What is Michael Lewis's book Blockers about?

Michael Lewis told Kara Swisher that Blockers profiles career civil servants whom Elon Musk's Doge team labeled blockers and tried to remove. Most were in their fifties, had served through Trump's first term without trouble and kept their politics private. Lewis says they were not obstructing anyone, only doing their jobs and defending laws and norms, and that each had their work disrupted or career ended in a different way.

• Kathleen Walters was the IRS chief privacy officer, the person between taxpayers' returns and anyone who might weaponize them.
• Tim Curry at the Office of Personnel Management acted as a neutral referee between the civil service and political appointees.
• Former NIH director Francis Collins was pushed out, Lewis says, because he is such a strong voice for science.
• Lewis says none of his subjects regrets their choices and most are ready to return if the government is repaired.

▸In their words

“You can get another job, you can't get another soul is what they like to say.” Michael Lewis · at 19:03 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on On with Kara Swisher (2026-11-02). Read the whole episode summary →

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