Benjamin Wittes is the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, a widely read national security blog, and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He speaks frequently about detention, interrogation, and national security issues. You may also be familiar with his Twitter account. After huge news stories break, he posts videos of his baby cannon blowing things up. I’m delighted that he took the time to talk with me. 

When you were in high school, what were you interested in? Were you already into journalism and national security?

No. Not at all. I played the french horn; I was pretty serious about that. I kind of knew I wanted to write, but I did not have a particularly refined sense of my interests substantively. I had an interest in history, but it was pretty diffuse. Yeah. My interests in this area came later.

Did you have any important teachers or…