David Remnick

I'm David Remnick.

For my money, forgive the pun, one of the best things on television is a show about making money, making as much of it as possible.

Industry on HBO is a financial drama centered on a group of junior employees at a fictional investment bank in London.

Industry is currently finishing its fourth season, and the show was created by Mickey Down and Conrad Kay, two old Oxford friends, both of whom did stints in the financial world.

In fact, they say if they'd been any good at finance, they probably wouldn't have created a TV show about it in the first place.

Mickey Down and Conrad K., welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour.

I have to say I'm a huge fan of this show.

Conrad, tell me how this show came about.

You both worked in finance.

You knew each other from university.

Mickey, did you get into finance, too, for the obvious reason you wanted to make some money and please your parents?

So from there, what's the origin story of industry?

What seems to me key to the show is not just the milieu, that you've created these characters who are all so deeply, deeply damaged.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Look, you know, you could say the same with Dostoevsky, so it's high praise.

That seems to me even harder, the conception of the main characters.

Let's be specific about that.

You have a character named Harper who, in some sense, couldn't be more marginalized in this world.

She's a woman, she's black, she's American, so she's a real outsider, and she fakes her resume.