Up next on Way of the Renaissance Man, Free to Choose Featuring Robert Chatfield.
When I was a kid, I watched a documentary that influenced my young brain immensely, and it was called “Free To Choose.”
The original 1980, 10-part television series was by the great Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.
In academic circles, Friedman was chiefly associated with the renaissance of the role of money in inflation and the consequent renewed understanding of the instrument of monetary policy. For his studies in these subjects, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1976.
Yet it was the “Free To Choose” documentary, as well as his many subsequent public appearances via lectures and on TV, that helped bring into the mainstream the meaning of freedom, and why it is so vital to economic prosperity and social prosperity.
The “happy warrior” approach that Friedman took, as well as his passion for ideas, are kept alive by the Free To Choose Network, a global media nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Friedman’s work, as well as other outstanding scholars such as Thomas Sowell.
Directing that effort is Free To Choose Network President and CEO Robert Chatfield.
At the recent FreedomFest Conference, Chatfield sat down with me to reminisce about Freidman, his wife and intellectual partner Rose, Friedman’s insatiable intellectual curiosity, the history of the “Free To Choose” documentary and how it came to fruition, and even how Milton Friedman, at age 90, learned how to do stomach crunches!
I loved this interview with Robert Chatfield, and if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about the great Milton Friedman and the critical role he played in my life, and the life of society at large, then this episode is just for you.
In the name of the best within us,
Jim Woods
Here is a link to the Free To Choose Network: https://www.freetochoosenetwork.org/
