4: A Conversation with Michael Lewis

The Al Franken Podcast

Government, Progressive, Politics, Senate, Liberal, Senator, Minnesota, Franken, News, Saturday Night Live, Comedy, Snl

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Al and Michael Lewis discuss his latest bestseller, The Fifth Risk, which Al calls the best book about the Trump Administration, in no small part because there’s very little focus on Trump himself. Instead, Lewis takes us inside of three Cabinet agencies – Agriculture, Commerce, and Energy – and the incompetent, venal, and/or corrupt appointees who find their way into crucial positions within the federal government. The head of science at the Agriculture Department is replaced by a right-wing talk radio host whose only qualification is that he endorsed Trump early in Iowa. Trump appoints the CEO of AccuWeather to head up the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, which includes the Weather Service. The CEO’s mission? To stop making Weather Service data publicly available to force Americans to get their weather forecasts from … AccuWeather! And, of course, there’s Rick Perry. At turns hilarious, insane, and just plain sad, this is a fascinating look into what happens to our federal government when the President of the United States has absolutely no understanding or interest in what the government does.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I am so thrilled to have Michael Lewis today.
0:13.3	Michael is the best-selling author of books like Liar's Poker, Moneyball, and The Big Short,
0:20.5	and his latest book,
0:22.4	may be the most important book about the Trump administration to date.
0:28.2	The Fifth Risk, the Fifth Risk.
0:30.9	Michael, thank you for joining me.
0:32.6	Well, thanks for having me.
0:33.8	First, the title, The Fifth Risk.
0:36.6	What is the Fifth Risk? I was wondering around the federal
0:41.3	government, wondering what the consequences were of Donald Trump running it or not running it.
0:45.8	And I was doing this because I learned that he hadn't bothered to show up for the transition,
0:50.7	that they hadn't actually ever learned about the enterprise they were running from the Obama administration.
0:55.7	Right.
0:56.0	And that's part of the story, which is great.
0:57.8	Part of the story is me getting the briefings that they never bothered to get.
1:01.5	The Obama administration spent months and months and thousands and millions of man hours
1:06.5	assembling these elaborate briefings just to explain what was going down in the Department of Agriculture.
1:13.0	And normally what would happen is a new administration would come in in the day after the election.
1:17.5	All these people would roll in from that administration to get those briefings.
1:20.7	They didn't do it.
1:21.8	And so I was getting these briefings for the first time they were given.
1:25.3	A standard question I would have is give me like like, the top five things you're most worried
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Al Franken Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Al Franken Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.