Michael Lewis in conversation with Mark Little

The acclaimed American author and financial journalist Michael Lewis, in conversation with author and correspondent Mark Little, tackles the hapless efforts of DOGE to dismantle the public service. On the occasion of Mark Lewis's new book Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State, this is an evening not to miss.

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In early 2025, an army of young men invaded the offices of US government. Armed with laptops and sleeping bags, a raft of prejudices and a bulletproof sense of mission instilled in them by their new boss, Elon Musk, the tech bro acolytes of DOGE were on a mission to seek and destroy, by any means necessary. But once inside, they came up against a group of people whose courage, commitment and in some cases lifelong devotion to the nation they served would quickly earn them the wrath of Musk. He called them Blockers. Find the Blockers, Musk told his band of worshipful young men – and eliminate them.

Blockersis the story of the unsung heroes at the heart of the most complex and powerful machine ever designed by humankind, who fought back when DOGE, and then even darker forces, wanted to smash it all up. One kept Americans’ most sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands, another made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules. One figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighbourhoods, another delivered the cure to cystic fibrosis. There was also a security guard.

This is a thriller about unlikely rebels and power-drunk villains. It is also a cautionary tale that asks, what do we do when the idea of public service becomes worthless? When the things we didn’t even realise we were taking for granted suddenly no longer exist. When we don’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone.

PLEASE NOTE: TICKET PRICE INCLUDES BOOK

Michael Lewis's global bestselling books lift the lid on the biggest stories of our times. They includeFlash 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, most recently,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.

Mark Little is an entrepreneur and journalist working to understand the impact of technology on media and democracy. Mark is the co-founder of Kinzen, which used AI and human analysis to detect online harms, and the founder of Storyful, the world's first social news agency. Mark has worked on trust and safety issues at Spotify, and developed media partnerships for Twitter. He is a former TV presenter and foreign correspondent for RTE, and was a member of the Future of Media Commission, tasked with mapping the future of public media in Ireland.

PRESENTED BY THE BORRIS FESTIVAL OF WRITING AND IDEAS.