Are bureaucrats a force for good? With Michael Lewis and Gillian Tett (Part One)
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Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm producer Mia Serenti and I'm joined today by head of programming Connor Boyle. Connor, what can we expect from today's episode? Well today we have a treat for our listeners. We recently hosted Michael Lewis in London, the acclaimed author of books including Moneyball, The Big Short, Flash Boys and Liars Poker.
To discuss the theme of his new collection of essays, which is called Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service. The argument he's really making is that government is under attack across the world, whether it's Elon Musk's doge department in the United States, whether it's uh Keir Starmer here in the UK looking to crack down on the so-called flabby state and um fire lots of civil servants, the whole concept of government is really um under attack and he's trying to remind people of some of the things that government do which makes all our lives better by telling stories such as the story of a coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, to, you know, the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, fighting tax evasion to ensure corruption doesn't become rife in in the United States. So it's a really interesting concept and he was in conversation with uh the FT's Gillian Tett, who
people will know as well. An increasingly relevant topic as well for us here in the UK is Nigel Farage's reform looks to emulate Elon Musk's doge department in the US. And we'll see what that means for our local councils as well. So unfortunately relevant for us here across the pond as well. So let's get into the conversation now live at London's Emanuel Centre.
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