Mike Davis is an LA-based writer, urban critic, and historian. In Davis’s interview, he reflects on the happier, freer childhood he experienced growing up in California in the 1960s. He suggests that in contrast, today’s young people have fewer job opportunities and fewer freedoms, compelling them to turn to violence and gang membership to find the sense of community and belonging they crave. Davis also laments the shortcomings of the civil rights movement, which failed to give Black kids the same carefree childhood he and his privileged white friends enjoyed in the 1960s.