The following is a conversation with Noam Jomsky.

He's truly one of the great minds of our time,

and is one of the most cited scholars

in the history of our civilization.

He has spent over 60 years at MIT,

and recently also joined the University of Arizona,

where we met for this conversation.

But it was at MIT about four and a half years ago

when I first met Noam.

In my first two days there,

I remember getting into an elevator, a status center,

pressing the button for whatever floor,

looking up and realizing it was just me and Noam Jomsky,

riding the elevator.

Just me and one of the seminal figures

of linguistics, cognitive science, philosophy,

and political thought in the past century, if not ever.

I tell that silly story, because I think life

is made up of funny, little defining moments

that you never forget for reasons that may be too poetic

to try and explain.

That was one of mine.

...