Interview with John Thorstensen, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth and President of MDM Observatory. Thorstensen narrates the story of George Wallerstein bugging his thesis committee at Caltech and he discusses his current work on cataclysmic binary stars. He surveys all of the exciting developments in the world of observational astronomy and he explains some of the administrative considerations in the way Astronomy and Physics is divided at Dartmouth. Thorstensen describes his undergraduate education at Haverford, where he pursued his interests in astronomy, and he explains his reasons for attending Berkeley for graduate school to work with Stu Bowyer on X-ray sources. He discusses the opportunities that led to his faculty appointment at Dartmouth and he explains his increasing involvement with the MDM collaboration. Thorstensen describes his formative collaboration with Joe Patterson and the evolution of Astronomy developing into its own discrete program at Dartmouth. He explains the value of both photometric and spectroscopic applications and the value in using digital detectors. At the end of the interview, Thorstensen discusses his recent interests in white dwarf binaries, the contributions of amateur astronomers in making significant discoveries, and some of the surprises he has experienced during his career studying cataclysmic binaries.