Hussle and luck.

I went to an event he was speaking at and lurked for 2 days until I got 10 seconds to talk to him.

"I'm a filmmaker, I'm making a film about Foreign Aid, I know you wrote a book about it in 1989 and I'd love to interview you about it, is that something that interests you?"

He gave me his contact info and said he couldn't do it until late 2024.

Months later I saw he was speaking at another event and I offered to film his talk for free to pay him back for the ways he's inspired me.

He denied but said he would do the interview for my film if I could pose 3 questions that intrigued him.

My questions did intrigue him and I nailed the interview :)