Interview: Michael Malone on Eagle Scouts and the Four Percent

With today being the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Scouting Award, my friend Michael S. Malone of Forbes and ABC, and a frequent contributor here at PJM, drops by to talk about his newest book, Four Percent: The Story of Uncommon Youth in a Century of American Life. During our interview, Michael discusses:

• The history of the Boy Scouts, and how Scouts went from being the pride of the early American Progressive movement to being demonized a century later by today’s would-be “Progressives.”
• Why the Eagle Scouting badge has been dubbed “The PhD of Boyhood.”
• How the original Dangerous Book for Boys was written — over a century ago.
• The Boy Scouts versus Liberal Fascism and the Moral Equivalent of War.
• Hollywood stars who everyone assumes were Eagle Scouts — but weren’t.
• Past presidents and their connection with Scouting — and Barack Obama’s tenuous relationship with the organization.

And much more. Click here to listen:

(22 minutes long; 21 MB file size. Want to download instead of streaming? Right click here to download to your hard drive. Or right click here to download the 6.9 MB lo-fi edition.)

Since in the past, a few people have complained of difficulties with the Flash player above and/or downloading the audio, use the video player below, or click here to be taken to YouTube, for an audio-only YouTube clip. Between one of those versions, you should find a format that plays on your system.

For more from Michael on the topic, don’t miss his new Wall Street Journal column on “A Century of Eagle Scouts.” And for our earlier podcasts, click here and just keep scrolling.