Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson has been in New Zealand this week, attracting large crowds to his public talks and much frenzied attention on social media.
I interviewed him on Tuesday morning, and ahead of that asked Twitter what I should ask him. Then we posted a short clip from the interview. The responses to both have been fascinating.
Many opponents of Peterson suggested I grill him on statements they thought he'd made, which he actually hadn't. That was remarkably common.
Many of his supporters decided I would be misquoting him, or taking his statements out of context. But Peterson himself did not take that line. He accepted that every quote I asked him about was accurate and not distorted by lack of context. But he did disagree with some of my interpretations of what he meant.
No problem there, I would have thought. That's what interviews are for: you ask people what they think, point out what it sounds like, and give them the chance to explain. I don't think anyone is going to say Peterson didn't get every chance to explain himself. And he took every chance well, I thought.