Episode · Behind the Bastards · 2023-12-07
Books mentioned on Part Two: The Last Sam Bankman-Fried Episodes (secretly about Michael Lewis)
Robert and Jamie conclude the thrilling tale of Sam Bankman-Fried and his biographer, Michael Lewis. See omnystudio.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The big short
The Big Short by Michael Lewis is a non-fiction account detailing the buildup of the housing market bubble and the financial crisis of the late 2000s through the eyes of contrarian investors.
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?”
Where to get it
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The Blind Side
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis is a celebrated non-fiction book that examines the evolution of football strategy and the recruitment of offensive tackle Michael Oher, highlighting how changes in the game transformed the value of specific athletic positions.
Discussed“So, in the in the intervening days, I've talked about the Michael Lewis of it all with a couple different people just to see if I was like if if if I had just missed something, but every single person I talked to, I found had a similar experience to me where they did not know that he wrote The”
Where to get it
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Going Infinite
Going Infinite by Michael Lewis is a non-fiction book that chronicles the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried and his cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Discussed“One of the most remarkable things about Going Infinite is how much detail Lewis provides about FTX's collapse without ever calling Sam a liar. The Guardian's review noted this, too.”
Where to get it
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Number Go Up
Number Go Up by Zeke Faux is an investigative journalism book that exposes the rampant scams, dubious financial practices, and dark underbelly of the cryptocurrency boom.
Recommended“If you do want to get something valuable and a a deeper understanding about like how grifty this whole was and also how grifty Sam was, there's a book called Number Go Up by Zeke Faux, Zeke Faux, um really good book, Number Go Up, which I do recommend to people curious for the dark side of crypto.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (3) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Well, cuz yeah, they were like, yeah, Michael Lewis, Moneyball, The Big Short.”
“You butt chugging the contents of Infinite Jest was a Parthenon-level work of art.”
“Buy a copy of Raw Dog. It's my book about hot dogs. And if you don't like hot dogs, the title's funny and I think that's, you know, about 60% of the purchases I've gotten have been off that alone.”