Billionaire Biographies

Episode 30 - Hetty Green: The Witch of Wall Street

In the male-dominated world of the Gilded Age, one woman stood apart as one of its most formidable and feared financiers: Hetty Green. Nicknamed "The Witch of Wall Street" for her severe black attire and her legendary frugality, she was the richest woman in America, having built a massive fortune through shrewd investments in stocks and real estate. This episode resurrects the story of a forgotten financial genius who thrived in a world that was openly hostile to women in business.
We explore her unique investment philosophy, a deeply conservative strategy of buying low, holding for the long term, and avoiding debt at all costs. While her male counterparts engaged in risky speculation, Green quietly built an empire, becoming the lender of last resort for the city of New York during the Panic of 1907. However, her financial brilliance was often overshadowed by her extreme personal eccentricities. We investigate the stories of her legendary stinginess, from her refusal to use hot water to the infamous tale of her trying to treat her son's leg with home remedies to avoid paying a doctor's bill, a decision that eventually led to its amputation.
Hetty Green's story is a fascinating and complex portrait of a woman who broke all the rules of her time. She was a brilliant investor who beat the men of Wall Street at their own game, but her personal life remains a cautionary tale about the isolating and obsessive nature of wealth. She was a true American original, a titan of finance in a world that didn't know what to do with her.

Episode 31 - Warren Buffett: The Oracle of Omaha's Origin Story

Warren Buffett is known today as a folksy, grandfatherly figure, a sage investor who dispenses wisdom from his modest home in Omaha, Nebraska. But how did this man become the "Oracle"? This episode journeys back to the beginning, uncovering the origin story of the world's most successful investor. We trace his early life as a prodigious, numbers-obsessed boy who was reading books on finance while his peers were reading comics.
We delve into his formative years at Columbia Business School under the tutelage of Benjamin Graham, the father of "value investing." It was here that Buffett honed his core philosophy: to ignore the market's manic swings and instead focus on buying good companies at a fair price. We reveal how he took this academic principle and applied it with unparalleled discipline, starting with a small investment partnership in the 1950s that he ran from his bedroom. We track his early, masterful investments that laid the foundation for his fortune, culminating in his acquisition of a struggling textile mill called Berkshire Hathaway, which he would transform into a legendary investment vehicle.
This is the story of Buffett before the billions and the fame. We strip away the myth to reveal the ambitious, intensely focused, and brilliant young man who developed a system that would allow him to patiently and systematically conquer Wall Street from a thousand miles away.

Episode 32 - Buffett's Billions: The Contradictions of a Frugal Folk Hero

Warren Buffett has cultivated an image as America's favorite billionaire—a man who lives modestly, pays his taxes, and eats at McDonald's. But behind this carefully crafted persona lies a ruthless and pragmatic capitalist. This episode explores the deep contradictions of the Oracle of Omaha, contrasting his public pronouncements on social equity with the often-brutal realities of his business decisions.
We investigate some of Berkshire Hathaway's most controversial investments, from its large stake in Coca-Cola, a company criticized for its role in the global obesity crisis, to its ownership of Clayton Homes, a mobile home manufacturer accused of predatory lending practices. We also examine his past support of companies that profited from tobacco and his firm’s historical opposition to shareholder proposals on climate change. While Buffett advocates for higher taxes on the rich, we scrutinize how his own company has legally and masterfully minimized its tax burden for decades. He may talk like a compassionate grandfather, but he invests like a cold-blooded calculator of risk and reward.
This episode challenges the simplistic narrative of Buffett as a benevolent folk hero. We reveal a much more complex figure, a man whose personal ethics and public statements often seem at odds with the pure, unsentimental pursuit of profit that has made him one of the richest men on the planet.

Episode 33 - George Soros: The Man Who Broke the Bank of England

To some, George Soros is a visionary philanthropist and champion of democracy; to others, he is a shadowy globalist puppet master. This episode cuts through the conspiracy theories to tell the real story of the man and his money. We trace his incredible life, from his survival as a Jewish teenager in Nazi-occupied Hungary to his emergence as one of the most successful and feared hedge fund managers in history.
The centerpiece of our story is the audacious financial bet that made him a legend: his 1992 wager against the British pound. We provide a step-by-step breakdown of how Soros and his Quantum Fund correctly predicted that the British government could not maintain the pound's value, and then proceeded to short the currency with billions of dollars. The move forced the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in a day known as "Black Wednesday," netting Soros an estimated $1 billion in profit and earning him the title, "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England."
We then explore how he used his immense fortune to fund his Open Society Foundations, becoming one of the world's most influential and controversial philanthropists. His story is a powerful examination of the link between global finance and global politics. It shows how one man can use the abstract world of currency speculation to accumulate the power to reshape nations.

Episode 34 - Carl Icahn: The Corporate Raider

In the 1980s, a new kind of predator roamed Wall Street: the corporate raider. And no one embodied that role more than Carl Icahn. This episode explores the life and tactics of the original activist investor, a man who built a multi-billion-dollar fortune by waging war on the management of America's biggest companies. We delve into Icahn's signature strategy: buying a large stake in a company he deemed undervalued, and then using that position to bully, threaten, and cajole the board into making changes that would drive up the stock price.
We chronicle some of his most famous corporate raids, including his legendary hostile takeover of the airline TWA. Once in control, Icahn systematically stripped the company of its most valuable assets to pay down the debt he used to buy it, a process known as asset stripping that enriched him but ultimately crippled the airline. To his defenders, he was a shareholder champion, a necessary force holding complacent, overpaid executives accountable. To his detractors, he was a "greenmailer" and a corporate buccaneer who destroyed companies and jobs for a quick profit, with no regard for long-term consequences.
Carl Icahn’s story is a raw look at the aggressive, debt-fueled capitalism that defined an era. His tactics, once considered controversial, have now become a mainstream part of the financial world. He didn't just raid companies; he fundamentally changed the balance of power between shareholders and management.

Episode 35 - Michael Milken: The Junk Bond King

The roaring, greed-is-good ethos of the 1980s was built on a financial instrument that Michael Milken all but invented: the high-yield "junk bond." This episode tells the story of the man who revolutionized Wall Street from his X-shaped desk in Beverly Hills. We explore how Milken discovered a massive, untapped market by arguing that the bonds of smaller, riskier companies—long dismissed as "junk"—were actually undervalued and could be a source of immense profit.
We show how Milken and his firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert, created a powerful machine to issue and trade these bonds. This new source of capital unleashed the historic wave of leveraged buyouts (LBOs), allowing a new generation of corporate raiders and private equity firms to take over some of America’s most established corporations. Milken wasn't just a trader; he was a kingmaker who held immense power, deciding which deals would get financed and which companies would be taken over. At his annual "Predators' Ball," the biggest names in American business gathered to pay tribute to the man who controlled the money.
This is the story of a financial revolution that challenged the old Wall Street establishment. Michael Milken funneled billions of dollars to a new class of corporate outsiders, fundamentally changing the rules of American capitalism. He was hailed as a visionary, the man who democratized capital, before it all came crashing down.

Episode 36 - The Fall of Michael Milken: The Scandal That Defined the 80s

The empire of the Junk Bond King was built on a foundation of genius, but it was destroyed by hubris and illegality. This episode chronicles the epic downfall of Michael Milken, a saga of greed and corruption that became the defining scandal of the 1980s. We follow the sprawling insider trading investigation led by a young, ambitious U.S. Attorney named Rudy Giuliani, who was determined to make an example of Milken and the excesses of Wall Street.
We unravel the complex web of illegal activities that investigators uncovered, from secret deals with speculator Ivan Boesky to stock manipulation and racketeering. The investigation culminated in a sweeping 98-count indictment against Milken and his firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert, which was ultimately forced into bankruptcy. Facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison, the defiant Milken finally pleaded guilty to six felonies. The man who had been the most powerful financier in the world was sentenced to prison and banned from the securities industry for life.
The fall of Michael Milken was more than just the end of one man's career; it was the symbolic end of an era of unchecked greed on Wall Street. His story became a cautionary tale about the fine line between financial innovation and criminal activity. It was a scandal that left an indelible mark on the public’s perception of high finance.

Episode 37 - Steve Schwarzman: The New King of Capital

After the corporate raiders of the 80s came a new, more sophisticated force on Wall Street: private equity. This episode tells the story of Steve Schwarzman, the co-founder of the Blackstone Group, who became the undisputed king of this new financial empire. We trace Schwarzman’s journey from a Lehman Brothers executive to the head of a firm that would become the largest alternative investment firm in the world, with trillions of dollars in assets under management.
We demystify the world of private equity, explaining Blackstone’s business model: using massive amounts of debt to buy entire companies, ruthlessly cutting costs and restructuring operations away from public scrutiny, and then selling them for a huge profit a few years later. We examine some of Blackstone’s biggest deals and their societal impact, from its massive real estate investments that made it the world's largest landlord to its takeovers of iconic companies. To his supporters, Schwarzman is a master of value creation, making companies more efficient. To his critics, he is a "barbarian at the gate," a new kind of corporate raider who profits by firing workers and loading companies with debt.
Steve Schwarzman represents the modern face of Wall Street power—less bombastic than the raiders of the past, but arguably more powerful and pervasive. His story is the story of how private equity came to own a vast swath of the global economy, operating in the shadows far from the eyes of regulators and the public.

Episode 38 - Ray Dalio: The Principles of a Hedge Fund Prophet

Ray Dalio, founder of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, is one of the most successful and enigmatic figures in modern finance. This episode opens the doors to his secretive and unconventional company, which is run according to a set of rules Dalio has codified in his famous manifesto, "Principles." We explore his journey from a middle-class kid from Long Island to the head of a firm that manages hundreds of billions of dollars for sovereign governments and pension funds.
We delve into the unique and often bizarre corporate culture at Bridgewater, which is built on a philosophy of "radical truth" and "radical transparency." All meetings are recorded, employees are encouraged to openly criticize one another, and every individual is constantly rated and scored on their performance through a system of "believability-weighted idea meritocracy." To some, it is a brilliant system for eliminating ego and achieving the best results. To others, it is a cult-like environment of constant surveillance and psychological pressure.
This episode examines the mind of a man who believes he has created a system to mechanize the process of good decision-making. We question whether Dalio's "Principles" are a revolutionary guide to life and business, or simply the eccentric ideology of a billionaire who has the power to impose his worldview on thousands of employees. It is a fascinating look at a man who has tried to engineer a perfect, emotionless meritocracy.

Episode 39 - The Rise of Private Equity: How KKR and Blackstone Conquered All

How did a small group of Wall Street firms, once considered corporate outlaws, come to own everything from the hospital down the street to the country's biggest pet store? This episode provides a sweeping overview of the rise of private equity, the most powerful and least understood force in modern capitalism. We go back to the beginning, with the pioneers at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) who orchestrated the legendary, bare-knuckled leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, a battle immortalized in the book Barbarians at the Gate.
We explain in simple terms how the private equity model works: these firms are not investors in the traditional sense, but buyers of entire companies. Using very little of their own money and a huge amount of borrowed debt, they take public companies private, restructure them out of the public eye, and then sell them off for parts or take them public again for massive profits. We investigate the real-world consequences of this model, from mass layoffs and pension stripping to the loading of debt onto otherwise healthy companies. While it has made founders like Steve Schwarzman and Henry Kravis fantastically wealthy, its impact on workers and communities is fiercely debated.
This is the story of how a financial niche became a dominant force in the global economy. We expose how private equity has reshaped our world, for better or for worse, while operating almost entirely in the shadows. They are the new kings of capital, and they own more of our world than we realize.