About Us
On The Ideal State is a podcast and essay series dedicated to liberty and justice in the twenty-first century.
INTERVIEWS
Our interviews are academics, statesmen, experts, and other modern-day philosopher-kings and philosopher-queens who can contribute unique and diverse viewpoints to our audience. If you fit the preceding description and would like to be interviewed, contact us.
ESSAYS
Our essays are crowdsourced thought pieces from ordinary people and students from across the nation. In addition, we happily republish pieces from leading academics in order to help guide our content's overall direction. To submit an essay, click here.
Our People
Samuel Oshay - Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Samuel Oshay is a student and an award-winning entrepreneur living in the San Francisco Bay Area. His primary professional interests are economics and computer science. In his spare time, he is an actor, singer, and guitarist. His first studio album, A Random Walk Down Main Street, will be available in July of 2016.
Maxwell Sahlins - Editor & Interview Coordinator
Maxwell Sahlins is a high school student living in Berkeley, California. His chief interests are in medicine and health education; he explores these passions by working at Libraries Without Borders, a French non-profit that aims to address structural and intergenerational poverty through innovative educational techniques.
Ashkan Vafai - Editor & Contributing Essayist
Ashkan Vafai is a student in Oakland, California. He chief interests are in economics, corporate law, and physics. As an Iranian-American, fluent in Farsi, he frequently travels to the Middle East, where he has participated in and recorded major political events, most notably the Green Revolution.