Welcome to Econ Talk brought to you by the Library of Economics and Liberty.

I'm your host, Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Starting next week, at the end of each podcast, I'll be reading and responding to listener email.

So if you have a comment or a follow-up question, email me at RobertsatGMU.edu and put Econ Talk in the subject line.

My guest today is Walter Williams, my colleague here at George Mason University, where he is the John M. Owen Professor of Economics.

Walter is a distinguished scholar and a superb teacher.

Outside the classroom and his syndicated newspaper column, his website, and his work on TV and radio,

Walter is one of a handful of economists who has helped Americans understand the economic way of thinking.

Walter, welcome to Econ Talk.

Thank you very much.

Walter, you've had a fascinating intellectual journey as an economist and writer and thinker.

How did that journey get started? Tell me a little bit about your intellectual influences in your youth and as you matured as an economist.

Well, I think in general, I've always been a radical in the sense that I wanted to...

I wanted people to leave me alone and I was willing to leave them alone.

But in terms of some of my ideas, they were really formulated, I guess, or refined when I was a graduate student at UCLA.

When I had some teachers that just wouldn't let me get away with nonsense, you know.

Who wears some of those clothes?

Well, I think one of my most tenacious manner was Armin Alshen and he taught the economic theory course.

And he just didn't let anybody get away with any nonsensical statements.

I was surely one of the people who supported things like Minimal Wages.

I thought it was a good idea, like most Americans.

It seems like it sounds like a good idea.

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