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Journalist and bestselling author Michael Lewis takes a searing look at what’s happened to fairness in American life through the lens of people who depend on public trust.

After exploring what’s happened to referees and coaches, the third season of Against the Rules tackles what’s happened to our trust in experts and expertise. An expert has probably saved your life more than once. So why is it so hard to judge who the real experts are? And why, once we’ve found them, do we struggle to listen to what experts have to say? In this season, we meet oceanographers and baseball writers, nurses and former gang members — people who don’t have a lot in common but the mixed blessing of their expertise.

Do you have a question for Michael Lewis about his writing process? Submit it HERE and tune in for new episodes of Against the Rules where he’ll be answering your submissions. Take the Pushkin Audience Survey here.

Most Recent Episode

On Background: The Case Against Sam Bankman-Fried

The former CEO of now-bankrupt crypto firm FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried has been charged with fraud and conspiracy. His trial is supposed to begin in October. In the final episode of…

On Background: The Political Spender America Deserves

During the 2022 election cycle, crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried gave as much as $40 million in political donations. That whopping sum caught the attention of campaign finance watchdogs, even before…

On Background: Who Buys Distressed Assets?

Andy Mitchell could be called a "doctor for business." His firm, Lantern Asset Management, buys up businesses in immediate need of cash and willing to sell at bargain-basement prices. Michael…

On Background: Effective Altruism Still Has Friends

One-time crypto-currency king Sam Bankman-Fried was a big proponent of a philosophical movement known as “effective altruism,” or EA. Advocates of EA say we should use data and reason to…

On Background: Crypto Skeptic Proven Right

If you spend any time reporting on the world of crypto currency and Bitcoin, then you’re going to run across the name Molly White. She’s a software engineer who has…

On Background: A History of Bankruptcy in the US

Often when a corporation declares bankruptcy, that happens at the end of a long and difficult road. But entering bankruptcy proceedings also means setting out on a new and equally…

On Background: White-Collar Crime and Punishment

Why do people commit white-collar crimes? And how has the way we think about — and prosecute — white-collar criminals changed over time? As part of the background research for…

On Background: Bad Actors on the Blockchain

For his next book, Michael Lewis wants to find out how investigators manage to trace the murky trail of illicit crypto. Cryptocurrency started with the dream of cash changing hands…

On Background from Against the Rules

Michael Lewis's next book is all about Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the crypto-currency exchange FTX, who now faces federal charges. As with all of his books, Lewis is talking with…

The Person Who Knows

The United States had a pandemic plan. But when a pandemic came, we hesitated to follow it. The country was hobbled by argument and doubt. Much of that doubt came…

The Overconfidence Game

In which several people, including Rebecca Solnit, Katty Kay, and Maria Konnikova, help Michael understand the not-so-secret power of men to offer themselves up as experts, when they clearly are…

The Sanchez Problem

There’s one kind of expert whose role is enshrined in law: that of the expert witness, who’s called on to bolster one side of a case. But courtrooms are not…

Respect the Polygon

Experts know more now than ever before. And we’re more critical of them than ever before, too. But one kind of expert really gets us riled up: the type who…

Field of Ignorance

The right kind of expert, at the right time, can change everything. While working as a security guard at a pork-and-beans cannery in Kansas, Bill James started writing about baseball.…

The Art of the Untold Story

Why can’t we see the experts right in front of us, even when they’re saving our lives? Maybe it’s because the specialized knowledge of many experts defies good storytelling. We…

Six Levels Down

Athenahealth was just another healthcare provider facing the biggest problem US doctors face: not treating patients, but getting insurance companies to pay their bills. But then the company figured out…

Against the Rules Season 3: The Ballad of Expertise

In Against the Rules, journalist and bestselling author Michael Lewis takes a searing look at what’s happened to fairness—in financial markets, newsrooms, basketball games, courts of law, and much more.In…

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