Hey, it's Alec Baldwin.

This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing.

I spoke with more actors, musicians,

policymakers, and so many other fascinating people,

like writer and actor, Dan Aykroyd.

I love writing more than anything.

You're left alone.

You know, you do three hours in the morning.

You write three hours in the afternoon. Go pick up a kid from school, and write at night. And after nine hours,

you come out with seven pages, and then you're moving on. Listen to Here's the Thing on the

iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Okay. or wherever you get your podcasts. Pushkin. Welcome back to Against the Rules, everyone. I'm Michael Lewis.

I'll admit, I came into this season of the show with some conventional ideas about why people gamble.

Of course, some people think they can make money,

but also maybe they just want to impress people

or hang out with their friends while at a game or a casino.

And maybe that's true for a subset of folks who like to bet.

But that overlooks all the gamblers who play the slots.

We often think of gambling as being a way to get something for nothing.

And what I learned in my extended research with particularly slot machine gamblers, which are the golden geese of the industry

revenue-wise, that they're really after getting nothing, not something for nothing.

That's Natasha Scholl, an associate professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication

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