Ten Evenings: Michael Lewis

An inside look at the early days of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, as told by the public servants it targeted and one of America’s best storytellers.

Blockers. It wasn’t a compliment. In the new Washington, it was the worst thing you could be—especially if you worked in the federal government and wanted to keep your job. A Blocker was a holdover, an impediment, someone who didn’t get the message—and, most of all, someone who didn’t belong.

Michael Lewis found seven of them.

Blockers is the story of people who believed they had a calling, who were convinced they were doing something the country couldn’t do without, and then discovered they were no longer wanted. One kept Americans’ most sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands and another made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules. One figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods, another helped uncover the mysteries of cystic fibrosis.

There was also a security guard.

It should come as no surprise that the writer who made subprime mortgages gripping (The Big Short) and who turned baseball statistics into poetry (Moneyball) could transform the first two years of the second Trump administration into a thriller about federal employees. But he does.

And he does something else. He puts before us a clear question: If these public servants can’t survive in government today, then what does that say about us?

New York Times bestselling author Michael Lewis has published many books on subjects ranging from politics to Wall Street. Lewis’s most recent #1 New York Times bestselling book, Going Infinite, tells the story of FTX’s collapse and the enigmatic founder at its center, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Lewis is the creator and host of Apple’s #1 rated podcast Against the Rules, a searing look at what’s happened to fairness in American life through the lens of people who depend on public trust.

Mr. Lewis grew up in New Orleans and remains deeply interested and involved in the city. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from Princeton and a Master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Tabitha Soren, and their children.