While commuting today, I listened to this podcast with Richard Epstein, on Econtalk (Russ Roberts’ invaluable series on economics-related topics). I highly recommend this, and the other podcasts in the ongoing series.

Whenever I hear Epstein speak, I’m incredibly impressed by the way he has so much information organized so well and explained so clearly and thoroughly. I realize that he’s a professor who is used to outlining and lecturing about complex technical material, but this is something extraordinary. Even if he were referring to notes, which I doubt, his ability to first describe the outline of what he’s going to explain, and then to explain it in long but perfectly executed sentences packed with information is just incredible to me.

Perhaps people like John Stuart Mill were able to think and speak like that in the 19th century, but very few people manage to do it today.