Political Gabfest - Gabfest Reads | Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History
Slate Books
Slate Podcasts
3.8 • 546 Ratings
🗓️ 15 November 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John Dickerson talks with journalist and author Andrew Ross Sorkin about his new book 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation. Recorded live at the 92nd Street Y in NYC, their conversation explores how a decade of optimism, leverage, and moral hazard culminated in the financial collapse that defined modern capitalism.
Sorkin details how figures like banker Charles “Sunshine Charlie” Mitchell, Senator Carter Glass, and investor Jesse Livermore shaped the boom and bust of the era and how their decisions echo in today’s bubbles around A.I., crypto, and debt-fueled speculation.
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Podcast production by Nina Porzucki.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to GabFest Reeds for the month of November 2025. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm David Plotz, one of the hosts of the Slate Political GabFest. |
| 0:16.2 | We've got a special GabFest reads episode for you today, |
| 0:19.6 | featuring The One and Only John Dickerson, co-host of the Gab Fest in conversation with author Andrew Ross Sorkin. |
| 0:26.6 | You might know Sorkin from his best-selling book, Too Big to Fail. |
| 0:30.2 | He's got a new book out, 1929, inside the greatest crash in Wall Street history and how it shattered a nation. |
| 0:37.1 | John interviewed Sorkin last month in New York City at the 92nd Street Y. |
| 0:41.2 | We thought GabFest listeners would enjoy it. |
| 0:43.2 | So, without further ado, John Dickerson and Andrew Ross Sorkin. |
| 0:49.3 | Isn't this going to be fun? |
| 0:50.6 | I know. This is great. I can't see any of them. |
| 0:53.0 | But this is such a delight. |
| 0:55.2 | I'm thrilled. |
| 0:58.1 | Andrew and I have known each other for a long time. |
| 1:00.5 | I don't know how long, but I'm mildly intimidated because Andrew not only understands the markets |
| 1:09.5 | and the economy and the people who run these companies that rule our lives. |
| 1:14.7 | He knows them so well, but he is an extraordinary interviewer. |
| 1:18.6 | And he does this, and he also is responsible for deal book, which I read every morning. |
| 1:24.8 | He does this feat of strength, though, with his deal book interviews all in one day. |
| 1:30.3 | He interviews everybody you'd want to talk to and always asks the most incisive questions, |
| 1:35.7 | gets people to talk. I'm constantly texting him about things that he's excavated from people |
| 1:40.0 | months afterwards. And so I think he's put me into his junk spam filter. And now he's written |
... |
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