The Fifth Risk

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

Length: 6 hrs

Publisher's summary

What happens when the President of the United States governs one Tweet at a time? When the elected leader of the free world may not have a firm grasp on the names of government agencies, much less an understanding of their intricate inner-workings? In the days following the 2016 inauguration, government personnel searched for answers that didn’t exist, while White House staff scoured halls for employees who would never be appointed.

Lewis’s insightful work is as much a testament to the unsung heroes who routinely go unnoticed in the unglamorous business of government as it is a criticism of the current administration’s negligence. He finds tireless public servants whose conviction and deep awareness keep schools in session and food programs afloat. Far from anti-government, The Fifth Risk is a powerful ode to those rare people who hold firm in their convictions and, despite all odds and opposition, remember why they got into government in the first place: to benefit society and better mankind.

Please note: Included with The Fifth Risk is the entirety of The Coming Storm, the Audible Original story of two scientists who revolutionized climate predictions, bringing warning systems to previously unimaginable levels of accuracy. Michael Lewis uncovers the potential cost of putting a price tag on life-saving information.

©2018 Michael Lewis (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Opens Your Eyes to what is going on behind the sce

Really gets behind the scenes of the Trump administration. The details in this book should scare everyone.

Government Employees

I wanted to hear more about the amazing people who work for our government. We are so lucky to have them,

Great beginning

I love most of Michael Lewis stuff and this one started out great but kinda lost steam in the latter half of the book. The story loses a bit of its focus when he gets into the weather prediction part, then tries to tie it all together rather abruptly at the end, which didn’t really work for me. It was all interesting to me but didn’t nail the ending.

Who knew?

This is a wonderful book that highlights the amazing things our government does, and the risks associated with allowing those intent on destroying it with keys to the place.

Worthwhile but chilling!

If you wonder about the effects of having an administration that devalues expertise, it's here, and it's chilling. A few takeaways:

* We really need to protect science!!!
* Data that taxpayers have paid for should be readily available to all of us
* There are political appointees who want to get rich off the data our tax dollars have paid for, while stopping public use of it (including weather data)
* The U.S. government has a branding problem, and it doesn't get credit for many of the good things it does... because some people want to hide that information from the public.

This book was eye opening.

God help us

This book takes a completely different look at how an unqualified, non-detailed oriented administration and a business driven agenda when it comes to government can essentially cause so many unseen hazards to our society as a whole. It was staggering to learn how little our current administration cared to even find out what the various departments of our government did, and then installed heads of those departments whose missions prior were to dismantle the very institution they now lead, or had a competing business interest that outweighed their duty to the office they are serving. The fifth risk is an eye-opening disturbing journey of how our current administration put in a former PepsiCo lobbyist to be in charge of kids school lunches, or the CEO of a for-profit weather service in charge of our governments weather and was instrumental in suppressing an app that would have warned victims of tornados sooner because they were looked at as competing with his for profit company; and as a result people died that didn’t need to. The craziest part is the sections of the country that overwhelmingly voted for Trump are the ones suffering the most and they either don’t even realize it or just choose not to understand or accept the reality of it. I hope we can come together in 2020 and elect an administration that cares for the people vs their interests.

Hidden damage to government services

This book is a sad testimony to the damage that President Trump has done to well-established, functional, and important government offices. Decades of valuable service provided by important government agencies has been severely crippled by Trump's ignorance.

Everyone should know this information

This book offers the listener startling information Americans truly need to know. Factual information. I'll listen again.

The First Days of the Trump Administration

I'm a fan of Michael Lewis, and without completely understanding the premise of "The Fifth Risk" I dove in wholeheartedly. The book walks through the transition of power between the Obama administration and the Trump administration, and outlines the curious lack of interest presented by the Trump administration heading in to the inauguration. In general, the normal transition of power activities didn't take place, and never reached anything close to the scale of past administrations. With vacancies still prevalent across the administration 2 years into his term - this book helps explain why the government has never quite gotten up to speed under President Trump.

Beyond this premise, Michael dives in to a few governmental departments to figure out how they work, and what they work on. Michael tells a number of stories along the lines of, "Although nobody in the Trump Administration really ever tried to figure it out, the Department of Commerce has very little to do with commerce... what they really do is... " Overall, these stories are fantastic and this book describes the public service, and mission of the government in a way that few seem to appreciate in the era of 24/7 political news. As much as you might align with the right or the left, we all need the government to continue clean-up of the Hanover Nuclear Facility so that Washington State continues to be inhabitable. I loved learning about these governmental departments in more detail- loved it. The only downside of the book for me is that is doesn't quite tie together as well as some of the author's previous books. Still - it's great!

Terrifying

A look inside the UD Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, and NOAA after Trumo won the election.

Listen to or read before voting.