Creating snapshots of how ordinary people feel about the big issues is Kohut’s mission.

Question: What impact does your work have on the world?

Andrew Kohut: Well I think what it does is it gives a good portrait of the way ordinary people feel about the big issues of the day. And to the extent that that’s important; and to the extent that that’s crucial to . . . to . . . to policy making and to public understanding of this society, I think that’s the contribution that it makes.

Question: What do you have left to achieve in your field?

Andrew Kohut: Well I certainly wanna make sure that the Pew Research Center continues to do what it does when I’m no longer doing . . . running the Pew Research Center. I think I’ve achieved a lot of what I set out to achieve, and I don’t know if I have a specific goal. I certainly want to continue to try to understand better how the image of the United States is gonna evolve over time when we have a new administration, when there are new challenges. I think that’s an important task for me to continue in the future.

Recorded on: 9/14/07