Advertise on podcast: Against the Rules: The Big Short Companion

When Adam McKay decided to make a movie based on The Big Short, he was mainly known for his comedies. But he managed to get a bevy of star actors — among them Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Steve Carell and Margot Robbie — to sign on and bring the intensity and arcane financial jargon of Wall Street to life. Michael Lewis sits down with McKay a decade after he made the Oscar-winning movie version of The Big Short to learn about the challenges of getting the film made — and why he’s still making movies about societal collapse. Get The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, Apple Books, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Lewis speaks with Greg Lippmann, formerly a bond trader at Deutsche Bank, made famous when he was portrayed by Ryan Gosling in the movie version of The Big Short. And Lewis catches up with Steve Eisman, the Wall Street investor who was played by actor Steve Carell. When did they each start to suspect the subprime mortgage market was rotten, and why? And how did they perceive each other in the wary days and months before the market crashed? For more, check out Steve Eisman’s podcast, The Real Eisman Playbook. Order The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Big Short is centered around the story of investment advisors who noticed something was seriously wrong with the subprime housing market starting in the early 2000s. Why did the traders at FrontPoint Partners and others bet against the herd, at great risk to their reputations and their own careers? And what happened after those bets paid off — because the market crashed? Michael Lewis catches up with some of the most memorable characters in his book to find out what being right has done to their lives. For more, check out a newsletter by Danny Moses, Vincent Daniel, and Porter Collins called WHAT ARE WE DOING? (WAWD). Order The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Michael Lewis wrote The Big Short, there was an extra character in the story: The Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the US, which bought up bad debt on the balance sheets of big Wall Street banks and trading firms. To better understand the Fed’s role in the financial crisis of 2008, Michael turns to UC Berkeley economics professor Emi Nakamura. And in the process, we get a master class in how currency works, and why there’s still some gold in the vaults of the Fed. For more, check out Emi Nakamura’s Macro Policy Lab. Order The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andrew Ross Sorkin writes the business and policy newsletter DealBook for the New York Times and is co-anchor of Squawk Box on CNBC. He also has a historical bent, and has a new book out about the causes and consequences of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Sorkin speaks with Michael Lewis about how that crisis differed from the financial crash of 2008, and what we can learn by comparing the two eras. For more, check out Sorkin’s book 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History, and How it Shattered a Nation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To make sense of Wall Street’s hangover from the crash described in The Big Short, Michael Lewis calls up Matt Levine. Levine is author of the Money Stuff newsletter for Bloomberg Opinion and co-host of a podcast by the same name. He’s also a former investment banker who was working at Goldman Sachs during the market crisis of 2008. He and Lewis talk about Bitcoin, bank regulation, and new forms of risk-taking — all ways Wall Street has changed since the crisis. Order The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To wrap up our series on The Big Short, Michael Lewis speaks with two people who represent two very different responses to the financial crisis of 2008: US Senator Elizabeth Warren, an expert in bankruptcy law who became an advisor to the Obama White House before running for higher office in Massachusetts. And Michael interviews former Trump White House advisor and right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon, who talks about how the financial crisis radicalized him. Order The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Of all the characters in The Big Short, fund manager Michael Burry (depicted by Christian Bale in the movie version) seemed the least likely to grant Michael Lewis a follow-up interview. Burry was one of the first to see the subprime housing market crisis coming, and he actually helped Wall Street banks develop the credit-default swap, the instrument that allowed short sellers to make their bets against the market. Lately, Burry has been in the news again because his fund has taken short positions against tech giants Nvidia and Palantir. Now he finally sits down with Lewis as part of this series. Burry recently launched a newsletter called Cassandra Unchained. Order The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recently, Michael Lewis spoke with Nicolle Wallace, host of the podcast The Best People, at Symphony Space in New York. They discussed what it was like re-visiting the Big Short 15 years on. And we hear the actor Zach Grenier dramatize a portion of The Big Short. Order The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back in 2008, Michael Lewis started paying attention to Wall Street again, as banks and investment funds started to announce massive losses. Fifteen years ago, he published The Big Short, about a group of traders and investors who bet against a market that refused to see what was coming. Now it’s time to revisit both the book and the Oscar-winning movie based on it.  Get The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, Apple Books, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Against the Rules producer Lidia Jean Kott is the host of a new podcast series called The Chinatown Sting. It’s about a group of unlikely suspects at the center of a massive drug bust that took place in 1980s New York.  Recently Michael spoke with LJ about her series at a coffee shop in Brooklyn called Land to Sea. You can listen to all six episodes of the “The Chinatown Sting” on Apple, Spotify, pushkin.fm/chinatown, or wherever you listen to podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Lewis joins his friend and fellow Pushkin podcaster Maya Shankar (host of A Slight Change of Plans) for a live conversation in San Francisco. They discuss her new book in a candid conversation about identity, loss, and what happens when the thing that once defined you falls away. (00:02:02) Get The Other Side of Change at Apple Books or wherever you get audiobooks. Find A Slight Change of Plans wherever you get podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Streamed by millions every day, porn is everywhere. It shapes our culture, our relationships, and even technology. Yet, nobody seems to know who really controls the business. The power brokers tend to lurk in the shadows, while their performers remain quite literally exposed. In Pushkin's new audiobook, The Kink Machine: The Hidden Business of Adult Entertainment, two Financial Times journalists, Patricia Nilsson and Alex Barker, start digging into the porn industry and following where the money flows. Their reporting uncovers a shadowy power structure that includes billionaires, tech geniuses, and the most powerful finance companies in the world. A gripping exposé of how power operates behind the most taboo corner of the internet, Nilsson and Barker unravel a story about control, influence, and an industry with staggering cultural reach that no one really wants to talk about—until now. Find The Kink Machine on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm, or wherever you get audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sports fans experience incredible highs and lows, and spend loads of money on a product over which they have no control. But for a long time, no one bothered to study the minds or impulses of fans. Michael Lewis finds out how that's changing as writers and academics learn more about the powerful psychology of fandom. Just in time for technology to exploit fandom more than ever. For further reading:  Eric Simons’ book The Secret Lives of Sports Fans Research by Murray State University psychology professor Daniel Wann on fandom: https://murraystate.academia.edu/DanielWann The Henry Tajfel Experiments   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bill Bradley was already famous in college as the epitome of certain American virtues: integrity, honesty, and athleticism. As an NBA star, he took those virtues to the big leagues. As a US Senator, he had a chance to codify some of them into law and prevent the rise of sports betting. But at the same time, others in Bradley's state were making huge money on this illicit form of gambling. For further reading: John McPhee’s A Sense of Where You Are American Bettors Voice, non-profit advocacy for sports bettors co-founded by Gadoon “Spanky” Kryollos. Bill Bradley’s Values of the Game David Hill's The Vapors: Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America's Forgotten Capital of Vice Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992.https://www.congress.gov/bill/102nd-congress/senate-bill/474 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.