Megan McArdle is the business and economics editor for The Atlantic. She has worked at three start-ups, a consulting firm, an investment bank, a disaster recovery firm at Ground Zero, and the Economist. Before talking at Zócalo about why failure is good for us, McArdle sat down for our In The Green Room Q&A.
Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a typical Saturday?
A. I just bought a house, so, in my hammock in the backyard with my iPad in hand.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. Quite a lot of Frank Sinatra on the satellite radio in my rental minivan.
Q. What do you consider to be the greatest simple pleasure?
A. A hot, hot, hot bath.
Q. What surprises you most about your life right now?
A. That my job is an actual job and I have it. I spend most of my life calling up people who know a phenomenal amount about what they do, and they take the time to explain it to me and I get to write about it.
Q. Who is your favorite fictional character?
A. Melanie Wilkes from Gone with the Wind. She strikes me as so improbable, but she was allegedly modeled after Margaret Mitchell’s great aunt.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Champagne and elderflower liqueur.
Q. Who was your childhood hero?
A. Dorothy Parker. I absolutely wanted to be her until I realized dying sad and alone isn’t nearly as romantic as it sounded when I was 17.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. I love my job so much that I can’t imagine wanting to do anything else.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. I have always had this great longing to have a Singapore Sling at the Raffles because of all the 1930s decadent novels I read when I was 15 and 16.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. My KitchenAid food processor. It is the most useful thing I own.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?
A. Mark Twain. He was not only one of the world’s greatest writers, but apparently also one of the most brilliant raconteurs and conversationalists. I would want one of those 12-course Victorian meals that go on forever.
To read more about McArdle’s talk, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.