Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Jennifer Egan's imagination is in a constant state of generation — and prophecy. In her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, she wrote about "handsets" before smartphones took hold and about New York's sea wall before Hurricane Sandy.
How does she do it? Stephen Dubner asks this and other questions like: Why does one of America's most decorated novelists trust almost anyone more than herself? What did she do when her own writers group loathed the narrator of Manhattan Beach? And why does she find judgment so boring?
Jennifer shares the story of her grandfather, a cop on the South Side of Chicago who served as Harry Truman's bodyguard. She pulls out the color-coded outline for her new novel, a murder mystery set in 1950s San Francisco, where she has banned all negative language toward herself. And she reveals that Goon Squad began as a way of avoiding another book entirely. The book’s film rights are now on roughly their sixth deal, and true to her apathy to judgment, she's not worried about Hollywood getting it wrong. Jennifer Egan says she'd rather put that energy into writing better books.
#betterinperson #freakonomicsradio #jenniferegan
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ABOUT BETTER IN PERSON:
Everyone has a public story. Stephen Dubner wants the rest.
On Better in Person, Dubner invites remarkable people into his home for a kind of conversation that’s hard to find: curious, free-wheeling, even profound. They talk, play, eat and drink, argue and laugh. The result? Less interview, more shared discovery.
This is how a conversation works.
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TikTok: tiktok.com/betterinpersontv
FOLLOW STEPHEN DUBNER:
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Threads: threads.com/@freakonomics
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Meet Jennifer Egan
1:09 Jennifer's Writing Philosophy
3:09 Accidentally Predicting Smartphones
5:12 Jennifer's Adventurous Youth
8:18 Why Jennifer Still Needs a Writers Group
15:06 Where Jennifer's Ideas Come From
21:47 How Jennifer Understands Her Characters
25:16 Jennifer on Writing a Murder Mystery
27:26 Jennifer on Turning Books Into Movies
29:54 Remembering Her Brother
33:55 Why Jennifer Refuses to Use AI
38:30 What Is Jennifer Really Trying to Do?
40:32 Final Thoughts
Why Jennifer Egan Trusts Anyone More Than Herself | Better in Person
youtu.be/pqii7Qr7B-o
Jennifer Egan's imagination is in a constant state of generation — and prophecy. In her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, she wrote about "handsets" before smartphones took hold and about New York's sea wall before Hurricane Sandy.
How does she do it? Stephen Dubner asks this and other questions like: Why does one of America's most decorated novelists trust almost anyone more than herself? What did she do when her own writers group loathed the narrator of Manhattan Beach? And why does she find judgment so boring?
Jennifer shares the story of her grandfather, a cop on the South Side of Chicago who served as Harry Truman's bodyguard. She pulls out the color-coded outline for her new novel, a murder mystery set in 1950s San Francisco, where she has banned all negative language toward herself. And she reveals that Goon Squad began as a way of avoiding another book entirely. The book’s film rights are now on roughly their sixth deal, and true to her apathy to judgment, she's not worried about Hollywood getting it wrong. Jennifer Egan says she'd rather put that energy into writing better books.
#betterinperson #freakonomicsradio #jenniferegan
Airs weekly on Tuesdays. Don't miss an episode! Subscribe NOW: youtube.com/channel/UCXjf7anLJA4NqUv8kPFIJWA?sub_confirmation=1
Introducing ChatGPT Work - Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Download the new ChatGPT desktop app today at chatgpt.com
ABOUT BETTER IN PERSON:
Everyone has a public story. Stephen Dubner wants the rest.
On Better in Person, Dubner invites remarkable people into his home for a kind of conversation that’s hard to find: curious, free-wheeling, even profound. They talk, play, eat and drink, argue and laugh. The result? Less interview, more shared discovery.
This is how a conversation works.
FOLLOW BETTER IN PERSON:
Instagram: instagram.com/betterinpersontv
TikTok: tiktok.com/betterinpersontv
FOLLOW STEPHEN DUBNER:
Instagram: instagram.com/stephenjdubner
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stephen-dubner-2a066578
Substack: stephendubner.substack.com
FOLLOW FREAKONOMICS:
Instagram: instagram.com/freakonomics
Facebook: facebook.com/freakonomics
TikTok: tiktok.com/@freakonomicsradio
Twitter: twitter.com/freakonomics
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/freakonomics-media
Threads: threads.com/@freakonomics
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Meet Jennifer Egan
1:09 Jennifer's Writing Philosophy
3:09 Accidentally Predicting Smartphones
5:12 Jennifer's Adventurous Youth
8:18 Why Jennifer Still Needs a Writers Group
15:06 Where Jennifer's Ideas Come From
21:47 How Jennifer Understands Her Characters
25:16 Jennifer on Writing a Murder Mystery
27:26 Jennifer on Turning Books Into Movies
29:54 Remembering Her Brother
33:55 Why Jennifer Refuses to Use AI
38:30 What Is Jennifer Really Trying to Do?
40:32 Final Thoughts
Why Jennifer Egan Trusts Anyone More Than Herself | Better in Person
youtu.be/pqii7Qr7B-o
