Hi there, I'm Jason Gots and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

Big Think is an online forum for big ideas from the world's most creative thinkers and doers.

With the Think Again podcast, we're striking out into uncharted and dangerous territory.

We want to see what happens when experts are asked to respond to interview clips on topics they may or may not have any knowledge about.

We want to jump into the unknown with no script, no preparation.

Each week, our producers tunneled deep into Big Things archives to find ideas that are innovative, timely, or timelessly thought-provoking,

and the clips are a total surprise to my guests and to me.

Today, I'm joined by Norman Lear, who created basically all the good stuff on TV for decades,

including all in the family, the Jefferson's, Good Times, and much, much more,

and who has just written a wonderful memoir.

I'll get to the title in a moment. I wanted to tell you a story before we started, a little story. This was a couple weeks before you were coming in, and not everybody knew your book yet. So we were sitting around in the conference room and we're like, oh, Norman Lear's coming, this is great, oh, my God. You know, and somebody brought up, I don't know where this came from. They're like, is he Jewish. And I said, Norman Lear, of course he's Jewish. But then I was like, huh, I'm not, let me check. And so I looked and Norman's book is called, even this I get to experience. I told this to the... But that's your inflection.

I'm putting the inflection, but I think, but it's a fairly Yiddish sounding construction.

Well, that's because you and I had the same mother.

But the title of my book is even this, I get to experience.

My mother would have said exactly the way Yiddish.

I thought so. I mean, I heard that. My grandmother, have said exactly the way you.

I thought so.

I mean, I heard that.

My grandmother, Selma, who I spent many, many wonderful hours

in conversation, who lived to 96 years old,

she would have said it that way.

But I wanted to ask you, maybe as an entry point,

...