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PODCAST

Good Bad Billionaire

BBC World Service

How did the richest people on the planet make their billions? Find out with the Good Bad Billionaire podcast - now with a chance for you to have your say. Make up your minds whether you think they are good, bad or just another billionaire.Latest episodes: Luciano Benetton and Elon Musk.In each episode of Good Bad Billionaire, BBC Business Editor Simon Jack and journalist and author Zing Tsjeng analyse the lives of the super-rich, and try to understand what motivates billionaires like Kim Kardashian

business entrepreneurship

All Episodes

47:12

John D Rockefeller: The first billionaire

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/07/07

John D Rockefeller built his fortune refining oil and founding Standard Oil. A pioneer of the U.S. business trust, he helped shape the structure of the modern corporation. His influence lives on in companies like Chevron, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips, and in institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation. But not everyone saw him as a visionary. President Theodore Roosevelt branded the Rockefeller family a “malefactor of great wealth,” and Rockefeller’s monopoly helped spark America’s first

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1:58

Coming soon: Good Bad Dead Billionaire

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/06/23

We’re back – but with a difference! Find out how some of the world's most famous dead billionaires made their money. Meet five billionaires who helped build the United States of America. First up: oil tycoon John D Rockefeller, the world’s first billionaire. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng also revisit the lives of motor magnate Henry Ford, the aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes, Walmart founder Sam Walton, and Hetty Green - once dubbed “The Witch of Wall Street”. These iconic billionaires may be dead,

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40:12

Eike Batista: Golden grifter

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/06/02

Mining magnate Eike Batista was once Brazil’s richest person, but corruption led to his downfall. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng lift the lid on a flashy and eccentric former billionaire who started out in gold mining. Batista then oversaw huge oil, gas and logistics projects but, after his investments crashed, the authorities ordered his arrest. The podcast that tells tales of titans of technology, Wall Street moguls, pop stars, sporting legends, CEOs and

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48:18

LeBron James: King of the court

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/05/26

LeBron James was selling out basketball arenas while still in high school. At just 18, he said he was offered a $10 million cheque from Reebok - on the spot - if he agreed not to meet any other brands. It was a life-changing sum for a teenager living with his mum in the projects. But LeBron turned it down. He was willing to hedge his bets. He’s won four NBA championships, four Most Valuable Player titles, three Olympic golds, and scored more points than anyone in league history. Yet, as BBC business

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44:47

Masayoshi Son: High-tech gambler

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/05/19

Investor Masayoshi Son became notorious for making huge bets on technology companies. He once lost 96% of his fortune, but he’s still a billionaire thanks to successes like Yahoo! and Alibaba. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the tale of the billionaire who founded the conglomerate SoftBank and was once, very briefly, the richest person in the world. As the child of Korean immigrants in Japan, Son’s childhood took in sharing a home with pigs, an obsession with the

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42:00

Strive Masiyiwa: Connecting a continent

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/05/12

Telecoms magnate Strive Masiyiwa escaped kidnap to become Zimbabwe’s first billionaire.BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell Masiyiwa’s story from a youth fleeing post-colonial conflict, through education in the UK, to enormous wealth delivering mobile phone and internet technology across Africa.The podcast that tells tales of titans of technology, Wall Street moguls, pop stars, sporting legends, CEOs and entrepreneurs also details Masiyiwa’s many court battles and run-ins

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46:42

Ike Perlmutter: Marvel’s empire builder

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/05/05

Former Marvel CEO & Chairman Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter brought Marvel back from the brink of ruin and helped launch the Marvel cinematic universe. He brought Iron Man, The Hulk and The Avengers to our screens, and arguably changed the future of cinema, with a fixation on franchises. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng delve into Ike Perlmutter’s backstory, from arriving in the US with only $250 in his pocket to attending premieres in disguise. For more than three decades, the

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47:30

Selena Gomez: Actress, singer, beauty mogul

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/04/28

Selena Gomez is one of the youngest newly minted billionaires, thanks to her Rare Beauty brand. But you likely know her from her Disney kid days on The Wizards of Waverly Place, award-winning turn in Only Murders in the Building, or as the chart-topping singer of Lose You to Love Me.BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng take us back to Selena’s early days on Barney & Friends, through her meteoric rise to fame - and the heavy cost that came with it. From intense tabloid

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46:31

Orlando Bravo: Tech dealmaker

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/04/21

Orlando Bravo failed to become a tennis pro, but became richer than any tennis player in history by pivoting to the world of finance. He’s the first billionaire from Puerto Rico and earned his fortune with private equity investments in technology. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the story of an investor who says that forgetting to buy diapers changed the whole way he does business. He provided aid to his homeland in the wake of Hurricane Maria, but also became

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48:39

Vince McMahon: Wrestling's ringmaster

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/04/14

Vince McMahon made stars out of wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, John Cena and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. He turned professional wrestling into a $6.8 billion industry with his company World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Vince capitalised on cross-promotion and the spectacle of what he called "sports entertainment" to reach huge audiences before he stepped into the ring himself playing the character Mr. McMahon: a ruthless, bullying, sexually aggressive boss who popularised the catchphrase "You’re fired"

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46:14

Markus Persson: Minecraft maker

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/04/07

Minecraft is the most successful computer game ever. It's sold 300 million copies, built an active community of fans and there's now even a Minecraft movie. So how did one man - Markus Persson - create it all by himself, before selling it for billions?BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng find out how a high school dropout, obsessed with Lego and gaming, became a computer game hero. The Swedish programmer, known by the nickname as Notch, built a virtual 3D world where, with the

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41:07

John de Mol: Big Brother’s daddy

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/03/31

By reinventing reality TV, John de Mol changed television history and made a billion dollars. He’s the father of Big Brother and the man behind The Voice, Deal or No Deal and Fear Factor. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng explain how the Dutch TV producer became a media tycoon, after using his showbiz connections to break into pirate radio, then TV. He went on to found one of the biggest production companies in the world: Endemol.Good Bad Billionaire is the podcast exploring

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46:26

Sir James Dyson: Sucking up the cash

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/03/24

A blocked vacuum cleaner led to a billion-dollar idea for British inventor Sir James Dyson. After studying art, then reinventing the wheelbarrow, Dyson struck gold with his iconic bagless vacuum, but only after years of effort.BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng take us back to the entrepreneur’s youth in post-War Norfolk and discover a childhood marked by tragedy. From his years as a jobless inventor, frustrated by existing technology, Dyson’s story is one of innovation,

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51:15

Martha Stewart: The original lifestyle influencer

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/03/17

Martha Stewart revolutionised home entertaining with her recipes, home decor and TV shows, becoming one of the world's most successful women in business. Known as the ultimate homemaker and the "original lifestyle influencer", she's also the USA’s first ever self-made female billionaire. But while the entrepreneur made her fortune as a domestic goddess, Martha Stewart is no trad wife. It took more than crafts and cookbooks to make her fortune. And then it all came crashing down. BBC business editor

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38:27

Encore - Chuck Feeney: All duty

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/02/17

When Charles "Chuck" Feeney first appeared on the world's rich lists in the 1980s, he had built a billion-dollar business selling duty free goods to tourists. But he'd also given most of his money to charity. As Good Bad Billionaire takes a short break until March, Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng revisit the story of the billionaire who wasn't. Feeney's journey takes us from Depression-era New Jersey, through the high life of the Jet Age, and ultimately to $8 billion worth of donations given to causes

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53:02

Encore - Taylor Swift: Swiftonomics

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2025/02/03

A year after first being declared a billionaire, Taylor Swift’s rarely been out of the headlines or the charts. The pop superstar’s Eras tour finally came to an end, and she’s been continuing to break records. Good Bad Billionaire will be back with a new season in March, but until then, here’s a quick update on what Taylor’s been up to and another chance to hear a classic episode from the archives. Zing Tsjeng and Simon Jack uncover the huge public feuds and private legal battles that made the most

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46:49

Peter Thiel: Paypal mafioso

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2024/12/02

What do Airbnb, Facebook, Spotify, and LinkedIn all have in common? Peter Thiel. They made his fortune, but he’s since rejected Silicon Valley for being too "woke". He’s a contradictory character: a libertarian who made billions from big state surveillance; an intellectual who purports to hate politics, but who’s poured millions into political campaigns, including Donald Trump’s 2020 bid. Some call him a free-thinking genius, while others say he wants to watch Rome burn. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng

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42:27

Doris Fisher: Don’t mind The Gap

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2024/11/25

The woman behind the brand that revolutionised the way the world shopped and dressed. Doris Fisher and her husband Don founded The Gap together and made basics cool – their pocket t-shirt was worn by both Mick Jagger at Live Aid and Marty McFly in Back to the Future, while Sharon Stone donned a $25 Gap black turtleneck for the Oscars. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng follow Doris Fisher and The Gap’s rollercoaster story, from its birth in the summer of love selling Levi’s jeans, to crashing out of

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46:14

Carlos Slim Helú: Telecom titan

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2024/11/18

Carlos Slim Helú's financial might has led some people to nickname his native Mexico ‘Slimlandia’. He dominates the country’s businesses, from telecoms to construction. But how did a man whose hero happens to be the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan get to be the richest person in the world? Many have blamed his monopolist business empire for Mexico’s slow economic development. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng tell the story of a baseball fan who’s calm in a crisis, rushing in to invest while others rush out

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40:21

Roman Abramovich: Premier League oligarch

Good Bad Billionaire ·

2024/11/11

Roman Abramovich was known as the "stealth oligarch" before he stepped into the limelight as Chelsea football club’s sugar daddy owner. The man loves a yacht: his largest cost $427m, and has bullet-proof windows and an escape submarine. Abramovich made his fortune from post-Soviet privatisation, aided by a man known as the “Godfather of the Kremlin”, Boris Berezovsky, and close ties to Vladimir Putin in the early years of his presidency. But with recent reports of a suspected poisoning and sanctions

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86 results

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