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

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 f…

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

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 …

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

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…

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

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 fac…

The Battle of Fort Frick and the Anarchist Assassin

Concluding our story of Andrew Carnegie's effort to break the unions at his Homestead steel factory, we look at how the plant boss Henry Clay Frick enlisted a private army of Pinkerton detectives to confront the steel workers. Gunfire erupts and there are deaths on both sides.    The so-called bat…

Andrew Carnegie's War with his Workers

In the first of two shows about the fight between the richest man and the unions at his Homestead steel plant - we look at why Andrew Carnegie decided that his workforce deserved a smaller share of his profits and the lengths he went to to cut their wages.     Carnegie grew up in poverty and publi…

George Washington’s Trusted Tavern Guide: The Birth of the User Review

When America’s first president set off to tour his new country, he had no idea where to stay. George Washington slept in some taverns he described as dirty and grim, but also stayed at some delightful inns. In the 1790s, there was no way for travellers to share tips on the nice places to sleep and …

The DeLorean Saga: Fraud, Drug Deals and Marty McFly's Car

This is a special crossover episode with Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford.  John DeLorean was a top car executive - but he was too maverick to fit into the oppressive corporate culture of GM. He wanted to make a new and exciting sports car - a futuristic stainless steel marvel with distinctive gu…

The Tangled Story of Instant Ramen

Momofuku Ando told the world he invented instant ramen noodles in a shed in his backyard. In Japan, there's not one, but two museums celebrating this breakthrough. Only Ando wasn't the first person to flash-fry noodles to preserve them - but he was willing to sue any rival ramen maker.   Ando had …

Billy Beer: When American Beer Hit Bottom, Then Bounced Back

President Jimmy Carter had a brother, and this brother LOVED beer. Billy Carter was a big 1970s celebrity and a struggling brewery decided to bet on him to revive its fortunes. Together they created Billy Beer and launched a huge ad campaign. The beverage was a global sensation... except nobody inc…