Once my colleagues and I began thinking about how to turn this magazine into a television show, the risk was glaring: What works well in Bloomberg Businessweek might not fly on screen for The Businessweek Show. After all, the pivots we report on in these pages don’t always go smoothly. When we sat down to film our first interviews, I discovered a more personal risk. When reporters write, we get to maintain a sense of control: To open a quote is to pass the microphone to somebody else, and to end that quote puts us back in charge. But on a talk show, guests aren’t just expected to get more airtime than the host; they’re also empowered to talk when and how they want. To nudge, disagree or interrupt looks heavy-handed, foolish or just tedious—and it risks the interview’s momentum and the audience’s goodwill.

So it only made sense to interview risk-takers about their choices. Jaime Rogozinski, who created WallStreetBets on Reddit, helped change the very idea of who gets to take risk in the markets for equities and derivatives. He told me he has no regrets about all the money his community members wagered on high-risk options and stocks—“I can’t make myself responsible”—or the “tons of money” he lost himself. Eventually, after he tried to trademark the forum’s name, Reddit removed him as a moderator. He took another risk this year by suing Reddit; a judge has tossed the suit, at least for now. “I walked away,” Rogozinski told me, “with so much knowledge and understanding and hands-on experience that a textbook can never explain.”