This week on the Stay Tuned with Preet podcast, financial journalist and New York Times best-selling author Michael Lewis joins Preet to discuss the unraveling of the Department of Government Efficiency, chronicled in Lewis’s new book, Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State.
Preet and Lewis make sense of what went wrong with DOGE, discussing some of the influential figures who shaped the department’s decisions, both in front of the cameras and behind the scenes. They delve into how ideology drove DOGE’s mass firings and why the resulting suffering was not a coincidence, but part of the design. Finally, they examine the qualities that make some people more susceptible to corruption.
At the end of the episode, Preet answers listener questions about Senator Eric Schmitt’s viral mistake during a hearing with former special counsel Jack Smith. Plus, how civic awareness and engagement is on the rise during the Trump era.
In an exclusive segment for paying subscribers, Lewis reveals a surprising indirect victim of DOGE’s agenda: fire science and wildfire prevention.
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REFERENCES & SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS:
- Michael Lewis, “Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State,” W. W. Norton & Company, 10/6/26
- “Michael Lewis on the Lone Security Guard Who Resisted DOGE,” WSJ, 10/2/26
- “DOGE ‘doesn’t exist’ with eight months left on its charter,” Reuters, 11/24/25
- Michael Lewis and Preet Bharara, “What is the Fifth Risk?,” CAFE, 12/13/18
