Berry Center book group meets Freakonomics author in Chicago

Eighteen students joined President Les Garner, his wife Katrina, and professor of mathematics, Ann Cannon, in the Garners’ home for Berry Center Reading Group discussions on Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Students questioned topics such as “why do drug dealers still live at home with their moms and how the Ku Klux Klan is like a group of real estate agents.”

Following their conversations, the group traveled to Chicago to meet coauthor Steven D. Levitt, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and director of The Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. Students participated in a Becker Center conference lecture, attended a lunch with Levitt as the keynote speaker, and held a 90-minute private meeting with him about his book.

“I love being able to analyze Stephen Levitt’s Freakonomics with President Garner,” says Maggie Rudick, a senior from Sellersville, Penn. “We look at all different aspects of Levitt’s arguments and relate it to personal experiences while incorporating academics from a variety of disciplines. It’s exciting to meet in President Garner’s home and get to test Katrina’s new pound cake recipes, too.”