It’s the history of business. How did Hitler’s favorite car become synonymous with hippies? What got Thomas Edison tangled up with the electric chair? Did someone murder the guy who invented the movies? Former Planet Money hosts Jacob Goldstein and Robert Smith examine the surprising stories of businesses big and small and find out what you can learn from those who founded them.
Paul Julius Reuter revolutionized the news industry by leveraging the telegraph to provide instantaneous, reliable information. Initially failing with a general-interest newsletter, Reuter pivoted to focus on financial data, recognizing that speed provided a critical competitive advantage. He famously bridged a technol...
The modern corporation emerged as a revolutionary human invention defined by four pillars: artificial personhood, tradable shares, limited liability, and open entry. Initially, chartered monopolies like the East India Company functioned as private imperial forces, but the 19th-century expansion of railroads shifted the...
The banana industry’s evolution in the 20th century highlights the deep entanglement between multinational corporations and geopolitical power. Sam Zemurray, an immigrant entrepreneur, built a banana empire by mastering logistics and leveraging political influence, eventually gaining control of the United Fruit Company...
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiated a hostile takeover of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in 2025, marking a radical shift in federal governance. By bypassing legal protections for the independent, non-profit organization, DOGE operatives—backed by the FBI and local police—seized the bu...
The Volkswagen Beetle originated as a central pillar of Adolf Hitler’s 1930s industrial policy, intended to provide mass-produced, affordable transportation to unite the German Volk. Despite the regime's ambitious goal of selling the car for 990 Reichsmarks, the project faced significant economic hurdles, as German man...
The late 19th-century American industrial landscape was defined by a volatile power struggle between capital and labor, exemplified by the 1892 Homestead Steel strike. Andrew Carnegie, who rose from poverty to become the world’s wealthiest man, revolutionized steel production through the Bessemer process and a ruthless...
The invention of the movable-type printing press emerged from specific economic pressures rather than a singular "aha" moment. High demand for books, driven by the rise of government bureaucracy and the Renaissance, collided with the high cost of parchment and the labor-intensive bottleneck of manual scribes. Johannes ...
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