Crash Course

Evolving Money: Building Bridges with Bitcoin (Sponsored Content) Jan 26, 2025

Just as mobile banking revolutionized our relationship with our money and led to a plethora of new tools for management and investing, the proliferation of crypto and blockchain technologies have opened up all manner of new investment opportunities that go far beyond what early Bitcoin adopters could’ve imagined.

This episode is sponsored by Coinbase.

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Listen Now: Beak Capitalism from Odd Lots Nov 24, 2024

In this limited series, Odd Lots explains some of the thorniest issues facing the US economy through the medium of … chicken. Chicken occupies a unique position in the US diet, but issues facing the poultry industry illustrate wider points about the development of the US economy and the decisions being made about how it's structured and who benefits from it. So why has the chicken industry evolved in the way that it has? What’s been driving the price increases in eggs and meat? And what does it all say about things like inflation, the labor market and the nature of American capitalism?

Check out Beak Capitalism on Odd Lots wherever you get your podcasts.

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Taylor Swift vs. The World Feb 13, 2024

Taylor Swift embodies a rare cultural presence and moment – and she’s everywhere. She inhabits her presence (amid an unusual amount of glare) with an unusual amount of grace. But now, a lot of weird conspiracy theories from Fox and conservative commentators have attached themselves to her. Nevertheless, Taylor Swift has kept her wits about her when everyone else is losing theirs. Emma Gray co-writes a culture Substack called Rich Text, is the author of “A Girl’s Guide to Joining the Resistance,” and is a columnist with MSNBC.

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Black Voters vs. The 2024 Election Feb 06, 2024

Joe Biden secured a victory in the Democratic primary in 2020 after Rep. Jim Clyburn threw his support, and that of his Black constituents in South Carolina, behind the candidate. Black voters – and young Black voters in particular – appear to be much less enthusiastic about Biden these days. They’re the most unenthusiastic they’ve been about a Democratic president in decades. Republicans have also intentionally thrown roadblocks in front of efforts to mobilize the full power of the Black vote: think gerrymandering, voter ID laws and the like. Nia-Malika Henderson is a political columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

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Latinos vs. The 2024 Election Jan 30, 2024

Latinos represent the US electorate’s second fastest-growing voting group, with about 36.2 million Latinos expected to vote in the 2024 presidential election. Latino voters have tended to have low turnout rates in elections, but this hefty increase in that electoral pool is due to the mobilization of enthusiastic and engaged younger and US-born Latino voters. Latino voters have strong regional differences in their cultures and values and this plays out around what they care about: Entrepreneurial opportunities, abortion, voting rights, citizenship, and immigration, among other issues. Latino voters played a pivotal role in Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and they will figure prominently in a 2024 presidential race in which Donald Trump can leverage strides he’s made courting them. Maria Teresa Kumar is the CEO of Voto Latino, an influential advocacy group that mobilizes Latino voters around a range of issues.

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Biden, Trump, and a Presidency in Play Jan 23, 2024

The first act in the Republican Party’s presidential primary season, the Iowa caucuses, has come and gone. Other contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan, and the collection of 15 Super Tuesday states all lie ahead. Donald Trump registered a resounding win in Iowa and if polls are to be believed, he is situated to easily continue his sprint to the GOP nomination – the flagbearer of a party shaping itself in his image. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden comes to the race with his own strengths and weaknesses. Nancy Cook is a political reporter for Bloomberg News.

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Putin vs. Ukraine’s Forgotten War Jan 16, 2024

In early 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a sprawling, brutal follow-up to his land-grab of Crimea in 2014. The war initially produced an international show of support for Ukraine and its embattled leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy – after all, the broader fate of Western Europe hung in the balance, a consequential geopolitical reality for the United States, as well. The Gaza War has now captured the world’s attention and headlines, diverting attention from Ukraine, and further financial and military aid for Ukraine from Europe and the U.S. has dried up. Yet the stakes haven’t changed, and the world remains at risk. Marc Champion is a columnist with Bloomberg Opinion who has lived and worked in Russia.

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Our Year in Review Jan 09, 2024

It’s been one year since Crash Course launched, and what a year it’s been! From Trump to Putin, Climate Change to Artificial Intelligence, SVB to SBF, Florida to Gaza, the Supreme Court to Barbie, and so much more – we covered a lot of ground this year, and we learned a lot. That’s a key part of Crash Course: we want to learn something new in every episode. So to mark the one year anniversary of Crash Course, Tim wanted to listen back through the tape and remember some of the key learnings from the past year. We’ll remember the people, conflicts, and cultural moments that made this year one for the history books.

The full episodes mentioned in this episode include:

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Conservatives vs. ESG Jan 02, 2024

Robert Netzly is an Evangelical Christian trying to realize his values and stay true to his own beliefs while working in investing – and he personifies a bigger war going on in the investment world and American politics over a little acronym called ESG. In the last year, there’s been a Republican backlash to the trillions of dollars committed to investing practices that take environmental, social, and governance concerns (such as climate change and gender inequalities) into account.

We first published this special episode last spring, based on reporting Bloomberg News' ESG reporter Saijel Kishan did for a fascinating piece called “What Would Jesus Buy: Investor Charts Course for $2 Billion Fund.” In this special episode, she shares more of that story, which is a tale of two conflicts, in a way. Should there be biases in the investing world, be it faith-based or social activism? And should ESG exist at all?

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Small Businesses vs. The Pandemic Dec 26, 2023

Remember the early days of COVID-19 lockdowns when, practically overnight, it seemed that every shop closed its doors? Do you remember how all of those small businesses you might have taken for granted – the ones that gave life and an identity to your community – suddenly felt essential to you? Tim watched lots of small businesses in his small town in New Jersey struggle, including his favorite local bakery, Montclair Bread Company.

We first published this episode back in March, marking three years since the initial lockdowns in the US. But the holiday season is the most important time of year for small businesses, so it feels fitting to share this episode again now. In this episode, Tim tracks the trials and tribulations this unimaginable public health and economic crisis threw at the bakery and its owner, Rachel Wyman.

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Trump vs. His First Big Fraud Verdict Dec 19, 2023

Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York is drawing to a close – testimony recently ended – and sometime in early 2024 a state judge will rule on the case. It’s within the judge’s power to impose a fine of as much as $250 million on Trump and permanently ban him and his company from ever doing business in New York again. The state where Trump grew rich may send him into financial exile. The New York case is one of several lodged against the former president, all landing while Trump appears to be well on his way to securing the Republican nomination for the presidency next year. It’s serious. It’s a mess. And the rule of law is being severely tested. Andrew Weissmann is a professor at NYU Law School and spent many years as a federal prosecutor and investigator.

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Introducing: Bloomberg News Now Dec 15, 2023

Bloomberg News Now is a comprehensive audio report on today's top stories. Listen for the latest news, whenever you want it, covering global business stories around the world.

on Apple: trib.al/Mx9TCh1
on Spotify: trib.al/T4BG8s4
Anywhere: trib.al/O4EX6BA

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Crime Trends vs. Statistics – and Reality Dec 12, 2023

After many years of reassuring declines, some crime rates, like homicides and violent assaults, soared nationwide during the Covid-19 pandemic. These trends weren’t geographically or politically specific: Residents in cities, suburbs, and rural areas all suffered through that shift, and it didn’t matter if they lived in a city run by a Democrat or a Republican – more murders, the data showed, plagued every urban area. On the other hand, robberies, burglaries, and larcenies dropped during the pandemic’s onset. Crime statistics are subject to spotty methodology and reporting gaps, making it hard to rely on the data with absolute certainty. Public safety isn’t a trivial topic and there’s no question that many Americans say they feel less safe on some streets than they once did – despite the fact that violent crime rates are well below where they were during the 1990s. Ames Grawert is a lawyer and expert on crime statistics at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU Law School.

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OpenAI vs. Sam Altman Dec 05, 2023

OpenAI, which you may have heard a lot about lately, is the company that developed ChatGPT, a wildly popular AI bot which you most certainly have heard of. OpenAI’s board of directors recently purged the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, and various stakeholders – employees, investors, Microsoft – saw to it that Altman was reinstated. The board itself then faced a purge. This particular collision has it all: Silicon Valley innovation and Silicon Valley hubris, money, managerial snafus, ugly battles, promising outcomes, and, of course, artificial intelligence. AI is set to transform the world, we’re told. Ingenuity and upheaval at OpenAI offer a way for us to consider all of that. Parmy Olson and Dave Lee are both Bloomberg Opinion technology columnists.

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Artificial Intelligence vs. The Music Industry Nov 28, 2023

Digital disruption is knock knock knockin’ at the music industry’s door, 20 years after the MP3 and Napster made CD collections obsolete. Artificial intelligence is now filling playlists with ambient music and making pitch-perfect copies of human stars like Grimes, who Bloomberg Opinion columnist Lionel Laurent interviewed for this special episode of Crash Course. He dives into the risky race to make musical robots and how record labels and artists are fighting back with new business models, new types of music, and new ideas about copyright — which could serve as a guide for how the wider economy and the rest of society can deal with AI.

NOTE: This episode incorrectly states the name of Grimes' manager. It is Daouda Leonard, not Leonard Daouda.

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Trump vs. Democracy Nov 21, 2023

Donald Trump’s political speeches of late are chock full of warnings about “the threat from within” posed by his myriad opponents – those he decries as “vermin” out to destroy the US and the American Dream. He routinely promises to crush his critics and “make America great again.” As always with Trump, there’s a method to his madness. Historian Heather Cox Richardson argues that Trumpism claws at American democracy’s true roots – at what she describes as “the idea that a nation can be based not in land or religion or race or hierarchies, but rather in the concept of human equality.”

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Free Speech vs. Censorship Nov 14, 2023

Speech has probably never been freer in the world than it is today: Multiple venues – especially social media – allow people’s perspectives to take flight fluently, globally, and frequently. The culture of free speech is also under steady and ever more sophisticated assaults, perhaps because its ubiquity is threatening to any person or institution that holds an opposing viewpoint. The very thing that makes speech so free right now – ease of motion – is, perhaps, what also makes it more threatening. Jameel Jaffer is an attorney and the director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

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Introducing: Elon, Inc. Nov 09, 2023

At Bloomberg, we’re always talking about the biggest business stories, and no one is bigger than Elon Musk.

In this new chat weekly show, host David Papadopoulos and a panel of guests including Businessweek’s Max Chafkin, Tesla reporter Dana Hull, Big Tech editor Sarah Frier, and more, will break down the most important stories on Musk and his empire. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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China Takes on the World – and the US Nov 07, 2023

China is home to 1.4 billion people (about 18% of the planet’s total population), it has the world’s second-largest economy, and its geographic footprint covers more than 3.6 million square miles. China is home to a thriving technology sector, has lifted 800 million people out of poverty, and has also built a formidable military capacity featuring a world-class navy, air force, nuclear missiles, and cyber warfare proficiencies. But China’s economic growth may have plateaued, and its politics have been so reshaped by President Xi Jinping that a cult of personality and raw authoritarianism have recast the country’s image abroad and its direction at home. Karishma Vaswani is a political analyst and Shuli Ren covers markets and China’s economy, and both are columnists for Bloomberg Opinion.

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The Race to Control the Arctic Oct 31, 2023

Alaska has been an object of fascination, exploration, and exploitation for nearly two centuries, but its most inhospitable reaches – those that creep toward the Arctic Circle mile by frozen mile – have managed to hold on to their secrets for a very long time. Ice, plunging temperatures, and brutal tundras have kept outsiders at bay. That’s all shifting now: Climate change has warmed the Arctic’s formidable barriers, sparking a geopolitical and commercial footrace. Liam Denning is an energy and climate columnist for Bloomberg Opinion who has repeatedly traveled to the Arctic to report on the military, oil and gas, and fisheries.

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Israel vs. Hamas Oct 24, 2023

Gaza is now a war zone. In the wake of Hamas’ recent grisly attack that left more than 1,400 Israelis dead and about another 200 taken hostage, Israel’s military forces appear poised to occupy Gaza to try obliterating the Islamist terrorist group. Ancient religious and cultural animosities and contemporary geopolitical jockeying are the backdrop for this conflict, but this newest iteration appears to have been sparked by Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the US seeking to normalize diplomatic relations. Hamas, apparently fearful of being isolated in the Middle East, may have opted for mass murder to derail those talks. Other factors are at play. Marc Champion and Andreas Kluth are Bloomberg Opinion columnists with deep experience covering the Middle East and international affairs.

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Polling vs. The 2024 Election Oct 17, 2023

Polling – the very inexact science that is the lifeblood of political analysis and guesswork – is very much with us. Built upon a series of queries that asks respondents, essentially, “What do you think about X,” polling aims to make the intangible, concrete. It is the stuff from which predictions are made, the data that fuels a political marketplace aiming to artfully respond to voter’s preferences and priorities. But polling, via its siblings – “focus groups” and “messaging” – also aspires to shape voter’s preferences; to, in the best interpretation, understand and serve them with greater clarity. In the worst interpretation, messaging makes voters more malleable, more easily swayed. Frank Luntz is a political and communications strategist and pollster who has spent most of his career working for Republicans and specializes in leveraging the emotional content of language to win campaigns.

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The Promised Land vs. White Supremacy Oct 06, 2023

“We White Christians no longer represent the majority of Americans,” writes Robert P. Jones, a White Christian. “We are no longer capable of setting the nation’s course by sheer cultural and political dominance. But there are more than enough of us to decisively derail the future of democracy in America.” That’s from Jones’ new book, “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy,” an exploration of the historical foundations of White supremacy in the United States. The book is wide-ranging, incisive and, ultimately, a call to action – from someone steeped in the same culture and mores he examines. The fault lines Jones examines affect every facet of American life: individuals, families, communities, politics, the economy and institutions ranging from courts to corporations. Jones is a widely published and award-winning writer, a well-regarded pollster and president and founder of the Public Religious Research Institute.

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Rupert Murdoch and Alternative Facts Oct 03, 2023

There are no such things as alternative facts. We can disagree about how to interpret facts, but there they remain. Stubborn things. When stubborn people collide with stubborn things – when the likes of Rupert Murdoch assembles a media empire largely designed to embrace and disseminate disinformation – you have the makings of a Crash Course episode. Murdoch, the 92-year-old progenitor of the Fox News miasma, recently retired from his perch atop Fox Corp. and News Corp. Fox is likely to define Murdoch’s legacy – a legacy some of his former executives now reject. Three of them jointly noted in a recent public statement: "We never envisioned, and would not knowingly have enabled, the disinformation machine that, in our opinion, Fox has become.” For his part, Murdoch seems untroubled: “Bury your mistakes,” he likes to say. Molly Jong-Fast is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair and the host of the Fast Politics podcast.

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Party Politics vs. The 2024 Presidential Race Sep 26, 2023

Have voters, politicos, analysts, and the media focused before with such intensity on a presidential race in the US more than a year before the actual vote? Perhaps. But I’m willing to say: Probably not. The reasons why this race is so magnetic are overt. Trump and Trumpism are in the air. Democracy is on the table. Pivotal policy issues are in play: reproductive rights, immigration, jobs and the economy, health care, public health and public safety, education, national security, the rule of law, and the funding and future shape of the federal government. Social media chews on all of this 24-7. Information – and disinformation – is ubiquitous. Partisanship is at a boiling point and Democrats and Republicans are maneuvering for position. Peggy Collins is the Washington bureau chief of Bloomberg News and a veteran national and local news reporter.

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Nukes, Russia, and Our New Cold War Sep 19, 2023

Ever since Vladimir Putin sent Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine in early 2022, assumptions about the possibility of war in the 21st Century have been turned on their heads. A long absence of conflict in Europe gave way to a bloody and sustained ground war. Russia has even warned it might unleash nuclear missiles. China, rattling its own saber in Asia, looms large in the background – just as it did in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. Nukes are the new normal. Hal Brands is a foreign policy professor at Johns Hopkins University, co-author of "Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China," a member of the State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.

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Elon and Zuck vs. Grown-Up Management Sep 12, 2023

Silicon Valley is the centerpiece of a very specific kind of bro culture – a culture that has had a certain winner-take-all mojo over the years, but which may be running its course. To test this thesis, I present you with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, founders of such landmark companies as Tesla, SpaceX, and Meta (aka Facebook). They are both innovators, admirable risk-takers, and bazillionaires. They’ve also struggled to evolve; to have early, vaunted reputations as wise men correspond with equally wise management and wise decisions as the world around them changed. Kara Swisher is the host of the “On With Kara Swisher” and “Pivot” podcasts, and an editor-at-large at New York magazine.

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Mother Nature vs. Life As We Know It Sep 05, 2023

Weather is fickle and climate-related catastrophes have become all too common – in the US and around the globe. Deadly, rain-induced flooding, interspersed with deadly, heat-induced fires have also visited the Koreas, Ethiopia, Australia, Pakistan, India, Brazil, the UK, Canada, Greece, and other countries during this still new 21st century. We now live in a climate-changed world in which every season or region is host to the hottest, the driest, the coldest or the wettest moment of the modern human era. We are the authors of the disasters and victims of the consequences. Mother Nature has had enough. Mark Gongloff is a columnist with Bloomberg Opinion who specializes in covering the environment and climate change.

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The First GOP Debate vs. The Guy Who Wasn’t There Aug 29, 2023

Any time Tim O’Brien sees a Republican presidential candidate (other than Donald Trump) on television, he’s reminded that they and their party look like they’re in a hostage video. They are all trapped by Trump, and none of them have convinced Tim that they can escape. Trump's Republican challengers held their first national debate recently, offering an array of pols trying to make a case for themselves and the GOP’s future. Meanwhile, Trump counter-programmed, sitting down with former Fox News propagandist and conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson. Susan Del Percio is a Republican political strategist and an adviser to a variety of political and corporate campaigns.

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Barbie vs. The Men, and The Real World Aug 22, 2023

“Barbie,” the summer blockbuster about the world’s most famous doll, has a lot to say about the intersection of art, commerce, gender, identity, and a life well lived. But one reason it has raked in more than $1 billion in global box office sales is because it offers a provocative and funny send-up of mind-numbing, soul-crushing corporate conformity. Barbie is totemic and has had the power to brainwash, inspire, derail, and draw in the girls who have played with her for decades. The movie explores all of that, largely unflinchingly, even if it does pull a few of its punches. Mattel may be having the last laugh: It’s raking in handsome piles of cash from all of this – at movie theaters, in sales of related merch, and in its newfound role as the purveyor of franchise toys that can be made into boffo, franchise films. Emma Gray is a columnist with MSNBC, co-hosts the podcast, “Love to See It,” and is the author of “A Girl’s Guide to Joining the Resistance.”

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Donald Trump Owns the GOP - And Its Future Aug 15, 2023

The U.S. is now in the unprecedented position of having a man who has thus far been charged with 78 crimes being the clear front-runner for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2024. There is a swamp of issues to unravel around all of this – including Trump’s legal perils, the character and policies of a Republican Party he owns, and the future of American democracy. Joining us today to make sense of all of this is Charlie Sykes. Charlie, a committed and confounded Republican, is the editor of the commentary site, The Bulwark, and host of the Bulwark Podcast. He’s also a political analyst for MSNBC and the author of several books, including “How the Right Lost Its Mind.”

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Kenya vs. Climate Change Aug 08, 2023

Kenya is home to some of the planet’s most glorious – and most threatened – wildlife. Like everything else on Earth, the animals that once thrived in this Eden are suffering through the cataclysm of climate change. Long droughts interspersed with violent and irregular flooding have altered migration patterns and essential sustenance. Local farmers and semi-nomadic herders are struggling to preserve their livelihoods. East Africa’s droughts, the worst in at least 40 years, have already brought waves of famine. And the clock is ticking as increasingly formidable environmental challenges bear down. Spiking temperatures mean that much of what has made Kenya, Kenya, may eventually disappear. To explore all of this, Tim spoke with guides at two of Kenya’s conservancies: Tom Njogu, the head guide at the Lewa Safari Camp; and Dickson Kereto, a veteran guide at the Mara Naboisho Conservancy.

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Sports Gambling vs. Match Fixing Aug 01, 2023

Americans bet about $165 billion a year, but here’s something Tim O’Brien worries about: When there’s billions of dollars on the line, how likely is it that your favorite sport is going to get corrupted? Gamblers and criminals have been trying to rig games since the Olympics first began – it still goes on all the time if you look for it. Enter SportRadar, where former intelligence operatives, police detectives, journalists, and computer geeks track 500,000 sporting matches around the world every year, on the hunt for potential fixes.

We first published this episode around the Super Bowl as part of a three-part series about the past, present, and future of the multi-billion-dollar sports betting boom, and its impact on games, fans, and society. You can also listen to the other two episodes in the series: about the rise of mobile betting and the future of tribal casinos.

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Women vs. Wall Street Jul 25, 2023

Wall Street can be a minefield for any competitive or ambitious person seeking a rewarding career, a name for themselves, and handsome paydays. They quickly find themselves surrounded by other competitive and ambitious people looking for exactly the same things. For women, the challenges can run even deeper and for them, the world of Wall Street is particularly fraught. What’s it like to fight through those challenges, especially when your own dreams collide with hurdles – that is, when they collide with men? Elizabeth Rossiello is the CEO of AZA Finance, a fintech and forex company based in Nairobi and London, and her path has taken her through Wall Street, crypto, fintech and Africa.

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Chip Wars and The Most Important Company You’ve Never Heard Of Jul 18, 2023

Semiconductors allow for massive, accessible, and ubiquitous computing and they are such stuff as dreams are made on. They’re pivotal components of the burgeoning artificial intelligence industry, and they now power everything from cars and appliances to missile defense systems and nuclear weaponry. Chips are so central to the consumer world, the shape of economies, and national security that they also inform geopolitical maneuvering – and the head-butting between China and the US for global dominance. Chris Miller is the author of “Chip Wars: The Fight for the World’s Most Crucial Technology,” and a historian at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

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Sam Bankman-Fried vs. the Crypto Grift Jul 11, 2023

Every generation produces a financier or businessperson who personifies how easy it can be to part fools from their money, part smart people from their senses, and part the media from skepticism. There’s a long list of exhibits of that genre, from Charles Ponzi to Bernie Madoff. Does Sam Bankman-Fried belong in that pantheon? There’s lots of evidence suggesting he does. He – and the crypto-currency empire he built – are the subjects of sprawling fraud and money laundering probes. His company, FTX, is bankrupt and federal prosecutors in New York have indicted the 31 year-old former multi-billionaire for a range of financial crimes. SBF, as he’s known, maintains that he is innocent of any wrongdoing and he still gets to have his day in court. Hannah Miller covers crypto for Bloomberg News and is the host of a new podcast, “Spellcaster,” about the life and times of SBF.

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Winemaking vs. Mother Nature Jul 04, 2023

Winemaking may seem entirely glamorous but it’s really just another version of farming: It’s hard, unpredictable work, and farmers everywhere are wrestling with the onslaught of climate change. Climate change may make some of the world’s most fertile wine regions inhospitable to grape production. Winemaking was a competitive and unpredictable business long before climate change’s escalating challenges arrived. Bottling great wine requires as much art as science. During a recent trip to South Africa, Tim visited one of the world’s most spectacular wine regions – the Stellenbosch, outside of Cape Town, South Africa – and one of the area’s oldest vineyards, Rust en Vrede, where he spoke with the owner, Jean Engelbrecht.

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Britain vs. Brexit Jun 27, 2023

When British voters decided back in June 2016 to end their 43-year membership in the European Union, it seemed the most surreal political and economic event imaginable. The European Union was a statement of purpose as much as a trade relationship: It symbolized European countries putting centuries of hostility and two world wars behind in the interest of economic cooperation, and it represented European countries recognizing they had a more muscular global trade profile competing together rather than separately against powerhouses like the US. Brexit turned that on its head. It revealed the Tory Party as captive to its far right constituency, and put issues like immigration, regulation, globalization, and the identities of both Europe and the UK up for grabs. Joining Crash Course is Adrian Wooldridge, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and an erudite, contrarian, and delightful observer of political economy and England.

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What Happens When the Lights Go Out? Jun 20, 2023

We all take for granted that nifty little miracle that happens when we flip a switch on our walls or lamps – the lights go on. Electricity is a modern marvel. It’s the juice that fuels much of what people mean when they talk about “civilization.” When we lose access to electricity, we feel the pain immediately. What we’re used to doing collides with what we suddenly can’t do. Now consider South Africa: the second-largest economy on the African continent and home to 61 million people. The entire country has faced rolling blackouts for about 15 years. How can that be? And what does the present and future hold for a country that doesn’t have a reliable source of electricity? During a trip to South Africa, Tim spoke with Paul Burkhardt, an energy reporter with Bloomberg News in Cape Town, and Olga Constantatos, a South African investor who has spent years watching the power crisis escalate in her country.

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Presidential Crimes and United States vs. Donald Trump Jun 13, 2023

Former President Donald Trump will walk into a federal courtroom in Miami today and face criminal charges for the second time in as many months. The indictment handed up last week charges Trump with misappropriating classified federal documents containing nuclear and military secrets, and obstructing government efforts to both collect them and investigate their disappearance. It’s an utterly devastating account, filled with evidence that Trump knew what he was doing was wrong and he did it anyway. Trump orchestrated the alleged crimes according to the indictment — he wasn’t a bystander. US v Trump is a case that invites a robust discussion, so Tim invited George Conway to Crash Course. George, a graduate of Yale Law School, is an accomplished lawyer and conservative activist who Trump once considered for senior legal roles in his administration. His wife Kellyanne was an adviser to Trump, and George is an acute observer of our shambolic political era.

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Conservatives vs. ESG Jun 06, 2023

Robert Netzly is an Evangelical Christian trying to realize his values and stay true to his own beliefs while working in investing – and he personifies a bigger war going on in the investment world and American politics over a little acronym called ESG. In the last year, there’s been a Republican backlash to the trillions of dollars committed to investing practices that take environmental, social, and governance concerns (such as climate change and gender inequalities) into account. Saijel Kishan is an ESG reporter for Bloomberg News, and she wrote a fascinating piece last fall called “What Would Jesus Buy: Investor Charts Course for $2 Billion Fund.” In today’s special episode of Crash Course, she shares more of that story, which is a tale of two conflicts, in a way. Should there be biases in the investing world, be it faith-based or social activism? And should ESG exist at all?

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BuzzFeed and the Education of Ben Smith May 30, 2023

The media business has been home to experiments ever since the invention of paper. It’s hard to make money from those experiments, fuel the experiments with the right blend of content that attracts audiences, and turn those experiments into enterprises that can survive for years. Six prime experiments from digital media’s modern era all debuted in close proximity to one another in the early 2000s – Gawker, Facebook, Twitter, HuffPost, Politico and Business Insider. All were trailblazers in an innovative and unforgiving technological ecosystem that ultimately flattened local newspapers and spawned other closely-watched and lavishly-funded media start-ups, Vice Media and BuzzFeed among them. Some of the new entrants have faced the same fates as local news. What makes this so hard? What’s at stake? And what have digital media disruptions taught us? Joining Crash Course to make sense of all of this is Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of Semafor and the author of “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral.”

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Sandy Hook and a Reckoning for Gunmakers May 23, 2023

Last year – ten years after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut – one of the country’s biggest gunmakers, Remington Arms Co.,the manufacturer of the Bushmaster assault weapon used in the murders, agreed to pay $73 million to settle a lawsuit some victims’ families filed against it. It was a landmark settlement that opened a gap in the formidable legal and financial armor that had long allowed gunmakers to avoid both culpability and accountability for all of the other massacres that preceded Sandy Hook. It was rough justice, but the Remington case offered a roadmap for challenging the 2nd Amendment. Josh Koskoff was the attorney who represented the Sandy Hook families in the Remington case, and he’s now part of a team of lawyers representing families of some of the victims of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas in 2022.

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AI vs. Money Managers May 16, 2023

Artificial intelligence has arrived courtesy of ChatGPT, the large language model software that already has more than 100 million users. ChatGPT’s debut signals that any number of jobs could be disrupted (and replaced) by bots, including money management – the science and art of successful investing for institutions and individuals. Investing has already been transformed over the last several decades by computers; an avalanche of ubiquitous global market, corporate, and financial data; oceans of liquidity; stronger risk management tools; and evermore probing and state-of-the-art quantitative analysis. AI promises to up the ante further. Aaron Brown and Nir Kaissar are both contributing columnists for Bloomberg Opinion and successful investors – Aaron is the former chief risk officer for one of the world’s largest hedge funds, AQR Capital Management, while Nir is the founder of Unison Advisors, an investment firm specializing in multi-asset portfolios.

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Introducing - Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried May 12, 2023

Coming soon: When nerdy gamer Sam Bankman-Fried rocketed to fame as the world’s richest 29-year-old, he pledged to donate his billions to good causes. But then his crypto exchange FTX collapsed Billions of dollars were missing, and Sam was in handcuffs. Those who knew him were left wondering — who was Sam really? A well-meaning billionaire who made a mistake? Or a calculating con man? From Wondery and Bloomberg, the makers of The Shrink Next Door, comes a new story of incredible wealth, betrayal and what happens when “doing good” goes really really bad. Learn more here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spellcaster-the-fall-of-sam-bankman-fried/id1685258534

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Florida vs. Young Minds May 09, 2023

Name a flashpoint in the US culture wars – and then think about how it intersects with education – and you’re sure to find Florida. The state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, is a devoted and ubiquitous culture warrior who has put the public education of Florida’s children, teenagers, and college students on the front lines of a battle over what is and isn’t appropriate for the classroom. The stakes, as DeSantis has defined them, involve preserving parents’ prerogatives, curtailing harmful discussions of race, gender and historical injustices (or “wokism,” in his description), and reasserting the state’s right to be an educational arbiter. DeSantis’s critics, including Tim, say Desantis’ policies are retrogressive and benighted – and undermine students’ understanding of their own bodies, minds, histories and place in the world. Today we’re going to focus on contentious debates around how two subjects are taught: African-American history and sex education. Marlon Williams-Clark is a high school social studies teacher in Florida, and Lisa Jarvis is a science columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

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Pity City vs. The Workplace May 02, 2023

Andi Owen, the CEO of MillerKnoll, recently went viral for telling employees not to ask about bonuses during a company-wide meeting, adding, “You can visit pity city, but you can't live there.” The company said Owen’s comments were taken out of context and that she is committed to her team. But in a still newly post-Covid world and workplace, Owen’s advice about traveling to Pity City struck a nerve. There are so many tensions still at play in blue-collar and white-collar workplaces: work-from-home, wages, and balancing work and gratification – all in the shadow of a pandemic that took about seven million lives globally. Sarah Green Carmichael has written about work culture, including the “Pity City” boss, childcare, and the merits of hybrid work as a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

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The Supreme Court vs. Greed Apr 25, 2023

The Supreme Court justices get lucrative book deals, luxe travel junkets, and the freedom to invest in almost anything they want – all with limited and forgiving disclosures. And one justice, Clarence Thomas, has routinely offered evidence of some of the Court’s most glaring conflicts of interest. ProPublica recently revealed a goldmine of gifts and financial favors Thomas has received from a prominent Texas businessman, Harlan Crow. Thomas also has a spouse who makes a living advocating for conservative causes that have also found their way to the court. How disinterested can the justices be ruling on weighty matters like corporate power, business competition, and the future of democracy when their own wallets are involved? Gabe Roth is the founder and executive director of Fix the Court, a nonpartisan advocacy group pushing for various court reforms, including new ethics guidelines.

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Fox News vs. The Big Lie Apr 18, 2023

Fox News – at least the part represented by the network’s powerhouse evening talk shows – is often an unfettered disinformation machine. It has propagated myths, far-right talking points, and conspiracy theories with unencumbered gusto. Until that is, it helped circulate the Big Lie about electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election. It placed two voting machine companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, at the center of a scam…that wasn’t a scam. That invited both companies’ wrath and they have sued Fox for libel. A Delaware judge, Eric Davis, recently allowed Dominion’s claim to proceed to trial – opening arguments were supposed to start this week but have been delayed. In moving the case along, Judge Davis indicated that he believed Dominion’s claims had substantial merit and Fox’s defenses might be built on sand. Joining Crash Course is David Folkenflik, the media correspondent for National Public Radio and the author of “Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires.”

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Trump vs. The Law Apr 11, 2023

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently charged former president Donald Trump with crimes related to multiple acts of fraudulent bookkeeping. The case sparked vigorous debates about when presidents are and aren’t fair game for law enforcement officials. Tim happens to believe that no one – including the president – is above the law, but there are good and diverse perspectives on all sides of this issue. To examine Trump’s collision with the rule of law, and the tarpit of legal cases and investigations engulfing the former president – in New York, Georgia, Washington and elsewhere – Tim invited Noah Feldman to our podcast. Noah is a Harvard Law professor, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, and a wildly graceful writer and thinker.

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Authoritarianism vs. Democracy Apr 04, 2023

Berlin is the epicenter of one of the most grotesque authoritarian moments in world history: the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, and all of the horrors that flowed out of that. To consider that history, and the possible threats from authoritarianism in the present, Tim asked his colleague Andreas Kluth, who writes about politics and national security for Bloomberg Opinion, to be his tour guide around the city. Together, they examined three landmark sites – the Reichstag building, Hitler’s bunker, and the Holocaust Memorial – to see what can be learned from the past.

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Silicon Valley Bank vs. the Fed Mar 28, 2023

Imagine you couldn’t take another breath because oxygen disappeared. You gasp for air until your body shuts down. Money provides oxygen to our economy. When the money flow slows, so does the economy. If money stops circulating, the economy seizes. Like your body deprived of oxygen, it shuts down. That’s why banking crises freak out people. Banks are the lungs of a thriving economy, oxygenating everything with money. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed recently, a debacle that exposed fault lines running beneath a legendary financial ecosystem. But it was just one bank. Since then, though, other banks have run into trouble. Sitting atop that uncertainty is the Federal Reserve, the powerhouse that sets interest rates – and thus governs how easy it is for money to course through the economy. To help solve that mystery, Tim spoke with Paul Davies, a financial columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and somebody steeped in the chaos that can happen when banks and money collide with human frailty – and the power of the Fed.

Corrects audio to remove reference to Peter Thiel in discussion about the run on Silicon Valley Bank.

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Putin’s Russia vs. Ukraine Mar 21, 2023

When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he intended to quickly subjugate the entire country. That, of course, didn’t happen. Ukraine – backed by a global alliance – fought back. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have died and tens of millions of people have been displaced, energy markets have been disrupted, diplomatic relationships have been reordered, Western Europe has rearmed, and NATO has been revitalized. Punishing sanctions have been imposed on Russia, but strangling its economy has been difficult. Still, Putin’s war machine has been exposed as disastrously inept, and he’s threatened to use nuclear weapons if necessary. To take stock of all of this, Tim is joined by Stephen Kotkin, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution who is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on Russia – its history, culture, and economy.

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Small Businesses vs. The Pandemic Mar 14, 2023

Remember the early days of COVID-19 lockdowns when, practically overnight, it seemed that every shop closed its doors? Do you remember how all of those small businesses you might have taken for granted – the ones that gave life and an identity to your community – suddenly felt essential to you? Tim watched lots of small businesses in his small town in New Jersey struggle, including his favorite local bakery, Montclair Bread Company. Three years later, he tracks the trials and tribulations this unimaginable public health and economic crisis threw at the bakery and its owner, Rachel Wyman.

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Artificial Intelligence vs. Humanity Mar 07, 2023

Artificial intelligence, or “AI” – the foundation of decades of science fiction and movies – has gone mainstream. It’s here. ChatGPT, a chatbot launched in late 2022, is a free, ask-me-anything tool that can write seemingly perfect essays and accurately answer most questions users throw at it. Its AI is built atop a vast reservoir of digital information and languages. Sydney, a glitchy and trippy Microsoft chatbot, recently told a New York Times reporter that it loved him, wanted to be alive and harbored destructive impulses. It's cool. It’s disturbing. It’s empowering. It’s vaguely threatening. It challenges us to wonder whether we’ll stay in control of the bots or whether they’ll control us.

For this episode, Tim spoke with both Parmy Olson, a Bloomberg Opinion technology columnist who is an AI guru, and Tyler Cowen, a genius economist and Bloomberg columnist, to help sort through all of this.

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Cryptocurrencies vs. Reality Feb 28, 2023

The Winklevoss twins are known for walking away from Facebook with tens of millions in stock and other payments. More recently, they’re known for a new project: An asset management firm and a digital currency exchange that made them marquee players in the recent cryptocurrency boom and meltdown. There are other, more significant crypto players (think Sam Bankman-Fried) but the twins fascinate Tim O’Brien because they embody the sort of collision Crash Course lives for: between innovation and possible hucksterism, and between authenticity and possible manipulation. Crypto is one of the most revolutionary and over-hyped inventions of the 21st century and how the Winklevii intersected with that market is a tale that sheds light on finance and on financial bubbles – and on what happens when everybody thinks they can get rich quickly.

Joining Tim to discuss all of this is Lionel Laurent, a financial columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and someone who has spent a lot of time watching crypto evolve.

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Oatly vs. Big Milk Feb 21, 2023

It’s hard for little companies to take on huge competitors – especially an industry like Big Milk, which has a longstanding grip on consumers’ diets and lifestyles. It takes attitude to consider yourself a revolutionary force rather than just a carton of milk. It takes courage and vision to create a whole new food category. Oatly is one of those companies: It’s a pioneer, but it has struggled with growth and competition recently. Oatly’s story will make you think about what food you put in your body, how the milk industry markets its wares, and whether Oatly can live up to its promises.

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Warrior Cops vs. Responsible Policing Feb 14, 2023

U.S. police officers shoot and kill more than 1,000 people annually. According to a Washington Post study, half of those people are White, but Blacks are shot at more frequently, even though they represent just 14% of the population, and are killed at more than twice the rate of Whites. The same is true of Hispanic Americans and Latinos. This is a collision of the rawest and most brutal sort and it raises myriad questions about safe streets and public safety; crime, racism and institutional violence; police training and the increased militarization of US police forces.

This week on Crash Course, Tim O’Brien interviews two guests: Radley Balko, a journalist and the author of “The Rise of the Warrior Cop,” and Laurence Ralph, an anthropology professor at Princeton University and the director of the Center on Transnational Policing.

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Part 3: Tribal Casinos vs. Digital Sports Gambling Feb 07, 2023

Native Americans now run about half of the national gambling market – or about $40 billion in casino revenue – but the threat the digital boom poses to Native American tribes is often overlooked. The Mashantucket Pequot tribe has overcome a daunting history: genocide, expropriation, financial crises, and public health threats to find themselves now contending with digital upheaval. Can they survive this latest threat?

This is the third of three episodes about the past, present, and future of the multi-billion-dollar sports betting boom, and its impact on games, fans, and society. The series will take you from Chicago to London to the tribal lands of Connecticut to learn more about the rise of mobile betting and match fixing, and the future of tribal casinos.

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Part 2: Sports Gambling vs. Match Fixing Feb 07, 2023

Americans bet about $165 billion a year, but here’s something Tim O’Brien worries about: When there’s billions of dollars on the line, how likely is it that your favorite sport is going to get corrupted? Gamblers and criminals have been trying to rig games since the Olympics first began – it still goes on all the time if you look for it. Enter SportRadar, where former intelligence operatives, police detectives, journalists, and computer geeks track 500,000 sporting matches around the world every year, on the hunt for potential fixes.

This is the second of three episodes about the past, present, and future of the multi-billion-dollar sports betting boom, and its impact on games, fans, and society. The series will take you from Chicago to London to the tribal lands of Connecticut to learn more about the rise of mobile betting and match fixing, and the future of tribal casinos.

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Inside the Digital Sports Betting Boom: Part 1 Feb 07, 2023

If it hasn’t already, sports gambling is coming to your town, your living room, and your cell phone. Americans bet about $450 million on sports every day! That’s one of those numbers Tim O’Brien doesn’t even know how to comprehend – it’s so huge! – but, of course, gamblers lose a lot of that money. That’s how the industry pulled in $44 billion last year, and it looks like betting is going to keep on exploding. To better understand that boom, Tim spent time with somebody who’s really good at navigating all of the ups and downs of gambling: Blair Montgomery, one of the industry’s super users. He gambles every day, and he’s making more money betting than he does from his day job.

This is the first of three episodes about the past, present, and future of the multi-billion-dollar sports betting boom, and its impact on games, fans, and society. The series will take you from Chicago to London to the tribal lands of Connecticut to learn more about the rise of mobile betting and match fixing, and the future of tribal casinos.

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Donald Trump vs. the Republican Party Jan 31, 2023

Crash Course is all about disruption and Tim O’Brien can’t imagine a more disruptive politician than Donald Trump. After rolling down a Trump Tower escalator in 2015 to declare what became his first successful presidential bid, Trump proceeded to upend and warp political, civil, and legal norms, and he forced Americans to examine myths they’ve told themselves about tolerance, progress, and shared values and goals. This has spawned an array of disruptions and learning moments – including Trump’s collision with the GOP, the Republican Party’s collision with itself, and the ongoing polarization of Republicans and Democrats. We are in a chaotic political era, and the fact pattern and clarity are our friends in moments like this. That’s why Tim is happy to welcome Maggie Haberman to today’s show. Maggie is a senior political correspondent with The New York Times, one of our savviest Trump-watchers, and the author of a new bestseller: “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”

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Disney vs. the Battle of the Bobs Jan 24, 2023

Imagine you’re Bob Iger. You relinquish Disney’s CEO suite in 2020 with a sterling legacy intact. Smart, game-changing acquisitions. A good culture. Steady, imaginative leadership. Soaring profits and a jumbo stock price. And a sort of bet-the-ranch move into streaming that puts profit-making aside in favor of reinventing the entertainment platform your business rests upon. All is going swimmingly when you turn things over to your successor, Bob Chapek. You title your autobiography “The Ride of a Lifetime.” What a way to go. Then, boom. Covid lockdowns hit just weeks after you step down. Disney’s business sputters. Chapek alienates your team and the board. And that streaming bet unravels. What do you do? You roll back in as CEO less than three years after you left the company. Chapek is pushed out. How often does something like that happen? Like, never. Even Steve Jobs waited 11 years to make his roundtrip as Apple’s CEO.

There are lots of collisions to sort out here. That’s why I rang up my pal at Bloomberg Opinion, Beth Kowitt. Beth’s a veteran business writer and she spends a lot of time thinking about the mysteries of corporate America.

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Covid-19 Vaccines vs. The Bottom Line Jan 17, 2023

Tim O’Brien is not a scientist. But he is a user of Covid-19 vaccines. He thinks they’re miracles, and the single biggest reason the pandemic wasn’t more devastating. But if that perspective makes you erupt, please relax: Crash Course is focusing today on the companies that make the vaccines, not the science. And Tim has a question: Have those amazing innovators – those life-savers – played fairly when it comes to sharing the financial spoils of their miracle drugs? And they were miracles. Just about nine months after the US went into lockdown in March 2020, the first vaccine jabs were available. There are a handful of marquee companies that won that race, Pfizer, BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca among them. But today, for purposes of a lively discussion about innovation and avarice, Crash Course will focus on Moderna, which is a useful proxy for examining how a groundbreaking vaccine was unearthed – and who got control of its uses.

To do that, Crash Course has invited Dr. Monica Gandhi, a leading virologist and epidemiologist who also teaches at the University of California San Francisco, to join our podcast.

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Elon Musk vs. the Twitterverse Jan 10, 2023

Twitter was a pivotal force in debates about information, disinformation, the media, celebrity, politics, and all sorts of other issues. Then along came Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX’s innovative magician and chief loudmouth. He said he wanted to buy Twitter, then he said he didn’t, then the courts made him reconsider, and then he bought it. His brief three-month tenure as Twitter’s owner and new CEO has been chock full of calamity: tragicomic mismanagement, mass layoffs, censorship, and personal histrionics.

To dive into all of this, Crash Course had to talk to Kurt Wagner, a Bloomberg News reporter who’s spent years covering social media, especially Twitter – he has boatloads of knowledge on how the platform handles what gets poured into our eyes and ears. He’s also working on a book about Twitter.

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Introducing: Crash Course Jan 03, 2023

Hosted by Bloomberg Opinion senior executive editor Tim O'Brien, Crash Course will bring listeners directly into the arenas where epic business and social upheavals occur. Every week, Crash Course will explore the lessons to be learned when creativity and ambition collide with competition and power -- on Wall Street and Main Street, and in Hollywood and Washington.

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