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[upbeat music] This is Better in Person with Stephen Dubner and Bjarke Ingels.

When I first started thinking about who to have on this show, I made a list.

Many lists, actually.

And one name always wound up near the top, Bjarke Ingels.

If you already know something about Bjarke Ingels, you'll understand why I wanted him, and if you don't, well, you can thank me later.

He is an architect in New York City and many other places, and there is a chance that he will go down as one of the greats.

He started his first studio, called Plott, in 2001.

By the way, he told us that Bjarke means little bear in Danish.

When he was 31, he founded Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG.

They have designed The Spiral in New York City, the LEGO House back in Denmark, and they're currently building a stadium for the old Oakland A's, who are moving to Las Vegas.

He's also working with NASA and a 3D-printing company called Icon.

They're trying to figure out how to do construction on the Moon using mostly moon dust as the raw building material.

I am making this new show in my living room, and we had just moved in.

So Bjarke brought a housewarming present.

I gotta say, I have a gift for you.

It was synthetic moon dust that they had created for that NASA project.

He poured some out.

It looked like fine gray beach sand or maybe the remains of your favorite pet.

This was my first time meeting Bjarke.

I had tried to get a coffee with him before we taped, but we couldn't make it happen.

Bjarke Ingels can be elusive.

But I started out as a reporter.

I'm used to just hanging around places.

So I went to hang out at the BIG offices in downtown Brooklyn, and I talked to some of the architects there, including Rachel Wilkins, a senior landscape architect.

So we're talking to Bjarke next week.