Steve Coll is president of the New America Foundation, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and author most recently of Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power. Before talking about how Exxon wields its power, he sat down in the Zócalo green room to talk ties, karaoke, and why he stopped bullying his younger brothers.
Q. What book have you read the most times?
A. Probably Journey Without Maps by Graham Greene. I read it for the fourth time two years ago.
Q. What’s the ugliest tie you own?
A. A tie depicting a sturgeon fish. It was given to me by a fellow reporter to celebrate the completion of a reporting project in which one of our sources was constantly referred to as a fish. It’s silk, it’s awful, and I’ve never worn it, but I can’t throw it away because it has historical importance.
Q. You attended college at Occidental. What surprises you most about Los Angeles today?
A. That the air is cleaner and that the traffic is worse-that paradox surprises me.
Q. As a kid, were you more often the bully or the bullied?
A. I was more often the bully, but only in the context of my siblings. It seemed to me that the social contract permitted it because they were younger than me. I bullied my younger brothers until my youngest brother became a very large heavyweight wrestler and football player and fought back. I stopped and haven’t returned to it since.
Q. What’s your favorite spectator sport?
A. Baseball these days. I also love football. In the arena, in a live event, there’s nothing quite like a football game. But at this time of life I find the serenity and beauty of baseball more compelling.
Q. What was your first car?
A. A 1969 Volkswagen bug. Sort of a pale yellow.
Q. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
A. I was a construction laborer shoveling mud, that was no good. But I would say it was worse to be a stock clerk in a frozen meat store.
Q. What’s your go-to karaoke song?
A. I have never been on a karaoke stage. But I’m very proud of my daughter, who is a very clean-living 25-year-old, who memorized in high school the entire lyrics of “The Real Slim Shady”–like the most obscene Eminem rap of its day. She can still deliver it at karaoke and bring the house down, and I like watching her do that.
Q. Which of your friends or colleagues tells the best jokes?
A. My former New Yorker colleague Jeffrey Goldberg, who’s now at The Atlantic, was in fact a stand-up comedian, and it shows.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. I think I’d like to act. I’d like to be on the stage.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.