We've talked a lot about Christopher Hitchens on this podcast over the years, probably more than just about

any other writer. I guess I just like the pause and consider why is that exactly? Is it because

his defection to the right felt like such a betrayal? Is it also because there's some frustration in there

that he never considered it a defection himself well i mean speaking for myself i think

there are really two reasons um i mean just to directly answer your question about why do we talk about

him so much on this show i mean i think part of it is that you know he's a perfect like artifacts from

the you know early well yeah i guess you're right i mean he was a huge presence he was god is not great

all those debates that

he did, all those. Going on TV to talk about how it was a shame there wasn't a hell for Jerry Falwell

to burn in. He's a guy who I think also when we were younger, we were at the exact right age to see him

and sort of view him, if not uncritically, then certainly credulously. That's right. And I mean, this is another point

I would make about this collection of writings from the LRB. One of the other panelists during this Harper's

discussion, you know, pointed out that for a lot of people, you know, if you know about Christopher

Hitchens now, I think this might be in Christian Lorenzen's review. I can't remember. But a lot of people don't really associate

Hitchens with the written word at all. He's a guy who is known for, I mean, or if they do, it's like

for, you know, just the odd, like awful bit of contrarian clickbait like the why women aren't

funny article or something like that. But mostly, he's known as like a purveyor of the hitchlap, right? He's known for like debates he had with Rabbi Shmooley or, you know, these like rhetorically

feckless clergymen who just like talk about how miracles are real.

And then he's just like, oh.

Do you believe in the flying spaghetti monster?

Yeah, the flying spaghetti monster was more the Richard Dawkins thing.

But it's just like that.

...