What I liked most about the interview with Bob Avakian was the warmth, humor, and directness of the real human being. Not the incisive philosopher and revolutionary—though he is marvelously both—but this person, with a past, with passions, with flaws, with modesty. I was not in the presence of a “god-man”; I did see a fully human man: his revolutionary challenge is, for me, made all the more powerful. Watching the interview also sparked my memory of having appeared as a lawyer in Spurgeon Avakian’s courtroom. I have gained greatly from both son and father.

Steven RoodOakland lawyer