My guest today, Brad Gregory, is a professor of history at Notre Dame University.

He's a leading scholar of the Reformation, Martin Luther, the 95 Leases nailed to the

church door and all that.

Now here's the thing.

I imagine that if you're my typical listener, you're saying to yourself, I have no interest

in Martin Luther.

Well, to be honest, I would have said the exact same thing until I met Brad Gregory.

When history is reduced to lists of names and dates and important battles and treaties

and so forth, that's when the blood is sucked out of it, so to speak.

Welcome to People I mostly admire, with Steve Levitt.

Early in my career, I had the incredible opportunity to be part of something called the Harvard

Society of Fellows.

It's more or less the most amazing academic boom doggo you could ever find.

Three years with no obligations, except to talk about ideas with some of the most brilliant

academics on the planet.

That's where I met a young Brad Gregory and even in that rarefied company, he stood

out as a superstar.

Brad, it must be more than 20 years since we last spoke and one of the best things about

having this podcast is that it's given me a good reason to reflect on the question

of who the most interesting thinkers I've been lucky enough to encounter in my life and

then gives me an excuse to reach out and without a doubt, you are on that short list of amazing

thinkers.

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