Book · 2009 · Economic conditions
The big short
#85 of 16,760 books, ranked by how many different people bring it up on podcasts
- mentions
- 37
- people
- 22
- podcasts
- 16
- episodes
- 28
- critical mentions
- 0
Same in 2007, like the reason the Big Short is such a good movie and a and a good book in particular is because there was only like four people who really actually saw it coming and were able to make money off of the vast majority of the people who do it for a living, they either had too.
What they say about it
- Movie adaptation and film“an even more unlikely book to be turned into a film”9
- Authorship and background“Michael Lewis was born to write”5
- 2008 financial crash and traders“predict and profit off of the 2008 financial crash”3
The best things said about it
This was based on a book Lewis wrote about a group of traders who had the foresight to predict and profit off of the 2008 financial crash.
The Big Short, Lewis's book about how a housing bubble turned into a financial disaster.
Stephen Dubner Freakonomics Radio · Apr 2024 When I read that book, I had one of those weird moments where I just knew how it should look and I knew that I was going to break the fourth wall.
I think Michael Lewis was born to write The Big Short. Everything in his life was leading up like his background in finance, all his other books, all his characters.
Ryan Holiday How I Write · Jun 2024 The Big Short, which is one of the greatest non-fiction books of all time but also a massive hit.
I think maybe The Big Short, I just learned so much.
Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
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How it comes up
22 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
The Big Short by Michael Lewis is a non-fiction book examining the accumulation of risk and the bursting of the housing bubble that led to the 2008 financial crisis. On SmartLess in 2022, Sean Hayes joined a discussion where Jason noted that Lewis had written several works that were successfully adapted into major feature films, explicitly naming The Big Short alongside The Blind Side and Moneyball. On The Joe Rogan Experience in 2018, Joe Rogan recommended the book when talking about the financial crisis and speculative bubbles. Earlier, on the same podcast in 2013, Bryan Callen brought up the work to explain how the housing market collapse unfolded, pointing out that the author carefully traced the events and highlighted the specific individuals who foresaw the crash. Discussing the broader themes and the related film adaptation, Candace Owens used the story on her podcast Candace to explain how undisclosed mortgages and title search failures contributed to the economic turmoil. Brian Armstrong mentioned the book and film on All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg to illustrate the systemic flaws and political nature of traditional AAA bond rating organizations. Additionally, Robert Evans dedicated a segment on Behind the Bastards in 2025 to dissecting the author's background, noting that the narrative focused on a distinct group of traders who predicted and profited from the collapse, while also observing that the book was paradoxically embraced by the exact financial professionals it aimed to critique.
Every mention
Sean Hayes Some of his books have even become some of our favorite movies, such as The Blind Side, Moneyball, and The… 2
Discussed
“some of his books have even become some of our favorite movies such as the blind side moneyball and the big short”
Recommended
“Some of his books have even become some of our favorite movies, such as The Blind Side, Moneyball, and The Big Short.”
Bryan Callen there's a a book called The Big Short by Michael Lewis and he basically traces how this all happened 1
Recommended
“there's a a book called The Big Short by Michael Lewis and he basically traces how this all happened”
Joe Rogan well Michael Lewis's book the big shorts a good book on it 1
Recommended
“well Michael Lewis's book the big shorts a good book on it”
Robert Evans Uh, this was based on a book Lewis wrote about a group of traders who had the foresight to predict and prof… 9
Discussed
“So Jamie, speaking of great authors, 80% of this episode is [ __ ] on Michael Lewis, the author of The Big Short.”
Discussed
“Uh, this was based on a book Lewis wrote about a group of traders who had the foresight to predict and profit off of the 2008 financial crash.”
Discussed
“The Big Short is obviously not a Wall Street puff piece, but it became beloved by exactly the same people you might assume it was trying to criticize.”
Discussed
“How How are you feeling on our technically not a Behind the Bastards on Michael Lewis, but basically a Behind the Bastards on Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short?”
Discussed
“Jamie speaking of great authors 80% of this episode is [ __ ] on Michael Lewis the author of The Big Short”
Discussed
“if you haven't been following the story and if Michael Lewis is not familiar to you then you probably do remember like the most famous result of one of his novels which is the movie The Big Short”
Discussed
“all of that the potential all of that had to legitimize him paled in comparison to having The Big Short dude treat you like a financial genius”
Discussed
“The Big Short is obviously not a Wall Street puff piece but it became beloved by exactly the same people you might assume it was trying to criticize”
Discussed
“it also came out that the guy who wrote The Big Short has been following him for six months so I suspect at some point it's got that's gonna be fun”
Michael Lewis And what's funny is I said that to each of the directors and the writers who have taken the projects on: Jo… 3
Discussed
“And what's funny is I said that to each of the directors and the writers who have taken the projects on: John Lee Hancock with The Blind Side, Bennett Miller with Moneyball, Adam McKay with The Big Short.”
Discussed
“you know I had a selection problem that reminded me a bit of the selection problem I had with the big short in The Big Short there was a pool of kind of 15 Wall Street guys”
Discussed
“you know I had a selection problem that reminded me a bit of the selection problem I had with a big short in The Big Short”
Ryan Holiday My version of what you're talking about is I I I think Michael Lewis was born to write uh the big short. Ev… 3
Discussed
“um he'd probably written 15 books before The Big Short came out right when the markets melted down in 2008 he had written dozens of popular books about Finance about sports about uh you know Tech entrepreneurs and then that moment happened and he was the person to write that book which sold millions of copies”
Discussed
“My version of what you're talking about is I I I think Michael Lewis was born to write uh the big short. Everything in his life was leading up like his background in finance, all his other books, all his characters”
Discussed
“but you could also argue that sort of his his development as a writer perfectly intersects with the financial crisis in 2007-2008 and you get The Big Short.”
Alexandra Alter I mean I think maybe the big short I just learned so much um that's my more than just about potatoes yeah t… 2
Discussed
“among the nominations are um Brooklyn by col toyin The Big Short by Michael Lewis room by Emma Donahue which is a really sort of chilling novel and a hard one to adapt and the Martian by Andy Weir and the Revenant which is based on U Michael pun's 2002 novel about a frontiersmen that actually picked up 12 nominations”
Discussed
“I mean I think maybe the big short I just learned so much um that's my more than just about potatoes yeah that's um that's Michael Lewis's book”
Adam McKay And I got lucky to some degree; it was The Big Short when I read that book, I had one of those weird moment… 1
Discussed
“And I got lucky to some degree; it was The Big Short when I read that book, I had one of those weird moments where I just knew how it should look and I knew that I was going to break the fourth wall.”
Brad Barrett and what you're describing with their entire business model reminds me of Michael Lewis's book The Big Shor… 1
Discussed
“and what you're describing with their entire business model reminds me of Michael Lewis's book The Big Short right where these high frequency Traders I mean they are setting up at least in my recollection they're setting up these crazy fiber optic cables to get into these stock exchanges nanoseconds earlier”
Brian Armstrong I don't feel like it's our job to be recommending investments, you know, like in the traditional financial… 1
Discussed
“I don't feel like it's our job to be recommending investments, you know, like in the traditional financial world, there's like these AAA rated bonds and you know, and I it always felt a little bit like those organizations that do the ratings are kind of always be politicized and like go see the big short.”
Candace Owens You ever seen the movie The Big Short? This is what happened. 1
Discussed
“You ever seen the movie The Big Short? This is what happened.”
David Sacks On August 22nd of 2019, Michael Burry, who is famous from The Big Short, discloses a three percent position… 1
Discussed
“On August 22nd of 2019, Michael Burry, who is famous from The Big Short, discloses a three percent position in the company and highlights that ninety percent of GameStop's 5,700 stores are free cash flow positive.”
Emily Jashinsky Same in 2007, like the reason the Big Short is such a good movie and a and a good book in particular is bec… 1
Discussed
“Same in 2007, like the reason the Big Short is such a good movie and a and a good book in particular is because there was only like four people who really actually saw it coming and were able to make money off of the vast majority of the people who do it for a living, they either had too”
Gil Luria By the way, Big Short is a story of how he was spot on, but he almost didn't make it, right? A lot of the m… 1
Discussed
“By the way, Big Short is a story of how he was spot on, but he almost didn't make it, right? A lot of the movie is about how long it takes to play out. And you can be right, but if you're right too early, you don't make it.”
Harry Dry Michael Lewis spent forever working on Wall Street, waited and waited and then was able to write The Big Sh… 1
Discussed
“Michael Lewis spent forever working on Wall Street, waited and waited and then was able to write The Big Short.”
Jamie Loftus and he would need to course correct on the Michael Lewis in the first place for how he directed The Big Short 1
Discussed
“and he would need to course correct on the Michael Lewis in the first place for how he directed The Big Short”
Jared Dillian Like if you've ever been seen the big short, they talked about these subprime loans. They had these teaser… 1
Discussed
“Like if you've ever been seen the big short, they talked about these subprime loans. They had these teaser rates and the interest rates go up and people can't afford them, right?”
Mike Maughan Michael Lewis writes about this in The Big Short you have all of these individuals who think that they are… 1
Discussed
“Michael Lewis writes about this in The Big Short you have all of these individuals who think that they are the king or the queen of their Castle”
Paul Kix Like um like I think about um Michael Lewis and 'The Big Short' which is one of the greatest non-fiction bo… 1
Discussed
“Like um like I think about um Michael Lewis and 'The Big Short' which is one of the greatest non-fiction books of all time but also a massive hit.”
Paula Pant As we were looking at what’s going on in the housing market, I thought about how it’s wonderful, the book's… 1
Discussed
“As we were looking at what’s going on in the housing market, I thought about how it’s wonderful, the book's great, and the movie's great as well. A lot of people, when we started this episode, were talking about comparisons, and you pushed back on that.”
Stephen Dubner or an even more unlikely book to be turned into a film The Big Short Lewis's book about how a housing bubbl… 1
Discussed
“or an even more unlikely book to be turned into a film The Big Short Lewis's book about how a housing bubble turned into a financial disaster”
Vivek Ramaswamy I got my first job in New York at an elite hedge fund in the fall of 2007 you know the fund I worked at got… 1
Discussed
“I got my first job in New York at an elite hedge fund in the fall of 2007 you know the fund I worked at got an honorable mention in Michael Lewis's book The Big Short this is my first job out of college”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker1
Discussed
“have you seen The Big Short where one guy figured something out early and everybody else thinks he's crazy”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (32: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“Michael Lewis, the New York Times bestselling author of "Moneyball" and "The Big Short," stops by the studio”
Passing
“By the way, you know, that seen in the big short where he's like, this is my quant. Look at him. Asian guys sitting at the table, I feel like Zuck did that with like a Gen Z kid.”
Passing
“It's a bit like Michael Burry with The Big Short.”
Passing
“It also came out that the guy who wrote The Big Short has been following him for 6 months.”
Passing
“Michael Bur likes to delete his tweets. I don't know if he's deleted them, but if you follow the Michael Bur account, famous from the Big Short, he is accusing the big tech companies from committing fraud.”
Passing
“Everybody should re-watch The Big Short and not just to see Christian Bale and Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez. It's a great movie that talks about how it's a little problem until everybody does it and then it's a big problem that affects everybody.”
Passing
“So, Gil, it's a great segue because you brought up the big short. And this has definitely been a week where that is applicable because Michael Burry, basically the star of that movie, of that story, the guy who effectively shorted the housing market”
Passing
“They make them very complicated which for the people who are the sharps who are constructing these between the poker sessions where they drop them out. It's like those option traders you know they're coming up with some really interesting synthetic thing they want to do like Michael Bur and the big short or whatever”
Passing
“He did the blind side. He did the big short.”
Passing
“Michael Bur, one of my favorite movies is The Big Short, and Michael Bur is this kind of mis mysterious character.”
Passing
“And one of the things that that SPF did as as a sort of PR thing, right, was let the author Michael Lewis of The Big Short, we're going to get to Moneyball in a second, Blind Side, uh other books”
Passing
“So I had a really interesting conversation once with the author Michael Lewis um of Moneyball and The Blindside and the big short”
Passing
“I had an intriguing conversation once with author Michael Lewis, who has written 'Moneyball,' 'The Blind Side,' and 'The Big Short.' I asked him about the extraordinary success stories he had studied: which ones remained grounded and appreciated how far they had come?”
Passing
“um I have read The Big Short so there you go Business book that we both read now I have the data for you and what you just said”
Passing
“first up Michael Lewis the number one New York Times bestselling author of more than 15 books including Moneyball The Blindside and The Big Short which were made into major Motion Pictures”
Passing
“his books include liars poker Moneyball The Big Short Flash Boys and now going infinite the rise and fall of a new Tycoon”
Passing
“His books include Liars Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short, Flash Boys, and now, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon.”
Passing
“he can say whatever he wants I can't read big short Money Ball come on Money Ball is such a great film uh I mean that's one of the things about Michael”
Passing
“it also came out that the guy who wrote The Big Short has been following him for 6 months. So, I suspect at some point it's that's going to be fun. We're all going to be in for a real treat when that book hits.”
Passing
“Michael Lewis of course of big short and Moneyball Fame has evidently been following SBF around for six months”
Passing
“Michael Lewis of Moneyball The Big Short and Larry's poker fame has evidently been following him around for six months to have Sam bigman freed”
Passing
“my favorite uh Twitter feed autism Capital who's been covering this whole story has said that Michael Lewis the guy who wrote The Big Short has been like embedded with him for the past six months”
Passing
“he's the writer of like Moneyball and The Big Short many books and so he was in the middle of profiling this guy when everything collapsed”
Passing
“and that's why if you ever watch The Big Short you know all these mortgages were highly rated debt”
Passing
“Moneyball The Blind Side The Big Short they've all become cultural phenomena turned into Blockbuster films”
Passing
“I watched The Big Short probably a couple months ago probably uh I wonder if anybody else watched it relatively recently”
Passing
“And I think also Michael Lewis, the author of The Big Short and Liar's Poker, I love his work. I'm also a big fan of Richard Thaler, the Nobel Laureate economist.”
Passing
“so they're calling it the new big short which obviously the movie made about but the difference is that ackman's short took six weeks”
Passing
“as we all learn in the big short and so you're not actually betting on it you're wimping out by pulling out your cash waiting for things to happen before you jump back in”
Passing
“apparently the big short book I've just heard this right is fantastic”
Passing
“The writer Michael Lewis, for instance. Among his books are The Big Short, Moneyball, and The Undoing Project.”
Passing
“It's a great conversation with Michael Lewis, the author of great nonfiction books that often get turned into great nonfiction movies, including The Big Short, Moneyball, and Blindside.”