Judging Sam: The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried
Just a year ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was heralded as a wunderkind, a genius, a crypto innovator, a major philanthropist and political donor. He was worth tens of billions of dollars.…
Join Pushkin+
Gain access to ad-free versions of 20+ podcasts from the Pushkin library along with exclusive bonus episodes and other member benefits.
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
Judging Sam: The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried
Just a year ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was heralded as a wunderkind, a genius, a crypto innovator, a major philanthropist and political donor. He was worth tens of billions of dollars.…
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…
Other People’s Money: George Saunders on the Value of Failure
After the surprise success of Liar’s Poker, publishers urged Michael Lewis to try his hand at fiction. It was a bad idea. But even award-winning fiction authors have struggled with…
Other People’s Money: Ira Glass on Finding Your Voice
Michael Lewis did not rest long on his laurels after publishing Liar’s Poker. In the 1990s, he hit the presidential campaign trail, writing a series of magazine pieces. Some of…
Other People’s Money: Anne Clarke Wolff on the Wages of Sexism
"Liar’s Poker" is set on a Wall Street where women were the last hired and first fired — and that was probably the least of their worries. Is Wall Street…
Other People’s Money: Dash Riprock and the Human Piranha Revealed
"Liar’s Poker" describes many of the mentors Michael Lewis had at the investment bank Salomon Brothers. Now for the first time, we get to hear their side of the story…
Other People’s Money: Jacob Goldstein and the Bonds of Wall Street
Michael Lewis and Jacob Goldstein discuss how "Liar’s Poker" foreshadowed the ups and downs of the world we live in now.
The Premonition
In this special bonus episode of Against the Rules, Michael Lewis reads a chapter from his new book about the pandemic, The Premonition —available now wherever books are sold. This…
Axios Today’s Niala Boodhoo Interviews Michael Lewis
President-elect Joe Biden and his team can now officially begin the transition of power. But President Trump's delay cost the new administration 20 days of highly valuable planning time that…
Aim Higher
Can everyone be coached — or are some people beyond help?The transformative power of coaching is put to the test as Michael enlists a coach to help him tackle his…
The Unfair Coach
Back when coaching didn’t do very much, it didn’t matter who got it and who didn’t. But coaching is clearly getting better and better, and spreading into more areas of…
The Data Coach
We explore the quantitative, scientific, and data-driven new frontier of coaching.Major League baseball is undergoing a coaching revolution from old-school to new tech. We talk to players whose careers were…
The Coach Effect
Colleges today talk a big game about valuing diversity — so why are so many of them failing to retain first-generation students?We meet a homeless straight-A track star and her…
The Coach in Your Head
Just about anyone today can call themselves a coach. Michael traces this trend back to its source and finds out that the secret to effective coaching lies not in retraining…
Don’t Be Good — Be Great
Michael revisits his high school days in New Orleans to tell the story of Billy Fitzgerald, the baseball coach who changed his life; and makes the case for the old-school,…
Against the Rules Presents: Michael Lewis in Conversation with Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg
Michael Lewis interviews the co-founders of Pushkin Industries, Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg, as part of Dell Technologies Small Business Podference, Hear what it’s like to start a business with…
The Invisible Coach
Credit card companies are making billions of dollars off of people who don’t understand the rules of the money game. Can a good coach help level the playing field?
Introducing Against the Rules Season 2
Journalist and bestselling author Michael Lewis (Liar’s Poker, Moneyball) takes a searing look at what’s happened to fairness. It feels like there’s less of it every day—whether it comes to…
Bonus Against the Rules: Help in a Crisis
While working on the next season of Against the Rules coming later this spring, Michael Lewis has had some conversations that we didn’t want to hold. Conversations with people who…
Bonus Live Episode: Michael Lewis and Malcolm Gladwell
Around the launch of Against the Rules, Michael spoke with his friend and co-producer, the author Malcolm Gladwell, at the 92Y in New York. Hear them talk about podcasting, referees,…
Baby Judge School
Judges now want us to know they’re human. But maybe we’d be better off if we didn’t know.
The Hand of Leonardo
The authenticator ref absolves everyone of blame. And sometimes generates money out of thin air.
The Seven Minute Rule
The government protects us from some dangerous products, but not from others that, over time, ruin countless lives.
Ref, You Suck!
Rage at referees is all the rage in professional sports. Michael Lewis visits a replay center that’s trying to do the impossible: adjudicate fairness.
Introducing Against the Rules with Michael Lewis
Get ready for the launch of Michael Lewis’s first podcast, where he takes listeners from student-loan call centers to the courts of Uzbekistan to the new trading hubs of Wall…
The Host
Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis, host of the podcast Against the Rules, has published many New York Times bestselling books, including The Fifth Risk, Flash Boys, and The Big Short. Movie versions of…
