Kal Raustiala may be a native New Yorker, but he’s grown to love his new city. The UCLA Law and UCLA International Institute professor said he opted to move to California for graduate school. “I’ve been happy, and I actually prefer it here,” he said. Learn more about Raustiala, author of the upcoming book, Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?: The Evolution of Territoriality in American Law, below.
Q. What do you wake up to?
A. Usually the sound of my two-year-old yelling into the baby monitor that he’s awake.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. There’s a They Might Be Giants children’s CD I listened to this morning…. My son goes to daycare [at UCLA] so I usually listen to his choices when we’re driving.
Q. What do you find beautiful?
A. Courtyards like [the Fowler Museum courtyard, where we held the Green Room interview]. I have a courtyard not nearly as grand as this in my house.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. An architect.
Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. Probably my house, which I paid too much money for. And eating at restaurants.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. China. I’ve never been to China. It seems like a big and important place that I ought to go.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. I really like what I’m doing now. If I had the option I’d do the same thing again.
Q. What is your favorite holiday and why?
A. I know Thanksgiving is my least favorite. My most favorite is Christmas. Thanksgiving seems like a forced holiday for some reason. I’d be happy to skip Thanksgiving.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Going to the beach as a kid. My father used to work as a lifeguard in the summertime, so we spent a lot of time at the ocean.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. It’s hard to name just one. I have a beautiful old pocket watch that was my great grandfather’s. It’s very intricate. I never wear it or use it, but it’s both a historical item and also a personal item of value.
Q. What promise do you make to yourself that you break the most often?
A. That I’ll stop procrastinating.
Q. What should you throw away but haven’t been able to part with?
A. My wife would say many, many, many things…. But probably books. I have tons of old books. I even have tons of old records that I don’t play anymore.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead that you’d most love to meet?
A. I guess right now it would be interesting to meet Barack Obama.
To read about Raustiala’s interview with Wangari Maathai at Zócalo, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.