Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

CEE video interviews

In my capacity as Executive Director of CEE, I have been fortunate to interview several of our expert guest speakers. We began the video interview series at the beginning of the 2008-2009 academic year, and so far we have published interviews with six of our speakers:

Entrepreneur Anil Singh-Molares on entrepreneurship, the liberal arts, and the global marketplace.

Dr. Terry Noel on the virtuous entrepreneur.

Dr. Emily Chamlee-Wright on New Orleans’ non-profit sector’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Steven Horwitz on Wal-Mart’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. C. Bradley Thompson on founding father John Adams.

Dr. David N. Mayer on Thomas Jefferson.

Dr. C. Bradley Thompson on his forthcoming book on Leo Strauss and the neo-conservatives.

Dr. David Mayer on Freedom’s Constitution, his forthcoming book on U.S. Constitutional interpretation.

Forthcoming: Attorney Timothy Sandefur on market entrepreneurs, political entrepreneurs, and the American legal and political landscape.

The videos are also available at the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s site. Credit also goes to CEE’s Christopher Vaughan, who shoots and edits the interviews. Nice work, Chris.

Late to the show, but excellent timing

John Adams the mini-series came out last year, but I just began watching it yesterday. The first two episodes are excellent. What a great way to spend part of July 4.

Paul Giamatti’s performance hooked me: I have a renewed appreciation for John Adams’s brilliance, determination, and integrity. I also have an enlarged appreciation for Abigail Adams’s energy, devotion, and no-nonsense intelligence; Laura Linney plays Abigail in the series.

Coincidentally, I was in Boston late last month and took a day trip to Braintree and Quincy, Massachusetts, where I enjoyed seeing Adams’s birthplace and the Old House, with its great garden and grounds.

Back to the mini-series: Stephen Dillane’s cerebral and understated performance as Thomas Jefferson was hypnotic—I found myself staring trying to figure out what he was thinking.

Not coincidentally, there have been two intriguing Jefferson items in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the first a journalist’s quirkily touching visit to Monticello and the second on Jefferson the musician. Well worth reading.

Also not too coincidentally, I recently interviewed two Adams and Jefferson scholars. Professors Brad Thompson and David Mayer visited Rockford College and the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship this spring, and videos of my interviews with Thompson on Adams and Mayer on Jefferson can be viewed at the Center’s site.

Interview: C. Bradley Thompson on John Adams

My interview at CEE with C. Bradley Thompson, Ph.D., on founding father John Adams’s moral character and his importance to the American Revolution.

Part I

Part II

More interviews with CEE’s guest speakers are available here.