Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts

of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website

is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast,

find links and other information related to today's conversation. Our email address is

mailadicontalk.org. We'd love to hear from you.

Today's a minor milestone for econ talk. We've just passed our one-year anniversary and I want

to thank all our guests and listeners for making this as much fun as it is. Starting last

June, we decided to do this every week, so we've now done over 40. We've had a wide variety

of guests in that year. Some have been Nobel laureates talking about their research. Sometimes

we're talking basic economics. Sometimes I'm interviewing authors about the ideas in their

books. Today I'm interviewing a journalist. We've talked about growth, health, sports,

parenting. We've tried a little bit of everything. I'd like to hear from you as we enter our

second year. What were your five favorite podcasts? Your five least favorite. Do you want

more basic economics, more cutting-edge research? Do you like the mix of styles and guests?

Please write us at mailadicontalk.org and let us know. My guest today is David Leonhardt

who writes an economics and business column for the New York Times. David, welcome to econ

talk.

Thanks. It's good to be here.

David, you've done a lot of different stuff at the time. You have a weekly column now

and you've also been a general reporter. I think a lot of people have a very romantic idea

about what reporting is like at the world's greatest newspaper. Can you give us a

little insight on what it's really like? Romantic is a nice word, particularly when you

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