Min Jin Lee

So his book, It Can't Happen Here, was something that people really heralded when we had the recent administration of Trump.

because we are seeing the rise of fascism around the world today and demagoguery.

And he was somebody who really understood that even back then.

So I really admired him.

I thought, I want to go to a college which gave him that education.

So I applied, and bizarrely, I got in.

Back then, it was much easier to get into colleges.

Of course, I'd go there, and he wasn't there because he was dead.

But...

This is not that different from when I wanted to come to America in 1976 and expected a ball.

I keep thinking that what I read, it's frozen in time.

What did you think you wanted to do professionally at that point?

This was right as you were going to college.

I think this goes back to this whole idea of when I was younger, I thought that I wanted to be a carpenter or a cabinetmaker.

I don't know if you knew that.

I did not.

Which is really weird.

And I love that.

I wanted to make things.

And when I was at Bronx Science, I took a class called Scientific Technical Laboratories, which is essentially woodworking with electricity.