Whatever paid the bills. Hard to separate it out — in the nineties, if you wrote about corporate corruption you were writing about the environment. Oil spills, acid rain, deforestation.

[ He counts them out on his fingers, sounding emphatically disgusted by them all, but then gives a self-deprecating wave of that same hand as if to dismiss the passions of youth. ]

Two thousands I became all about intelligence. CIA scandals. Russian hackers. Snowden. Facebook selling your data.

[ He leans back on an elbow, lets himself cast a professional eye over Matt's lanky frame (and that's all it is, right, a lifelong fascination with people, regardless of how many clothes they have on or how nice their forearms are, their wrists.) ]

Assuming mommy and daddy aren't feeding you at parties anymore, what do you do? My guess is... something in academics.