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Good Bad Billionaire

Good Bad Billionaire

BBC World Service

How did the planet's richest people make their billions? From celebrities and secretive CEOs to sporting legends and tech titans, Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng find out, and then decide whether they think they’re good, bad, or just another billionaire.

Ever wondered how Taylor Swift went from country singer to money-spinner? How Amazon boss Jeff Bezos came to launch one of the biggest corporations of the internet age? And how six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan made his fortune with Nike? Good Bad Billionaire is here to analyse the minds, motives and money of some of the world's wealthiest individuals. No detail is too small and no story too wild to uncover.

Join us on a global journey, discovering all we can about some of the richest people on the planet. We hear about billionaires in Russia, China, New Zealand, India, Nigeria and the UK. In the United States, there are those who made their money in Silicon Valley, on Wall Street and high street fashion.

Exploring the lives of Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, El Chapo, Narayana Murthy and Kim Kardashian, this podcast paints a vivid picture of business, entrepreneurship, capitalism and how our world really works.

In season two, we learn how the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Peter Jackson, Doris Fisher and George Soros came to join the billionaires' club. We explore how Tiger Woods went from a child golfing prodigy to the world’s highest paid athlete, how a communist mime artist became the boss of fashion house Prada and how Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich bought an English football club. Find out how Mukesh Ambani became Asia’s richest person, and how Patrice Motsepe became the first black billionaire in a post-apartheid South Africa.

Plus, we examine some of the biggest names behind the technology shaping our world – the founders of TikTok, Google, ChatGPT, Alibaba and Bumble.

But it's not just how these billionaires made their money; it's what they did with it next. Ultimately, Simon and Zing consider whether they think these people are a force for “good”, the opposite, or somewhere in between.

Join Simon Jack, business editor for BBC News, and journalist, author and podcaster Zing Tsjeng as this podcast unravels tales of fortune, power, ambition and moral responsibility, and invites you to make up your own mind: are they Good, Bad, or Just Another Billionaire?

New episodes released on Mondays.

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Top 10 Good Bad Billionaire Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Good Bad Billionaire episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Good Bad Billionaire for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Good Bad Billionaire episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Good Bad Billionaire - Rihanna: Turning Beauty into Billions
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09/05/23 • 35 min

How did pop star Rihanna become the richest person from Barbados in all of history? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the story, and then they decide if she's good, bad, or just another billionaire.

In the podcast that uncovers how the world's 2,668 billionaires made their money and asks if they are good or bad for the planet, Simon and Zing talk about the richest woman in music. Discover how Robyn Rihanna Fenty went from a modest childhood in the Caribbean to being signed by Jay-Z as a teenager before going on to found a beauty product empire that would take her earnings to over $1billion. And find out how much she spends on her hair along the way!

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Good Bad Billionaire - Jeff Bezos: Get Big Fast

Jeff Bezos: Get Big Fast

Good Bad Billionaire

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08/29/23 • 36 min

How did Amazon boss Jeff Bezos become the first person worth over $100 billion? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the story from zero to his first million and then on to the billions. Then they judge him - is he good, bad, or just another billionaire?

In the podcast that uncovers how the world's 2,668 billionaires made their money and asks if they are good or bad for the planet, Simon and Zing discuss a man who has climbed to the very top of the world's richest person lists. Find out what drove a boy born Jeffrey Jorgensen in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1964 to found one of the biggest corporations of the internet age and change the way the world shops.

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Good Bad Billionaire - Kim Kardashian: Breaking the Internet
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10/31/23 • 49 min

How does the subject of a leaked sex tape become a billionaire business mogul? Journalist Zing Tsjeng and BBC business editor Simon Jack find out how Kim Kardashian leveraged her fame and sold her privacy to earn billions, breaking the internet along the way.

They follow her money making schemes, from selling celebrities' clothes online and styling Paris Hilton, to multi-million dollar weddings and public family feuds. But they discover that Kim actually made her billions in a much more traditional way.

She's one of the most famous faces in the world, loved and loathed by millions. In the podcast that uncovers how the world's wealthiest people made their money and asks if they are good or bad for the planet, Simon and Zing judge Kim Kardashian.

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Good Bad Billionaire - Jerry Seinfeld: The World’s Richest Comedian
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08/26/24 • 36 min

Jerry Seinfeld has a life-long obsession with jokes, but his smash hit sitcom turned the New York stand-up into the richest comedian of all time. Seinfeld was the most watched programme in America when it ended in in 1998, but it’s what came next that made the real Jerry Seinfeld mega rich – streaming and syndication. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng find out how transcendental meditation, a top Hollywood agent, the unexpected death of a parent and an “inability to act” all helped drive his spectacular success, before deciding if they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

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Good Bad Billionaire - Sam Altman: ChatGPT and the AI revolution
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09/23/24 • 45 min

How is freshly minted billionaire Sam Altman shaping our future through his company OpenAI and ChatGPT? He made his fortune by investing in huge tech start-ups like Reddit and Airbnb, before turning his attention to artificial intelligence - being fired and re-hired by his own company in the process. Altman believes that OpenAI, with him in charge, can make the world a better place. Yet he’s also preparing for the apocalypse, just in case AI turns on its creators and attacks humanity. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the story of Sam Altman - the first openly gay billionaire on the podcast so far - before deciding whether they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

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Good Bad Billionaire - Introducing... Good Bad Billionaire
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08/22/23 • 2 min

Coming Tuesday 29th August...

The podcast that finds out how the richest people on the planet made their billions, and then judges them for it. Are they good, bad, or just another billionaire? Each episode BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist and podcaster Zing Tsjeng pick a billionaire and uncover their journey to the top. They learn how they made their money and what makes them tick, to find out what they tell us about our society. Millionaires are ten a penny these days, but billionaires have probably changed the world. From Rihanna to Jeff Bezos to Kim Kardashian to Bill Gates, we ask if billionaires are all relentless egomaniacs destined to end civilisation, or if they are geniuses, gods of our time to be worshipped? Or are they like everyone else, just with a bit more luck?

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Good Bad Billionaire - Carlos Slim Helú: Telecom titan
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11/18/24 • 46 min

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. Then they decide if they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

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Good Bad Billionaire - Philip Green: King of the High Street
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09/12/23 • 40 min

How did Sir Philip Green go from being a respected retail mogul to becoming the unacceptable face of capitalism? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng find out, and then they judge him.

In the podcast that uncovers how the world's 2,668 billionaires made their money and asks if they are good or bad for the planet, Simon and Zing talk about a man who Simon has had a few run ins with. Hear what it's like to get a phone call in the middle of the night from Sir Philip, how he built his empire, and how it came crashing down.

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Good Bad Billionaire - Adam Neumann: The Cult of WeWork
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09/19/23 • 42 min

How did WeWork's founder oversee one of the most spectacular business fails in modern history? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng find out, and then they judge him.

In the podcast that uncovers how the world's 2,668 billionaires made their money and asks if they are good or bad for the planet, Simon and Zing follow Adam Neumann's journey from a barefoot, tequila shotting CEO who reimagined the millennial workplace, to a disgraced tech billionaire. Find out how he talked investors out of billions of dollars and why it all came crashing down.

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Good Bad Billionaire - Jack Ma: China's ecommerce CEO

Jack Ma: China's ecommerce CEO

Good Bad Billionaire

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10/21/24 • 43 min

Jack Ma is the king of ecommerce in China. Nicknamed 'Daddy Ma', the former school teacher even appeared alongside martial arts legend Jet Li in a kung fu movie. But how did a scrawny, belligerent child, who was the only person who failed to get hired at his local KFC, become the chairman and CEO of online mega-platform Alibaba? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng explain how a crazy trip to America, where Jack had to flee from a conman, ended up introducing him to the internet, which would make him his fortune. Then they decide if they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Good Bad Billionaire have?

Good Bad Billionaire currently has 50 episodes available.

What topics does Good Bad Billionaire cover?

The podcast is about Society & Culture, Entrepreneurship, Documentary, Podcasts and Business.

What is the most popular episode on Good Bad Billionaire?

The episode title 'Rihanna: Turning Beauty into Billions' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Good Bad Billionaire?

The average episode length on Good Bad Billionaire is 43 minutes.

How often are episodes of Good Bad Billionaire released?

Episodes of Good Bad Billionaire are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Good Bad Billionaire?

The first episode of Good Bad Billionaire was released on Aug 22, 2023.

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