Born a Crime Stories from a South African Childhood

You actually wrote a book about it too, right?

Yeah, yeah I did.

Which became a...

What did it sell, like 3 million copies?

I don't know.

But you actually wrote a book about it too, right?

Yeah, yeah I did.

Which became a...

What did it sell, like 3 million copies?

I don't know.

Today on Freakonomics Radio, Trevor Noah on politics, race, religion and his excellent new memoir Born a Crime.

I don't think people would see it as a book about me growing up in apartheid.

It's not really that. Apartheid was merely the container that my life existed within. If anything, it's a story of myself and my mom.

Trevor Noah was born in South Africa in 1984. His mother was black and African, his father white and European. This meant that Noah was technically born a crime, the title of his book.

But your book Born a Crime is a brilliant, brilliant book.

And I don't want to go through the whole book. I'd love for people to read it if they haven't.

And I thought that Trevor Noah's book, including the audio edition was just a great choice for high school students.

It's just a gripping story of this kid. And I think that what he is telling us gives us all kinds of insight into our world today.

And the reason for that is that is that Trevor Noah speaks multiple languages...his ability to do characters and accents is just extraordinary. It's just it's a virtuosic performance. And just a gripping read.

Seven is Born a Crime. Yes. That makes sense.

I don't regret anything I've ever done in my life any choice that I've made but I'm consumed with regret for the things I didn't do the choices I didn't make the things I didn't say we spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection but regret is the thing we should fear most because failure is an answer rejection is an answer regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to

Trevor Noah, who's the comedian, wrote one of my favorite books, his book Born a Crime.