Exposing the Big Fail: A Conversation with Journalist and Author Bethany McLean

Since the end of 2019, the United States has suffered 1.3 million excess deaths—that is, 1.3 million people died that would not be expected to die absent the pandemic. Controlling for population size and age, that number places the United States at a higher death per capita than all of its peers. The story of how America failed to protect its citizens is a story about policy, politics, and American capitalism. 

We hosted journalist Bethany McLean to discuss her latest landmark book: The Big Fail: What the Pandemic Revealed About Who America Protects and Who It Leaves Behind. 

She discussed what the pandemic taught us about American capitalism’s fragility, inequity, complexity, and—with our help and work—promise.

“[T]he problems with the business world aren’t always just about business. They can also be about life and death.” – Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, The Big Fail

Bethany McLean is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, a columnist for Yahoo Finance, and a contributor to CNBC covering corporate governance issues. Her 2001 Fortune piece, "Is Enron Overpriced?", was one of the first skeptical articles about the company. After Enron collapsed into bankruptcy, she co-authored (with Peter Elkind) The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. A documentary based on the book was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006. More recently, Bethany McLean has been covering headline corporate news such as Tesla, Wells Fargo, or the Shale gas revolution in the US. She is also a regular guest on CNBC TV.

Student leader moderator

Thomas Newcomb, MBA '24