Today is the day to ponder the importance of interleague play.

Hey everyone. Set your Tivo or VCR (or just stay home) to watch friend of Zulkey.com's Nathan Rabin, as his very good show "Movie Club with John Ridley" hits the air again on AMC.

You know that you have some sort of question. How to fold a fitted sheet, how to break up with your boyfriend, how long to cook chicken. Ask my new columnist, who also happens to be my Mom.

Last plug: The videos of Steve Delahoyde will be shown at the Lincoln Lodge tonight, Chicagoans. Come out for some laffs and huge beers. I will be there, booing.

Now to serious business, because the person I am interviewing today has a book on the New York Times Bestseller List. In fact, at this moment it is #2. Today's interviewee is the first economist (he teaches at the University of Chicago) quizzed on this site, and he's here to talk about his book Freakonomics, where questions are answered such as gow do parents of different races and classes choose names for their children? What sort of contestants on the TV show ''The Weakest Link'' are most likely to be discriminated against by their fellow contestants? If crack dealers make so much money, why do they live with their moms? He does not reveal, though, who is saying all those terrible things about me.

The Steve Levitt Interview: Just Under Twenty Questions

What was the origin of this book?
[My co-author Stephen] Dubner had interviewed me for the NYT Sunday magazine, and the response to that piece was so overwhelming, that publishers kept on asking me(Levitt) to write a book. But I knew I could never write a decent book. Then someone suggested we write it together, and we thought about it, and we realized it could work.

If you hadn't pursued economics, what do you think you would have studied or specialized in?
If I had any talent at all, I would have been a professional golfer. Other than that, I think I would have been a trader - one of those guys who sits in his office staring at a half dozen computer screens of commodity prices.

What gig were you offered with the Bush administration? (prior to their investigation your link between abortion and crime.)
I was approached about being part of the team advising George W. Bush on crime policy when he was still Governor, campaigning for president.

On your blog you describe yourself as "inherently anti-social and frightened by crowds." Have you gotten over some of this as you promote the book?
On the anti-social part, not really. I can fake it, but I do like being at home. On the frightened part, I was exaggerating. I'm not frightened, I just never liked being the center of attention.

Speaking of your blog, I notice that you allow your readers to post comments on the site. Have you regretted this or are you enjoying what people say? Or do you not even read them?
It is hard to keep up with the volume of comments we get, but I try to read them all. I'm glad readers can respond - we learn something, and I also think it provides entertainment value for the people who visit the blog.

How did you decide to keep a book blog? You must not have much free time between teaching, promoting the book and blogging.
Dubner told me we had to have a blog. I listen to what he says because he is almost always right.

Have you had the same group of students as you've released and promoted the book? Are they responding to you differently or are economics students hard to impress?
I'm actually not teaching this spring - good thing given the publicity demands. I do know that ever since I went on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I am much better liked by my students.

Your book is being described by some as "politically incorrect," (as a compliment.) Do you think that it is? How?
We do take that as a compliment. Our view is that we ask tough questions and follow the data to answers, whatever those answers turn out to be. In some real sense, that is the right definition of politically incorrect, or at least politically uninhibited.

How did the two of you collaborate on the book? Did you take turns writing? Or did Dubner do all the writing?
We spend a lot of time up front outlining, then Dubner takes a crack at the first draft, and then I made suggestions. We interacted daily, if not hourly, throughout the project.

Has working on this book and in your field made you cynical about the way you view the world?
Not at all. I'm skeptical, but my basic worldview is that if you put your mind to something you can figure out the answer. In some ways I think that is the opposite of cynical.

Did you expect that this book would receive the attention it has?
I'm shocked at the way it has taken off. Sure, we thought we wrote a pretty good book. But every author must think that. Somehow we struck a chord.

Do you get asked lots of Freakonomics-type questions at cocktail parties? Do you get sick of answering them?
Mostly I just get asked what Jon Stewart and Matt Lauer are like. (Both seem to be great guys. Jon Stewart, I think, should be president of United States some day. Lauer would not be a bad president either.)

How did you select which questions to answer in the book?
Much of the content of the book is a collection of my greatest research hits. Mostly what we were looking for were great stories that had the added bonus of also being true.

What is the difference between a question that can be solved via economics theories and ones that are just a measure of human speculation?
Usually the difference is being able to find just the right data set to answer the question.

What are you working on now, or what are your upcoming projects?
I want to figure out why traffic jams end.

Do you think you're giving economists (and University of Chicago students) a hip new rep?
I think so. Milton Friedman tells me his new hip-hop CD is just about to be released, which should reinforce the message.

How does it feel to be the 124th person interviewed on Zulkey.com?
It feels good. Really good.