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Michael Lewis: In Urgent Defence of Government

Why we must remember the often overlooked ways government officials do work that is deeply consequential to our lives

The concept of government is under attack. In the United States, Donald Trump has fired tens of thousands of federal workers; ignored congressional statutes; insulted judges; and allowed  Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, access to sensitive government information in a slash-and-burn campaign against the US government.

In June 2025 Michael Lewis, the renowned author of bestselling non-fiction masterpieces including Moneyball, The Big Short, Flash Boys and Liar’s Poker, came to the Intelligence Squared stage to tell the inside story of how the Trump administration is dismantling the government and how potentially disastrous the consequences for us all might be.  

Drawing from his new collection of essays Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service, Lewis argued that we must remember the often overlooked ways government officials do work that is deeply consequential to our lives. He shared impactful stories of public service, such as the story of a coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse and an Internal Revenue Service agent fighting tax evasion like a character straight out of a crime thriller.


Speakers

Speaker

Michael Lewis

Internationally bestselling author whose latest book is Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon


Author whose global bestselling books lift the lid on the biggest stories of our times. They include Flash Boys, a game-changing exposé of high-speed scamming; The Big Short, which was made into a hit Oscar-winning film; Liar's Poker, the book that defined the excesses of the 1980s; and The Fifth Risk, revealing what happens when democracy unravels. Michael Lewis was born in New Orleans and educated at Princeton University and the London School of Economics. His new book is Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon.   
Host

Gillian Tett

Provost of Kings College, Cambridge and Financial Times columnist


Provost of Kings College, Cambridge and Financial Times columnist. She is the author of many books including Fools Gold and the new book Anthro-Vision: A New Way to see Business and Life. Gillian holds a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge and has won numerous awards, including Columnist, Journalist and Business Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards. She has been elected the next Provost of King's College, Cambridge and will take office in October 2023.