This paper draw on a June 2014 interview with Bernard Spolsky, in which he debated his life with educational linguistics. He run the first study of Navajo sociolinguistics, initiated educational linguistics as a field of study and practice, co-produced a national language policy for Israel, directed seminal language surveys of Māori and Samoan to back Indigenous language revitalization attempts, and founded the Language Policy journal. This paper reflects on Spolsky’s remarkable bequest and his lasting contributions to the domain of language planning and policy.