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 t