logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
40m 4s

Not Like Us: How Billionaires Think

KCRW & Placement Theory
About this episode

As billionaires hoard more control over our politics, it seems more important than ever to ask: What makes them tick? Four reporters gather after hours at a wine shop to discuss – over drinks – what they’ve learned from covering billionaires for years, and how it can help us hoi polloi make sense of what the ultra-rich are doing right now.

Featuring Vicky Ward, who has covered the Kushner family and Trump, and who, in 2002, was the first journalist to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s finances in a profile for Vanity Fair; John Hyatt, who covers billionaires, with a focus on Elon Musk, for Forbes; Douglas Rushkoff, who's written about tech billionaires preparing for the end of the world; and Edward Ongweso, Jr., who covers the impact of the exponential growth of large tech companies for outlets like Vice and The Nation. 

A small correction: Douglas Rushkoff said that his trip to a hedge fund conference in the desert happened in 2018, but the trip was actually in 2017.

Sign up for our newsletter: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything

“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up next
Jun 26
Badass Local Journalists on How to Fight Corruption
Local reporters from around the country tell stories of using the experiences of their neighbors to confront people in power. Featuring: Anna Wolfe with Mississippi Today Lisa Halverstadt with Voice of San Diego Alissa Zhu with The Baltimore Banner Tony Plohetski with The Austin ... Show More
56m 24s
Jun 12
Who’s Behind the Raids? A Mystery in Marion (Part Two)
A TV reporter from Kansas City hears about the brazen newspaper raids over in Marion. Her interest is piqued by the fact that the police chief who oversaw the raids had recently left Kansas City PD. So she heads to Marion to see what she can find out. And what she finds…is basica ... Show More
42m 3s
Jun 5
Who's Behind the Raids? A Mystery in Marion (Part One)
On a Friday morning in rural Kansas, the publisher of a tiny local newspaper hears a knock at the door. It’s the police—with a search warrant. Within minutes, they’re inside his home, seizing his electronics. At the same time, officers are raiding his newsroom, confiscating compu ... Show More
30m 14s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2024
How Much of a Good Thing is Too Much? Victor Haghani Interview
Victor Haghani started his career at Salomon Brothers and shortly after became a managing director in the bond arbitrage group run by John Meriwether. He was a founding partner of Long-Term Capital Management and established its London office. The failure of LTCM was a life-chang ... Show More
1h 24m
Aug 2024
Sergey Brin: Googling billions
By founding Google, tech titan Sergey Brin helped shape the internet. He also got very, very rich, as his company Alphabet became one of the biggest in the world. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the story of the billionaire who partied on planes aft ... Show More
47m 27s
Jul 2024
"The Real Risk is Totalitarian World Government" - Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and philanthropist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. As of July 2024, Thiel had an estimated net worth of $11.2 billion. Through the Thiel F ... Show More
1h 10m
Jun 2024
INSIDE Forbes | The Top 100 Arab Family Businesses: Inside Forbes Middle East March 2024
In this month’s Inside Forbes, we unveil the Top 100 Arab Family Businesses for 2024, we find out what it takes to achieve a successful succession, we meet Caroline Fattal, the woman at the helm of the 127-year-old Fattal Group, and we find out how the world’s richest man is tigh ... Show More
10m 22s
Sep 2024
Elon Musk: Too Big to Scam | 124
When Elon Musk bid to buy Twitter for $44 billion, he made headlines for the mess that followed — including flip flopping on the deal and immediately firing most of the site’s employees. In this special episode of Scamfluencers, Scaachi Koul talks with New York Times reporters Ka ... Show More
40m 31s
Jan 2025
LA Fires, Trump Trades, TikTok, and Legacy Media’s Fate — ft. Andrew Ross Sorkin
Scott and Ed open the show by discussing Kalshi’s decision to appoint Donald Trump Jr. as its new advisor, a decline in tipping across America, and the economic impact of the wildfires in Los Angeles. Then Andrew Ross Sorkin, editor-at-large of DealBook at the New York Times and ... Show More
58m 28s
May 7
What Warren Buffett Understood About Capitalism
A few days ago, Warren Buffett, the most successful investor in history, said he would retire as C.E.O. of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate that he built into a trillion-dollar colossus.Andrew Ross Sorkin, who has covered Mr. Buffett for many years, discusses the career of th ... Show More
27m 56s
Jan 2025
The New Zuckerberg
What’s going on with Mark Zuckerberg? He recently conspicuously pivoted toward MAGA, meeting quietly with incoming Trump officials, and complaining about the Biden administration on Joe Rogan’s podcast. This week, we trace the story of the Meta CEO, and investigate what his new p ... Show More
1h 16m
Jun 2024
The Changing World Order & the Power of Diversification — ft. Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio, founder of the largest hedge fund in the world, Bridgewater Associates, joins the show to break down America’s place in a shifting world order. He discusses the mechanics of the U.S. deficit, and identifies an asset he’d go long on to hedge against economically uncerta ... Show More
46m 41s