Michael Lewis - Arenas of American Ambition - [Glue Guys, EP.22]

How do you turn overlooked data into bestselling stories that change industries? Michael Lewis reveals his process for finding and telling groundbreaking narratives, from Moneyball to Flash Boys to The Big Short. He also explains how he came across Shane’s unique impact on basketball, and how Kobe Bryant secretly studied his profile––“No Stats All-Star”––to counter Shane’s tactics. Jump inside the mind of one of our favorite authors and leave with a clear (and surprisingly simple) sense of how to find extraordinary stories. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Ramp, the financial operation platform that simplifies everything about how businesses spend money and spend their time. You can manage spend approvals, control your expenses, automate your accounting, track your vendor relationships, book your travel and delight your entire workforce with intuitive business software. Ramp enables you to focus all of your attention on what's most important. Get started now and build a more efficient team and a more profitable business, whether you have five employees or 25,000. Go to ramp.com/gg to sign up for free and receive a $250 welcome bonus. —- Glue Guys is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Glue Guys, visit https://joincolossus.com/series/glue-guys/. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @GlueGuys_Pod | @JoinColossus Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Show Notes: (00:00:00) Learn about Ramp (00:02:08) Introducing Michael Lewis: A Career Overview (00:03:26) High School Football Memories: Reggie Bush and Beyond (00:08:20) Evaluating Quarterbacks: Talent and Processing (00:22:22) The Evolution of College Athletes (00:24:24) The Story Behind 'No Stats All-Star' (00:27:01) Shane Battier's Unique Defensive Techniques (00:34:17) Impact of Writing on Sports and Athletes (00:39:01) The Coal Miner Story and Public Service (00:45:17) The Art of Finding the Right Character (00:48:45) Revisiting Old Ideas (00:50:17) The Intersection of Sports and Finance (00:51:09) The Appeal of Competitive Environments (00:52:14) From Wall Street to Sports Writing (00:55:06) The Evolution of Analytics in Sports (00:56:34) The Art of Storytelling (00:57:51) Unique Jobs and Hidden Talents (01:01:04) The Value of Being Useful (01:05:17) Financial Literacy in Sports (01:07:17) The Future of NIL Deals