This article is from the archive of our partner .
How do other people deal with the torrent of information that pours down on us all? What sources can't they live without? To find out, we regularly reach out to well-informed people to learn more about their media diets. Austan Goolsbee is the chief White House economist and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. This is drawn from a conversation after he announced on Monday that he's leaving the White House to return to his teaching position at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
The first thing I do when I wake up is check my phone. The Council of Economic Advisers' puts out a morning economic briefing with clips from the morning newspapers, primarily the business sections and what's in Bloomberg and other sources. I also get Politico's Morning Money and Playbook. I check those first thing but if for some reason they are delayed, I won't see them on those days.
When I'm driving to work, I listen to NPR's Morning Edition or All Things Considered. Then, when I get there, the White House puts out the White House Morning News Summary, which tends to be a lot of politics, so if we have some big staff meeting, I might just flip through it. When Rahm was the chief of staff, checking the News Summary was more of a defensive, nerve-wracking obligation. He would be running around "have you seen this article?" "Have you seen that?" I'll also visit the homepages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to make sure I'm up to speed. Oh and have you heard of Memeorandum? It's kind of an algorithm-based site showing who's linking to the top stories. I'll check that during the day.