Against the Rules

Here's an episode from Slate Money: Money Talks. Host Felix Salmon is joined by journalist Mariana van Zeller, who has spent years reporting on black and gray markets around the world and has a new podcast, The Hidden Third, that delves into these powerful underground economies.

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.

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.

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 Massach

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When Adam McKay decided to make a movie based on The Big Short, he was mainly known for his comedies.

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.

Is anyone trying to regulate sports gambling on the federal level in the US? In the fall of 2024, Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced a bill with New York Congressman Paul Tonko.

Michael Lewis invites over Yale psychology professor Dr. Laurie Santos, host of The Happiness Lab at Pushkin, for a chat about what scientific research has to tell us about sports fandom, teenagers, and gambling. You can sign up for The Happiness Lab newsletter here.

As an anthropologist, Natasha Schüll spent more than a decade doing field work in Vegas casinos, especially among the slot machine addicts. She tells Michael Lewis why many of those who play slots actually hate to win.

Perhaps you have someone in your life who’s prone to sports gambling. Michael Lewis has someone. So he comes up with a scheme to “inoculate” his 17-year-old son against the lure of placing bets online.

Michael Lewis gets a glimpse of sports gambling's future by talking with writers in Great Britain and Australia, where the industry is even more entrenched. But the US has its own peculiar history of failing to regulate dangerously addictive new products, and blaming the users instead.

Has betting based on inside intel on games gone down since sports gambling was legalized in the US? Not really, as Michael Lewis finds out. But what's gone up is misery for athletes. We hear from Atlanta Hawks forward Larry Nance, Jr.

Just recently, Michael Lewis was a guest on the "Prof G" podcast with Scott Galloway. He talks about the rise of sports betting and why the consequences might be a "disaster" for US society.

On a visit to Las Vegas, Michael Lewis meets three old-school sports bookies. Chris Andrews, Jimmy Vaccaro, and Vinny Magliulo book bets and set odds at the South Point Hotel Casino.

Michael Lewis sits down with Billy Walters, one of the most famous sports bettors of all time.

As a resident of California, Michael Lewis cannot place bets on any of the online sports books at the center of this season. They’re not allowed to operate in the state. But why?

Season 4 finale. Lewis examines the political and social consequences of legalized sports betting. The title comes from a professional gambler who explains that while any individual bet can win, the system guarantees that gamblers as a class will lose.

What does it mean to be a “very important person” in the world of online sports betting? Not necessarily what you think. We hear from recovering gambling addicts and state regulators frustrated with some of the perverse incentives to keep people on a losing streak.

The role has many names: “Runner,” “mover,” “betting partner,” and “mule.” As skilled sports gamblers find themselves limited on apps, they turn to these affiliates to place their bets in return for a piece of the proceeds.

Constitutional lawyer and former US Solicitor Ted Olson recently died at the age of 84. Olson represented the state of New Jersey in its efforts to overturn a federal ban on sports gambling.

Lewis follows a professional sports bettor known as a 'mule' — someone who places bets on behalf of sharps (professional gamblers) who have been banned by sportsbooks for winning too often.

Lewis interviews Nate Silver about probability, risk, and the psychology of gambling. Silver brings his statistical expertise to analyze why most people are terrible at assessing risk.

Lewis explores professional sports betting — people who make their living by finding edges against bookmakers. The title quote comes from a professional bettor describing why most gamblers lose.

Season 4 opener on The Big Short. Lewis revisits the 2008 financial crisis 15 years later. The episode title refers to the six levels of securitization that separated mortgage borrowers from the investors who owned their debt.

Lewis examines how the coaching boom creates inequality: wealthy families hire college admissions coaches, executive coaches, and performance coaches, giving their children advantages that compound over generations.

Season 2 opener on the rise of coaching in America. Lewis explores how personal coaches — for everything from executive presence to sleep habits — have proliferated, and what this says about our society.

Lewis investigates the Salvator Mundi painting, sold for $450M as a Leonardo da Vinci original. But was it really painted by Leonardo? The story reveals how art authentication experts — the referees of the art world — can be compromised.

Season 1 opener. Lewis examines how rage at referees in professional sports reflects a broader decline in our tolerance for neutral authorities. When did we start hating the ref?