I’m just relaying and connecting other people’s stories. If you read a lot, people think you’re really smart. Does that make any sense to you?ĮPSTEIN: Oh, totally. I feel like I’m better than I really am by virtue of imbibing it. Something odd happens to me when I read Gladwell’s books and when I read Range, the stories are so fascinating and so well-told that reading the book makes me feel like I’m witty and interesting, even though obviously I’m only a consumer of the book. And I have to say, I think you out Gladwell’d Malcolm Gladwell with that book, which I mean as a compliment, although I’m not sure whether you’re going to take it that way or not.ĭavid EPSTEIN: Yeah, I don’t know. LEVITT: I want to talk first about your more recent book entitled Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Will my mind be changed, will the guest’s mind be changed, or will we agree to disagree? Well, even if my mind won’t be changed today, I know I’ll learn a ton because David Epstein seems to know something about just about everything. For me, it’s most fun to have on guests who I deeply admire, but with whom I also have some disagreements. LEVITT: I have a little problem today in interviewing David Epstein, I agree with too many of his arguments.

Welcome to People I (Mostly) Admire, with Steve Levitt. He’s followed his passion in all sorts of different directions from being an elite runner in college to a scientist studying Arctic flora, to a reboot as a writer for Sports Illustrated, and now a New York Times best-selling science writer. And if you’re looking for real world support for Epstein’s argument, that it pays to be a generalist, you need look no further than Epstein himself. And his second book, Range, touts the benefits of being a generalist in a world overrun with specialists. His first book, The Sports Gene, examines the role of nature versus nurture in determining who will excel in sports. Steven LEVITT: My guest today, David Epstein, is one of the world’s most gifted popularizers of science.

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