From WNYC and APM, American Public Media, this is Frekenomics Radio.

Here's your host, Steven Dubner.

So a couple weeks ago, we did something we've never done before.

We took Frekenomics Radio on the road to the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota.

And we put on a show in front of actual living people.

They seemed to like it, but it's a little hard to tell.

Everybody's so nice in Minnesota to start with.

Anyway, my favorite part of the evening was when we gave my Frekenomics co-author Steve

Levitt, sort of a homecoming roast.

He grew up in Minneapolis, most of his family still lives there, and he went to high school

at St. Paul Academy.

One more thing you might want to know before listening to this podcast, Levitt's father,

Michael, is a medical researcher, one of the world's foremost experts in intestinal

gas.

So in some circles, he is known as the King of Farts.

So if you ever wonder where Steve Levitt got off studying sumo wrestlers and black names

and the economics of crack cocaine, all you got to do is look up the family tree.

All right, then.

Off we go to the stage of the Fitzgerald Theatre.

So Levitt, I did have an idea.

Since we're here in your hometown, I was wondering if it might be fun to go a little bit of,

this is your life on you, and to go back to some people who knew you then, and to talk

...