Monopoly: the game that taught you to ruthlessly bankrupt your friends and family, one hotel at a time. With 250 million copies sold worldwide, ⅔ of American homes have a copy. But you probably don't know its shocking origin story: Monopoly rewards runaway greed — but was originally created by a feminist to teach about the evils of economic inequality. It wa ... Show More
Sep 2025
📺 SNL: The Snickers Bar of Saturday Night | 50
When Johnny Carson, 1970s late-night king, declared he wanted another day off, it left NBC with a hole in their weekend lineup. 11:30pm Saturday night wasn’t exactly the hot time slot… so the network recruited a quiet Canadian comedy writer named Lorne Michaels to produce a live ... Show More
42m 25s
Jan 2025
Take the Monopoly Money and Run | 143
In the midst of the Great Depression, out-of-work salesman Charles Darrow sold the board game he created, Monopoly, to Parker Brothers. The game was an overnight success, and Charles became a hopeful example of the American dream. But soon, fellow game obsessives questioned Charl ... Show More
44m 4s
Sep 2024
Ep481 - Mary Pilon | Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game
Author Mary Pilon visits Google to discuss her book, "The Monopolists". The book reveals the unknown story of how the classic board game Monopoly came into existence, the reinvention of its history by Parker Brothers and multiple media outlets, the lost female originator of the g ... Show More
44m 27s
Dec 2021
The secret history of Monopoly
In 1904, a left-wing American feminist called Lizzy Magie patented a board game that evolved into what we now know as Monopoly. But 30 years later, when Monopoly was first marketed in the United States during the Great Depression, it was an out-of-work salesman from Pennsylvania ... Show More
9m 4s
Nov 2022
The McDonald's Monopoly Game Conspiracy
In the 90s, there was a huge fraud conspiracy surrounding McDonald’s monopoly promotional game. Anyone could play, and anyone had the chance to win a prize, from a free sandwich to a car to a million dollars. The odds of winning were slim… so how was it that several of the winner ... Show More
21m 35s