This week’s Freakonomics Radio episode is a rebroadcast of the episode “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” (You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. You can also read the transcript, which includes credits for the music you’ll hear in the episode.)
“Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” host Stephen Dubner with, from left, judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer, and former New York governor David Paterson. (Photo: Janice Yi)
A few years ago, I developed a habit. If the person sitting next to me on an airplane seemed like they wanted to have a conversation, I’d ask them a bit about themselves — let’s say they worked in civil engineering — and I’d say “Tell me something I don’t know about civil engineering.” The habit became an addiction. I loved learning stuff I didn’t know, and most people loved to talk about their passions, work-related or otherwise.
Soon this addiction fueled a dream: I imagined turning it into some kind of a live game show/talk show. It would be called “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.” There’d be a host (me), some smart judges, and we’d invite the audience members to come onstage and tell us something we didn’t know. We’d learn a bit, laugh a lot, and take advantage of all the amazing information that’s floating around in the world.
It took a while to make this dream happen but finally it did, a few weeks, ago, at WNYC’s Greene Space.