Business

Business History

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.

Latest Episodes:

Hollywood vs. the VCR Nov 11, 2026

Show notes

Decades ago, if you wanted to watch Columbo, you watched it when it aired. Then Sony invented the Betamax, a machine that let you record TV and watch it whenever you wanted. Sony’s chief called it “time shifting.” American TV studios called it theft.

Universal and Disney sued Sony, and the fight went all the way to the Supreme Court, with a surprise cameo from Mr. Rogers along the way. Today, we’re still arguing over who is responsible for what people do with a new technology.

Jacob and Robert tell the story of how the Sony Betamax beat Universal Studios, and then ultimately lost to a rival format – the VHS.

Research for this episode comes from:

Fast Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, and the VCR Wars, by James Lardner

“The Story of Sony v. Universal Studios: Mary Poppins Meets the Boston Strangler,” by Jessica Litman

Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony, by Akio Morita, Edwin M. Reingold, and Mitsuko Shimomura

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The Company That Became a Country Nov 04, 2026

Show notes

Before there was Canada, there was the Hudson’s Bay Company.

HBC had its own laws and its own currency, and at one point controlled trade routes from the Arctic to Hawaii. It started cities like Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Victoria. It also fought an actual war with a rival business over pemmican, a traditional indigenous snack made of dried buffalo meat, fat and berries.

Business History’s resident Canadian Robert Smith tells Jacob Goldstein how two French traders built an empire out of beaver fur, and how the company they created later signed one of the biggest real estate deals in history.

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The Pigeons That Built a Global News Empire Oct 28, 2026

Show notes

Before Reuters was a global news giant, it was a man and 45 homing pigeons. Julius Reuter saw that the telegraph would change how information moved, and he used that to his advantage. He didn’t have to get news out immediately — he just had to be first. Jacob Goldstein and Robert Smith follow Reuter from Germany to England, where he scoops The Times of London with news that Europe was headed to war.

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How the Company Conquered the World Oct 21, 2026

Show notes

Jacob Goldstein and Robert Smith talk with Adrian Wooldridge, co-author of The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea.

Companies are some of the most powerful institutions in the modern world – right up there with the nation-state. Where did the modern corporation come from? And what do AI and Chinese state-owned firms mean for the future of the company?

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Sam the Banana Man: Gunboats, Coups, and United Fruit Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

In the late 1800s, a Russian immigrant named Samuel Zemurray spent nearly everything he had on a load of bananas, and turned it into a fortune. But Sam the Banana Man wasn’t just a business titan. He was a puppeteer on the geopolitical stage, bankrolling a revolution in Honduras and pushing the CIA to overthrow Guatemala’s democratically elected leader.

For decades, Zemurray battled the United Fruit Company, an institution with its tentacles in governments across the Americas — including the United States. In the end, he wound up running the company.

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Blockers | A Preview of Michael Lewis's New Audiobook Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

We're here with a preview of Blockers, a new audiobook from Michael Lewis, the author of Liars Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short and more. In Blockers, Lewis tells the story of a handful of people who dedicated their careers to public service—until the Department of Government Efficiency decided they were a problem. These were people who believed they had a calling—people who kept American's sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands, made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules, and figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods—and then discovered they were no longer wanted.

Here's an excerpt from the audiobook. You can buy the audiobook exclusively at blockers.fm.

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Hitler's Gift to the Hippies: The VW Beetle Story Part I – Rerun Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

Business History is off this week, so we wanted to keep you entertained with a rerun, in case you missed our Beetle episode the first time around. (You can help us win a Signal Award for this episode by voting here.)

The VW Beetle was the biggest selling car of all time - and it found particular favor with people like hippies and surfers. But this icon of the 60s counterculture had its roots in Nazism. The Volkswagen - the People's Car - was an obsession of Adolf Hitler. He wanted to transform Germany into a land of drivers - and needed an affordable, but reliable automobile.

Germany's private auto manufacturers knew the project was doomed to failure. So Hitler assembled a team of designers and factory managers to enact his vision - even if that meant enslaving workers and committing murder.

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King of the Roll-Ups: The Man Who Created a Trash Empire, Then Built Blockbuster Video Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

Wayne Huizenga came from a long line of trash collectors. It was a rough, fragmented, mom-and-pops business which notoriously attracted mobsters. But Huizenga set out to buy his small competitors - to roll them up - to form the biggest waste management firm in the world.

Huizenga bought up rival companies at a furious pace - several per week - and when he tired of the trash business he looked for something new. In the 80s, video stores also tended to be mom 'n pops outfits. Huizenga spotted that there was a golden opportunity to consolidate the rental industry, so used roll ups to build the giant Blockbuster Video chain.

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How Warren Buffet Built His Legacy By Finding Value No One Else Could See – Rerun Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

With the news of Warren Buffett stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, we are revisiting an episode from our two-part series on Buffet.

Warren Buffett rose from obscurity to become the richest person in the world - and he did it in a unique way. As a boy in Omaha he collected information obsessively - writing down car license numbers and hoarding bottle caps. As a young man, Buffett turned his focus on scouring business accounts to find companies that had hidden value no one else could spot.

We tell the story of young Warren Buffett as he quietly worked building up the expertise and accumulating the wealth that would allow him to become the most famous investor of our age.

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Herman Petty's Dream: The Struggles of the First Black American to Own a McDonald's Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Herman Petty was a Chicago barber and bus driver who dreamed of running his own business. When his local McDonald's restaurant was abandoned in 1968, Herman approached the company and said he should be the first black American to be given a hamburger franchise.

Herman and other black pioneers faced unique problems running McDonald's in America's inner cities - but their businesses soon flourished and they fought to make the burger giant listen to its black franchisees and customers.

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