Doug Besharov describes his upbringing in Queens, New York, raised by a widowed single mother. Working his way through college and law school, he landed a position within the New York City government dealing with child abuse and child support cases. Doug explains how he became the first director of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. After discussing his work at the center, Doug talks about his time at the Brookings Institution, where he wrote the first of the 14 books he authored or edited. In his subsequent career at the American Enterprise Institute and the University of Maryland, he testified many times before Congress and published articles in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Doug concludes the interview with his perspectives on European social policy.