Michael Lewis on Amazing Government Workers

The Al Franken Podcast

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

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From the start of Donald Trump's second term, he's been eager to cut the federal workforce. So, Elon Musk headed the newly minted DOGE to begin slashing tens of thousands of jobs.

Our friend, Michael Lewis, author of "The Big Short" and, most recently, "Who is Government?," joins us to share stories of public servants who not only improved this country but have saved countless lives. Those improvements and breakthroughs could only have happened through the power and effectiveness of a strong government.

Lewis warns of the long-term consequences of dismantling agencies like USAID and removing oversight mechanisms. The public might not immediately feel these impacts, but the results will eventually be catastrophic, particularly for vulnerable populations worldwide. Lewis explains that DOGE was never about fraud, waste, and abuse. It's always been about ideology, power, and money.

Visit Michael's website to learn more: https://www.michaellewiswrites.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to the Al Franken podcast, ad free right now.
0:05.3	Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app.
0:12.7	Hey, everybody, we got a great one today.
0:15.6	You know, for a change.
0:17.5	And this time, this time, I really mean it, because my guest is Michael Lewis, author of so many
0:23.5	bestsellers like Moneyball and The Big Short.
0:26.6	This time we discuss his latest bestseller, Who is Government, which is a great antidote
0:32.9	to Elon Musk's doge and its hostility toward government and government workers.
0:39.8	Did I mention the insanely stupid thing they've done, like fire the guys in the Department of Energy
0:46.3	who secure our arsenal of nuclear weapons?
0:49.5	Yep, that happened.
0:51.6	You'll hear Michael tell wonderful stories about people who have worked for the government and did it brilliantly and for all the right reasons.
1:00.0	Now, speaking of Doge, now that Elon Musk is moving on, Trump picked Russell Vatt to take over Doge.
1:08.1	Vot is currently the head of OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, so he'll be in
1:14.4	both jobs now. You might recognize VOT as one of the primary authors of Project 2025, you know,
1:22.0	the document that Trump claims he never read, yet his administration is executing to a T. Clearly, Trump doesn't have
1:30.5	a lot of people he trusts. Otherwise, why would he keep piling extra jobs on VOT and Marco Rubio,
1:36.9	who is now Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, as well as acting archivists at the National Archives and Records Administration.
1:47.2	I wonder when he has time to archive. Oh, and Rubio is also acting head of USAID, but that's not
1:55.8	much of a lift since Musk gutted the agency, the richest man in the world killing the poorest people in the world.
2:04.1	Speaking of rich, have you bought any Trump coin? The Trump family's net worth has increased by the
2:11.0	billions from all their crypto schemes. If you're one of the smart ones who bought hundreds of
	...

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