Is economy of style what makes economist Tyler Cowen's podcast so great?

To be sure, Tyler Cowen has fantastic guests. But Conversations with Tyler wouldn't be what it is without Cowen's unique interview style.

I'm not sure what it is, but I think there's an intellectual reward to dissecting this style:

He asks questions to hear what the interviewee has to say, largely uncorrupted by Cowen's views. Occasionally Cowen chimes in or gives a little push back, but this is relatively rare, and when he does so, it draws really draws your attention to the need to go deeper.

He doesn't belabor an answer, choosing instead to jump to another question. It seems that Cowen believes that most of what an interviewee is going to bring to the table on any given topic, say 70% of his or her insight, will be reached with one spoken paragraph. The more time you spend on a particular answer, the less return on your investment of time and the more you crowd out other insights.

Perhaps my favorite habit is that Cowen spends a bare minimum amount of time setting up the question, including why it is important to the interviewee. The result can be almost jarring: To David Brooks- "The Bruce Springsteen album, Born to Run, is it overproduced? Or is it his best work?" To Sam Altman "Let’s say Hyman Rickover shows up at Y Combinator. What do you think?" These questions at first made me cringe, worrying they're so specific that the interviewee probably doesn't know about them. In fact, Cowen knows his guest's interests, and rather than wasting time telling us that, he asks the question and lets the interviewee tell us by way of answering. It's a very engaging, and vert efficient, technique.

Cowen rarely says much of an introduction. The guest will either demonstrate themselves to be interesting or not.

Lastly, the incredible depth of engagement with an incredible diversity of topics, less about style and more sheer intellectual firepower.

You can see the same style at work on the Marginal Revolution blog, one of the most efficient places on the web.

Lastly, the specific little segments Cowen invented are delightful:
-Playing overrated vs. uderrated, a game of simply rating something compared to conventional wisdom.
-Asking about the guest's "production function," what habits they have that supported their success.
-Making a partly serious, partly absurd generalization of a guest's entire body of work and function in society.
-Asking what advice a guest would give to a young person trying to emulate them in today's world.

Some of my favorite episodes:
Camille Paglia
Peter Thiel
David Brooks
Nate Silver
Agnes Callard
Dave Barry