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Up From NPR. "A few years ago, I worked for a struggling dot-com in Manhattan whose work force was almost uniformly [leftist]. Given my conservative orientation, I saw little sense in getting involved in workplace political discussions. My silence was interpreted as acquiescence until I could stand it no longer and fessed up. One co-worker, who had served on the committee that hired me, felt betrayed. "But," he stammered, remembering my resume, "You worked for NPR." .. I was a co-producer for one of the most unusual programs NPR ever carried, "Bridges: A [Leftist]/Conservative Dialogue." The premise was a discussion between the [leftist] of the show's title, Larry Josephson, and leading conservative thinkers .. One of our first shows after I arrived was a history of American conservatism with the historian George Nash. His magnum opus, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, has long been a reference bible on the right. The book condenses the thought of some of the most consequential political and economic thinkers of the 20th century — men such as Russell Kirk, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and James Burnham. I had heard of very few of them. Nash traced the intellectual fault lines that appeared on the right and that endure today, such as, for example, the one between traditionalists and libertarians. As I read, I kept thinking to myself: "This sure beats Michel Foucault." .. With each subsequent guest — Sam Tanenhaus on Whittaker Chambers, James Q. Wilson on crime and punishment, David Horowitz on Vietnam and the New Left — my [leftist convictions] weakened .. ". more PAUL BESTON. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack