4.6 • 9.8K Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
The Big Short is centered around the story of investment advisors who noticed something was seriously wrong with the subprime housing market starting in the early 2000s. Why did the traders at FrontPoint Partners and others bet against the herd, at great risk to their reputations and their own careers? And what happened after those bets paid off — because the market crashed? Michael Lewis catches up with some of the most memorable characters in his book to find out what being right has done to their lives.
For more, check out a newsletter by Danny Moses, Vincent Daniel, and Porter Collins called WHAT ARE WE DOING? (WAWD).
Order The Big Short audiobook, now narrated by Michael Lewis, on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm/bigshort or wherever you get audiobooks.
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:04.8 | Maybe you already know about naked short selling. |
| 0:07.6 | Maybe you personally shorted stocks yourself. |
| 0:10.0 | But do you know about the time short sellers ruined a Super Bowl, basically? |
| 0:14.6 | For me, I was a little late, but red flags went up like, what is going on? |
| 0:18.8 | This is really scary. |
| 0:20.3 | At Planet Money, we get the story behind the money to explain how money works. |
| 0:25.4 | Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Pushkin. |
| 0:41.3 | I'm Lydia Jean-Cott. |
| 0:42.7 | And I'm Michael Lewis. |
| 0:46.1 | And we're continuing our special series about the big short. |
| 0:55.1 | In this episode, we're going to hear from three guys who worked for Steve Eisman, a fund manager at Front Point Partners who bet on the housing market crashing in the late 2000s and was right. In the movie version of the big short, Isman is called Mark Baum, |
| 1:02.1 | and I want to play you a clip that's narrated by Ryan Gosling, in which were introduced to the three guys |
| 1:07.0 | who worked for him. What if you just say, I just want to play you a clip, and then I will explain |
| 1:10.5 | afterwards. Okay. It starts with Steve Corral playing Mark Bowen. Guys, Cynthia wants me to quit and open a B&B in Vermont. That's great. I'd love to see Mark Baum run a bed and breakfast. Benny Daniel. You know how to make a muffin? Mark's Numbers guy. |
| 1:28.3 | Cynthia's no joke she could actually make it move to her mind. I mean, she made me start wearing a seatbelt. Porter Collins, former Olympic rower who went to Brown. Sorry, I think you have the wrong front point, because there is another front point in the same building that is bonds. And Danny Moses, the optimist of the bunch. |
| 1:46.1 | And a hell of a traitor, which is the only reason they put up with his bullshit optimism. |
| 1:49.9 | It was this guy from Deutsche who was talking about shorting housing bonds. |
| 1:56.9 | So that's the movie version of what the front point partners were like. |
| 2:01.5 | Based on my interactions with them, that sounds about right. |
| 2:04.0 | What was it like for you when you first met them? |
| 2:06.6 | Oh, the movie completely nails their interactions. |
... |
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