Good-A, humans. Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas. And it wasn't always

safe for the one and only Christopher Hitchens to express some of his more dangerous ideas. It was frequently quite hazardous.

But express them nonetheless he did. Ideas like the idea that one of the worst people ever to walk the face of the planet was Mother Teresa,

the idea that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger,

ought to be behind bars in the International Court of Criminal Justice.

These are ideas that he held so fervently he even wrote books about each of them.

In fact, there probably isn't a contrarian provocative idea

that would get you uninvited or kicked out of polite dinner parties

on both sides of the political aisle

that Christopher Hitchens didn't at some point countenance.

That's what made him so beloved and so loathed.

If you're not familiar with Hitch,

his books have been profoundly important on me. He was one of the most incredible fiery, passionate,

articulate defenders of reason and smaller liberalism, and indeed before that, socialism,

that we've had.

Letter to a young contrarian was an extraordinary book.

God is not great is an extraordinary broadside against religion.

And so many of his speeches and debates on YouTube that you can look up just show this sparkling, fascinating mind.

Today's guest, Matt Johnson, has written a terrific book about Hitchens' impact on the left

and I suppose how sorely missed he is after a premature death in today's culture war debates in

particular.

Matt, today's guest, writes of Hitchens in an article about him on the Bullwark,

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