My guest this week, filmmaker Rob Montz, is an unlikely figure: a libertarian-leaning Brown University graduate who loves ‘90s rap and produces politically inflected documentaries that push back against the orthodoxies of the mainstream media. Rob has featured me in several of his works, and so I thought it was time to return the favor and have him on TGS.
I begin by asking Rob how someone with a Brown pedigree ends up interested in such un-Brown-like figures as Charles Murray, Roy Beck, and Scott Atlas. Rob traces out his path from Brown to the Cato Institute to starting his own company, Good Kid Productions. He talks about some of his work, including a forthcoming doc about James Blake and Kyle Rittenhouse and one defending Roland Fryer from Harvard’s spurious sexual harassment charges. We then discuss the niches we’ve created for ourselves outside of the mainstream. Rob asks whether there’s a place for younger figures who can follow in my footsteps by achieving legitimacy both within academia and as a critic of the pieties that govern academic and political life in the US. We then move on to what’s shaping up to be one of the most crucial questions of the next two years: Trump or DeSantis? And finally, I ask Rob about his abiding affection for rap.
Rob is doing important work as a filmmaker, and I recommend that everyone check out his YouTube channel. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on it to see what comes next.
(Note: This conversation took place on September 20, 2022, before the latest set of controversies around Kanye West emerged.)
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Featured Content from City Journal
Roland G. Fryer discusses affirmative action, why the current system doesn’t work, and suggests alternatives to the status quo.
0:00 The appeals of immigration restrictionism
16:52 The 2013 Ray Kelly incident at Brown University
24:39 Rob’s forthcoming documentary about Jacob Blake and Kyle Rittenhouse
36:29 The response to Rob’s Roland Fryer doc
41:41 Why Rob and Glenn aren’t seeking the mainstream spotlight
47:20 Is there a “next Glenn Loury”?
55:10 Glenn’s course on race and policing be required?
1:02:19 Rob’s position on Trump
1:09:11 DeSantis vs. Trump
1:15:22 Rob’s love of ‘90s rap
Links and Readings
Good Kid Productions on YouTube
Ray Kelly getting heckled at Brown in 2013
Rob’s interview with Jay Bhattacharya
Rob’s mini-doc about Roland Fryer
Roland Fryer’s education company, Reconstruction
Roland Fryer’s other company, Equal Opportunity Ventures
Dexter Filkins’s New Yorker piece on Ron DeSantis
Rob Montz – The Heterodox Docs of Rob Montz