Podcasts by Against the Rules with Michael Lewis: The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried

The Rise and Fall of Crypto Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried from Talk Easy from 2023-12-12T10:00

Enjoy this episode from another Pushkin Industries podcast, Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso.

Upon ta...

Judging Sam: Millennial Frauds from 2023-11-17T10:00

Lidia Jean Kott talks to journalist Elizabeth Lopatto about what it was like to cover the trial, the similarities it shared with Elizabeth Holmes’ trial, and what this all says about millennials...

Listen As I Get Financially Planned from Other People's Pockets from 2023-11-15T05:15

Today on Other People's Pockets, you're going to hear what it's like to receive financial planning advice, ...

Judging Sam: The Aftermath from 2023-11-09T12:14:27

It's all over. Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven counts. But what now? Michael Lewis, Lidia Jean Kott, and Judging Sam’s legal expert, O’Melveny defense attorney Rebecca Mermelstei...

Judging Sam: Guilty on all counts from 2023-11-03T11:24:24

The jury, after about 4 and a half hours of deliberation, has delivered its verdict – guilty on all seven counts. Lidia Jean Kott was in the courtroom when it happened. Her conversation with fin...

Judging Sam: The jury's job from 2023-11-02T10:00

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this episode, our guest incorrectly stated that in the case of a hung jury, a defendant cannot be retried without risking double jeopardy. This is incorrect....

Judging Sam: The Hail Mary That Wasn’t from 2023-11-01T10:56:54

We're finally in the home stretch. Today the prosecution finished their cross examination of Sam Bankman-Fried, the defense followed up with a redirect, and then both sides rested. It’s Michael’...

Judging Sam: Sam Bankman-Fried Faces Cross-Examination from 2023-10-31T10:59:54

Sam Bankman-Fried finishes direct and faces withering cross-examination by the government’s chief prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon. Michael Lewis and Lidia Jean Kott share notes during lunch, then L...

Judging Sam: Sam Bankman-Fried Takes The Stand from 2023-10-28T12:55:44

The day is finally upon us: Sam Bankman-Fried takes the stand. Michael Lewis and Lidia Jean meet up after a long day in court and discuss everything that went down.

This conversation was ...

Judging Sam: Michael Lewis comes to court from 2023-10-27T11:48:56

Michael Lewis finishes his book tour and joins Lidia Jean Kott in court. His timing, as usual, is impeccable. The government rests its case. And then, everyone thinks Sam Bankman-Fried will take...

Judging Sam: After The Prosecution Rests from 2023-10-25T09:00

After a few days off, the trial resumes tomorrow, October 26. The prosecution has said they will likely be ready to rest their case by midday. Michael Lewis, Lidia Jean Kott and Rebecca Mermelst...

Judging Sam: An FTX Victim Speaks Out from 2023-10-24T11:00:34

Voices of the victims of Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged crimes have been few and far between during the prosecution’s presentation of its case. On today’s show, Lidia Jean Kott sits down with Jake ...

Judging Sam: Week 3 is in the books from 2023-10-20T11:17:32

Another week come and gone, and like everything SBF, it wasn’t without a healthy dose of drama. Lidia Jean Kott catches Michael Lewis and Jacob Goldstein up on all that has gone down. 

Th...

Listen Now: Spellcaster - The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried from 2023-10-19T04:00

When nerdy gamer Sam Bankman-Fried rocketed to fame as the world’s richest 29-year-old, he pledged to donate his billions to good causes. But when Sam's crypto exchange FTX collapsed, billions o...

Judging Sam: Michael Lewis Talks Money with Matt Levine from 2023-10-18T10:56:32

Today on the show, Michael talks with Matt Levine, business columnist at Bloomberg News and author of the newsletter “Money Stuff.” Matt knows more about how crypto markets work than just about ...

Judging Sam: Nishad Singh Takes the Stand from 2023-10-17T10:00

It was supposed to be a quiet Monday in court, but it turned out to be everything but. Nishad Singh, a former top executive at FTX, and a close personal friend of the Bankman-Fried family took t...

Judging Sam: Week 2 Catch-up with Michael Lewis from 2023-10-16T10:53:53

Week 2 of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial is in the books. The prosecution has called witnesses, including star witness Caroline Ellison, and the defense has cross-examined. There have been dramatic, ...

Judging Sam: Ellison Testimony Wraps Up from 2023-10-13T11:06:07

Caroline Ellison, former co-CEO of Alameda Research and Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, spent 3 days on the stand this week. Ellison recently pled guilty to financial fraud, and is cooperatin...

Judging Sam: Caroline Ellison Takes The Stand from 2023-10-11T11:05:39

Caroline Ellison, former co-CEO of Alameda Research and Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, takes the stand and has a lot to say. Ellison recently pled guilty to financial fraud, and is cooperati...

Judging Sam: Catching up with Michael Lewis from 2023-10-09T11:27:01

Week 1 of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial is in the books. The jury is seated, opening statements have been given, and witnesses are taking the stand. Lidia Jean has been in court, and Michael has bee...

Judging Sam: Opening Statements from 2023-10-06T11:12:50

SBF’s trial has been on for three days, and a lot has happened: jury selection, opening statements, and the first witnesses. Pushkin co-founder Jacob Weisberg sits down with reporter Lidia Jean ...

Judging Sam: Jury Selection from 2023-10-04T11:08:06

The trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried got underway yesterday in the Southern District of New York. First order of business? Empanelling a jury. Reporter Lidia Jean Kott was there. To get...

Judging Sam: The Case Against SBF from 2023-10-03T09:00

Sam Bankman-Fried's trial starts today in the formidable Southern District of New York, with Judge Lewis A. Kaplan presiding. If convicted, the former multi-billionaire and CEO of crypto exchang...

Judging Sam: Going Infinite – Jacob Weisberg interviews Michael Lewis from 2023-10-02T03:00

For the past year and a half, journalist Michael Lewis has been following crypto entrepreneur and former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried. The resulting book, "Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a...

Judging Sam: The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried from 2023-09-25T09:00

Just a year ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was heralded as a wunderkind, a genius, a crypto innovator, a major philanthropist and political donor. He was worth tens of billions of dollars. FTX, the cryp...

On Background: Preparing for Sam Bankman-Fried's Trial from 2023-09-12T09:00

The former CEO of now-bankrupt crypto firm FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried has been charged with fraud and conspiracy. His trial is supposed to begin in October. In the final episode of On Back...

The Sudden Celebrity of Sir John Knight from Revisionist History from 2023-08-31T04:00

In the battles over gun rights, a shadowy English nobleman from the 17th century has unexpectedly taken center stage. Who was he? What did he do that has — 300 years later — endeared hi...

On Background: The Political Spender America Deserves from 2023-08-15T09:00

During the 2022 election cycle, crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried gave as much as $40 million in political donations. That whopping sum caught the attention of campaign finance watchdogs, even befo...

On Background: Who Buys Distressed Assets? from 2023-07-11T09:00

Andy Mitchell could be called a "doctor for business." His firm, Lantern Asset Management, buys up businesses in immediate need of cash and willing to sell at bargain-basement prices. Michael Le...

Introducing Lost Hills: The Dark Prince from 2023-06-29T13:51:38

Sharing a preview of Lost Hills Season 3: The Dark Prince. Host Dana Goodyear takes a deep dive into the surf world to explore the legacy of Malibu's Dark Prince, Miki Dora. A surfer known for h...

On Background: Effective Altruism Still Has Friends from 2023-06-13T09:00

One-time crypto-currency king Sam Bankman-Fried was a big proponent of a philosophical movement known as “effective altruism,” or EA. Advocates of EA say we should use data and reason to find th...

On Background: Crypto Skeptic Proven Right from 2023-05-16T10:00

If you spend any time reporting on the world of crypto currency and Bitcoin, then you’re going to run across the name Molly White. She’s a software engineer who has been called "the cryptocurren...

On Background: A History of Bankruptcy in the US from 2023-04-11T09:00

Often when a corporation declares bankruptcy, that happens at the end of a long and difficult road. But entering bankruptcy proceedings also means setting out on a new and equally difficult road...

On Background: White-Collar Crime and Punishment from 2023-03-14T09:00

Why do people commit white-collar crimes? And how has the way we think about — and prosecute — white-collar criminals changed over time? As part of the background research for his next book, whi...

On Background: Bad Actors on the Blockchain from 2023-02-14T10:00

For his next book, Michael Lewis wants to find out how investigators manage to trace the murky trail of illicit crypto. Cryptocurrency started with the dream of cash changing hands wit...

On Background from Against the Rules from 2023-01-31T10:00

Michael Lewis's next book is all about Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the crypto-currency exchange FTX, who now faces federal charges. As with all of his books, Lewis is talking with experts to g...

Episode 7: The Person Who Knows from 2022-05-24T09:00

The United States had a pandemic plan. But when a pandemic came, we hesitated to follow it. The country was hobbled by argument and doubt. Much of that doubt came from experts who proposed that ...

Episode 6: The Overconfidence Game from 2022-05-17T09:00

In which several people, including Rebecca Solnit, Katty Kay, and Maria Konnikova, help Michael understand the not-so-secret power of men to offer themselves up as experts, when they clearly are...

Episode 5: The Sanchez Problem from 2022-05-03T09:00

There’s one kind of expert whose role is enshrined in law: that of the expert witness, who’s called on to bolster one side of a case. But courtrooms are not great places for nuance. ...

Episode 4: Respect the Polygon from 2022-04-19T09:00

Experts know more now than ever before. And we’re more critical of them than ever before, too. But one kind of expert really gets us riled up: the type who deals in probabilities. We hear from m...

Episode 3: Field of Ignorance from 2022-04-12T09:00

The right kind of expert, at the right time, can change everything. While working as a security guard at a pork-and-beans cannery in Kansas, Bill James started writing about baseball. But writin...

Episode 1: Six Levels Down from 2022-04-05T09:00

Athenahealth was just another healthcare provider facing the biggest problem US doctors face: not treating patients, but getting insurance companies to pay their bills. But then the company figu...

Episode 2: The Art of the Untold Story from 2022-04-05T09:00

Why can’t we see the experts right in front of us, even when they're saving our lives? Maybe it's because the specialized knowledge of many experts defies good storytelling. We hear from a nonpr...

Against the Rules Season 3: The Ballad of Expertise from 2022-03-22T09:00

In “Against the Rules,” journalist and bestselling author Michael Lewis takes a searing look at what’s happened to fairness—in financial markets, newsrooms, basketball games, courts of law, and ...

The Future of Drones from What’s Your Problem from 2022-03-17T04:00

As we're getting ready for the new season of Against the Rules on April 5, we're sharing an episode from Pushkin's newest show, What's Your Problem? Former Planet Money host Jacob Goldstein talks ...

Other People’s Money: Dash Riprock and the Human Piranha Revealed from 2022-02-15T10:00

Liar’s Poker describes many of the mentors Michael Lewis had at the investment bank Salomon Brothers. He chose to keep some of their identities secret, out of a well-founded fear that the book migh...

Other People’s Money: Jacob Goldstein and the Bonds of Wall Street from 2022-02-08T10:00

For the first time in more than 30 years, Michael Lewis has re-read Liar’s Poker. That experience brought up a lot of questions — especially, why is a book set in the pre-Internet Wall Street of...

Introducing Other People's Money: A Liar's Poker Companion from 2022-01-26T17:00

Michael Lewis published his first book, Liar's Poker, in 1989. It’s about his time as a bond salesman on Wall Street — and it was a runaway best seller. Pushkin Industries is re-releasing it for...

The Michael Lewis Story, from Talk Easy from 2021-12-13T10:00

This week, we present a special episode: Michael's interview on Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso. It begins with the release of "The Premonition" (2:40), which reveals how the U.S. mishandled the pandemi...

Live Interview 5/19/21: Michael Lewis and Geraldine Brooks from 2021-06-16T11:42

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks interviews Michael Lewis about his new book “The Premonition: A Pandemic Story.” They also discuss how Michael started his writing career and why...

Against the Rules Presents: A Slight Change of Plans from 2021-05-27T09:00

Michael Lewis speaks to his friend, the cognitive scientist Dr. Maya Shankar, about her new podcast, A Slight Change of Plans. They discuss Maya’s own life change, why she decided to make a podcast...

The Premonition from 2021-05-04T09:00

In this special bonus episode of Against the Rules, Michael Lewis reads a chapter from his new book about the pandemic, The Premonition Listen