The stereotypical obituary is a formulaic recitation of facts — dry, boring, and without craft. But Margalit Fox has shown the genre can produce some of the most memorable and moving stories in journalism. Exploiting its “pure narrative arc,” Fox has penned over 1,200 obituaries, covering well-known and obscure subjects with equal aplomb.
In her conversation with Tyler Cowen, Fox reveals not only the process for writing an obituary, but her thoughts on life, death, storytelling, puzzle-solving, her favorite cellist, and how it came to be that an economist sang opera 86 times at the Met.
Larissa MacFarquhar on Getting Inside Someone's Head
Rebecca Kukla on Moving through and Responding to the World
Daniel Kahneman on Cutting Through the Noise
Paul Romer on the Unrivaled Joy of Scholarship
John Nye on Revisionist Economic History and Having Too Many Hobbies
Eric Schmidt on the Life-Changing Magic of Systematizing, Scaling, and Saying "Thanks" (Live)
Ben Thompson on Business and Tech
Rob Wiblin interviews Tyler on *Stubborn Attachments*
Paul Krugman on Politics, Inequality, and Following Your Curiosity
Bruno Maçães on the Spirit of Adventure
Michele Gelfand on Tight and Loose Cultures
Claire Lehmann on Speaking Freely
Michael Pollan on the Science and Sublimity of Psychedelics
Michelle Dawson on Autism and Atypicality
Vitalik Buterin on Cryptoeconomics and Markets in Everything
Juan Pablo Villarino on Travel and Trust
Elisa New on Poetry in America and Beyond
David Brooks on Youth, Morality, and Loneliness (Live at Mason)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Self-Education and Doing the Math (Plus special guest Bryan Caplan)
Bryan Caplan on Learning across Disciplines (Live at Mason Econ)
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