Hans Johnson has a long California history. A native to the state, the Public Policy Institute of California associate director and senior fellow is fourth generation on one side of his family, and third generation on the other. And he boasts some illustrious relatives. “There’s a story in the family that the guy who discovered gold in Coloma in Northern California near Placerville is somehow related,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s really true.” Read more about Johnson below.
Q. What do you wake up to?
A. My wife, who is in the bed next to me.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. My son is practicing for his jazz concert, and this morning he practiced. I think it was Miles Davis but I’m not sure.
Q. What is your favorite word?
A. Neologism.
Q. What do you find beautiful?
A. I am very much a lover of nature.
Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. That’s a funny question. Brilliant, fun, smart, engaging.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. I guess I liked maps and math, so that’s why I went into demography. But when I was real little, like many kids, I wanted to be a firefighter.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Vodka tonic.
Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. I like to travel and can’t always afford it. I went with my wife and kids to Europe two summers ago and spent a long time there.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. That’s tough because as I said I like maps. Here’s a nerd thing that I do in my free time. Google Earth is fabulous if you’re interested in maps…. I don’t know much about Africa in terms of what it actually looks like so I spend a lot of time looking at it [on Google Earth]. Right now I’d say Botswana is the place I’d really like to go.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. I’d like to build things. As much as I enjoy the work I do now, it’s very much computer-based…. It’d be nice to build something tangible that you can feel or see.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. This is so stereotypical, but as a California kid I loved going to Disneyland. We lived in Northern California so we didn’t go very often, but every time I did I thought it really was the happiest place on earth.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. My house.
Q. What promise do you make to yourself that you break the most often?
A. That I won’t procrastinate.
Q. What should you throw away but haven’t been able to part with?
A. My papers that I used to study for my dissertation defense. I couldn’t part with them…even though I haven’t looked at them in 10 years and probably won’t for another 20 years.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead with whom you would most like to have a drink?
A. Obama. He’s obviously a very interesting and engaged person.
To read more about Johnson’s panel on California’s education gap, click here. To read the PPIC study, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.