And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, the Axviles, with your

host, David Axelrod.

The word genius is bandied about a lot in our culture, but there's one guy to whom it

absolutely applies.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton has really changed musical theater in a profound way, and he

is a force of nature.

I got a chance to sit down with him the other day in Chicago where his show is about to

open for a conversation that spans politics, music, theater, and history.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, I worked with your dad back in 2001 on a race for mayor, Freddy

Ferrer, you remember it well.

And I remember him saying to me, my kid, he likes to perform, he's really talented, he

writes, and he said, just don't know if you can make a living doing that.

Yeah, I didn't either.

So he said, I want to encourage him, but tell me about, he's one of the great political

consultants in New York.

You must have grown up around politics.

Your mom's a clinical psychologist.

How do you end up as a storyteller and musician and all of that?

I think if you were to write a recipe for Hamilton, you said, let's make the guy's Mama

psychologist and put the guy's dad in politics.

It's the perfect recipe for Hamilton in retrospect.

But I think both of those professions really are about telling stories.

...