Best of: Michael Lewis reads my mind

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 11.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2020

⏱️ 104 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Lewis needs little introduction. He’s the author of Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short, The Blind Side, The Fifth Risk. He’s the host of the new podcast “Against the Rules.” He’s a master at making seemingly boring topics — baseball statistics, government bureaucrats, collateralized debt obligations — riveting. So how does he do it? What I wanted to do in this conversation was understand Lewis’s process. How does he choose his topics? How does he find his characters? How does he get them to trust him? What is he looking for when he’s with them? What allows him to see the gleam in subjects that would strike others, on their face, as dull? Lewis more than delivered. There’s a master class in reporting — or just in getting to know people — tucked inside this conversation. As in the NK Jemisin episode, Lewis shows how he does his work in real time, using me and something I revealed as the example. Sometimes the conversations on this show are a delight. Sometimes they’re actually useful. This one is both. Book recommendations: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain A Collection of Essays by George Orwell The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe Credits: Producer/Audio engineer - Jeff Geld Researcher - Roge Karma Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. New to the show? Want to check out Ezra’s favorite episodes? Check out the Ezra Klein Show beginner’s guide (http://bit.ly/EKSbeginhere) Want to contact the show? Reach out at ezrakleinshow@vox.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:02.3	I don't think I've written a book that you couldn't describe in a single sentence and
1:08.3	kill everybody's interest in it in the subject. They're all potentially really boring subjects.
1:26.4	Hello and welcome to the Ezra Klan Show. I'm the Vox Media podcast network. Through December
1:31.1	we're going to be doing a mix of new shows and a couple of best of's. The best of's are
1:35.8	going to be either shows that I really really love and want to be able to put back out
1:39.7	into the world and into the feed or they're going to be shows that I think have a particular
1:43.7	resonance to what is happening right now. So this is the best of show. Please enjoy.
1:49.7	I have as almost all writers do admired Michael for a long time and I was excited to get
1:56.1	this chance to talk to him and it was not he was not what I expected at all and it was
	...

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