Immersive Business 07
Ministry of Spark 200 episodes Oct 9, 2026
This podcast presents business history as free audiobooks, narrated with a synthetic voice. This volume covers figures such as Edward Thorp and James Simons, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Thomas Edison, Jacob Fugger, Nathan Rothschild, J. P. Morgan, Dee Hock, Rob Kalin, Marc Lore, Ben Chestnut, David Baszucki, Luis von Ahn, Yvon Chouinard, and Frederick Terman. Across fifty books, it examines founders, investors, and the companies they built, including Visa, Etsy, Mailchimp, Duolingo, Patagonia, and others.
Episodes
Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon and MIT - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 2 - Part 01
Cambridge, Winchester and Las Vegas, 1959 to 1969. A young mathematics instructor who has already shown in print that one casino game can be beaten takes the next problem to the one man in the building equipped to help him with it. Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon spend eight months in the basement of Shannon's house building a machine to predict roulette: a regulation wheel bought from Reno, twelv
Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon and MIT - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 2 - Part 02
Cambridge, Winchester and Las Vegas, 1959 to 1969. A young mathematics instructor who has already shown in print that one casino game can be beaten takes the next problem to the one man in the building equipped to help him with it. Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon spend eight months in the basement of Shannon's house building a machine to predict roulette: a regulation wheel bought from Reno, twelv
Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon and MIT - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 2 - Part 03
Cambridge, Winchester and Las Vegas, 1959 to 1969. A young mathematics instructor who has already shown in print that one casino game can be beaten takes the next problem to the one man in the building equipped to help him with it. Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon spend eight months in the basement of Shannon's house building a machine to predict roulette: a regulation wheel bought from Reno, twelv
Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon and MIT - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 2 - Part 04
Cambridge, Winchester and Las Vegas, 1959 to 1969. A young mathematics instructor who has already shown in print that one casino game can be beaten takes the next problem to the one man in the building equipped to help him with it. Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon spend eight months in the basement of Shannon's house building a machine to predict roulette: a regulation wheel bought from Reno, twelv
Edward O. Thorp and James Sutton Regan - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 3 - Part 01
Newport Beach and Princeton, 1964 to 1992. A mathematics professor who had already proved a casino game beatable turns the same apparatus on convertible bonds and warrants, and finds a way to hold two positions against each other so that the direction of the market stops mattering. The partnership he builds with a New Jersey trader runs for nineteen years without a losing one. Then, on a December
Edward O. Thorp and James Sutton Regan - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 3 - Part 02
Newport Beach and Princeton, 1964 to 1992. A mathematics professor who had already proved a casino game beatable turns the same apparatus on convertible bonds and warrants, and finds a way to hold two positions against each other so that the direction of the market stops mattering. The partnership he builds with a New Jersey trader runs for nineteen years without a losing one. Then, on a December
Edward O. Thorp and James Sutton Regan - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 3 - Part 03
Newport Beach and Princeton, 1964 to 1992. A mathematics professor who had already proved a casino game beatable turns the same apparatus on convertible bonds and warrants, and finds a way to hold two positions against each other so that the direction of the market stops mattering. The partnership he builds with a New Jersey trader runs for nineteen years without a losing one. Then, on a December
Edward O. Thorp and James Sutton Regan - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 3 - Part 04
Newport Beach and Princeton, 1964 to 1992. A mathematics professor who had already proved a casino game beatable turns the same apparatus on convertible bonds and warrants, and finds a way to hold two positions against each other so that the direction of the market stops mattering. The partnership he builds with a New Jersey trader runs for nineteen years without a losing one. Then, on a December
James Simons, Leonard Baum and James Ax - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 4 - Part 01
Boston, Princeton and East Setauket, 1938 to 2024. James Simons wins a prize in geometry, builds a mathematics department on Long Island, breaks codes for a defense contractor, is fired for saying in print that he opposes the war, and opens a currency-trading office in a storefront beside a pizzeria. The fund he assembles there, Medallion, returns roughly sixty-six percent a year before fees for t
James Simons, Leonard Baum and James Ax - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 4 - Part 02
Boston, Princeton and East Setauket, 1938 to 2024. James Simons wins a prize in geometry, builds a mathematics department on Long Island, breaks codes for a defense contractor, is fired for saying in print that he opposes the war, and opens a currency-trading office in a storefront beside a pizzeria. The fund he assembles there, Medallion, returns roughly sixty-six percent a year before fees for t
James Simons, Leonard Baum and James Ax - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 4 - Part 03
Boston, Princeton and East Setauket, 1938 to 2024. James Simons wins a prize in geometry, builds a mathematics department on Long Island, breaks codes for a defense contractor, is fired for saying in print that he opposes the war, and opens a currency-trading office in a storefront beside a pizzeria. The fund he assembles there, Medallion, returns roughly sixty-six percent a year before fees for t
James Simons, Leonard Baum and James Ax - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 4 - Part 04
Boston, Princeton and East Setauket, 1938 to 2024. James Simons wins a prize in geometry, builds a mathematics department on Long Island, breaks codes for a defense contractor, is fired for saying in print that he opposes the war, and opens a currency-trading office in a storefront beside a pizzeria. The fund he assembles there, Medallion, returns roughly sixty-six percent a year before fees for t
Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill and Interactive Brokers - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 5 - Part 01
Budapest, New York and Chicago, 1944 to 2007. A Hungarian emigrant with almost no English learns to program on borrowed machine time, buys a seat on the American Stock Exchange, and begins quoting options out of a model instead of out of a feel for the crowd. The printed sheets in his hand become a computer in his hand, and the exchange orders the computer off the floor. So he builds machines that
Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill and Interactive Brokers - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 5 - Part 02
Budapest, New York and Chicago, 1944 to 2007. A Hungarian emigrant with almost no English learns to program on borrowed machine time, buys a seat on the American Stock Exchange, and begins quoting options out of a model instead of out of a feel for the crowd. The printed sheets in his hand become a computer in his hand, and the exchange orders the computer off the floor. So he builds machines that
Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill and Interactive Brokers - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 5 - Part 03
Budapest, New York and Chicago, 1944 to 2007. A Hungarian emigrant with almost no English learns to program on borrowed machine time, buys a seat on the American Stock Exchange, and begins quoting options out of a model instead of out of a feel for the crowd. The printed sheets in his hand become a computer in his hand, and the exchange orders the computer off the floor. So he builds machines that
Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill and Interactive Brokers - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 5 - Part 04
Budapest, New York and Chicago, 1944 to 2007. A Hungarian emigrant with almost no English learns to program on borrowed machine time, buys a seat on the American Stock Exchange, and begins quoting options out of a model instead of out of a feel for the crowd. The printed sheets in his hand become a computer in his hand, and the exchange orders the computer off the floor. So he builds machines that
Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil - THE FIRST BARREL Book 2 - Part 01
Cleveland and Florida, 1830 to 1913. Henry Flagler went broke in salt at Saginaw, spent nine years paying back what he owed, and arrived at a kerosene refinery on Kingsbury Run as the one man in the building who knew how to write a contract. He drew the papers that built Standard Oil, and the papers that built the South Improvement Company, a corporation that never moved a barrel and detonated any
Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil - THE FIRST BARREL Book 2 - Part 02
Cleveland and Florida, 1830 to 1913. Henry Flagler went broke in salt at Saginaw, spent nine years paying back what he owed, and arrived at a kerosene refinery on Kingsbury Run as the one man in the building who knew how to write a contract. He drew the papers that built Standard Oil, and the papers that built the South Improvement Company, a corporation that never moved a barrel and detonated any
Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil - THE FIRST BARREL Book 2 - Part 03
Cleveland and Florida, 1830 to 1913. Henry Flagler went broke in salt at Saginaw, spent nine years paying back what he owed, and arrived at a kerosene refinery on Kingsbury Run as the one man in the building who knew how to write a contract. He drew the papers that built Standard Oil, and the papers that built the South Improvement Company, a corporation that never moved a barrel and detonated any
Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil - THE FIRST BARREL Book 2 - Part 04
Cleveland and Florida, 1830 to 1913. Henry Flagler went broke in salt at Saginaw, spent nine years paying back what he owed, and arrived at a kerosene refinery on Kingsbury Run as the one man in the building who knew how to write a contract. He drew the papers that built Standard Oil, and the papers that built the South Improvement Company, a corporation that never moved a barrel and detonated any
Ludvig Nobel, Robert Nobel and Emanuel Nobel - THE FIRST BARREL Book 3 - Part 01
Baku and St. Petersburg, 1873 to 1920. A Swedish arms manufacturer sends his elder brother to the Caucasus to buy walnut wood for rifle stocks. The brother spends the money on a small kerosene works in Black Town instead, and the family discovers an oilfield so productive that wells there blew out of the ground untouched while Pennsylvania was pumping. Ludvig Nobel then did the thing the Baku prod
Ludvig Nobel, Robert Nobel and Emanuel Nobel - THE FIRST BARREL Book 3 - Part 02
Baku and St. Petersburg, 1873 to 1920. A Swedish arms manufacturer sends his elder brother to the Caucasus to buy walnut wood for rifle stocks. The brother spends the money on a small kerosene works in Black Town instead, and the family discovers an oilfield so productive that wells there blew out of the ground untouched while Pennsylvania was pumping. Ludvig Nobel then did the thing the Baku prod
Ludvig Nobel, Robert Nobel and Emanuel Nobel - THE FIRST BARREL Book 3 - Part 03
Baku and St. Petersburg, 1873 to 1920. A Swedish arms manufacturer sends his elder brother to the Caucasus to buy walnut wood for rifle stocks. The brother spends the money on a small kerosene works in Black Town instead, and the family discovers an oilfield so productive that wells there blew out of the ground untouched while Pennsylvania was pumping. Ludvig Nobel then did the thing the Baku prod
Ludvig Nobel, Robert Nobel and Emanuel Nobel - THE FIRST BARREL Book 3 - Part 04
Baku and St. Petersburg, 1873 to 1920. A Swedish arms manufacturer sends his elder brother to the Caucasus to buy walnut wood for rifle stocks. The brother spends the money on a small kerosene works in Black Town instead, and the family discovers an oilfield so productive that wells there blew out of the ground untouched while Pennsylvania was pumping. Ludvig Nobel then did the thing the Baku prod
Monty Moncrief, H. L. Hunt and J. Paul Getty - THE FIRST BARREL Book 4 - Part 01
Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey and the Arabian desert, 1901 to 2003. These are the men who did the thing the rest of the series says does not work: they owned the ground. Monty Moncrief drilled twenty-nine dry holes before the thirtieth came in. H. L. Hunt bought an exhausted promoter's leases over the largest field in the country for seventy-five thousand dollars down. J. Paul Getty paid nine and a
Monty Moncrief, H. L. Hunt and J. Paul Getty - THE FIRST BARREL Book 4 - Part 02
Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey and the Arabian desert, 1901 to 2003. These are the men who did the thing the rest of the series says does not work: they owned the ground. Monty Moncrief drilled twenty-nine dry holes before the thirtieth came in. H. L. Hunt bought an exhausted promoter's leases over the largest field in the country for seventy-five thousand dollars down. J. Paul Getty paid nine and a
Monty Moncrief, H. L. Hunt and J. Paul Getty - THE FIRST BARREL Book 4 - Part 03
Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey and the Arabian desert, 1901 to 2003. These are the men who did the thing the rest of the series says does not work: they owned the ground. Monty Moncrief drilled twenty-nine dry holes before the thirtieth came in. H. L. Hunt bought an exhausted promoter's leases over the largest field in the country for seventy-five thousand dollars down. J. Paul Getty paid nine and a
Monty Moncrief, H. L. Hunt and J. Paul Getty - THE FIRST BARREL Book 4 - Part 04
Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey and the Arabian desert, 1901 to 2003. These are the men who did the thing the rest of the series says does not work: they owned the ground. Monty Moncrief drilled twenty-nine dry holes before the thirtieth came in. H. L. Hunt bought an exhausted promoter's leases over the largest field in the country for seventy-five thousand dollars down. J. Paul Getty paid nine and a
Howard Hughes Senior, Daniel Ludwig and Hughes Tool Company - THE FIRST BARREL Book 5 - Part 01
Houston and the sea, 1869 to 1992. Two men took a toll on every barrel the American oil industry lifted and neither of them ever owned a producing well. Howard Hughes Senior patented a drill bit with rolling cones that chewed through rock a fishtail blade could only polish, and then refused to sell it — he rented it, by the hour, with his own man attached, and collected on holes other people paid
Howard Hughes Senior, Daniel Ludwig and Hughes Tool Company - THE FIRST BARREL Book 5 - Part 02
Houston and the sea, 1869 to 1992. Two men took a toll on every barrel the American oil industry lifted and neither of them ever owned a producing well. Howard Hughes Senior patented a drill bit with rolling cones that chewed through rock a fishtail blade could only polish, and then refused to sell it — he rented it, by the hour, with his own man attached, and collected on holes other people paid
Howard Hughes Senior, Daniel Ludwig and Hughes Tool Company - THE FIRST BARREL Book 5 - Part 03
Houston and the sea, 1869 to 1992. Two men took a toll on every barrel the American oil industry lifted and neither of them ever owned a producing well. Howard Hughes Senior patented a drill bit with rolling cones that chewed through rock a fishtail blade could only polish, and then refused to sell it — he rented it, by the hour, with his own man attached, and collected on holes other people paid
Howard Hughes Senior, Daniel Ludwig and Hughes Tool Company - THE FIRST BARREL Book 5 - Part 04
Houston and the sea, 1869 to 1992. Two men took a toll on every barrel the American oil industry lifted and neither of them ever owned a producing well. Howard Hughes Senior patented a drill bit with rolling cones that chewed through rock a fishtail blade could only polish, and then refused to sell it — he rented it, by the hour, with his own man attached, and collected on holes other people paid
Marc Rich and Marc Rich + Co AG - THE FIRST BARREL Book 6 - Part 01
Antwerp, New York and Zug, 1934 to 2013. A refugee child who arrived in America speaking no English went to work in a metals trader's mailroom and ended by taking a cut of cargoes he never owned, on tankers he never chartered, out of fields he never drilled. Marc Rich sold Iranian crude through an embargo, carried oil to South Africa under a United Nations boycott, and moved Soviet metal west thro
Marc Rich and Marc Rich + Co AG - THE FIRST BARREL Book 6 - Part 02
Antwerp, New York and Zug, 1934 to 2013. A refugee child who arrived in America speaking no English went to work in a metals trader's mailroom and ended by taking a cut of cargoes he never owned, on tankers he never chartered, out of fields he never drilled. Marc Rich sold Iranian crude through an embargo, carried oil to South Africa under a United Nations boycott, and moved Soviet metal west thro
Marc Rich and Marc Rich + Co AG - THE FIRST BARREL Book 6 - Part 03
Antwerp, New York and Zug, 1934 to 2013. A refugee child who arrived in America speaking no English went to work in a metals trader's mailroom and ended by taking a cut of cargoes he never owned, on tankers he never chartered, out of fields he never drilled. Marc Rich sold Iranian crude through an embargo, carried oil to South Africa under a United Nations boycott, and moved Soviet metal west thro
Marc Rich and Marc Rich + Co AG - THE FIRST BARREL Book 6 - Part 04
Antwerp, New York and Zug, 1934 to 2013. A refugee child who arrived in America speaking no English went to work in a metals trader's mailroom and ended by taking a cut of cargoes he never owned, on tankers he never chartered, out of fields he never drilled. Marc Rich sold Iranian crude through an embargo, carried oil to South Africa under a United Nations boycott, and moved Soviet metal west thro
Chris Riccobono, Tara Bosch and UNTUCKit - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 3 - Part 01
New York and Vancouver, 2010 to 2021. Chris Riccobono owns forty dress shirts and can wear one of them untucked, so he has a better one made and spends ten months on the hem. Tara Bosch buys a gummy bear mold on Amazon and borrows a hundred and five thousand dollars against a Honda Fit. Neither has a room worth any sentiment: the founder is the distribution channel, and the channel is one person w
Chris Riccobono, Tara Bosch and UNTUCKit - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 3 - Part 02
New York and Vancouver, 2010 to 2021. Chris Riccobono owns forty dress shirts and can wear one of them untucked, so he has a better one made and spends ten months on the hem. Tara Bosch buys a gummy bear mold on Amazon and borrows a hundred and five thousand dollars against a Honda Fit. Neither has a room worth any sentiment: the founder is the distribution channel, and the channel is one person w
Chris Riccobono, Tara Bosch and UNTUCKit - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 3 - Part 03
New York and Vancouver, 2010 to 2021. Chris Riccobono owns forty dress shirts and can wear one of them untucked, so he has a better one made and spends ten months on the hem. Tara Bosch buys a gummy bear mold on Amazon and borrows a hundred and five thousand dollars against a Honda Fit. Neither has a room worth any sentiment: the founder is the distribution channel, and the channel is one person w
Chris Riccobono, Tara Bosch and UNTUCKit - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 3 - Part 04
New York and Vancouver, 2010 to 2021. Chris Riccobono owns forty dress shirts and can wear one of them untucked, so he has a better one made and spends ten months on the hem. Tara Bosch buys a gummy bear mold on Amazon and borrows a hundred and five thousand dollars against a Honda Fit. Neither has a room worth any sentiment: the founder is the distribution channel, and the channel is one person w
Chieh Huang, Jamie Siminoff and Boxed - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 4 - Part 01
New Jersey and California, 2003 to 2023. A corporate lawyer with a suburban garage and a serial inventor with a doorbell nobody wanted each stop drawing a salary and start writing them. The founding story says the hard part was leaving the job. It was not. The hard part was the Friday somebody else's rent depended on a bank balance the founder could see and the employee could not, and the week aft
Chieh Huang, Jamie Siminoff and Boxed - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 4 - Part 02
New Jersey and California, 2003 to 2023. A corporate lawyer with a suburban garage and a serial inventor with a doorbell nobody wanted each stop drawing a salary and start writing them. The founding story says the hard part was leaving the job. It was not. The hard part was the Friday somebody else's rent depended on a bank balance the founder could see and the employee could not, and the week aft
Chieh Huang, Jamie Siminoff and Boxed - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 4 - Part 03
New Jersey and California, 2003 to 2023. A corporate lawyer with a suburban garage and a serial inventor with a doorbell nobody wanted each stop drawing a salary and start writing them. The founding story says the hard part was leaving the job. It was not. The hard part was the Friday somebody else's rent depended on a bank balance the founder could see and the employee could not, and the week aft
Chieh Huang, Jamie Siminoff and Boxed - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 4 - Part 04
New Jersey and California, 2003 to 2023. A corporate lawyer with a suburban garage and a serial inventor with a doorbell nobody wanted each stop drawing a salary and start writing them. The founding story says the hard part was leaving the job. It was not. The hard part was the Friday somebody else's rent depended on a bank balance the founder could see and the employee could not, and the week aft
Michael Kors, Sara Blakely and Philip Krim - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 5 - Part 01
The United States, 1977 to 2022. Three people cut, sewed or assembled the first of a thing with their own hands, and then discovered that making one is a different trade from making a thousand. Michael Kors dressed a shop window on East Fifty-Seventh Street before he had a label. Sara Blakely took scissors to a pair of control-top pantyhose in an Atlanta apartment and then spent a year telephoning
Michael Kors, Sara Blakely and Philip Krim - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 5 - Part 02
The United States, 1977 to 2022. Three people cut, sewed or assembled the first of a thing with their own hands, and then discovered that making one is a different trade from making a thousand. Michael Kors dressed a shop window on East Fifty-Seventh Street before he had a label. Sara Blakely took scissors to a pair of control-top pantyhose in an Atlanta apartment and then spent a year telephoning
Michael Kors, Sara Blakely and Philip Krim - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 5 - Part 03
The United States, 1977 to 2022. Three people cut, sewed or assembled the first of a thing with their own hands, and then discovered that making one is a different trade from making a thousand. Michael Kors dressed a shop window on East Fifty-Seventh Street before he had a label. Sara Blakely took scissors to a pair of control-top pantyhose in an Atlanta apartment and then spent a year telephoning
Michael Kors, Sara Blakely and Philip Krim - THE GARAGE AND THE WAREHOUSE Book 5 - Part 04
The United States, 1977 to 2022. Three people cut, sewed or assembled the first of a thing with their own hands, and then discovered that making one is a different trade from making a thousand. Michael Kors dressed a shop window on East Fifty-Seventh Street before he had a label. Sara Blakely took scissors to a pair of control-top pantyhose in an Atlanta apartment and then spent a year telephoning
Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Rothschild - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 2 - Part 01
Manchester and London, 1798 to 1836. A Frankfurt cloth buyer in his early twenties arrives in England with a letter of credit and no English, and dies thirty-eight years later as the man the British government sends for when it needs gold moved across a continent at war. Nathan Mayer Rothschild built a bank out of two things nobody could patent: brothers in five cities who wrote to each other in J
Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Rothschild - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 2 - Part 02
Manchester and London, 1798 to 1836. A Frankfurt cloth buyer in his early twenties arrives in England with a letter of credit and no English, and dies thirty-eight years later as the man the British government sends for when it needs gold moved across a continent at war. Nathan Mayer Rothschild built a bank out of two things nobody could patent: brothers in five cities who wrote to each other in J
Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Rothschild - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 2 - Part 03
Manchester and London, 1798 to 1836. A Frankfurt cloth buyer in his early twenties arrives in England with a letter of credit and no English, and dies thirty-eight years later as the man the British government sends for when it needs gold moved across a continent at war. Nathan Mayer Rothschild built a bank out of two things nobody could patent: brothers in five cities who wrote to each other in J
Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Rothschild - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 2 - Part 04
Manchester and London, 1798 to 1836. A Frankfurt cloth buyer in his early twenties arrives in England with a letter of credit and no English, and dies thirty-eight years later as the man the British government sends for when it needs gold moved across a continent at war. Nathan Mayer Rothschild built a bank out of two things nobody could patent: brothers in five cities who wrote to each other in J
Jacob Fugger and Fugger - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 3 - Part 01
Augsburg, Innsbruck, Venice, Rome and the Hungarian copper mountains, 1459 to 1525. Jacob Fugger inherits a share of a weaving and trading house and turns it into the bank that finances the Habsburgs. His clients are men no court can compel: an archduke, an emperor, a pope, a king of Hungary. They can refuse to pay and there is no jurisdiction above them. Fugger's answer is not trust and not law.
Jacob Fugger and Fugger - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 3 - Part 02
Augsburg, Innsbruck, Venice, Rome and the Hungarian copper mountains, 1459 to 1525. Jacob Fugger inherits a share of a weaving and trading house and turns it into the bank that finances the Habsburgs. His clients are men no court can compel: an archduke, an emperor, a pope, a king of Hungary. They can refuse to pay and there is no jurisdiction above them. Fugger's answer is not trust and not law.
Jacob Fugger and Fugger - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 3 - Part 03
Augsburg, Innsbruck, Venice, Rome and the Hungarian copper mountains, 1459 to 1525. Jacob Fugger inherits a share of a weaving and trading house and turns it into the bank that finances the Habsburgs. His clients are men no court can compel: an archduke, an emperor, a pope, a king of Hungary. They can refuse to pay and there is no jurisdiction above them. Fugger's answer is not trust and not law.
Jacob Fugger and Fugger - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 3 - Part 04
Augsburg, Innsbruck, Venice, Rome and the Hungarian copper mountains, 1459 to 1525. Jacob Fugger inherits a share of a weaving and trading house and turns it into the bank that finances the Habsburgs. His clients are men no court can compel: an archduke, an emperor, a pope, a king of Hungary. They can refuse to pay and there is no jurisdiction above them. Fugger's answer is not trust and not law.
John Pierpont Morgan and J. P. Morgan & Company - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 4 - Part 01
New York, 1857 to 1913. The richest country on earth has no central bank, no lender of last resort, and nothing that can create a dollar in an emergency. What it has instead is a private partnership at the corner of Wall and Broad, and one man in it whose word moves money. In October 1907 a failed attempt to corner the stock of a copper company brings down a chain of banks and trust companies, and
John Pierpont Morgan and J. P. Morgan & Company - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 4 - Part 02
New York, 1857 to 1913. The richest country on earth has no central bank, no lender of last resort, and nothing that can create a dollar in an emergency. What it has instead is a private partnership at the corner of Wall and Broad, and one man in it whose word moves money. In October 1907 a failed attempt to corner the stock of a copper company brings down a chain of banks and trust companies, and
John Pierpont Morgan and J. P. Morgan & Company - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 4 - Part 03
New York, 1857 to 1913. The richest country on earth has no central bank, no lender of last resort, and nothing that can create a dollar in an emergency. What it has instead is a private partnership at the corner of Wall and Broad, and one man in it whose word moves money. In October 1907 a failed attempt to corner the stock of a copper company brings down a chain of banks and trust companies, and
John Pierpont Morgan and J. P. Morgan & Company - THE HOUSE THAT LENDS Book 4 - Part 04
New York, 1857 to 1913. The richest country on earth has no central bank, no lender of last resort, and nothing that can create a dollar in an emergency. What it has instead is a private partnership at the corner of Wall and Broad, and one man in it whose word moves money. In October 1907 a failed attempt to corner the stock of a copper company brings down a chain of banks and trust companies, and
Kathleen King, Seth Berkowitz and Jeni Britton Bauer - THE SUGAR TRADE Book 4 - Part 01
Southampton, Philadelphia and Columbus, 1969 to 2024. Kathleen King sells cookies at her father's farm stand on eastern Long Island before she is old enough to drive, builds a bakery on Main Street, sells most of it, and loses the right to trade under her own first name. Seth Berkowitz, hungry in a University of Pennsylvania dormitory near midnight, works out that the only defensible thing in the
Kathleen King, Seth Berkowitz and Jeni Britton Bauer - THE SUGAR TRADE Book 4 - Part 02
Southampton, Philadelphia and Columbus, 1969 to 2024. Kathleen King sells cookies at her father's farm stand on eastern Long Island before she is old enough to drive, builds a bakery on Main Street, sells most of it, and loses the right to trade under her own first name. Seth Berkowitz, hungry in a University of Pennsylvania dormitory near midnight, works out that the only defensible thing in the
Kathleen King, Seth Berkowitz and Jeni Britton Bauer - THE SUGAR TRADE Book 4 - Part 03
Southampton, Philadelphia and Columbus, 1969 to 2024. Kathleen King sells cookies at her father's farm stand on eastern Long Island before she is old enough to drive, builds a bakery on Main Street, sells most of it, and loses the right to trade under her own first name. Seth Berkowitz, hungry in a University of Pennsylvania dormitory near midnight, works out that the only defensible thing in the
Kathleen King, Seth Berkowitz and Jeni Britton Bauer - THE SUGAR TRADE Book 4 - Part 04
Southampton, Philadelphia and Columbus, 1969 to 2024. Kathleen King sells cookies at her father's farm stand on eastern Long Island before she is old enough to drive, builds a bakery on Main Street, sells most of it, and loses the right to trade under her own first name. Seth Berkowitz, hungry in a University of Pennsylvania dormitory near midnight, works out that the only defensible thing in the
Cynthia Tice, Justin Woolverton and Tara Bosch - THE SUGAR TRADE Book 5 - Part 01
The United States and Vancouver, 1991 to 2025. In May 1991 the Food and Drug Administration puts stevia leaf under an import alert, and for seventeen years the sweetest plant in commerce cannot legally be sold as food in America. This volume follows four companies built in the room that opened when that changed: Cynthia Tice's stevia-sweetened chocolate, Justin Woolverton's protein ice cream, Tara
Cynthia Tice, Justin Woolverton and Tara Bosch - THE SUGAR TRADE Book 5 - Part 02
The United States and Vancouver, 1991 to 2025. In May 1991 the Food and Drug Administration puts stevia leaf under an import alert, and for seventeen years the sweetest plant in commerce cannot legally be sold as food in America. This volume follows four companies built in the room that opened when that changed: Cynthia Tice's stevia-sweetened chocolate, Justin Woolverton's protein ice cream, Tara
Cynthia Tice, Justin Woolverton and Tara Bosch - THE SUGAR TRADE Book 5 - Part 03
The United States and Vancouver, 1991 to 2025. In May 1991 the Food and Drug Administration puts stevia leaf under an import alert, and for seventeen years the sweetest plant in commerce cannot legally be sold as food in America. This volume follows four companies built in the room that opened when that changed: Cynthia Tice's stevia-sweetened chocolate, Justin Woolverton's protein ice cream, Tara
Cynthia Tice, Justin Woolverton and Tara Bosch - THE SUGAR TRADE Book 5 - Part 04
The United States and Vancouver, 1991 to 2025. In May 1991 the Food and Drug Administration puts stevia leaf under an import alert, and for seventeen years the sweetest plant in commerce cannot legally be sold as food in America. This volume follows four companies built in the room that opened when that changed: Cynthia Tice's stevia-sweetened chocolate, Justin Woolverton's protein ice cream, Tara
Yvon Chouinard, Tom Frost and Peter Metcalf - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 1 - Part 01
California and Utah, 1957 to 2010. Yvon Chouinard teaches himself blacksmithing to make pitons that can be taken out of the rock and driven again, and sells them from the back of a car to a sport with a few hundred serious participants in it. Fifteen years later his own catalog tells those customers to stop buying his best product. Peter Metcalf arrives in 1982 to run the hardware company while it
Yvon Chouinard, Tom Frost and Peter Metcalf - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 1 - Part 02
California and Utah, 1957 to 2010. Yvon Chouinard teaches himself blacksmithing to make pitons that can be taken out of the rock and driven again, and sells them from the back of a car to a sport with a few hundred serious participants in it. Fifteen years later his own catalog tells those customers to stop buying his best product. Peter Metcalf arrives in 1982 to run the hardware company while it
Yvon Chouinard, Tom Frost and Peter Metcalf - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 1 - Part 03
California and Utah, 1957 to 2010. Yvon Chouinard teaches himself blacksmithing to make pitons that can be taken out of the rock and driven again, and sells them from the back of a car to a sport with a few hundred serious participants in it. Fifteen years later his own catalog tells those customers to stop buying his best product. Peter Metcalf arrives in 1982 to run the hardware company while it
Yvon Chouinard, Tom Frost and Peter Metcalf - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 1 - Part 04
California and Utah, 1957 to 2010. Yvon Chouinard teaches himself blacksmithing to make pitons that can be taken out of the rock and driven again, and sells them from the back of a car to a sport with a few hundred serious participants in it. Fifteen years later his own catalog tells those customers to stop buying his best product. Peter Metcalf arrives in 1982 to run the hardware company while it
Ken Grossman, Jim Koch and Sam Calagione - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 2 - Part 01
Chico, Boston and Rehoboth Beach, 1961 to 2019. Ken Grossman brews in a five-gallon bucket as a teenager, opens a homebrew supply shop in a California college town, and welds a brewery together out of dairy equipment and scrap. Jim Koch leaves a consulting firm with his great-great-grandfather's recipe and no brewery at all, and sells a beer made under contract in somebody else's kettles. Sam Cala
Ken Grossman, Jim Koch and Sam Calagione - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 2 - Part 02
Chico, Boston and Rehoboth Beach, 1961 to 2019. Ken Grossman brews in a five-gallon bucket as a teenager, opens a homebrew supply shop in a California college town, and welds a brewery together out of dairy equipment and scrap. Jim Koch leaves a consulting firm with his great-great-grandfather's recipe and no brewery at all, and sells a beer made under contract in somebody else's kettles. Sam Cala
Ken Grossman, Jim Koch and Sam Calagione - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 2 - Part 03
Chico, Boston and Rehoboth Beach, 1961 to 2019. Ken Grossman brews in a five-gallon bucket as a teenager, opens a homebrew supply shop in a California college town, and welds a brewery together out of dairy equipment and scrap. Jim Koch leaves a consulting firm with his great-great-grandfather's recipe and no brewery at all, and sells a beer made under contract in somebody else's kettles. Sam Cala
Ken Grossman, Jim Koch and Sam Calagione - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 2 - Part 04
Chico, Boston and Rehoboth Beach, 1961 to 2019. Ken Grossman brews in a five-gallon bucket as a teenager, opens a homebrew supply shop in a California college town, and welds a brewery together out of dairy equipment and scrap. Jim Koch leaves a consulting firm with his great-great-grandfather's recipe and no brewery at all, and sells a beer made under contract in somebody else's kettles. Sam Cala
Bob Taylor, Jack Marucci and Wayne Edy - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 3 - Part 01
Southern California, Louisiana and the English Lake District, 1972 to 2026. Three men sit down at a bench to make a thing they already use. Bob Taylor is nineteen when he and two partners buy a failing guitar shop in Lemon Grove for $3,700. Jack Marucci, an athletic trainer, turns a bat on a lathe in his tool shed because no company will make a wood one small enough for his son. Wayne Edy designs
Bob Taylor, Jack Marucci and Wayne Edy - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 3 - Part 02
Southern California, Louisiana and the English Lake District, 1972 to 2026. Three men sit down at a bench to make a thing they already use. Bob Taylor is nineteen when he and two partners buy a failing guitar shop in Lemon Grove for $3,700. Jack Marucci, an athletic trainer, turns a bat on a lathe in his tool shed because no company will make a wood one small enough for his son. Wayne Edy designs
Bob Taylor, Jack Marucci and Wayne Edy - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 3 - Part 03
Southern California, Louisiana and the English Lake District, 1972 to 2026. Three men sit down at a bench to make a thing they already use. Bob Taylor is nineteen when he and two partners buy a failing guitar shop in Lemon Grove for $3,700. Jack Marucci, an athletic trainer, turns a bat on a lathe in his tool shed because no company will make a wood one small enough for his son. Wayne Edy designs
Bob Taylor, Jack Marucci and Wayne Edy - THE THING HE ALREADY DID Book 3 - Part 04
Southern California, Louisiana and the English Lake District, 1972 to 2026. Three men sit down at a bench to make a thing they already use. Bob Taylor is nineteen when he and two partners buy a failing guitar shop in Lemon Grove for $3,700. Jack Marucci, an athletic trainer, turns a bat on a lathe in his tool shed because no company will make a wood one small enough for his son. Wayne Edy designs
