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The Next Big Idea · 2025-06-19 · 69 min · 13,337 words

Best Of: Michael Lewis Runs Toward Pleasure

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LinkedIn presents. I'm Rufus Grism and this is the next big idea. Today, Michael Lewis on Sam Bankman Freed, The Art of Storytelling and Being Unreasonably Happy. The first time we tried to get Michael Lewis on the show was back in February 2022. He just released an audiobook of Liars Poker, the book that made him famous 30 years ago.

We thought it was a good time to talk with him about what he'd learned in the three decades since, decades in which he'd become America's foremost financial journalist and arguably the nation's greatest storyteller. His team declined. Michael was out of the country, they said, working on a new book. When pressed for details, the only thing they'd tell us was, trust me, it's fascinating. Nine months later, on November 11, 2022, their cryptic response suddenly made sense.

The cryptocurrency world is reeling after the meltdown of one of its most popular trading platforms. Sam Bankman Freed stepping down as CEO of FTX. As his crypto exchange files for bankruptcy, his net worth was more than $26 billion. It's now down to zero. There's so much we don't know.

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