In this interview, Mark Jarzombek reflects on his journey from a childhood in Memphis to becoming a prominent cultural historian of architecture. He explains how his early training in New Criticism at the University of Chicago fostered a practice of meticulous observation that continues to inform his work. His career was also shaped by “fortuitous accidents,” including a chance meeting with Kenneth Frampton on an airplane that led him to pursue a Ph.D. at MIT and a spontaneous encounter with Peter Eisenman. Jarzombek contrasts the concentrated and seemingly “knowable” intellectual world of the late 1970s with today’s expanded, internet-dependent landscape. He also critiques the pedagogical divide between architecture and urban planning, advocating for new intellectual frameworks that reconnect the disciplines through rigorous criticism.