Before he was California Poet Laureate or leading the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia marketed Jell-O. Possessing both a Stanford MBA and a Harvard MA, he combined his creativity and facility with numbers to climb the corporate ladder at General Foods to the second highest rung before abruptly quitting to become a poet and writer. That unique professional experience and a lifelong “hunger for beauty” have made him into what Tyler calls an “information billionaire,” or someone who can answer all of Tyler’s questions. In his new memoir, Dana describes the six people who sent him on this unlikely journey.
In this conversation, Dana and Tyler discuss his latest book and more, including how he transformed several businesses as a corporate executive, why going to business school made him a better poet, the only two obscene topics left in American poetry, why narrative is necessary for coping with life’s hardships, how Virgil influenced Catholic traditions, what Augustus understood about the cultural power of art, the reasons most libretti are so bad, the optimism of the Beach Boys, the best art museum you’ve never heard of, the Jungianism of Star Trek, his favorite Tolstoy work, depictions of Catholicism in American pop culture, what he finds fascinating about Houellebecq, why we stopped building cathedrals, how he was able to effectively lead the National Endowment for the Arts, the aesthetic differences between him and his brother Ted, his advice for young people who want to cultivate their minds, and what he wants to learn next.
Follow us on Twitter and IG: @cowenconvos
Email: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Follow Dana on Twitter
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Newsletter
Stanley McChrystal on the Military, Leadership, and Risk
Claudia Goldin on the Economics of Inequality
Amia Srinivasan on Utopian Feminism
David Cutler and Ed Glaeser on the Health and Wealth of Cities
Zeynep Tufekci on the Sociology of The Moment (Live)
Andrew Sullivan on Braving New Intellectual Journeys
Niall Ferguson on Why We Study History
Alexander the Grate on Life as an NFA
Richard Prum on Birds, Beauty, and Finding Your Own Way
Elijah Millgram on the Philosophical Life
David Deutsch on Multiple Worlds and Our Place in Them
Mark Carney on Central Banking and Shared Values
Pierpaolo Barbieri on Latin American FinTech
Daniel Carpenter on Smart Regulation
Shadi Bartsch on the Classics and China
Sarah Parcak on Archaeology from Space
John Cochrane on Economic Puzzles and Habits of Mind
Patricia Fara on Newton, Scientific Progress, and the Benefits of Unhistoric Acts
Brian Armstrong on the Crypto Economy
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Navigating Life After 40
Teaching Learning Leading K-12
Regenerative Skills
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast