Thereis a tension between personal responsibility and social forces. At the extreme, were all have perfect choice and free will to do whatever we want. The other extreme, we have no freedom because of incentives around us. And so for me as a is, listeners, know, everything's complicated. I think our public conversation is simplictic to the point of dangerous.
Author, lawyer, and poet Dwayne Betts talks about his time in prison and the power of reading with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Betts is the founder of the Million Book Project, which aims to put a small library of great books in 1,000 U.S. prisons. Betts discusses his plans for the project and how reading helped him transform himself.