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This week Alec talks with Lewis Lapham, who's been refining his prose for over 50 years. Lapham says he still has to write \u201cthree or four or five, sometimes eight drafts of something,\u201d but takes pleasure in \u201cgetting it right.\u201d\xa0Today, he\u2019s at the helm of\xa0Lapham\u2019s Quarterly. He was at\xa0Harper\u2019s\xa0for many years \u2013 and he started out at\xa0The San Francisco Examiner\xa0before stints at\xa0The Saturday Evening Post\xa0and\xa0Life.

To talk with Lewis Lapham, you\u2019re struck with the sensation that you\u2019ve stumbled onto the set of a 1940\u2019s film noir movie.\xa0He wears pressed suits and pocket squares -- and his stories evoke another era. He tells Alec about being a rookie reporter at\xa0The Examiner\xa0and what it was like to go on a meditation retreat with the Beatles in India.

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