"Charlie Rose" = The Answer

I was watching Charlie Rose last night as I often do, and it suddenly occurred to me (like Doc Brown and the Flux Capacitor) that it was, indeed, the best program on television. I've had a great fondness for the show for some time, but this cosmic revelation was a refreshingly new awareness. The molecules for this "Eureka!" had always been present in mind but, until last night, had lingered deep under the surface, twinkling quietly in my subconscious like a stars in a distant galaxy. Like with any revelatory episode, I wanted to examine its causes and evaluate its truth. I wanted deconstruct the psychological elements that triggered the ignition of the light bulb. And if the show is, indeed, perfect, I wanted to understand why. Let us explore.

It so happened that the particular interviews featured on last night's program were with Steven Levitt, of Freakonomics fame, and Malcolm Gladwell, of Blink, Tipping Point, etc. Of course, both gentleman are highly celebrated for their uncanny ability to refine fascinating insights from seemingly banal human behavior. They've carved out a wonderfully lucrative niche as venerable princes of pop-sociology. However, what struck me about their interviews, and what precipitated my epiphany, was that both men emphasized a central theme: the latent splendor of life. Levitt put it indirectly: "It's about asking the right questions." Gladwell put it more succinctly: "you have to train yourself that everything is interesting". Then it hit me: this is the unspoken mantra of Charlie Rose- in precious few words, this is why I love the show.

Charlie Rose is a shining affirmation of this terribly unsung dictum. Everything is interesting, but only if you look closely and honestly, without pride or prejudice. Exploring the exceptional complexity of the world requires two critical assets: an open mind and the ability to listen- this is the Charlie Rose calling card. Not simply listening as in absorbing and processing sound waves, but listening in the much broader, more active sense: hearing, thinking, feeling, assessing, evaluating, studying, exploring and reacting in kind. The art of listening.

Similarly, I mean an open mind not just in the sense of a dispassionate observer, but also in an ethos guided by a childlike curiosity for everything. A voracious appetite for all knowledge. Whether he's interviewing Warren Buffet, Charles Manson, LeBron James, or Jay Z, Charlie has an unmatched ability to elicit extraordinary stories from subjects of all stripes. The viewer doesn't need to fancy politics, sports, economics, film, or what-have-you in order to become engrossed in the program because, fundamentally, all people are interesting in some way- it only needs to be drawn out of them. This is what Charlie does better than anyone else, but more still, he does it on every show, across the grand spectrum of humanity. In an epoch of television typified by mindless, over-produced sensationalism (that has also crept into the news room), Charlie Rose glows brilliantly amid the darkness.