The death of Tibor Machan, whom I wrote about briefly here, caused me to watch a 48-minute panel discussion by current and former editors of Reason on the 45-year anniversary of Reason. I’m using this video with permission of Reason.

I don’t usually watch a 48-minute video but this one held my attention throughout. I realized that these are 5 of my favorite public figures. The only one I don’t know personally is current Reason editor Matt Welch. Matt, plus the 4 I do know–Virginia Postrel, Bob Poole, Manny Klausner, and the late Tibor Machan–I became even more fond of while watching it. The good will they exhibit is palpable. Also, it’s such a sweet story: the tales of figuring out how to launch Reason, how to publish it, what kind of primitive software to use, etc. Bonus: Manny Klausner’s benevolent smile, which could light up a dark day and, in fact, when he gave me some career advice when I was 29–did. For some reason, I actually paused at various points because I was choking up.