That’s really why I set out to write The Power Broker, although it didn’t all come to me in that moment. It’s because Robert Moses wanted them to be built. But as you say, I was sitting there diligently taking notes, because I thought I was there to learn more about urban planning, and I thought, “Gee, they don’t know why highways get built where they get built.” I did because of my experience as a reporter. It was a new experience.ĭid you mention in your Neiman Speech the story about the Harvard professors who were writing the very complicated equations on the board in the lectures you attended while there as a student about how bridges get built and roads get built, when you realized to yourself that that’s not actually how it gets done at all? Because you knew already that it was somebody like Robert Moses who really makes projects like that happen. You forget them for decades, and suddenly they’re there in your mind again. It was actually fun and moving to remember some of those things. Well, you know, a number of the anecdotes really go back to when I was young, when I was writing speeches for the New Brunswick (New Jersey) Democratic party. So it’s very endearing to hear you chuckle about these things you experienced, especially as a young reporter, when you read them. One of the things that I liked about it, also, is that you crack yourself up sometimes. And I’m happy with the way that it came out. I have a New York accent, of course, but Audible wanted me to read it myself, which I did. As for reading it, you know, someone else records my books an actor with a better voice. So they recorded that and we put them together with a little bridge, because they’re both on the same topic, political power, so that’s how it came about. They asked if I was giving any other speeches and, as it happened, I was giving one the following week to the New York Society Library. But it only came out to be about 47 minutes. But at the end of the speech an executive from Audible Originals came up to me and he asked, “How would you feel about recording it?” And I thought it was a great idea, and so they transcribed it for me to read. But of course then as soon as your give your speech it disappears, and that’s always been sort of frustrating for me. So I gave it and, as I often do when I give a speech, I felt that I’d said something worth thinking about. Caro: Well, the way it came about was last September the Nieman Foundation sponsored a three day celebration of the 100 th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize up at Harvard.
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