November 17, 2026 - 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Michael Lewis
with Jeremy Hobson
An inside look at the early days of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, as told by the public servants it targeted and one of America’s best storytellers.
Virtual Event
PURCHASE VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (US Orders Only)
November 17, 2026 6:00 pm
$48 Virtual Admission + signed book (includes shipping to US addresses only).
Includes access to watch the event on November 17 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days.
Michael Lewis
New York Times best-selling author Michael Lewis has published many books on subjects ranging from politics to Wall Street to sports. His books include: Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short*, The Blind Side, The Undoing Project*, The Fifth Risk, The Premonition*, Going Infinite*, and Flash Boys*. He edited Who Is Government?, an anthology by an all-star team of writers exploring the consequential work of government workers. Lewis is the creator and host of Apple’s #1-rated podcast Against the Rules, a searing look at what’s happened to fairness in American life through the lens of people who depend on public trust. He grew up in New Orleans and lives in Berkeley, California, with his family. (He has appeared on the Live Talks Los Angeles stage for these books. He has also interviewed Malcolm Gladwell and Walter Isaacson for us.)
Jeremy Hobson
Jeremy Hobson is an award-winning journalist and the creator, host, and executive producer of The Middle, a nationally syndicated call-in show that brings Americans together across political and cultural divides. The program airs on nearly 500 NPR stations nationwide, including Thursdays on LAist in Los Angeles, and is also available as a podcast and on YouTube. Previously, Jeremy hosted NPR’s Here & Now and Marketplace Morning Report, and frequently anchored live special coverage of major news events for NPR. Over his career, he has reported from Washington and Wall Street, and has interviewed thousands of newsmakers, from world leaders and business executives to artists and everyday Americans.
Blockers. It wasn’t a compliment. In the new Washington, it was the worst thing you could be―especially if you worked in the federal government and wanted to keep your job. A Blocker was a holdover, an impediment, someone who didn’t get the message―and, most of all, someone who didn’t belong.
Michael Lewis found six of them.
Blockers is the story of people who believed they had a calling, who were convinced they were doing something the country couldn’t do without, and then discovered they were no longer wanted. One kept Americans’ most sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands and another made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules. One figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods, another helped uncover the mysteries of cystic fibrosis.
There was also a security guard.
It should come as no surprise that the writer who made subprime mortgages gripping (The Big Short) and who turned baseball statistics into poetry (Moneyball) could transform the first two years of the second Trump administration into a thriller about federal employees. But he does.
And he does something else. He puts before us a clear question: If these public servants can’t survive in government today, then what does that say about us?
