10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)
From Acquired by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
December 15, 2025 · 2h 48m · Season 18 · Episode 4
About this episode
Michael Lewis joins the hosts to discuss the success of the Acquired podcast and share insights from their journey over the past decade.
Why has Acquired — seemingly against all odds — “worked”? It's a puzzling question: episodes are four hours long, they come out infrequently, and they usually don’t have guests or video. Hardly the standard-issue playbook for podcasting success! And yet well over a million smart, curious and exceedingly busy humans share their (your!) valuable time with us every month. Why? This is the exact paradox that has been rolling around in the head of Michael Lewis (yes, that Michael Lewis) since he found the show earlier this year. So we asked Michael to be our guest "interlocutor" and share what he thinks is going on here, while we share ten lessons we've stolen (graciously) from companies we've studied and brought into Acquired itself. He takes us through the entire Acquired journey: how we started, why we've never hired anyone or raised money, how we pick episodes, what our business model actually is, why we focus on quality and enjoyment over maximizing enterprise value, and ultimately why we’re all — you, him, us — kindred spirits together. Oh, and just for fun, we recorded this episode where another special journey began — the garage where Google was founded. Thank you for an…
People in this episode
Guest: Michael Lewis
Topics covered
- podcasting
- business model
- company journey
- quality over quantity
Keywords
- Acquired
- podcast success
- business lessons
- Google garage
Sponsors
J.P. Morgan Payments
Mentioned in this episode
Products: F1, ARTEZA, Rollerball Pen, Fujifilm, X100VI, Uniqlo, iPad, ACQ2
Books & works: Acquired, The Blind Side, The Undoing Project, Carve Outs, The Name of the Wind, Science, the Endless Frontier, Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase, The Art of Spending Money, Emperors of Chocolate, Against the Rules
Places: NYC
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