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This is a series of single-topic episodes that focus on extreme wealth. For years Alexandra Addison-Wrage has worked on corporate compliance and anti-corruption efforts, a field that provides a front-row view into human corruptibility. In these episodes, she digs into the practical, philosophical, political, and even spiritual roots of why people risk everything—from scandal to criminal charges—for the allure of money, even when all of their material needs are more than covered. She will explore some surprising challenges of wealth alongside the ways in which greed changes people and extreme wealth changes the rules that we all live by.
Walt Pavlowent to work at MCI at a time when telecoms were hungry for go-getters. It was the early 2000s, and Walt enjoyed the freedom and aggressive nature of a recently deregulated industry. But soon he realized that MCI&rsquos most lucrative customers were also its flakiest, and the pressure was on to manage millions of bad debt that accumulated on the books. In this episode, Walt explains how he concocted a fake-loan scheme that netted him money far beyond his dreams&mdashand yet how hollow it felt, right up until the moment it all came crashing down.Walt Pavlo is a nationally recognized speaker who writes for Forbes and NYU Law School on white-collar crime and criminal justice. He founded the firmPrisonologyin 2014 as a consulting firm to support federal criminal defense attorneys by providing experts who have retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He is the co-author of&ldquoStolen Without a Gun: Confessions from Inside History's Biggest Accounting Fraud, the Collapse of MCI WorldCom&rdquo, which covers his stint working in the company&rsquos billing department and committing fraud.
In his mid-20s,Chuck Collinsmade a fateful choice. The great-grandson of Oscar Meyer, and thus an heir to part of the meatpacker&rsquos family fortune, Chuck was skeptical of the riches (some $500,000 in 1986 dollars). He didn&rsquot want to perpetuate the imbalances he saw dynastic wealth creating in society. Rather than live off the interest, or to give a portion to charity, Chuck gave away the entire inheritance, and thus embarked on a most unusual sort of normal life.
In this episode, Chuck explains what reverberations his decision to give away his inheritance had on his family and in his career, and he lays out his case to other similarly privileged Americans: Why life is better without the insulation that great wealth provides, and how billionaires can rejoin American life.
Chuck Collins is the director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at theInstitute for Policy Studies, where he edits Inequality.org. He is also a founding member of Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth Americans who advocate for public policies&mdashincluding higher taxes on the wealthy&mdashmeant to rein in the political power of the richest Americans. His prolific writings focus on inequality, the racial wealth divide, philanthropy, the climate crisis, and billionaire wealth dynasties. His forthcoming book,"Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power and Ruining Our Lives and Planet"will be published in 2025.
The sudden ascent of Mohammed bin Salman from an obscure royal heir to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia&mdashthe country&rsquos de facto ruler&mdashhas fascinatedJonathan Rugman, an author and longtime correspondent in the Middle East. Jonathan&rsquos latest BBC documentary,&ldquoThe Kingdom&rdquo,traces MBS&rsquos life from an unruly youth to a series of Machiavellian maneuvers to cut ahead of cousins and uncles in the line of royal succession. Jonathan&rsquos reporting illuminates a brash but secretive young autocrat whose wealth and power have few equals anywhere on the planet. After years of high-profile murder, jailings, and crackdowns, a formidable question remains: What more does MBS want?
Jonathan Rugman is a Visiting Lecturer in the journalism department at City, University of London, who has reported from some 50 countries during his 30-year journalism career. He is the author of&ldquoAtaturk&rsquos Children &ndash Turkey and the Kurds&rdquoand&ldquoThe Killing in the Consulate&rdquo , in which he investigated the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. His numerous awards include a BAFTA for his coverage of the Paris terror attacks of 2015.
For more than 20 years, Paul Schervish surveyed many of the richest people in America for a long-running study on how the wealthy view the world and themselves. In this episode, Paul explains how his research and his early years spent as a priest inform his understanding of wealth and its potential to improve the world. Applying sociological and religious scholarship to the question of how what to do with money&mdashand by extension, what to do with the rich&mdashhe invites haves and have-nots alike to consider the roles that God, human agency, and spiritual fulfillment play in our material lives.
Paul Schervish is a former Jesuit priest and a professor emeritus at Boston College, where he directed the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. A prolific scholar and author, his books include &ldquoThe Structural Determinants of Unemployment&rdquo, &ldquoWealth in Western Thought: The Case for and Against Riches", &ldquoGospels of Wealth: How the Rich Portray their Lives&rdquo, and &ldquoThe Will of God and Wealth: Discerning the Use of Riches in the Service of Ultimate Purpose&rdquo.
Sir William Browder (&ldquoBill&rdquo), a financier turned justice advocate, is our nextguest in the series. Bill has been the engine behind the Magnitsky Act, a law that for the past 12 years has empowered governments to seize the assets of foreign leaders who abuse human rights&mdasha significant countermeasure against corruption and atrocity that has exasperated Vladimir Putin and oligarchs in Russia, where Bill was once a leading foreign investor. His experience working in (and subsequently abandoning) Russia allowed him to see inside that culture and economy, and have led him to conclude Putin&rsquos military conquests as a dictator&rsquos efforts to protect his unfathomable stolen wealth&mdashand his own neck.Bill Browder is the founder ofHermitage Capital Management, a firm that became the top foreign investor in post-Soviet Russia. For nearly 20 years he has been the target of Russian prosecution efforts that have drawn round condemnation from the international community, as he continues to promote the rule of law and denounce the regime of Vladimir Putin. He&rsquos the author of&ldquoRed Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice&rdquoand&ldquoFreezing Order: A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath&rdquo.
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