I am a professional intellectual, writer, and speaker specializing in cultural, political, and business issues. My favorite part of my job is taking some complex problem and identifying the basic principles necessary to solve it. My articles have been published in hundreds of newspapers around the world, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Arizona Republic, the Washington Times, the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Detroit Free Press. If you're interested in reading any of my writing (or hearing me interviewed), go to www.aynrand.org and search for "Alex Epstein".
Outside of work, a couple of my favorite things are:
* My friends. I am happy to be friends with some truly amazing, passionate, ambitious, life-loving people. My only complaint is that not enough of them have moved to Southern California, the most wonderful place on earth. But I will eventually convince them all... :-)
* Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu / Submission Fighting. This is the greatest hobby I can imagine, because it's a) really fun, b) amazing exercise, and c) endlessly fascinating. I've had the good fortune of training with a lot of great Jiu-Jitsu practitioners. I currently train at Gracie Barra San Clemente with the great Flavio Almeida.
* Watching Mixed Martial Arts (aka "Ultimate Fighting"). As you might guess from my "Friends" list, I love watching some of the greatest athletes in the world test their multifaceted martial arts skills (and strategy) against one another.
* Playing with my friends' kids. Kids are just amazing, and I often find I have more in common with them (and almost always more fun with them) than adults. They're so uninhibited, so up for anything fun, so eager to learn, so capable of enjoying life--just like all of us adults should strive to be.
* Snowboarding. There's pretty much nothing better than snowboarding through the trees--or on moguls--or on a really steep hill--in Utah powder. My goal is to go at least 20 days a year.
Things I am cultivating:
* Reading more literature.
* Traveling.
* Enjoying more art, especially great literature and music.
* Hill-sprinting. I just started doing this kind of workout a couple mornings a week, and it has really upped my energy levels and endurance.
