I, too, started listening to Econtalk right around when it came out, and the thing that stuck out to me the most, which seemed so unlike anything I ever came ac

I, too, started listening to Econtalk right around when it came out, and the thing that stuck out to me the most, which seemed so unlike anything I ever came across, was just how long guests were allowed to speak. That seemed... just incredibly novel to me. Russ would think nothing of asking a question and then many minutes going by with the guest answering the question. There was a... slowness? to it, and genuine sense of a curiosity that felt remarkably novel compared to the rest of media that I used to consume. Since then, there's been just an insane proliferation of podcasts along the same line, but I think his pacing is still quite unique, and in many others I get the impression that the host is competing with the guest for attention, whereas with him it feels much more like some guest has been given a platform and I'm sitting there listening to him try to extract as much as he can from them.