Edition 122

For someone who has used books to fill several holes in his soul*, watching Tyler Cowen shop for books with Michael Orthofer and talk us through the process of buying books was nice and calming.

I mostly love Tyler Cowen for his clear and incisive thought and ability to get smart people to talk, maybe get us listeners also to absorb some of the smartness. I loved this particular episode with an author, Mary Gaitskill mostly because of the no of times, Mary said she didn’t know or wasn’t sure of something. It had been on my playlist for a year perhaps before I finally listened to last week. I haven’t read her books and don’t plan to, partly because they’re fiction but I liked listening to her talk. The no of hard and different questions Tyler asks is the main reason I keep going back to his podcast although I haven’t heard all of them.

*I know that sounds more dramatic than it should