises Institute and then, six years after that, at FEE.

What has been your favorite project while working at FEE?

That would have to be getting to train promising young libertarian communicators in the Henry Hazlitt Fellowship, which I created in 2021. It combines my two favorite things to teach: writing and the freedom philosophy. Through it, I have gotten to work with many rising stars of the liberty movement, including Brett Cooper, Hannah Frankman, and Liam McCollum. I thank God for blessing me with a calling and a career in which I can support my family by serving a cause I believe in and love.

Where has been your favorite travel destination?

I love to visit Austin, Texas, because of its cultural and entrepreneurial vibrancy. It’s also where some of my dearest friends live.

What's a quirky or unexpected item you keep on your desk?

I don't know if this qualifies, but I keep on my desk a copy of the first issue of Ideas on Liberty (FEE's precursor to The Freeman magazine). It's a tiny little booklet, but it bursts at the seams (or binding, as it were) with insights and wisdom.

Also, here's an expanded version of the text I wrote for the attached image:

What fascinates me most about our work at FEE is the profound truth and beautiful logic of the ideas we teach: the internal consistency of our theory of rights, the logical rigor of Austrian economics, and how the freedom philosophy promotes harmony and prosperity for society—as well as high moral character and a fulfilling life for the individual. What inspires me most is to see an appreciation of that truth and logic come alive in young minds: in the future leading lights for liberty. We are the inheritors of the greatest ideas of some of the greatest minds our civilization has ever generated. And we have been charged with the mission to pass on that heritage of precious ideas to the next generation. Aside from sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, I cannot think of a worthier cause. And it is a joy and honor to work in an organization that, since it was founded by such great champions of liberty as Leonard E. Read, Henry Hazlitt, and Ludwig von Mises, has been dedicated to that cause.