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Making Winners: The Coaching Explosion
An insightful collection from the Against the Rules podcast that answers the ultimate question: can even Michael Lewis be coached?
Journalist and bestselling author Michael Lewis’ podcast Against the Rules is dedicated to examining what's happened to fairness. It feels like there's less of it every day, and one of the “haves” of those who are better off includes access to coaching. But does having a coach help or hinder us?
Making Winners is a highly personal anthology of Michael Lewis' podcast episodes on coaching. He visits his own high school baseball coach and subjects himself to publicly trying to overcome his greatest fear–with help from a coach, of course. Other chapters focus on lending practices, college admissions, professional sports, and psychological well-being. Who are the people trying to level the playing field, and are they making an impact? Making Winners includes a new foreword and afterword written with Lewis’s trademark insight and wry humor.
Anyone new to podcasts in general or Against the Rules specifically will become engrossed in Making Winners, which, with over five hours of beautifully produced audio content, highlights Lewis’ trademark insight and storytelling.
Please note: This collection includes content that has been released in the podcast series.
Journalist and bestselling author Michael Lewis’ podcast Against the Rules is dedicated to examining what's happened to fairness. It feels like there's less of it every day, and one of the “haves” of those who are better off includes access to coaching. But does having a coach help or hinder us?
Making Winners is a highly personal anthology of Michael Lewis' podcast episodes on coaching. He visits his own high school baseball coach and subjects himself to publicly trying to overcome his greatest fear–with help from a coach, of course. Other chapters focus on lending practices, college admissions, professional sports, and psychological well-being. Who are the people trying to level the playing field, and are they making an impact? Making Winners includes a new foreword and afterword written with Lewis’s trademark insight and wry humor.
Anyone new to podcasts in general or Against the Rules specifically will become engrossed in Making Winners, which, with over five hours of beautifully produced audio content, highlights Lewis’ trademark insight and storytelling.
Please note: This collection includes content that has been released in the podcast series.
Audiobook
Published July 12, 2022
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About the author
Michael Lewis
42 books15.3k followersMichael Monroe Lewis is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. He is known for his nonfiction work, particularly his coverage of financial crises and behavioral finance.
Lewis was born in New Orleans and attended Princeton University, from which he graduated with a degree in art history. After attending the London School of Economics, he began a career on Wall Street during the 1980s as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers. The experience prompted him to write his first book, Liar's Poker (1989). Fourteen years later, Lewis wrote Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (2003), in which he investigated the success of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics. His 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game was his first to be adapted into a film, The Blind Side (2009). In 2010, he released The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. The film adaptation of Moneyball was released in 2011, followed by The Big Short in 2015.
Lewis's books have won two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and several have reached number one on the New York Times Bestsellers Lists, including his most recent book, Going Infinite (2023).
Lewis was born in New Orleans and attended Princeton University, from which he graduated with a degree in art history. After attending the London School of Economics, he began a career on Wall Street during the 1980s as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers. The experience prompted him to write his first book, Liar's Poker (1989). Fourteen years later, Lewis wrote Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (2003), in which he investigated the success of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics. His 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game was his first to be adapted into a film, The Blind Side (2009). In 2010, he released The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. The film adaptation of Moneyball was released in 2011, followed by The Big Short in 2015.
Lewis's books have won two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and several have reached number one on the New York Times Bestsellers Lists, including his most recent book, Going Infinite (2023).
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 8, 2023
"Making Winners: The Coaching Explosion," is a book by Michael Lewis that I read in July 2023.
The book is an amalgamation of several stories, detailing Lewis's journey and highlighting his unique voice as he deals with his childhood trauma of being a singer. The book's main theme is how culture allows one to overcome one's limitations and embark on a journey to self-improvement. The key takeaway is that if you aim for improvement, it can be achieved through a journey, but you should align yourself with people who are experts in their fields. Interestingly, the more accomplished one is (consider professional athletes or executives), the more one seeks coaching. There's also a five-stage coaching relationship, where it evolves from the student to the coach, as the student entrusts their faith in the coach, and the coach subsequently takes charge.
Chapter 1 focuses on Dan Brown, a University of Chicago Booth School of Business graduate who was homeschooled and overcame abject poverty to start and sell several companies for significant profit. This chapter revolves around the challenges Dan's mother faced due to a lack of financial training and Dan's ambition to ensure financial education for the poorest. There's also a character who is a teacher, but her financial anxiety prevents her from checking her bank account. Michael Lewis proposes an idea to help her pay off her school loans, only for her to acquire more debt with a dentist. Lewis also talks about Tally, an app that consolidates credit card debts.
Chapter 2 is about Lewis's high school baseball coach, who was chronicled in the movie "Passing Glory." Here we learn that Michael Lewis attended a top high school in New Orleans, and the coach, despite his stringent methods, successfully trained many professional athletes. However, even with these remarkable results, the coach was almost fired in the early 2000s because some parents thought he was too direct and harsh in telling their kids their flaws, and for strictly upholding punishments when they violated rules during events like Mardi Gras.
Chapter 3 is about Michael Lewis's daughter, Dixie, a competitive high school softball player. She started working with a coach who helped her become a much better player by teaching her to focus on what she could control, using a mantra of being "loose and aggressive." She became more focused and learned to tune out distractions. This chapter also reveals how Lewis deals with his road rage by imagining himself in a bubble and taking control of the situation by wiggling his toes.
Chapter 4, "The Culture Fact," primarily discusses how underprivileged people struggle to deal with situations like college, first jobs, or travel, which wealthier people find routine. The main character represents a San Francisco nonprofit that pairs talented teenagers with colleges seeking such students. Lewis also criticizes the SAT and the ACT, showing how effective coaching can help underprivileged people achieve better grades. However, coaching is not universally accessible, and often these individuals get lost by the wayside. Another key character is a highly talented African-American youth who, with the help of an immigrant Ph.D. mentor, gains acceptance into about 12 colleges.
Chapter 5, "The Data Coach," tells the story of a baseball coach who uses high-speed cameras to understand his players' reactions. Lewis also converses with several big data companies, discovering that successful dialogues tend to have speakers talking around 46% of the time and asking about 13 questions. Speak too little, and you seem unprepared; speak too much, and you risk alienating your audience. The protagonist here is a Harvard Business School student looking to improve her conversational skills.
Chapter 6, "The Unfair Coach," covers the difficulties faced by the poor who lack access to good coaching. Lewis talks with several standardized test coaches who demonstrate how effective coaching can significantly improve students' grades.
In Chapter 7, Lewis chronicles his journey to exorcise his school-era demons and become a better speaker by enlisting the help of one of Hollywood's top voice coaches. Echoing Bette Midler's sentiment that it's all about practice, he transitions from being insecure about his voice to someone who can confidently sing the song that troubled him during middle school.
The book is an amalgamation of several stories, detailing Lewis's journey and highlighting his unique voice as he deals with his childhood trauma of being a singer. The book's main theme is how culture allows one to overcome one's limitations and embark on a journey to self-improvement. The key takeaway is that if you aim for improvement, it can be achieved through a journey, but you should align yourself with people who are experts in their fields. Interestingly, the more accomplished one is (consider professional athletes or executives), the more one seeks coaching. There's also a five-stage coaching relationship, where it evolves from the student to the coach, as the student entrusts their faith in the coach, and the coach subsequently takes charge.
Chapter 1 focuses on Dan Brown, a University of Chicago Booth School of Business graduate who was homeschooled and overcame abject poverty to start and sell several companies for significant profit. This chapter revolves around the challenges Dan's mother faced due to a lack of financial training and Dan's ambition to ensure financial education for the poorest. There's also a character who is a teacher, but her financial anxiety prevents her from checking her bank account. Michael Lewis proposes an idea to help her pay off her school loans, only for her to acquire more debt with a dentist. Lewis also talks about Tally, an app that consolidates credit card debts.
Chapter 2 is about Lewis's high school baseball coach, who was chronicled in the movie "Passing Glory." Here we learn that Michael Lewis attended a top high school in New Orleans, and the coach, despite his stringent methods, successfully trained many professional athletes. However, even with these remarkable results, the coach was almost fired in the early 2000s because some parents thought he was too direct and harsh in telling their kids their flaws, and for strictly upholding punishments when they violated rules during events like Mardi Gras.
Chapter 3 is about Michael Lewis's daughter, Dixie, a competitive high school softball player. She started working with a coach who helped her become a much better player by teaching her to focus on what she could control, using a mantra of being "loose and aggressive." She became more focused and learned to tune out distractions. This chapter also reveals how Lewis deals with his road rage by imagining himself in a bubble and taking control of the situation by wiggling his toes.
Chapter 4, "The Culture Fact," primarily discusses how underprivileged people struggle to deal with situations like college, first jobs, or travel, which wealthier people find routine. The main character represents a San Francisco nonprofit that pairs talented teenagers with colleges seeking such students. Lewis also criticizes the SAT and the ACT, showing how effective coaching can help underprivileged people achieve better grades. However, coaching is not universally accessible, and often these individuals get lost by the wayside. Another key character is a highly talented African-American youth who, with the help of an immigrant Ph.D. mentor, gains acceptance into about 12 colleges.
Chapter 5, "The Data Coach," tells the story of a baseball coach who uses high-speed cameras to understand his players' reactions. Lewis also converses with several big data companies, discovering that successful dialogues tend to have speakers talking around 46% of the time and asking about 13 questions. Speak too little, and you seem unprepared; speak too much, and you risk alienating your audience. The protagonist here is a Harvard Business School student looking to improve her conversational skills.
Chapter 6, "The Unfair Coach," covers the difficulties faced by the poor who lack access to good coaching. Lewis talks with several standardized test coaches who demonstrate how effective coaching can significantly improve students' grades.
In Chapter 7, Lewis chronicles his journey to exorcise his school-era demons and become a better speaker by enlisting the help of one of Hollywood's top voice coaches. Echoing Bette Midler's sentiment that it's all about practice, he transitions from being insecure about his voice to someone who can confidently sing the song that troubled him during middle school.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 6, 2025
Taken from Season Two of his “Against the Rules” podcast, this included some really. good stories about coaches. Among them - founder of Tally Technologies Jason Brown, writer of The Inner Game of Tennis W. Timothy Gallwey - folks who seem to understand the difference between ‘teaching’ verses ‘coaching’.
A compelling example happens when Gallwey’s hired to coach members of an orchestra when he plays no instrument - and it helps. Definitely worthwhile - compelling in audio form, and Lewis motivated me to dig deeper into learning about some of his examples. Really useful, and also fun.
There are other stories I found incredibly inspiring in this one - it’s probably simpler for you to hear them for yourself. Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.
A compelling example happens when Gallwey’s hired to coach members of an orchestra when he plays no instrument - and it helps. Definitely worthwhile - compelling in audio form, and Lewis motivated me to dig deeper into learning about some of his examples. Really useful, and also fun.
There are other stories I found incredibly inspiring in this one - it’s probably simpler for you to hear them for yourself. Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.
December 24, 2023
I like Michael Lewis' books, but this one is not like the others. Seems like a bunch of podcasts edited to sound like a book and a tribute to his daughter. Just a little curiosity, and can be easily skipped.
August 24, 2022
Really nice as an audio book. Thought provoking on how coaches influence us and how often those who need it most don't have access to it.
July 30, 2023
It's not good.
August 25, 2023
I'm a huge Michael Lewis fan. This book doesn't disappoint, quick read.
January 24, 2024
Just sublime. Some fantastic insights and case studies for life-long learning.
May 15, 2024
Didn't realize this was based on podcasts, but I loved it. Very approachable and useful information.
November 20, 2025
Great as a audiobook!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews