How Did You Get Your First Book?

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Stephanie Dumbey wrote freconomics, a book that takes social science studies and reveals them for the listener, the reader. She says she took flack from her colleagues but they weren't so surprised as to why it was popular. After 11 sleged economics majors announced their intention to go into business, demand went up - even though supply of economic faculties is pretty limited in short run.

Author and economist Steven Levitt is the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and host of the podcast "People I (Mostly) Admire." He is best known as the co-author, with Stephen Dubner, of Freakonomics. The book, published in 2005, became a phenomenon, selling more than 5 million copies in 40 languages. Levitt talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the book's surprising success, the controversy it generated, and how it shaped his career. Levitt says, for him, "economics is about going into the world and finding puzzles and thinking about how understanding incentives or markets might help us get a better grasp of what's really going on."