Now that I’m making podcasts instead of books - at least for the time being - I don’t have to suffer through this process. Instead, you’re now being asked to ad lib a quickie replica of the book you spent years writing. And why would it be? The words on the page - that’s what you’re good at. So you get a lot of questions like: “What’s your book about exactly?” and “So, why’d you want to write this book about” - long pause here while they look at the book - “about, um, behavioral economics?” And then you, the author, get a few minutes to summarize your book and, inevitably, your summary isn’t very good.
The interviewer often hasn’t even cracked your book. But as every author knows, this experience can be unsatisfying.
show or podcast to talk about it, to promote it. Then, if you’re lucky, you get to go on a radio or T.V. And the thing about a book is, you often spend several years on it - there’s the idea, the research and reporting, outlining, rough drafts and more drafts, and finally, you publish your book. The inspiration goes back to the fact that before Freakonomics Radio took over my life, I wrote books. If it works, we might start a spinoff podcast based on this idea. I’d like you to pay special attention to this episode, because there will be a quiz at the end.
