Editor’s Choice: The Best Interviews of 2021

Here are our editor’s choices for his favorite interviews of this past year.

On December 15th, Merion West released the editor’s choices for his favorite articles of the past year. This list, in turn, will feature similar choices for the most noteworthy interviews of the year past. Unlike in previous years, one may notice, no interviews with sitting political officeholders made the final list. Instead, the list primarily contains interviews with writers and book authors.

4. “Mary Harrington: Family Formation in the 2020s”

In this May conversation, Mary Harrington, a contributing editor at UnHerd and the author of the forthcoming book Feminism Against Progress, joined Erich Prince to discuss her worldview, particularly what she sees as the excesses of the modern feminist movement. In her view, its aims often come at the cost of family formation, sometimes even bordering on the anti-natalist. She advocates in the discussion an embrace of limits:

“No, actually, I’m willing to limit my sexual opportunities by committing to this one person, even if they’re not perfect, and perhaps because they’re not perfect. I’m willing to foreclose all of those other possibilities. And actually, I’m willing to choose one place and live in it and commit to it. I’m willing to embrace the closing down of my own possibilities in exchange for a relationship and in exchange for meaning.”

3. “Nicholas Kristof Discusses ‘Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope'”

Joining Thomas Koenig in February, Nicholas Kristof, who was then at The New York Times and is now seeking the Democratic nomination for Governor of Oregon, discussed his book Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, which was released in 2020. In their discussion, Kristof, borrowing from the real-life stories of friends from his hometown of Yamhill, Oregon, examines the sort of ailments afflicting parts of America. He and Mr. Koenig walk through various possible remedies, including discussing the importance of dignified work along with ensuring that people are being equipped with the skills necessary for workforce participation.