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My Friend Richard
Any time I talk with a young person who has every jot and tittle of his life planned out until the day he retires (this is especially common among the kind of sociopaths who have political ambitions), I always gently advise them that it’s generally more important to have a direction than a plan. It’s great to know what you want out of life, but you always ought to be humble enough to recognize that the road by which you get there — or by which you may get to a place you never though you’d venture in the first place — will almost certainly bend in directions you never anticipated.
Case in point: the college sophomore iteration of Troy Senik, newly immersed in a volume entitled Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism, would have been gobsmacked if you had told him that he would one day carve out a professional niche as a sort of sherpa (or, if you prefer, a poor man’s James Boswell) to the author of that book, a polymath law professor by the name of Richard Epstein who happens to be celebrating a birthday today.
I had never met Richard (or, for that matter, John Yoo) before we sat down to tape the first installment of the Law Talk podcast in February of 2011. Having deep respect for the accomplishments of each — and having long before learned that law professors were not generally inclined towards joviality — I was a tad on the nervous side. After all, if you’ve ever listened to the opening of the show, you know that I’m not exactly striking the most dignified tone in the world. Imagine my relief when both told me that, if anything, they wanted the show to be even looser. Four years later, I’m confident that we’re the only legal podcast on the planet with running gags involving the McRib or Roman riparian law.
In the intervening years, Richard has gone from being a colleague to a friend. That someone with that kind of intellectual heft is also possessed of such a self-deprecating sense of humor, such joie di vivre, and such generosity of spirit continues to amaze me. There are far lesser intellectual lights who wear their erudition much more heavily.
In that time, I’ve also acquired an anthology of Epsteinisms that will never run dry. There was the time that, while suffering through the technical difficulties that are the hallmark of any podcast recorded with the professor, he lamented, upon struggling to figure out the mute setting on his microphone, “I’ve always had problems with binary systems.” There was the time that, finding the legal reasoning of Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes — two of the more conventionally esteemed justices in the history of the Supreme Court — flimsy, he dismissed them with a wave of the hand as “intellectual losers.” There was the time that, while Richard was giving me an economic analysis of marriage, he declared, “People with similar skill sets generally don’t have terribly functional marriages. Do you know why?” — long pause — “No gains from trade.”
We’ve now done more than 70 installments of Law Talk. Early next month, we’ll record the 100th episode of The Libertarian podcast we produce together for the Hoover Institution. It’s hard for me to conceive of a time when I didn’t know Richard — because I now talk with him more often than some members of my own family (that’s probably his loss and their gain).
Richard Epstein is 72 today. He has almost exactly four decades on me. And yet, I’m confident that on the distant day when we put these podcasts to bed it will be because I, not he, will have run out of gas.
When people ask me about the task of moderating Richard, I often cite the old SportsCenter catchphrase: “You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him.” The reality, of course, is that neither stopping nor containing is necessary. With a mind like that, you just stand back and let him do his thing. Long may it continue.
Published in General
I’m often in awe listening to and reading him here on Ricochet regarding his grasp of the law.
But I’m convinced my court reporter would shoot him for speaking 400 words per minute.
Happy Birthday, Professor.
Happy Birthday to the Man! I like that he can talk wise and crack wise. I thoroughly enjoy the Law Talk podcast cuz the fellahs can discuss the smarty-smart law topics and bust each other’s chops at the same time.
Happy Birthday. Will John be sending the McRibs?
One of the great perks of my job is that I get to have a weekly conversation with Richard and Troy about the topics of the day. It’s always fascinating, and often very funny.
Happy birthday, Professor!
SI
Happy birthday, Professor! With lots of love from Ricoland – you’re the object of many an intellectual crush!
Happy Birthday! Law Talk is always entertaining and educational; consistently one of the best of the 20 or so that I follow – keep them coming!
Happy birthday, Prof. Epstein! Law Talk makes me think and laugh. Best wishes.
Allow me to add my hearty best wishes to Prof. Epstein on his birthday. He is one of my personal “holy trinity” of conservatarian public intellectuals, along with Charles Murray and Thomas Sowell. His brilliance, learning, and wit are a national treasure.
Best wishes on your birthday, Professor! I am grateful that you , Troy and John Yoo chose the podcast mode for your law talks, because I can listen to your discussions as many times as it takes for the understanding to penetrate my non-legal-acclimated brain. Wishing you many more happy and healthy birthdays!
I must sit down and Photoshop him eating a piece of the imaginary cake I have on my hard drive.
Many happy returns!
Happy Birthday Professor!
I’m still not over the Paul Reiser thing. Happy Birthday.
Happy birthday Prof. Epstein! And many thanks for teaching me the difference between confusio and specificatio all those years ago.
Troy, I think your Law Talk work is outstanding. Does Richard give you any homework prior to an episode to help you prepare? I must really concentrate to follow Richards words yet you often are ready with a follow up or clarification almost immediately. I realize you’re Jeopardy smart and all but do you take much time to research?
That’s extremely kind of you.
No, no homework. Actually, it’s Yeti and I who usually pitch topics to the professors rather than the other way around (the “Blurred Lines” discussion would have never happened otherwise).
That said, there is a fair amount of preparation that goes into it. Contrary to what a lot of listeners seem to think, I’m not a lawyer (although there are a number of things on my resume that have taken me deeper into con law territory that most non-barristers).
I try to strike a balance in prepping for the show: do enough research that I can ask the professors questions that are above batting practice level, but not so much that I lose sight of what the educated layperson (the intended audience for the show) would want to know.
Happy birthday, Professor Epstein. Long may you run.
Like Midge, I have a huge fan-girl crush on the good Professor. It is my dearest wish that Daughter S will get to take a class from him (she is in her second year at UChicago). Happy birthday, dear Richard! And please come to a Ricochet event sometime soon!
Troy:
Keep up the great work. Law Talk is the primary reason I joined Ricochet and renew each year.
Happy Birthday! Law Talk is one of my favorites. And I love the picture with the post. Somehow I always imagine the good professor wearing a jacket with a tie slightly loosened.
Dear Professor,
Happy birthday, and please many more returns of the occasion. My wife & I always carve out an hour or so every weekend for either of your podcasts with Troy. I must say I need to rewind your single breath paragraphs at least a few time per episode just to catch everything. My head some time hurts after hour of the legal eagle boys.
III
Dag nabit BY, doing posts on the iPad is still a swift PITA
Happy Birthday Professor Epstein!
I love to listen to you–the rhythm, contour and cadence of your speech. Oh, and yes, the brilliance of the words you speak!
Law Talk is a little like a party where you have fun learning stuff.
Bless you!
Happy Birthday, Professor! May your coming year be richly blessed!
Law Talk and the Libertarian podcast are my essentials. Your insight, depth of knowledge, and wisdom are very appreciated. Many thanks.
Troy, Richard, John and Yeti: I score Law-talk as the Ricochet podcast with the best content. I never miss it and I usually listen to each episode more than once.
And Richard: many happy returns.
Happy birthday, Professor!
Happy Birthday Professor! Law Talk and The Libertarian are two of my favorite podcasts. Many thanks to you, John and Troy for many hours of entertainment and education.
That’s an excellent target, and you’re aim is accurate!
Happy Birthday, Professor Epstein! You and John Yoo make the law understandable and interesting, which, based on my undergrad Business Law class, I was pretty sure was impossible.
Happy Birthday, Professor. I love the easy banter that is the hallmark of each Law Talk–it makes learning effortless. And even when I disagree with one or both of the eminences — baseball on the clock?–I always learn a lot.
Richard Epstien is irreplaceable. Very important that he lives forever. Happy birthday!
Troy, your talent on Law Talk is drinking from the firehose (your phrase, I think) that is Richard without spilling a drop — without the benefit of Rewind that the rest of us enjoy.
What’s so amazing about Richard is that a transcript of any of his rapid riffs would give a perfectly formed essay, suitable for publishing without edit. Off the charts brilliant.
Plus he’s super nice and hilarious.
Don’t you mean 400 words per breath? Happy Birthday Richard!
A great story, and a happy birthday to Richard.