Good Bad Billionaire

How did the richest people on the planet make their billions?

World Service,58 episodes

Episodes

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Ike Perlmutter: Marvel’s empire builder
Ike Perlmutter, the CEO who reinvented Marvel
28 Apr 2025,46 mins
Selena Gomez: Actress, singer, beauty mogul
How Disney star Selena Gomez became a billionaire beauty entrepreneur
21 Apr 2025,47 mins
Orlando Bravo: Tech dealmaker
Orlando Bravo failed to become a tennis pro, but private equity made him a billionaire
14 Apr 2025,46 mins
Vince McMahon: Wrestling's ringmaster
Vince McMahon turned professional wrestling into a global phenomenon
07 Apr 2025,48 mins
Markus Persson: Minecraft maker
How did Markus Persson create Minecraft, the most successful computer game ever?
31 Mar 2025,46 mins
John de Mol: Big Brother’s daddy
By reinventing reality TV, John de Mol made television history and a billion dollars
31 Mar 2025,41 mins
Sir James Dyson: Sucking up the cash
How a blocked vacuum cleaner led to a billion-dollar idea for inventor James Dyson
24 Mar 2025,46 mins
Martha Stewart: The original lifestyle influencer
Martha Stewart, the homemaker who sold perfection to America
17 Mar 2025,51 mins
Encore - Chuck Feeney: All duty
Revisiting the story of Chuck Feeney, a billionaire who gave it all away
17 Feb 2025,38 mins
Encore - Taylor Swift: Swiftonomics
A brief update after Taylor Swift's Eras tour ended, and another chance to hear her story
03 Feb 2025,53 mins
Peter Thiel: Paypal mafioso
How Peter Thiel made his fortune from huge tech companies then renounced Silicon Valley
25 Nov 2024,47 mins
Doris Fisher: Don’t mind The Gap
How American businesswoman Doris Fisher and her husband founded a clothing empire
18 Nov 2024,43 mins
Carlos Slim Helú: Telecom titan
Mexican telecom company boss Carlos Slim Helú was once the richest person on Earth
11 Nov 2024,46 mins
Roman Abramovich: Premier League oligarch
How Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich got rich, then got sanctioned
04 Nov 2024,41 mins
Mukesh Ambani: Asia’s richest person
How Indian multinational conglomerate boss Mukesh Ambani built Asia's biggest fortune
28 Oct 2024,45 mins
Patrice Motsepe: Mining magnate
How Patrice Motsepe became the first black billionaire in post-apartheid South Africa
21 Oct 2024,40 mins
Jack Ma: China's ecommerce CEO
How Jack Ma brought ecommerce to China by creating online mega-platform Alibaba
14 Oct 2024,43 mins
Yvon Chouinard: A $3 billion giveaway
The founder of sporting apparel firm Patagonia made billions - then gave it all away
07 Oct 2024,48 mins
Whitney Wolfe Herd: Dating app entrepreneur
How the woman who founded dating apps Bumble and Tinder was briefly a billionaire
30 Sep 2024,42 mins
Aliko Dangote: Africa’s richest person
Aliko Dangote started a cement business, and went on to become Africa’s richest person
23 Sep 2024,39 mins
Sam Altman: ChatGPT and the AI revolution
Sam Altman made a billion investing in tech start-ups, but made his name through AI
16 Sep 2024,46 mins
Zhang Yiming: TikTok’s tech boss
How Chinese tech company ByteDance became a multi-billiondollar social media business
09 Sep 2024,47 mins
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw: Beer, brewing and biotech
How India’s first female self-made billionaire built a pharmaceutical empire
02 Sep 2024,34 mins
George Soros: 'The man who broke the Bank of England'
A hedge fund tycoon who became one of the most successful investors ever
26 Aug 2024,46 mins
Jerry Seinfeld: The World’s Richest Comedian
How a hit sitcom made a New York stand-up the richest comedian in history
19 Aug 2024,37 mins
Peter Jackson: Lord of the Films
A blockbuster tale: How the Lord of the Rings director became a billionaire
12 Aug 2024,46 mins
Miuccia Prada: ‘Ugly fashion’
How a communist mime artist became the boss of one of the world’s biggest fashion houses
05 Aug 2024,40 mins
Sergey Brin: Googling billions
By founding Google, Sergey Brin helped shape the internet. He also got very, very rich
29 Jul 2024,47 mins
Tiger Woods: Golf’s ‘golden boy’
Golfing superstardom made Tiger Woods rich. Personal disasters nearly took it all away
29 Jul 2024,40 mins
Mark Zuckerberg: Move fast and get rich
How one social media site birthed an empire. The story of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.
26 Mar 2024,56 mins