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.
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 ...
Benjamin Franklin fundamentally shaped the American value system by inventing the genre of business self-help and establishing a new cultural identity centered on work. Through publications such as Poor Richard's Almanac and Advice to a Young Tradesman, he transformed the perception of labor from a necessity for the lo...
Robert Morris, the financial architect of the American Revolution, exemplifies the volatile intersection of early American entrepreneurship and national survival. By leveraging smuggling networks and personal credit to secure essential supplies for George Washington’s army, Morris effectively created a wartime economy ...
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