This is an I-Heart podcast.

Michael Lewis here.

My book The Big Short tells the story of the buildup and burst of the U.S. housing market back in 2008.

It follows a few unlikely but lucky people who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become

and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception.

It was like feeding the monster, said Isman.

We fed the monster until it blew up.

The monster was exploding.

Yet on the streets of Manhattan, there was no sign anything important had just happened.

Now, 15 years after the Big Short's original release, and a decade

after it became an Academy Award-winning movie, I've recorded an audiobook edition for the very

first time. The Big Short Story, what it means when people start betting against the market,

and who really pays for an unchecked financial system, it is as relevant today as it's ever been,

offering invaluable insight into the current economy and also today's politics.

Get the big short now at Pushkin.fm. slash audiobooks, or wherever audiobooks are sold.

Music Wherever, audiobooks are sold.

A warning before we start, this cautionary tale discusses death by suicide. If you're suffering emotional

distress or you're having suicidal thoughts, support is available, for example, from the National

Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the US. Fargo is a town in North Dakota. It's also a classic movie from 1996, the blackest of comedies.

A car salesman attempts to swindle his wealthy father-in-law by paying a couple of criminals to kidnap his wife and demand a ransom.

It ends up with five innocent people dead

and one of the kidnappers trying to dispose of his partner's body

...