Transcript
A (0:00)
Foreign. Welcome to Money Talks, the very special part of Slate Money where we talk to the most interesting people in the world about the most interesting subjects in the world. I'm Felix Salmon of Bloomberg. I'm here with Emily Pekavaxios.
B (0:28)
Hello. Hello.
A (0:29)
And we are talking to one of the most interesting people in the world, the one and only Mitu Gulati. Mitu, welcome. Welcome back. I should say.
C (0:37)
Thank you so much. It's been almost four or five years since we last talked about Venezuela, I think Venezuelan debt and how to restructure it. Who knows?
A (0:49)
Oh, my God, those were the days. Imagine a world where people talked about restructuring. Oh, never mind. But, yeah, me too. First of all, introduce yourself who I am.
C (0:58)
I am an obscure law professor at the University of Virginia, and I work on the topic of hazards in boilerplate contracts. I am completely obsessed with boilerplate contracts.
A (1:14)
Okay. So I did mention at the top of this show that the whole point about Money Talks is that we talk to the most interesting people in the world about the most interesting subjects in the world. And Emily.
B (1:26)
Yes, sir?
A (1:26)
I have a question for you.
B (1:28)
Okay.
A (1:28)
Is legal boilerplate one of the most interesting subjects in the world?
B (1:33)
Felix? Yes.
A (1:36)
I'm so happy you said that because I think so, too.
B (1:39)
I was looped into an email between the two of you, and without any context, it said something like, I can't wait to talk about landmines when you come on. And I was like, what landmines? Are we talking about that again? Like, is Princess Diana involved? What's happening? And it turns out landmines are these things you'll explain baked into contracts that can explode at a later date. But it all comes back to, I think, a really core philosophical question about the meaning of words and how you get the meaning that is in your head, how you communicate that on paper or even verbally to your friends, and how there's always a disconnect between what you want to communicate and you trying to communicate and what you actually communicate. And I think it's fascinating.
