You decided to write this book and where the idea originated. The book is 100 percent not about politics 99 about policy but upstream issues prior to row politics and you are right my a background as a business turnaround private by trade i and a historian and spent five years as a College President starting in 37 years old so i was called to to a turnaround i carried cared about this institution i have family connections and my grandpa never went to college worked at this college after World War Two and i grew up on this campus because of my family and it was in trouble. I knew nothing about student culture was restructuring of debt they gaf campuses operation and i got there in one of the things that cause me to lose sleep regularly is tooted culture so i have been in the senate to a half years i am one of five people that have never been a politician but this originates as a worry. You have a story of the Christmas Tree only have decorated that was a key reason to explore this topic deeply . Guest it is the emergence of the perpetual adolescence the concept of adolescence but perpetual adolescence i realized early reading or sociology your history or the emergence of perpetual adolescence but it is the story of a Christmas Tree we have a lot of special kids at this college and those that get to work in the Athletic Department were in charge of fundraising they were the best of the best we have a big athletic arena one year they were decorating the of facilities for the holiday and it was a 20foot Christmas Tree in the atrium insurance and the students were assigned to decorate the tree. People who should be leaning and theyd decorative the bottom 8 feet than packed up and the above price president said was going on . They said we used all the decorations on the of bottom half we did not know how to get higher. Did maintenance refuse to give you a ladder . Did anybody ask . There is no get off my lawn but theres something there that crystallize the idea of passivity instead of figuring out how to solve the problem there are a bunch of ways this is playing out across the generation insulated from work it is a new thing that the kids are so insulated from work. Talk about the decline of the agency of the kids coming up right now also what are the forces . Painting this as a vivid picture your friends daughter of the cell phone watching you tube videos you see the story played out but what is driving that decline of agency . The distinction between production and consumption is something we should feel in our belly because we live that we live in the richest place the ball with history we should be grateful we are a nation of 320 million overwhelmingly free. But one of the down sides is looking at economic history at a place where we raise our kids largely insulated from work as huntergatherers so from the beginning of time he did not have that concept of job training you adjusted what grandma and grandpa did. Then to be called in to the clergy or the wall over the emergence of madison like the traveling Snake Oil Salesman he did not have that concept. With job choice it was scary but italy happened once you migrated or went to college you picked a job that had that to retirement now youll have job training for ever been to have that exposure the way everybody would before also a talk about that Media Consumption so on the topic of the post Industrial Age were expecting people to work multiple jobs may be more than ever in history is a Key Driving Force were not sure the Younger Generation is prepared to move from job to your job so the question if we can adapt to the economy . Yes. I think the or teenagers and 20 somethings have to be more resilient and everybody has ever been before and more will be expected of them because of the postindustrial economy. Were not doing enough to celebrate scar tissue that is the scar tissue a future character. You mention the job change after high school or college but by and large stitches that will graduate from college will change jobs im sorry change industries three times in the first decade. That is new with all of those spots that produced progressivism during industrial period is the adl of Job Disruption to create these ripples of Human Capital and social networks what they panicked is what we will experience at schwarz speed we will see 50 yearold be disrupted at of a whole industry to create a civilization of lifelong learners nobody has ever had to do that now we bubble wrap the kids wonder and logger there is no blame with their wives but is the parents and grandparents not to have the deliberate conversation of what will be required it isnt about millenials being lazy but what Lifelong Learning and job retraining will look like. Touching on policy the closest you get is the education in chapter the case through 12 situation and d. C. Do we as the villain. [laughter] rand you home school . We do hybrid schooling they opted and then day come on the road so basically we are geographically split as a family we live in a farm town outside of goma of my wife is a longtime public Highschool Teacher so was my dad we love the American Educational system but for geographic reasons im the only commuting dad in the u. S. Senate so why bring the kid with me every week so my wife tells me which kid and a nose and a reserve the most that we can that is my date the next week we do some tutoring some week higher out and some online like the kong academy. Is additional to the conversation about those economic disruptions so what can we change of Public Policy is better prepared for the new economy . I do want to reiterate what had to not about politics or policy but i knew people would want to talk about that so i did read a post script it is not a policy but but if there were this is what we talk about next. Number one the new concept is a really bad idea we should have an understanding where freer we have masque secondary education for guardian the of the civil war 1 percent were highschool graduates by world war till it was almost 80 percent so there hasnt been a lot of change but we create these mass experiences because of the mass urbanization but fundamentally that was lot of work for the kids to do but before that the kids had grown up as a hunter or gatherer so our National Leaders said we need to institutionalize the so that is good to have a strong believer public funding immediate more polarization to take these kids to say we should spend the majority of your waking hours sitting inside in a classroom as a passive recipient so what does it look like to be an active lerner . Dollars to work and deliberate and soft stoicism or limiting consumption by a worried we have not over learned the lessons of secondary education but expand that concept so 41 of a 50 governors are rescheduling the k12 education that is the imports debate. But that is a dangerous idea we want to make that Tertiary Education to do that of the secondary model we want to do the opposite. We want to tell them you go from a passive recipient and flip the switch to be the active lerner to throw open the doors of the of library to demand more girding. Sasaki says the swale is not for all of us it cries out for the seed is cannot use that machine gun to think they will learn. Sore want us to rethink secondary education not going in the opposite direction. That is interesting with grade 131 idea that made me the was the idea of age segregation and how the schools promote that in the value of having friends over much older than me to have a broader view of the world with more familiarity of what is coming so you talk about the age segregation have the detrimental effect so explain that a little more. It is very odd across cultures and time to have most of your coleworts the people who were born in the same birth here we segregate you and dont experience life of different ages after frontal lobe is forming your developing self restraint and wisdom but one of the ways to do that is now live in the narcissistic experience who believe that every challenge at this second is the be all and end all of human existence. Our to teenage girls appear slight skin feel very painful but if theyre 7085 and they tell you stories about their life and the work ethic and the places they traveled and how they persevered and the way they recovered if you would cook cookies with old mrs. Nelson that is not quite as lasting and a media and we need a lot more intergenerational relationships. There is a curve on Plastic Surgery consumption right now it is extraordinary that one of the things it isnt just the natural pursuing of the fountain of youth but to be scared that the world is broken that is the curse but there is Something Different about our time and place of that narcissistic attachment to have a cotton Candy Experience it a little bit of wisdom from different generations even knowing about babies of those that our dependent there is some responsibility for 70 yearold those 80 yearold and figuring out how to babysit as a family. But if our kids have to learn and kenner for somebody else they have responsibility for their community. Talking about perpetual adolescence and the transition also developing logical reasoning skills with a shortterm sacrifice for the long term gain and thinking about a political system is congress is in the perpetual adolescence . It is not about politics. [laughter] but there is a part of this city that is bizarre the American Experience is not power politics we distinguish the were between government and community on purpose. Traveling to america as a travel writer as a literate audience 1500 pages is a big book but rappaport he was riding back to france to explain america and said he wanted to understand the economic dynamism religious diversity and freedom of the press in protest this american exceptionalism is of Human Dignity but nobody in europe had economic dynamism now all the sudden of transportation revolution this system leading to a factory system later so he wants to explain that to europeans so he said a figure they have the best bureaucrats or went to find the meaning of america and the place is a swamp and did work that hard so he traveled out to the capitals of the states he row back to say it is the rotary club they believe in persuasion but it is voluntary and not compulsory and so much of america is about the places where you work or worship or the pta or Coach Little League right now washington d. C. Is a strange place because a river of money flows here the second richest county in america with a lobbyist with the we dont focus on anything long term Political Parties are explaining why the other is worse we now talk about the lesser of two evils so there is the perpetual adolescence to this city to become less and less historically minded we go where we have the shared american narrative or a longterm conversation of a policy challenges like cyber. Is leading arguments youre a historian and maybe one of the few that is trained . I think i am the only phd in the senate that is another way to persuade my mom. [laughter] and what you learned is that frequently freshmen members would take almost a year of listening and learning before speaking on the floor and interestingly you did that elected 2014 then you spend one your . 11 months after arriving see were interviewing and learning then he delivered his speech on the senate floor about the state of our republic and reductionism from shortterm thinking and is struck me throughout the book we not only need the revitalization in the way we raise our kids but enough fundamental institution of democracy but there is a connection between the two do you see that direct correlation . Yes the Senate Considers is of the greatest deliberative body in the world and it should be but clearly is not the sort that 25,000 person town i could name one does it not for profits where the boards do better deliberation in the United States senate. In my town people distinguish between what problem we try to solve before arguing about the solution and we dont do any of that if you go to the gallery theres usually somebody making a speech and thanks for cc of with their other senators actually engaging it is grandstanding cyanate business turnaround guide so i did so private equity because of the time being i graduated college 94 blowing up sector after sector i could go into a lot of businesses that were in crisis so what i learned was a special privilege which you can ask questions and a half to know the answer to every problem there is a lot of smart people it to be a collective action problem figuring out what comes next in the travel industry worked for airlines right before travelocity came into existence but it was clear it would go away in the new Digital World i could interview a lot of people so the tradition from the 17 nineties freshmen senators did not speak for one year that tradition went away but i went to figure out why the said that doesnt work i interviewed a majority in private eye one of the three or four most conservative but my own record but i am not partisan and so i was a different wording what motivates them wire weed not tackling the challenges . Why are we talking about the portability of benefits when they will change jobs faster and faster . Spending time a private eye realize there are some very substantial collective action problems to say as we move into the post industrial moment local communities are being hollowed out there mostly politically disengaged there is a lot of low the desk that most people are not consuming cabletv news. But with the of those is the polarization of the people think that is the maid way they will lose their job so the biggest longterm thought the politicians have is there own incumbency. Most people are afraid of was a a primary than trying to persuade the of other parties and be fractionalized media because of the digital revolution is possible to speak to or hear from the echo chambers of people that or be agreed with them. But if your rate goal is reelection we have a big generational problem we need to do right by the next generation. Host i completely agree with a diagnosis of the problem so now how can we be treating this new generation of Young Leaders for what they can be doing . I think there is a very important continue of of current policy but it is subordinate in my mind to the longerterm policy debates were not having been the basic civics. So the top level is American Government exist to provide a framework for ordered liberty to structure where we say those problems cannot be solved by power like the rotary club churches or synagogues were those local mediating institutions there is next a distinction between a government can and cannot accomplish this to try to do as much as possible what the state and local level to say nebraska and vermont have very different agriculture and challenges think deregulating those complications but nebraska is the breadbasket of the world. Amy decided to construct we are not going to solve that Balance Check i must protect each others rights to argue. Lets attend the table and you and siskiew that beautiful lets talk about poetry and innovation and the next act. We are not doing that. We dont have that shared narrative. So when you get to is a place we have small fall policy site we start spending your time trying to demonize the other person is having a bad motive. Since we met each other that we are not yet sure what flight we are having. Right now one of the things happening in america as we have leaders that are attacking trade when trade is not just by economic theory but demonstrable evidence of americans actual experience. Trade benefits consumers on both sides of any trading relationship and trade track for the big production both countries there is subsector challenges by specific industries lose out when there is more liberalized freetrade. Should have a conversation about trade mitigation networks. We should have a conversation about midcareer and midlife job retraining for some of the subjects. We dont do that. Do you know why . Because the bigger reason that jobs are checking is because of technology, not trade. And Artificial Intelligence in human invoked solve it. Natlie told people always that this is extremely local experience we are in a good versus evil five. It is my people and my type versus your people in your tribe . That is not complex. What you dig into this almost because i think this very much aligns with the story you have in the book about increasingly kids everything because of technology and availability at the abundance. There is a lot of immediate gratification. There is a move towards shortterm thinking and money has a big piece to do with at the Community Level and perhaps it has something to do with this problem at the congressional level. Do you think the constant need to raise money is partly what contributes to the short termism of our debates . I do think there is. First let me say i do believe in the sort of george washingtonian and eisenhower view of the war that Public Servants should believe that they are here as Public Servants but they want to get back home because that is where you work and worship and raise your kids. Primarily the Political Class with people desperate to get to this new imperial rome is a place to stay for their lives and their effect of it was very attentive to what he want to be. If they lose they want they should have a feathered nest that whatever shop they will end up. And that was not the founders vision. So i dont think term limits our panacea but i do believe in term limits. I think fundraising is one of the lifeblood of peoples on percent of their own incumbency. I think it is hugely troubling the politician spent so much of the time fundraising. Some of the publicly set fundraising is a whole bunch of politicians start in this corporal way far off to go to some extent really that. If the people raise money from the sectors that align with the things that they already believe. And they do in a way that limits their creativity to have a good conversation about things that may need to be rethought. One basic example is 5 minutes to get that they fundamentally get. And the mid1970s to enact decades with an average duration of a firm today is just ring with four years. The people are going through destruction of their benefits every time they change jobs. And washington is an important work in getting deportability around pensions. We went from a definedbenefit world to a defined contribution world that was portable. Our healthcare conversations are so behind the times. Again, whether people think the aca were obamacare did a lot of good for bad i have my own views on not, im surely conservative but the bigger problem is whether you take obamacare and added to the American Healthcare system brief 2009 and 2010 or not. Both worlds we are not moving towards a system and then this is not helping. This is the main driver uninsurance ridiculous into American People, they think the main reason for uninsurances preexisting medical conditions, Health Status or poverty, socioeconomic status. Those are actually not the main drivers of uninsurance in america. They mean uninsurance is that people are 46 uninsurance 304 years every time the change jobs. Thats when you get the Breast Cancer diagnosis, that is when you have a car accident, that is when you develop the preexisting existing population. We can solve that population today. The number isnt actually that large of three and half percent of the public probably. So it is a number that is big, it is over 10 million probably but it is completely soluble in a nation of 320 million. What you cant really solve all the extra people to develop preexisting conditions because were not in wealthy have a Health Policy that goes with your course job and geographic change. And that is what we should want. Washington is not focused on that. People make the micro ministries expect there is no portability Health Insurance marketplace 10 years from the period. At the millennias again, the portable benefits because of the 1099 economy we are experiencing this firsthand and in these new economic trends. Speaking of millennials, we work with the millennial lawmakers across the country for just Getting Started in Public Service at the beginning of their careers. In this generation i think is on the altar and of the demographic youre talking about. Member the president of midland, maybe in college or maybe just graduated. So if they have somewhat one of the dynamic cellular talking about. We definitely grew up with youtube and facebook and social media. So as this generation is entering Public Service, what sort of issues and reforms should they be focused on . What would you prioritize . One thing about the millennias is that week transport we have a broken political system. So do you do this through Public Service . And if so, to focus on the small democratic reforms back in the function system and software to be just live in the system we are in and lets do our best legislate . Good question. Cristobol besides being a senator i am a uber sucker. I do work projects. I love to work alongside people. I think work is not just a way to put bread on the table. It is Human Identity and i love to work with nebraskans. I started driving uber last november. I dont make money a process of charity that they designate. Asked what is your rating . I5 right now. I think people are surprised when their sender sums up as the driver. But it has been a good experience. Maybe i will say one cultural thing in my political thing in a couple of policy things. I think culturally, we are making a mistake by allowing the Word National or communitybased or communal to become synonymous with political. We need more places where we get to know our neighbors that dont just start with an assumption of the only things we have in common or power based structures and politics. I have an art experience, and home every weekend i commute. I am a us senator trying to tactile celebrities. And how many people come up to me and complain about espn as were the place had a shared experience of people that didnt have to be about politics. Republicans and democrats will tony election espn was about sports. Espn feels increasingly there always has to be a chamber of some political fight. Right do we have to have division here . This is that the agony of defeat and pursuit of human achievement and excellence. We need more things will get together with neighbors and break bread and work alongside them that dont start with a political right left divide. That is a cultural advice. I think people shouldnt necessarily dish anymore skepticism of both parties. Again im one of the more conservatives in the stent i think of myself functionally as an independent to caucuses with republicans. Because neither of the two parties is very impressive. When you ask the American People you identify with republican or Democratic Party and if you dont give them the choice to say none of the above. If you dont give him the option about 46 percent of the public interrupt to say none of the above. In about 29 percent of democrats and 25 percent republican. These parties are not very impressive. I urge young people trying to serve not to be locked into a belief that the parties are going to endure forever. I think there will be disruption in the space. I think mr. Trump we can talk about him lots of different ways. Thankfully the book, it has nothing to do with it. But he, one of the things he did i think his open eyes for opera and George Clooney and mark cuban and the rock. Hoping to have a giant rating in hollywood thinking what if the weight on these Political Parties . I think that system is dysfunctional and Effective Community ethic reality t. V. And a canteen and presidency is going to cause people to rethink a bunch. At a policy level ii of the most fundamental challenges we face is mind share. The first is the multicareer. I think that most teens and 20 somethings are where they have to get retreat with a 40 and 45 and 50. I think a huge part of the upgrade crisis which the troop tragic epidemic analysis partly epiphenomenal about what is happening in the hopelessness. There are a bunch of things happening and contributing factors in a different supplyside is the opioid drug chain etc. But one of the things happening is if people lose their jobs at 45 or 50 or 55, they dont ever really get employed again. Little bits and pieces of this as well. I think we have to recognize that we are going to have a multicareer economy in the future and that really reorient the way you think about choices you make. About the sequencing of more education and Work Ethic Development and more education and differential experiences across Different Industries and factors. There will be a process and write no intent to ethically just load people up with more education they will be able to to a place where there once and for all done with it. That is not true. We need a generation of lifelong learners and no one has ever created that. And last i will fly that i do think cyber will transform the nature of warfare and said the next decade and the love between military targets and civilian targets both industry and civil society, we are not at all ready for what comes next. I think a lot of people believe that america is always more prepared than everyone else. I believe what america can produce and sell resilience is unparalleled. A bunch of sellers around the club duties to plan the future of cyber and we are not. Yes. Conduct point about political destruction and the parties. As the most fascinating trends were seeing among the millennial demographic. The Fastest Growing political affiliation today among millennials is no affiliation. Independent. They identify is independent and it seems to me, my sense is you probably will get to your thoughts. Either they have to reinvent themselves to have constructive debates again or there will be some kind of emergence of that other political dictation that really drives the future politics because millennials what we see is that they dont want to be boxed in to either Party Identification pedophilic both parties have been ineffective and that is why see some independent affiliations no. The barriers i think are still too high for independence to get elected so you can see that happening. But i think what you saying is dont lose that. Dont lose the independence. Being an independent thinker and in fact, that is right now. Well said. I am a father and a husband and a nebraska football and, republican, conservative and a christian. But if i get them out of order im a dad and i am a football and. Nebraska well and if you are a badger, you people have nebraska is still the Winningest Team the lesser theater we have a puppy decade and 1 2. My football loyalties in nebraska are a communal experience. It is a quasireligion for a lot of us. It is a second identifier. But the fact that my football loyalties ahead of my responsibilities as a dad, there is something tragically wrong with my soul. And i think there is a danger to many people who want to be engaged in politics think youre supposed to take your partisan activity and loyalties and that near the top of very fidgety. I that is a bizarre thing to do. I think it creates tenant work and deformed people. And if you think these Political Parties dont really have a longterm vision for the things that come next. I find it encouraging that more and more millennials are saying hold up, i never to identify with either of those Political Parties. In the last cycle, i think to make a pretty strong case that donald trump successfully navigated a hostile takeover of the republican party. He doesnt have precisely fixed policy views or beliefs. But he certainly doesnt have republican views on the vast majority of issues. So whether you do . Or disagree with republicans and or agree with mr. Trump i think one thing we will see in retrospect is these parties look invincible. Heres a guy who comes along and says i might just seems that as a tool. If the democrats are public little more fragile as a party as they recognize as well. I think it would be healthy for the people who want to be cynically engaged and public minded to have a healthy dose of skepticism at least two organization of the two parties. Emission President Trump. He is not mentioned in the book. But i do think you make some references to him. He talked about the consequences of a declining civic culture playing up today. And let me offer this indicate your response. For one, wonderfully medical front references you are prepared to President Trump at least the phenomenon where we do have a president who seems to have more authoritarian tendencies where you want someone to handle handle it all, right . And we dont want to think for ourselves. And second, how do you reconcile with the primary deck with the demographics supporting him enough the millennials but americans 65 and older . Have you reconcile that . I think we get to a binary choice thoughts of strange things can happen. Most of the reason im in public life, being one of five people in the senate has never been a politician before. This is 20 provision future. Rarely do you see actually do something on tuesday or month from tuesday. That will change the world. We have a project process for instance that in the last 10 years four times have we spent 30 percent of the public money for the budget process. 3539 times we just extended the fiscal year have a crisis and a Government Shutdown and we do a resolution. There is not a serious longterm deal around this place and im interested in longterm. But i do think that we do have a crisis of shortterm exempt and narcissism in the culture it is clearly evident in politics in the last couple of years. Especially in the 2016 for the dental cycle. We do have a defining sense of how you cultivate empathy. So the vanishing american adult is a project on the formation and i spend time talking about things he should be spending time on is a 13 to 19 year older mom or dad or grandma and grandpa should be urge you to spend time hundred and thinking about the consumption to develop a work ethic. She traveled and it is not the rich persons european travel peta be going to a neighborhood way in getting to know people in the community. And they organize a socializing and other areas. And i think literary is refocusing on. Gutenberg is the father of america. If you want to find one person that is the check for one person that if you could not have them you can have market would be gutenberg because america created a mass literacy that was highly correlated with creating a mass middleclass. But assume that the things that make you happy and left him is not just aristotles philosophy in the hope of theology. Social science is not confirming as well there are only about four drivers of human happiness. They are pretty basic things. Family, local community of a couple of friends i feel your pain when you hurt and they feel pleasure when youre happy . Not because they choose to but because they love you. This is the way we raise our kids. I dont choose to do that i just hurt. Do you have a theological or philosophical transport and fundamentally give work that is meaningful . Those four things on truck people back to agency, action, local community, building. Not to a passive dependency and a yearning for a soft despotism. Lets have a daddy in public life that will solve all of my problems. Literacy is a different thing than the sort of frenetic pace and digital Media Consumption. As an uber driver msl date of the digital economy. But there are habits and sort of passions and deliberation that are formed and cultivated by being a leader. And not just functionally are you literate but in terms of appetite. Do you desire to read . Do have a reading list translated to have the habit of actually reading . And right now we are not doing that and you can see it playing out in public life. The older you are the more you read, millennials are pretty much less than 19 minutes a day. We are living in a kind of 2 to 7 minute dopamine shortterm is something that doesnt work for democracy in the republic. You dedicate an entire chapter of how to create a bookshelf. I think you just said it is under edited and i will agree. What is in your bookshelf right now . I read a lot about the future of the economy as you talk about. And frankly i do more of my reading unfortunately just because of the cyber moment we are at. Im meeting a lot of intelligence products. But at home one of the things we are doing is my wife has become near process with totalitarianism in the last year inquiry. It started with north korea anxiety. So she read escape from 1014 and then started reading things about other north korea reading them to our kids. There is an interesting book of the children of monsters. It is about the families of tyrants of the last decades. In south there has been this lot of totalitarian that has led to a newfound appreciation of america and the assembly religion. The idea that the media is the center American People and fundamentally antiamerican argument and we need to celebrate the First Amendment together. Weve been thinking about totalitarianism both in a humanistic sense and also as a cautionary tale. But i am reading about an hour about Cyber Threats to america. And obviously these are timely issues. A number of totalitarian threats abroad and perhaps domestically. And one thing you mentioned as he talked about kids who are coming of age. The comingofage process and whether they are prepared to be active citizens. That is one of the thinking ability clearly. Making america an idea again chapter is you know, we want to raise strong kids but youre saying its not just a question for each individual family. It is really a question for our entire country, the health of the republic. He made an interesting portrait of the antics of the question is whether people will control themselves or submit to the control of or another. And i have to think that youre thinking of Current Affairs when he wrote that sentence, right . More than just the Current Affairs of politics of this year or last year. But the idea of selfrestraint, selfdiscipline, selfcontrol, selfgovernance. All that was a pretty flores came human history. There have been many places where people believe the individual citizen in the local community and the family was possible on that kind of selfgovernance in selfrestraint. It all presumes a certain habit pattern. The world is a parking place. There are people who want to take your life and liberty and your stuff and we need security. People are inevitably going to be fearful of the broken, a world that could degenerate into all against all. So there will be order keeping, there will be security in the world. The american republican experiment, it presumes that local citizens know the virtues of selfrestraint. And i do worry that we are not liberating about that enough. That our teens and 20 somethings as they come of age, cannot lenny millennials but are we having this part of community debate. They dont tend to know instinctively the distinction between production and consumption. Sue asked with more and more consumption might satisfy you. You know all of the data shows that more and more consumption visibly to satisfaction. It leads to kind of cotton candy like hangover. Maybe a dopamine hit to end segments and give lectures to my physical consumption safe food with my time candy terminology. But the digital consumption. It can lead to shortterm is and what we really believe something world changing engineering has happened in the last two minutes since i checked twitter. In an active on twitter, i like twitter. Is not a government staffing. Ben sasse is a that was fun walking educating my kids on the road. So i like twitter but theres something wrong with my habits and my affections i think i might have found something in the last two or 20 minutes on twitter. When a longerterm set of sensibilities inhabited not tainted to that formation for our teenagers red. Let me paint an additional narrative indicate your response to this. Millennials tonight and youre obviously very concerned with how young people are facing in shaping the future of the democracy. Young people today have, especially minors have high Service Participation rates in the country. Working more jobs than ever before. We are increasingly independentminded as we talked about earlier. And the political transformation and change, historically has been coming from the young people. Whether it is doctor king who was millennial adrian hill of the montgomery bus boycott or delivered i have a dream. The Founding Fathers were all millennial aged, deficit was 33, when he read the declaration of independence for James Madison was 36 and about the constitution. 22 he was elected to congress. Madison seemed 69 even when he was 29. I agree with you on that sometimes we forget that history because they ward was in segments marbleized statues now. But when you actually look at this the majority of the Founding Fathers in 1776 one the age of 40. And so i think the question becomes, does this nextgeneration millennials have the energy, have the active citizenship skills if youre talking about for the challenges of our time . And i go back to millennials being very active permit kind of volunteerism standpoint. There was a recent study showing that the number one factor as young people are choosing their career is what impact they can have a neurological community. So how do you reconcile that narrative with a narrative a page of the book . Not to say they are mutually exclusive but one worth reckoning with. Absolutely great distinction. First of all i would say do they have the wherewithal and perseverance to do it . Potential, actually. Habits . No we are not doing enough of that. We talked about millennials understanding from working many different kinds of jobs, that the future is a multi career economy for folks. I am with you. Millennials understand this more than the generation or two above them. Bill gates has the really helpful line that massive economic changes in the past that really unsettled societies again, industrialization and the rise of the big chill economy and urbanization at Mass Immigration being the most proximate analogy. Those were intergenerational changes. We have been using the term here postindustrial. We dont use the word postagricultural orgy echo park utilization. We talk about industrialization because we know what came next. We dont know what comes next right now. So we say postindustrial is another with the talents and wealth the digital economy, the it economy, the portable economy but we dont really know what it is. Difficult postindustrial. What bill gates believes is that then the farmer and his wife, the farmer and her husband did not leave the farm and technological substitution reduced the need for labor. He relates the kids would have to leave the farm and flips the city. They were pushed back to the farm and pull factors the city. Only when nails know that this isnt going to be intergenerational. It is not that they will block independent kids will have to do Something Different. They know they will be portable many times through their life. But at the exact time as we should be having a debate about what are the habits and affections that lead to that kind of skills that will navigate well, the 40 and 50 something disruptive. We are doing more and more bubblewrap. More and more helicopter parenting. The safe Space Movement on the campuses which i think should be deeply troubled when the police and the First Amendment. 41 percent of americans under age 35 no. That is pushing happy people under 35 that the First Amendment might be dangerous. As you might usually freedom of speech to hurt someone elses feelings. That was the thing about america that is we have an agreement to protect each other from violence and protection of the right to be wrong so we can debate. Not just so i might be able to persuade you but i can recognize the humility that i might may be able to be persuaded by you. If youre creating a movement on campus with people think theyre never supposed to attach ideas it didnt already agree with, i dont know why you are paying for tuition because education is about encountering a bunch of ideas you dont already agree with. I think we have a protective bubble experience that parents are trying to facilitate and when what we should really be doing together is celebrating scar tissue. Thats right. Scar tissue is the foundation of future character. Any right this because you actually optimistic about the future but we think we just need to have this conversation now in order to have a more thriving democracy. I do think that. One of the key moments that let me to write this book. Again, the idea came to me. Once i got to the senate, a little over a year ago my work night shift up our 14yearold daughter to a cattle ranch. And wanted her to have some tough love experiences of having to check, nebraska is a very large title state. And texas also. And they were going to have a lot of baby counts born. And a baby born at 3 00 a. M. And mark nebraska you make it for spite on its ears, it might get separated from the mother. You need to tag them. My daughter was going to have to go out and supper. She was going to have to don a rubber glove to initial international might was a watch delivering a baby cow. This was a new type of experience in the bucket. And she loved it she was suffering and she didnt like it that she knew it was a good thinker forming character. I turned her texts into tweets everything she sent me then. You know what is going on with all of this stuff in the experience of delivering house, it is messy i would tweet them out. Even in the midst of it traversal president ial campaign the maintenance people wanted to talk to me about was how their kids could suffer too. And i give them the rectors phone number so they could check their kids out for this experience. I believe there is a movement of people in america want to be having a shared conversation with their neighbors and with their extended kin networks about how we do right by kids. How we built more perseverance and toughness and put into them but it is not chiefly a political conversation. It is a neighborhood conversation. Now senator sasse i wish i more time to talk to but i promise my kids ill make sure they get the manual labor on a cattle ranch. We will make that happen for the book is called the vanishing american adults. Senator ben sasse thank you for joining me today. A real project thank you for what you are doing. You are watching booktv on cspan2 with nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Booktv, television for serious readers. Next on after words utah senator mike lee recalls the early forgotten american figures that fought against a large federal government in his