Alexander the Grate on Life as an NFA

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2021

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alexander the Grate has spent 40 years – more than half of his life – living on the streets (and heating grates) of Washington, DC. He prefers the label NFA (No Fixed Address) rather than “homeless,” since in his view we’re all a little bit homeless: even millionaires are just one catastrophe away from losing their mansions. It’s a life that certainly comes with many challenges, but that hasn’t stopped him from enjoying the immense cultural riches of the capital: he and his friends have probably attended more lectures, foreign films, concerts, talks, and tours at local museums than many of its wealthiest denizens. The result is a perspective as unique as the city itself.

Alexander joined Tyler to discuss the little-recognized issue of “toilet insecurity,” how COVID-19 affected his lifestyle, the hierarchy of local shelters, the origins of the cootie game, the difference between being NFA in DC versus other cities, how networking helped him navigate life as a new NFA, how the Capitol Hill Freebie Finders Fellowship got started, why he loves school field trip season, his most memorable freebie food experience, the reason he isn’t enthusiastic about a Universal Basic Income, the economic sword of Damocles he sees hanging over America, how local development is changing DC, his design for a better community shelter, and more.

Special thanks to James Deutsch for helping to arrange this interview. Read his profile of Alexander the Grate here.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded June 4th, 2021

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:08.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
0:12.5	Learn more at mercatis.org.
0:15.2	And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit
0:20.4	ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.
0:27.2	Hello everyone and welcome back to ConversationsWithT Tyler.
0:30.9	Today I'm here outside in Southwest Washington, D.C. with Alexander the Great, G-R-A-T-E.
0:39.5	Alexander, welcome.
0:41.2	Yeah, this is the pleasant sounds of the urban center we're getting here.
0:46.3	My first name is Enough Cylables for First and Last.
0:49.1	So first time I tell him I'm Alexander and more often than not, because it's not the
0:55.4	most now it's common, that's on the top, I don't know how many lists, but in my generation
1:00.8	it was not a common name.
1:02.9	So the only Alexander people are familiar with is the Great.
1:07.4	So I'm sort of turning that towards it, yeah, but I smell it differently across my living
1:13.0	situation.
1:14.0	So you'll have plenty of time to ask me questions, but if I start with the basic, if I were to
1:19.2	live outside homeless as you've done for over 40 years in the first week.
1:24.5	More than half my life is right.
1:26.1	What is the most important thing I would learn?
1:32.3	The lesson of hidden figures who had to go a half a mile around trip to find a restaurant,
1:37.8	especially now when all the McDonald's and everything else, the metabolic necessities.
	...

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