Who Is Government? Audiobook By Michael Lewis cover art

Who Is Government?

The Untold Story of Public Service

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Who Is Government?

By: Michael Lewis
Narrated by: Michael Lewis, Sarah Vowell, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, W. Kamau Bell
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About this listen

Who works for the government and why does their work matter? An urgent and absorbing civics lesson from an all-star team of writers and storytellers.

The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It’s also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it’s made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone.

Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers to find someone doing an interesting job for the government and write about them in a special in-depth series for the Washington Post. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees.

Whether they’re digitizing archives, chasing down cybercriminals, or discovering new planets, these public servants are committed to their work and universally reluctant to take credit. Expanding on the Washington Post series, the vivid profiles in Who Is Government? blow up the stereotype of the irrelevant bureaucrat. They show how the essential business of government makes our lives possible, and how much it matters.

©2025 Michael Lewis (P)2025 Penguin Audio
Career Success Politics & Government Public Policy
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What listeners say about Who Is Government?

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The breadth of magnificent work across government.

This is an absolutely magnificent collection of vignettes about the contributions of government employees in diverse areas we don’t usually think of. As heart warming as these accounts are, one cannot escape the awareness that is exactly these things that Musk and DOGE are deliberately trying to destroy.

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Real Bureaucrats

Putting human faces on the false image of Federal bureaucracy . Documenting what is being destroyed by DOGE.

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Great listen but side-steps critical questions

This book does a great job telling interesting vignettes of exceptional public servants doing valuable work. These public servants are by no means average and hardly representative of the average value for money taxpayers are getting from their government.

This book makes the reader believe that government spending is a good investment. But a good investment when compared to what? What tradeoffs are we making because we chose to fund this bureaucracy— and are we better, or worse-off because of it?

Money returned to taxpayers is also valuable; as is solving the same problem the government is trying to solve — better and cheaper — in the private sector. These second, and weightier, questions are side-stepped throughout this book.

An interesting read but it misses these core questions — plus, I would have opted for professional narrators for Audible. Some of the voices were a bit grating, reducing enjoyment.

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Very well written and read

It was nice to hear each author read the pieces. Well worth listening to and thinking about.

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So beautiful it made me cry.

I love it all, especially the last story. What an amazing find and there it may stay if others don't find this book. Just as invisible as the unrecognized heros in our federal agencies have been, this book comes at a time when we all have to reject the assaults on the "deep state". The Republican assaults is revealing just how important the federal bureaucracy is in our lives.

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Very Pleasant Surprises in Every Story

We found this audio book to be a great experience to share while driving through Wyoming. We certainly learned somethings, and may even be able to help some family members with the information. Highly recommend!

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Mr. Lewis always timely

Mr. Lewis does it again. A book that makes you think about a topic at the exact moment you should be doing the thinking.

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True Reward

These stories reveal people we know but the mainstream press doesn’t - people who find their rewards in their work, not the remuneration.
We all know Social Workers, Ministers, Teachers, Nonprofit Workers, etc who love their work even though the monetary benefits are limited. But the capitalist-ideology driven media can’t see them, because they truly believe everyone’s motivation is the mon

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The government still does amazing and needed things.

It really renewed my faith in humanity at a time when so many negative things seem to be happening.

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Good stories

Micheal Lewis is one of my favorite authors and I didn’t realize he only wrote a short story in this collection of articles that tell similar stories. My main critique is the authors weren’t very good narrators and I think that takes away from the overall quality in this format.

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