FT columnist Gillian Tett and FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth explore the ideas, personalities, and institutions that have shaped the history of finance.
Episodes
A forgotten wallet and the surprising origin story of the credit card
Credit cards are a part of everyday life, consumer debt is widespread and access to credit has helped make America a worldwide economic force. But where did it all begin?According to legend, in 1940s New York when businessman Frank McNamara was out for lunch with his associates. He forgot his wallet, and resolved to create a new way to pay. What emerged was the ‘Diners Card’. A few decades and a d
France’s colonial battle to control African money
For 80 years, a currency created by France has remained in use across large parts of west and central Africa - even decades after the countries there gained independence. But is the CFA franc, as it’s called, a tool of economic stability, or a colonial relic that has allowed France to maintain its grip on its former colonies?Senegalese economist Ndongo Samba Sylla joins Gillian Tett and Robin Wigg
Can economics help explain Europe’s deadly witch trials?
Hundreds of years ago, across Europe - from Germany to Scandinavia, France to Britain - tens of thousands of mostly women were executed, accused of being witches. The persecution reached its height in the 16th and 17th centuries. But why? And could economics help explain the hysteria?Hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth are joined by Brown University economist Emily Oster, whose research expl
The French Revolution's disastrous money experiment - Part 2
The French Revolution was a bloody fight for liberty, equality and fraternity. But it was also a battle over money.In part two of our series on the French Revolution, host Robin Wigglesworth tackles the transformation of France’s monetary system with Rebecca Spang, historian and author of Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution.As the country descended into war, political turmoil and
The French Revolution's disastrous money experiment - Part 1
The French Revolution was a bloody fight for liberty, equality and fraternity. But it was also a battle over money.In part 1 of our series on the French Revolution, host Robin Wigglesworth explores the revolution’s economic origins with Rebecca Spang, historian and author of Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution. They look at the time of the ‘ancien régime’ and the reign of King Lou
How the US financed World War I using Charlie Chaplin and Girl Scouts
The first world war was one of the deadliest conflicts the world has ever seen. And when the US entered the war in 1917, it faced a massive financial challenge: how to pay for its contribution? Enter Treasury Secretary William McAdoo who launches the groundbreaking Liberty Loan Programme and - alongside an unprecedented national propaganda campaign featuring silent film stars like Charlie Chaplin,
The bloody birth of the bond market
The US Treasury market - the world's largest government bond market - is worth about $32tn today, making it the largest pile of debt accumulated in history. But its roots lie in medieval Venice, a bloody military disaster and a leader who was forced to raise a loan to fund a war against the Byzantine Empire.What followed was a catastrophe involving pestilence, defeat and the brutal murder of t
Does history show that fraud is the sign of a healthy economy?
How do you tell if an economy is actually working? Most economics classes point to controlled inflation, steady growth, or low unemployment - but what if the level of financial fraud is the real hidden indicator?Robin Wigglesworth and Gillian Tett talk to Dan Davies, financial historian and author of Lying for Money, to hear about some of the wildest and most shocking frauds in history. From '
Meet the Fuggers: Europe’s richest family ever
Long before Silicon Valley, the grandson of a 15th Century German peasant named Jakob Fugger built a mining and banking empire that dwarfed today’s tech titans, accumulating a fortune estimated at $4 trillion in today’s terms. Richer than the Medici, Rockefeller or Elon Musk, he was the ultimate financial mastermind who bought imperial elections, legalised interest-bearing loans, and inadvertently
Why Dante put bankers in hell and James Joyce didn't
Is money a tool of moral decay or a force for human liberation? Dante feared money would corrupt and damn us, placing bankers in the eighth circle of hell - just one above Lucifer. James Joyce saw it as a tool of freedom, and markets and trade as vital engines of connection and social mobility.In this special bonus episode recorded live in front of an audience at the FT Weekend Festival in London,
He expelled the money changers. So was Jesus anti-capitalist?
What did Jesus really think about money? When he overturned the tables of the money changers in the Temple in Jerusalem, accusing them of turning a sacred "house of prayer" into a "den of robbers", he also set off a series of events that would eventually lead to his death. But what exactly was he attacking? The traders themselves, or the wider economic and religious system they represented?&n
1873: The year America ditched silver as money and all hell broke loose
In 1873, Ohio senator John Sherman quietly helped pass a law that stopped Americans from turning silver into official US money. The consequences were huge: years of economic pain and political turmoil that earned it the nickname “the Crime of 1873”. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Liaquat Ahamed explains how the event squeezed American farmers and fuelled the Free Silver movement, led by the populis
The ‘Sheriff of Wall Street’ who exposed bankers’ lies
He was the bruiser of Wall Street. In the early noughties, New York attorney-general Eliot Spitzer took it upon himself to expose the lies of stock analysts during the dotcom bubble. His crusade blindsided the bankers and made him one of America's most popular politicians. People even spoke of him as a possible US president before a scandal ended his political career almost overnight. In this epis
Mohammed: prophet, trader . . . and capitalist?
Did you know that the Prophet Mohammed was a caravan trader? He helped arrange convoys of thousands of camels carrying valuable goods across the Arabian desert. And he put his commercial nous to good use. Not only did he found one of the world’s great religions, but also a model of free-market capitalism that Friedrich Hayek would have approved of. That is the claim of this week’s guest, the liber
How a stock market crash gave birth to modern antisemitism
The 1873 Gründerkrach, the spectacular stock market crash that followed Germany’s unification, is one of history’s great financial maelstroms. But its most enduring legacy isn’t about money. Host Robin Wigglesworth speaks to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Liaquat Ahamed about how the resulting economic malaise fuelled social division and transformed old prejudices into antisemitic conspiracy. It ga
The hidden financial world of ancient Rome
Ancient Rome is often depicted as a glamorous empire of power, sophistication and wealth. Yet for most people, the reality of daily life was precarious. Host Robin Wigglesworth talks to Kim Bowes, author of Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent, about how ordinary Romans combined real grit with surprising financial sophistication in order to weather a system that was stacked aga
The canal that shaped American finance
The construction of the Erie Canal is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in American history. But its most influential legacy is not the waterway itself, it is how it was paid for. Hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth speak with financial historian Richard Sylla about how a gutsy New York City mayor won over politicians, citizens and investors to build something that not only t
The trader who made $100mn from the 1929 crash — only to lose it all
Jesse Livermore was a legendary trader who made and lost several fortunes in the early 20th century, most famously by shorting the Wall Street crash of 1929. His early life was immortalised in the roman à clef Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre, and his trading insights and stunning successes continue to inspire professional traders and would-be traders to this day. But his life al
The financial crash that created Britain’s first prime minister
When the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720, it wiped out fortunes and plunged Britain into its first great stock market crisis. The collapse of the South Sea Company, a government-backed scheme that promised to turn national debt into riches, left the country's finances in disarray and threatened the credibility of the British state itself. Into the chaos stepped Robert Walpole. Charged with restorin
South Sea Bubble: the shoemaker’s son who sparked Britain’s first financial crisis
In 1720, the South Sea Company was one of the most valuable businesses in Britain until a spectacular collapse in its publicly traded shares triggered the country’s first major stock market crisis. At the centre of the story was John Blunt, a shoemaker’s son who rose through the ranks of the financial world to become one of the company’s key architects. In this episode, hosts Robin Wigglesworth an
The 1980s Garfield buyout that changed corporate finance
William E Simon was a bond trader-turned US cabinet secretary under President Richard Nixon. He was also abrasive, polarising and the “father of private equity”, according to Hettie O’Brien, author of The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself. She tells hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth how Simon orchestrated a deal that was so revolutionary, and so lucrative, th
The US dollar’s ‘immigrant’ origins
Today, when you think of a dollar, the US dollar probably comes to mind first. But that hasn’t always been the case. In this episode of The Story of Money, Brendan Greeley, the author of The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money, explains the origins of the world’s first dollar, the Joachimstaler, and the hapless Bohemian count who played a role in its creation. Greeley, an
The financial scams that brought Albania to the brink of war
In the mid-1990s, Albania appeared to be a nation on the rise. Emerging from decades of isolation and communist rule, people poured their savings into investment schemes that promised extraordinary returns. But many of those schemes were little more than giant Ponzi scams. When they collapsed in early 1997, millions of people lost everything. The financial meltdown triggered mass protests and arme
When Nixon put America first and took the dollar off gold
Today, when people hear the name Richard Nixon, they probably think of Watergate. Few remember another one of his most controversial acts – his suspension of the dollar’s convertibility into gold. The “Nixon Shock” as it became known was a quintessentially America First policy, which shattered the postwar global monetary order. But the US president was far more concerned about juicing the US econo
Why Richard Nixon torpedoed the global monetary system
A century ago, when depositors lost confidence in a bank, they’d rush to withdraw their cash. In 1971, US president Richard Milhous Nixon faced a similar dilemma. But his problem wasn’t ordinary citizens fearing for their savings. Instead, it was America’s closest allies who were nervously eyeing the dwindling supply of gold in Fort Knox at a time when the dollar’s value was tied to gold and allie
The 18th-century woman who made saving possible for the poor
Priscilla Wakefield was a Quaker, writer and social reformer who believed financial security shouldn’t be reserved for the wealthy. Living in late 18th- and early 19th-century England, she founded the country’s first penny savings bank, giving working women and children a safe place to save. Victoria Bateman, author of Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power, tells hosts Gillian Tet
The deal that put the dollar at the centre of the world
Take 730 delegates from 44 countries, plus another 2,000 or so hangers-on. House them in a remote, dilapidated hotel with holes in the roof and broken furniture. Deliver a train wagon filled with alcohol. Throw in some Russian spies, German prisoners of war, a troupe of bombshell “secretaries” and a magician. And then have the lead protagonist, the world’s most famous economist, almost die of a he
Why money is the biggest shared hallucination in human history
What is money? And what can a small island in Micronesia teach us about how it works? On Yap, a remote island in the western Pacific, giant calcite “Rai” stones once functioned as currency, where ownership and collective trust — rather than physical possession — defined wealth and status. In this episode of The Story of Money, macroeconomist and author Felix Martin joins hosts Gillian Tett and Rob
When money went rogue: banking in 19th-century frontier America
In 19th-century America almost anyone could print their own money – and many did. One of the most notable figures to take this up was a man named James Brown, a charismatic conman who built a fortune producing fake banknotes. In this episode of The Story of Money, Stephen Mihm, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, introduces hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth to “the hardest
Hitting the Buffers: The 1873 railway bust that broke one of America’s greatest financiers
Every now and then a new technology comes along that changes everything – electricity, computers, potentially AI. In mid-19th-century America, that technology was the steam locomotive. It knitted the US economy together, driving the nation’s industrialisation during the Gilded Age. But along the way, it also caused one of the biggest financial crises in American history. FT Alphaville editor Robin
They are history’s geniuses. But were they any good at investing?
Does scientific, artistic or political brilliance translate into investing success? It’s a topical question with hedge funds today accused of sucking talent away from the rest of the economy. So, the FT’s Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth sat down with reporter Toby Nangle, who has dug into the archives to assess the investment portfolios of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, John
How ancient Mesopotamians solved runaway debt
Long before modern economics, rulers such as Hammurabi in ancient Mesopotamia grappled with a political problem that still haunts our economies today: when people’s debts grow faster than their ability to repay them, the entire economic system can start to crack. Hammurabi adopted a radical solution: cancel debts entirely. Amanda H Podany, professor emeritus of history at California State Polytech
Introducing: The Story of Money
The economist John Kenneth Galbraith once quipped that “there can be few fields of human endeavour in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance.” This show sets out to prove the opposite. Each week, FT columnist Gillian Tett and FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth dig into the ideas, personalities and institutions that have shaped global finance. From unregulated banking in
Finale: The collapse of India’s $22bn tech star
For our final episode: Education start-up Byju’s quickly became the pride of India during the Covid-19 pandemic. But almost as fast as the company rose, it collapsed. The fallout has already resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of US court sanctions and allegations of witness tampering. The FT’s Mumbai bureau chief Chris Kay has been following the legal drama and examines what Byju’s demise mean
Private credit’s public reckoning
After years of fast-paced growth, private credit is facing intense scrutiny. In recent months, investors have made requests to withdraw billions of dollars from the $2tn sector’s funds. The FT’s US private equity and deals editor Antoine Gara and US investment editor Eric Platt explain how we got to this critical moment, and what may be next for this pocket of Wall Street. C
Best of: How the diamond industry lost its sparkle
This week, we are revisiting a favorite episode. The natural diamond industry is facing an existential threat: lab-grown diamonds. They are chemically and physically identical to natural stones but they are a fraction of the price. Eleanor Olcott, the FT’s China technology correspondent, travelled to the epicentre of lab-grown diamond production in the central Chinese province of Henan to see how
Introducing Untold: Opus Dei
Introducing Opus Dei, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. Host Antonia Cundy uncovers the cultural and political influence of a controversial Catholic organisation in America. Opus Dei exists to help people get closer to God, but some members say they found other agendas – and unexpected harm – entangled in that spiritual mission. The first episode of Untold: Opus Dei launches March 2
Wall Street and crypto battle over the future of money
US President Donald Trump handed crypto companies a huge win last year when he signed a piece of legislation to regulate an important part of the digital currency world: stablecoins. But ever since then, Wall Street banks have been fighting to change parts of the law. The FT’s digital markets correspondent Nikou Asgari explains what’s provoked US banks and who might have the upper hand in this con
Vote for Behind the Money in the NYC Podcast Awards!
Behind the Money has been nominated for an NYC Podcast Award in the Best Interview Podcast category. It’s an Audience Choice award, which means we need your help to win. Vote for us here. And while you’re at it, vote for some other FT podcasts that have also been nominated. Our Tech Tonic podcast was nominated for Best Science & Tech Podcast. And our Swamp Notes podcast was nominated for
Co-creators Mickey Down & Konrad Kay on ‘Industry’
This week Michela and the FT’s US banking editor, Joshua Franklin, interview the co-creators of the hit television show, Industry. In its fourth season, the show follows the lives of ambitious young people making their way in London's financial centre. The season finale aired earlier this week, and in this episode, Michela and Joshua discuss with the creators, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, the overl
Companies reap $22bn from Trump’s immigration crackdown
Raids by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have made national headlines. But behind ICE’s operations, a sprawling web of private companies – from global powerhouses to niche family-run businesses – have secured hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts. Peter Andringa from the FT’s visual investigations team spent months crawling through federal documents and data sets to pu
How a private equity pioneer lost its grip on the market it invented
Partners Group pursued an innovative approach to private equity: The firm built a business serving a market of individual investors. Now, a recent executive order from US President Donald Trump is set to unlock that marketplace on an even grander scale.The only thing is, Partners might not be the one to reap the rewards. The FT’s US private equity and deals editor Antoine Gara and private capital
A hedge fund’s $8bn bet on Venezuela’s Citgo
When the hedge fund Elliott Management pursued the acquisition of the oil refinery business Citgo a few years ago, the deal was already a complicated one. A US court had ordered its current owner, Venezuela, to sell the business, and the country was not happy about it. But, things only got thornier after the US President Donald Trump removed the Caribbean nation’s leader Nicolás Maduro. The FT’s U
How the Federal Reserve might change under Kevin Warsh
US President Donald Trump on Friday made his pick to lead the Federal Reserve: Kevin Warsh. The former central bank governor with ties to Wall Street is seen as a mainstream pick. Still, some economists say if Warsh is confirmed, he will trigger a sweeping rethink of the Fed’s role at the centre of the world’s biggest economy. The FT’s US economics editor Claire Jones explains who Warsh is, what h
Can Wells Fargo make it in investment banking?
For more than 170 years, Wells Fargo built a reputation as an all-American Main Street lender. Now, it is charting a new path and pushing into investment banking, something that many other banks have tried and failed to do. The FT’s US banking editor Joshua Franklin and US banking correspondent Akila Quinio discuss what Wells Fargo does — and doesn’t have — going for it as it pursues this strategy
The rapid collapse of Saks Global
Saks Global, the parent company of the historic luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move occurred a little more than a year after the company purchased Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman in a debt-fuelled takeover. The FT’s Wall Street editor Sujeet Indap and the US investment editor Eric Platt walk through how that acquisition played
Davos’ fight for relevance
Every January a collection of the world’s top business and political leaders head to the Swiss town of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The event is a week of panels and networking meant to promote dialogue among elites. But a scandal last year threatened to overshadow the 2026 meeting, which begins in a few days. Critics have also questioned the event’s relevance in a cha
Martin Wolf on the economy in 2026
From the artificial intelligence bubble to trade policy, Michela asks Martin Wolf, the FT's chief economics commentator, how the biggest stories of last year will affect the economy in 2026. The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For further reading:Forecasting the world in 2026 Why the world should worry about sta
As digital scams surge, who’s responsible?
The surge in scams, phishing attacks and digital fraud is raising serious liability questions. So who should be doing more? In this live recording from this year’s FT Global Banking Summit, Michela poses that question to executives from Citi, KPMG and Open Banking Excellence. The conversation was recorded on December 2, 2025.The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.-
The Economics Show: What economics gets wrong about human behaviour, with Richard Thaler
Economists like to model people as rational creatures who make self-interested decisions. But humans don’t act that way. Why do investors, politicians and ordinary people act against their best interests – and how can they be nudged into making better decisions? To find out, FT economics commentator Chris Giles speaks to Richard Thaler, the founding father of behavioural economics. Thaler is a pro
The quiet success of Fidelity Investments
Despite its relatively low profile, Fidelity Investments is a sprawling beast when it comes to financial services. Last year, the firm’s revenues surpassed the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, by more than 50 per cent. The FT’s Emma Dunkley explains how Fidelity has come to dominate the sector, the secrets behind its success, and what hurdles it may have to jump through in the coming year
Whistleblowing in the UK, Ep. 2: Is it ‘British’ to pay whistleblowers?
In the UK, whistleblowers are encouraged to report wrongdoing, but often at cost to their livelihoods and careers. One solution would be to pay corporate whistleblowers for coming forward. However, many in government have held the idea for years that doing so is not very “British.” But now, longtime opposition to the idea seems to be shifting. Suzi Ring, the FT’s legal correspondent in London, exp
Business Book of the Year: Author Stephen Witt on Nvidia’s rise
In this special episode of Behind the Money, the FT’s senior business writer Andrew Hill interviews author Stephen Witt about his book The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip. Witt and his book won the FT and Schroders Business Book of the Year for 2025. The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.- - - - - -
Whistleblowing in the UK, Ep. 1: The cost of speaking up
For years, corporate whistleblowers in the UK have found themselves in an unenviable predicament. They’re encouraged to report wrongdoing, but at the same time they often feel like they’ve risked everything: their careers and livelihoods in exchange for little. In this special two-part series, we explore why critics think this system is failing whistleblowers and what the UK can do to change thing
Coming soon: The cost of corporate whistleblowing in the UK
For years, corporate whistleblowers in the UK have found themselves in an unenviable predicament. They’re encouraged to report wrongdoing, but at the same time they often feel like they’ve risked their livelihoods in exchange for very little in the end. The fallout from whistleblowing can cost them their careers or worse. Starting next Monday, Behind the Money is launching a two-part special serie
Business History: The Secret of Southwest’s Success
This week we’re sharing an episode from Business History, a podcast from Pushkin Industries. Former Planet Money hosts Jacob Goldstein and Robert Smith explore what the businesses of the past can teach us about commerce today. In this episode, Goldstein and Smith look at how Southwest Airlines developed a winning formula that forced its competitors to change how they did business — but then t
KKR, Bain and private equity’s push into Japan
When international private equity groups first entered Japan at the turn of the 21st century, newspapers criticised them as vulture funds and politicians steered clear of public contact. Today, it’s a different story. Dozens of buyout groups have set up in the country and the establishment is courting them. The FT’s Tokyo correspondent David Keohane and Tokyo bureau chief Leo Lewis explain why the
Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Defying death
Investors are spending billions of dollars on novel ways to extend human life through inventive treatments, therapies, and even manipulating our genes. And increasingly, it seems as though anti-ageing efforts have moved from the super rich to a mass market consumer industry. In this series, we’re covering the past, present and future of the longevity movement. We’ll be looking at where the fixatio
What’s the deal with OpenAI's deals?
OpenAI is entering a new era. It's restructured to add a for-profit arm to its business and has signed more than a trillion dollars’ worth of deals to secure chips and build out data centres. But those huge financial commitments also raise massive questions: How will a heavily loss-making company fund $1.4tn worth of deals with some of the biggest publicly listed companies in the world? And what s
Pfizer and Novo Nordisk’s $10bn battle over weight-loss drugs
Pharma juggernauts Pfizer and Novo Nordisk are struggling in the obesity drug race.The two companies are searching for their next moneymaker, and that search recently spun out into a ferocious, multibillion-dollar battle for control of biotech start-up Metsera. The FT’s US deals and activism correspondent Oliver Barnes walks through the tussle that’s involved lawsuits, public barbs and political d
The $17bn nuclear start-up without any revenue
Publicly-listed Oklo sits at the intersection of two hot areas for Wall Street: artificial intelligence and energy companies. This year alone, Oklo’s share price has jumped more than 400 per cent. But the business hasn’t generated any revenue. It hasn’t built a nuclear reactor, and it hasn’t secured any binding contracts with customers. The FT’s US energy editor Jamie Smyth explains the enthusiasm
$12bn of debt: How First Brands Group collapsed
Some of the world’s biggest financial institutions are reeling after the collapse of a little-known car parts supplier: First Brands Group. The company filed for bankruptcy last month, and since then, FT reporters have shone a spotlight on billions of dollars of hidden debt and a secretive founder whose borrowing habits left creditors exposed. The FT’s corporate finance editor Robert Smith and ban
Can the world’s largest listed hedge fund rebound?
The world’s largest listed hedge fund manager, Man Group, is at a crossroads. After years of high flying thanks to its innovative quant trading strategies, the company’s hedge fund unit has been faltering. Recently, the performance of Man Group’s core business has been lacklustre, and some institutional investors have pulled their money. The FT’s hedge fund correspondent Costas Mourselas analyses
Introducing Untold: Toxic Legacy
Introducing Toxic Legacy, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. Host Laura Hughes uncovers a lead poisoning epidemic across the UK. You might be living with lead and not know it: the toxin is often invisible to the human eye, but wreaks havoc on our bodies once we’re exposed. The first episode of Untold: Toxic Legacy launches October 22. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Ca
The meltdown at Nestlé
From KitKat candy bars to Perrier mineral water, Nestlé owns thousands of brands. But recently the world’s largest food and beverage company has severely underperformed its rivals in the wider consumer goods sector. The business is also emerging from a scandal involving its most recent chief executive. The FT’s consumer industries reporter Madeleine Speed explains how Nestlé’s challenges fit into
Elon Musk and the end of a telecom tycoon’s dream
In recent weeks, satellite business EchoStar has clinched multibillion-dollar deals with SpaceX and AT&T. It may sound like boom times for founder Charlie Ergen, but these deals illustrate something different: the abandoning of an ambitious, decades-long quest to build his own mobile phone network. The FT’s Wall Street editor Sujeet Indap and US trading and crypto correspondent Jill R Shah exp
Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Mission to Mars
US President Donald Trump has pledged to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”, China could send its first crewed mission to Mars within a decade, and Elon Musk wants people to actually settle on Mars, transforming the human race into an interplanetary species. In a new series of Tech Tonic, the FT’s Peggy Hollinger asks if we’re really about to land, and even live, on the red plan
The unsustainable boom in India’s Silicon Valley
India’s tech hub Bangalore has experienced huge growth of companies and employees in the past two decades. But the city’s infrastructure is not keeping up with such rapid growth. With the tech sector contributing more than $300bn to the nation’s economy, what happens to the country’s growth if Bangalore can’t solve its issues? The FT’s Mumbai bureau chief Chris Kay and Mumbai correspondent Kr
Vote for Behind the Money in the Signal Awards!
Behind the Money has been nominated for a Signal Award in the Money & Finance category! It's a Listener Choice award, which means we need your help. Vote for us to win here. We appreciate your support!And while you're at it, vote for some other FT podcasts that have also been nominated. The FT News Briefing podcast was nominated for best daily podcast category. Vote here. And our Tech Tonic po
A subprime auto lender collapsed. Wall Street has questions
The recent collapse of Tricolor Holdings, a subprime auto lender in Texas, has left a trail of losses and questions from Wall Street to low-income immigrant communities throughout the American south-west. The FT’s US banking correspondent Akila Quinio, and Amelia Pollard, US investment correspondent, explain what they’ve found.Clip from Fifth Third- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Is there a future for the ‘Amazon of Africa’?
Ecommerce start-up Jumia was supposed to become the “Amazon of Africa”. Its prospects seemed promising after raising close to $800mn prior to its IPO in 2019 — more than any African start-up. But in the years since, things haven’t gone the way investors probably hoped. The FT’s west and central Africa correspondent Aanu Adeoye explains Jumia’s plans to turn the business around, and what its challe
How the diamond industry lost its sparkle
The natural diamond industry is facing an existential threat: lab-grown diamonds. They’re chemically and physically identical to natural stones, and they're just a fraction of the price. Eleanor Olcott, the FT’s China technology correspondent, travelled to the epicentre of lab-grown diamond production in the central Chinese province of Henan to see how they’re made. While the FT’s natural resource
Chevron prepares to take on ExxonMobil
Earlier this summer, energy supermajor Chevron secured access to one of the most valuable oilfields in the world. It was the culmination of a months-long battle that pitted America’s second-largest oil company against the largest, ExxonMobil. The FT’s US energy editor, Jamie Smyth, looks at what Chevron aims to do next, and how it plans to take on its larger rival. Clips from CNBC
Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Will AI ruin music?
AI music generators - platforms that use artificial intelligence to create new, original music from scratch - can make songs that are almost indistinguishable from human creations. For some musicians, they’re the next frontier in music-making technology. But for others, they represent a grave threat, flooding the world with low-grade AI music, stealing the jobs of working musicians, and even spell
Unhedged: The Fed under attack
This week we're sharing an episode from, Unhedged, another podcast from the FT network.The annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is supposed to be an intellectual retreat. Instead, it was overshadowed by personal and political attacks on US Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook. Today on the show, Katie Martin talks to US economics editor Claire Jones about her reporting fro
Palantir’s relentless rise
Palantir shares have soared this year, making the data analytics company one of the most valuable listed US tech groups. The FT’s Tabby Kinder explains how a paradigm shift in Silicon Valley helped propel Palantir to new heights and why many think it will be among the biggest winners of more US federal spending on national security, immigration and space exploration – even as others have started q
Why Big Tobacco is buzzing over nicotine pouches
This is a revised version of an earlier episode and clarifies the position of Zyn in the US market.As the popularity of cigarettes has slid in the past couple decades, Big Tobacco has been searching for a new hit product. Now, they think they’ve found it: nicotine pouches. FT reporters Clara Murray and Mari Novik explain how nicotine pouches became popular, and whether they’ll become the sector’s
Can Bobby Jain build the next hedge fund giant?
Two summers ago, hedge fund manager Bobby Jain set out with a huge goal: build a hedge fund that can rival the likes of industry giants Citadel and Millennium. But in the year since his firm started trading, Jain has found the going tough. FT hedge fund correspondents Amelia Pollard and Costas Mourselas explain what difficulties he has encountered, and whether building a true rival in this space i
Fixable: How to bring a business back to life
This week we’re sharing an episode from Fixable, a podcast from TED. In it, hear about the resurrection of Barnes & Noble. Chief revival architect and CEO James Daunt joins hosts Anne Morriss and Frances Frei to discuss the unconventional leadership strategies that helped him navigate through the pandemic and keep bookstores alive in the age of Amazon and e-books. Anne and Frances explore
Wall Street banks and private equity’s tussle over junior talent
The competition for junior talent between private equity and Wall Street banks reached a new peak this summer. That’s thanks to a controversial recruiting practice that is causing both industries to find talent earlier and earlier.Now, powerful figures such as JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon are publicly decrying the strategy. The FT’s Wall Street editor Sujeet Indap and banking editor Ortenca Ali
