Terry Teachout, music critic for Commentary Magazine, speaks with Norman Podhoretz, the editor-in-chief of Commentary from 1960 to 1995, about his new book, The Norman Podhoretz Reader: A Selection of His Writings from the 1950s through the 1990s (2003). Teachout and Podhoretz discuss specific pieces from the reader, Podhoretz’s 1967 memoir, Making It, and the nature of American politics. They reflect on the American idea of “self-transformation” as it exists in art and politics, specifically referencing the career of John F. Kennedy. Podhoretz also comments on the writing of Saul Bellow, the cultural radicalism of the 1960s, and his own sense of rebellion as a neo-conservative writer. The discussion is followed with questions from the audience.