"I tried again in the interview below, but he dunked on me quickly. Some issues are no-fly zones. But there are plenty he loves talking about."

Ah, the essence of why the Intelligentsia is held in such disregard. If you are a wide-ranging public policy pundit, yet decline to venture into certain areas that will likely show a lack of intellectual consistency, that seriously degrades confidence that any points you make on any subject have fairly considered the many sides of contentious issues. Isn't this fairness of analysis supposedly the hallmark of our intellectual betters?