Benchmark

What It's Like to Win the Nobel Prize

The Benchmark podcast hosts Angus Deaton, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics this week.

Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Photographer: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
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When Nobel Prize winners receive the phone call informing them of their award, a typical response is disbelief. Some new laureates wonder whether it's a prank.

When the award committee came calling at 6:10 a.m. on Monday, that wasn't a question Angus Deaton had. At least not until they put his friend and fellow economist Torsten Persson, the panel's secretary, on the line.