History, myth, and the American ideal are the topics of discussion when biographer Jennifer Burns and journalist Will Grant speak about their latest books, Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, and The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-Mile Horseback Journey into the Old West, respectively. The topics of their books dovetail in the examination of American cultural ideals of rugged individualism and free market capitalism.

Jennifer Burns, a New Canaan native and graduate of New Canaan Country School, is Associate Professor of History at Stanford University, where she teaches courses on American history. She is the author of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (Oxford, 2009).

Will Grant is a writer, journalist, cowboy, and adventurer, who has written for Outside magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and many other publications.