How the Financial Crisis Broke Politics

Against the Rules: The Big Short Companion

Pushkin Industries

Business, Society & Culture, Sports

4.6 • 9.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed Human.
0:04.4	For so many of us, sports strengthen the bonds we have with our hometowns, our friends, our families.
0:10.5	They bring us together and color every aspect of our lives.
0:14.2	From WHYY and PRX, this is sports in America.
0:17.9	Each week, we go deep with athletes, coaches, and fans.
0:22.2	We'll take you into the triumphs, the heartbreaks, and the relationships that define athletes' careers
0:28.0	and create the moments we remember.
0:30.3	Join me, David Green, on Sports in America.
0:32.8	Find us wherever you get your podcasts.
0:43.3	Pushkin. I'm Michael Lewis. And I'm Lydia Jean Cott. And we're wrapping up our big
0:51.5	short companion series on Against the Rules.
0:58.6	We've been hearing about the origins and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis.
1:02.1	And today, we're going to talk about how it changed politics.
1:02.8	Yes.
1:06.6	In 2011, I was in college in New York, actually.
1:09.8	And I remember showing up, I think, to like, Anthro or something.
1:15.3	And half the class was empty because people had gone to protest on Wall Street.
1:18.9	Occupy Wall Street all day, all week.
1:22.9	Were you at all kind of tempted?
1:29.3	I was unfortunately too much of a loser to know that this was like what people were doing.
1:31.1	So I didn't go.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 1 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

Generated transcripts are the property of Pushkin Industries and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.