“The things that I wanted and didn’t get are extreme blessings.”
— Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) is founder and editor-in-chief of Vox, an explanatory news organization that now reaches more than 100 million people each month through articles, videos, newsletters, and podcasts. Previously, he was a columnist and editor at The Washington Post, a policy analyst at MSNBC, and a contributor to Bloomberg. He was named one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington by GQ.
He’s written for The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, and his primary podcast, The Ezra Klein Show, is a long-form interview show where he talks to the smartest people he can find, including past guests like Bill Gates, Rachel Maddow, Andrew Sullivan, Atul Gawande, Slack founder Stewart Butterfield, The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah, and more. He also co-hosts The Weeds, a weekly policy podcast with his colleagues Matt Yglesias, and Sarah Kliff.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Influencing the rules of the game by which this country is run (overall politics — not partisan)
- How Ezra lost 60 pounds
- Ezra’s ascension into the ranks of the most respected media companies in the world
- And much, much more
Please enjoy my conversation with Ezra Klein!
You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
Want to hear a podcast with another media mogul involved in politics? Listen to my conversation with Glenn Beck. In this episode, we discuss hitting rock bottom, Orson Welles, and finding common ground during debates.
QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- Connect with Ezra Klein:
Twitter | Vox | The Ezra Klein Show | The Weeds | Facebook
- Why It Gets Better (Ezra’s video about bullying)
- The Thiel Fellowship
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- Breaking Benjamin
- City on a Hill Press
- A Reality-Based Weblog (Matthew Yglesias’s old Typepad blog)
- Tomorrow’s Media Conspiracy Today (Ezra’s old Typepad blog)
- The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
- Big with Tom Hanks
- In addition to this show (thanks, Ezra!), Ezra enjoys listening to: You Made It Weird, Longform, Reply All, Recode Decode, The Axe Files, Off Message, Conversations with Tyler, Death, Sex & Money, Switched on Pop, Exponent
- Bruce Friedrich on How Technology Will Reduce Animal Suffering, The Ezra Klein Show
- One Step for Animals
- OSU Scientist Questions the Moral Basis of a Vegan Diet, Oregon State University
- Santa Cruz has a Banana Slug mascot
- The American Prospect
- Reckless, Dumb and Scared: Coming of Age After 9/11 by Ezra Klein, Bloomberg View
- What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer
- Remembering — and Honoring — Richard Ben Cramer by Ezra Klein, The Washington Post
- What is New Journalism?
- Al-Qaeda and ISIS are two examples of non-state actors
- The Washington Monthly
- New Republic
- The Daily Beast
- The Health of Nations by Ezra Klein, The American Prospect
- Lessons from War, Tribal Societies, and a Non-Fiction Life (Sebastian Junger)
- Five Minutes on Friday, Six Minutes on Saturday: Listen to Music, Save Japan; Email a Company, Save 200,000 Sharks
- Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate by Frances E. Lee
- The Unpersuaded: Who Listens to a President? by Ezra Klein, The New Yorker
- The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election by John Sides and Lynn Vavreck
- Books by George C. Edwards
- Smash Fear, Learn Anything
Show Notes
- Setting the tone. [07:24]
- Ezra tells us about being bullied as a kid, and the way context decides people’s lives. [07:56]
- Advice Ezra would give to his younger self during this time. [11:26]
- How Ezra went from being a below average student in high school to excelling in college. [12:42]
- Ezra counts himself lucky for having a second chance with education. [16:45]
- Ezra talks about being rejected as a writer for City on a Hill Press, and why this rejection turned out to be a blessing. [19:22]
- On absorbing information and coming up with ideas. [23:47]
- What prompted Ezra to lose 60 pounds — and how he did it — as a sophomore in high school? [25:05]
- Why Ezra learns best when it’s a secondary activity. [28:34]
- What podcasts has Ezra listened to most in the last year? [31:02]
- In Ezra’s opinion, what makes economist Tyler Cowen’s mind “different?” [32:00]
- As someone who listens to a lot of podcasts, how does Ezra keep from being overwhelmed with input? [33:46]
- What would Ezra cover if he had to give a TED Talk on something non-political? [34:26]
- We talk about the ethics of vegetarianism, veganism, food production and consumption. [35:41]
- Making a conscious diet change is easier (and more effective) in increments. [41:02]
- Decisions and lucky incidents that helped Ezra go from an audience of 35 daily blog readers to where he is today. [44:41]
- What makes politics so interesting to Ezra? [48:37]
- Was there a piece Ezra wrote that he considers his big break? [52:17]
- What is New Journalism? [53:42]
- What is a non-state actor? [56:20]
- Why Ezra loves working with politics but hates working on campaigns. [59:58]
- Ezra talks about the time between his big break and the creation of Vox. [1:01:05]
- On merging the techniques, ideas, and ideologies of blogging with the processes, skills, and tools of journalism. [1:07:07]
- How Ezra poised himself as an expert in global health care policies by the time “Obamacare” became a national discussion. [1:11:41]
- What approach would Ezra recommend to someone who’s been daunted by the complexity of politics but wants to understand it better? [1:17:52]
- Is it better to write half-informed comments about politics on Facebook than not write at all? [1:21:17]
- You have to choose your battles carefully in the political arena even when you’re in power. [1:23:21]
- People overinvest in polarizing headline issues. Ezra wants to get them interested in the bigger picture. [1:26:43]
- People underestimate and underinvest in city and state politics — but it’s an ideal place to start for anyone who wants to create change. [1:31:35]
- What message would Ezra share on his billboard, and where would he put it? [1:34:14]
People Mentioned
- Bill Gates
- Rachel Maddow
- Andrew Sullivan
- Atul Gawande
- Stewart Butterfield
- Trevor Noah
- Matt Yglesias
- Sarah Kliff
- Jocko Willink
- Peter Thiel
- Kevin Kelly
- Joan Didion
- Ed Catmull
- Pete Holmes
- Kara Swisher
- David Axelrod
- Glenn Thrush
- Tyler Cowen
- Eric Weinstein
- Charlie Harding
- Nate Sloan
- Bruce Friedrich
- Matt Ball
- Kevin Drum
- Gideon Kracov
- Paul Wellstone
- George H.W. Bush
- William J. Clinton
- George W. Bush
- Gary Hart
- Richard Ben Cramer
- Tom Wolfe
- Norman Mailer
- George F. Will
- Paul Krugman
- Warren Rudman
- Joe Trippi
- Howard Dean
- Paul Glastris
- Nicholas Confessore
- Benjamin Wallace-Wells
- Michael Tomasky
- Sebastian Junger
- Tom Daschle
- Ross Douthat
- Rebecca Traister
- Annie Lowrey