08/06/2026

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How did a boycott Jimmy become a billionaire from posting videos?

On Good Bad Billionaire, we're gonna find out how the world's most popular YouTuber, Mr Beast, made his fortune.

He's buried himself in a coffin for days.

Counted to a hundred thousand on camera.

And even recreated Squid Games all in an attempt to go viral on the internet.

But it all started when he gave a homeless man ten thousand dollars. Is he a philanthropist reshaping capitalism? Or is it

Is he just the king of the attention economy?

Find out on GoodBad.

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcast.

You're listening to Monday's episode of The Archers from BBC Radio 4.

Sorry David. Nothing on the scan for this one. Oh really? All done girl.

Uh, for today Hollister, yes, thank you. Pretty good result, but still work for Hector to do.

Ruth always does well with AI. Mm. How did the uh shearing go last week, by the way?

Oh great, yeah, yeah, a couple of Scottish guys this time. Nearly as good as the New Zealanders. And uh George Grund. It's a natural.

Was she good on him?

Flocks back at home for the floor. Honestly, the atmosphere.

You mean Brown and Adam? Yeah.

Poor Ed Grundy stuck in the middle.

Well I know nothing about it except that there'll be some kind of home farm apocalypse in a couple of weeks.

Yeah, that's when Brian's fully back in charge and Adam's well, Adam is

Yeah.

I suppose so, yeah.

It's not worth having a word, David. You're closer to Brian than most.

You wouldn't want to hear it.

But if he's not listening to his kids

He might very well have right on his side. I don't know.

Being right and being pragmatic are very different things. Anyway, how's the uh best ever Borchester show shaping up?

Yeah, very nicely. Thanks for asking. Uh are you still okay to supervise our on site?

Looking forward to it.

Well I say very nicely.

Not so nice.

Our trade stand bookings are right down. Even our regulars are thinking twice this year.

Oh, now you mention it, um, someone had a stand last year, maybe a pet shop owner, one of our clients anyway, and he complained bitterly about um Oh, what was it he said? The payment system, I think. Something like that. Sorry, David, I I can't remember exactly.

No, no, that's useful. I'll ask around.

Oh, and while I'm here, do you know who from your lot needs transport to Edgebiston on Friday evening? The minibus company want final numbers.

Rydw i'r Ben, defnyddy. Rydw i'r Pipp a'r Stellar. Rydw i'r Cymru. Rydw i'r Cymru. Rydw i'r Cymru. Rydw i'r Cymru. Rydw i'r Cymru. Rydw i'r Cymru.

Yeah, I read.

Oh, um she told me that your dad had got an e-reader for his birthday.

He certainly did. My sister gave it to him.

And he hasn't launched out the window yet.

He got me to set it up for him and he loves it. What? I'm not joking, David. He's reading the complete works of Plato as we speak.

Jim is reading ancient Greek philosophy on a screen

Right.

The world has truly gone mad.

So my mate said if we choose a style, like font, colour and stuff, and she can knock up the wedding invitations for us. Really? Yeah. All poshed paper and everything. They look really elegant, Pip. She's done all my friends.

Well we need to get on with it, don't we? October's not far away.

We'll now get some samples and pop them on our mood board and we'll see what we think.

Constantly fabulous, isn't it? There's definitely a style emerging.

I'm not um not sure Rosie's on the same page as us money.

She's in raptures about her teacher's wedding. But that was back in the eighties.

I am not wearing shoulder pads.

No way.

Hmm.

Thanks for lunch, Pip.

Hmm.

Sorry. I know I'm rubbish company. I just wish this genomic counselor would hurry up and ring. Went to your cluster meeting?

Half hour, but I said I'd do it on my laptop so I can move into the other one. Okay.

Oh and the other thing, I keep thinking about Saint Steve

Stevens, what for?

Mm my entire family have got married in that church, for me. Not even a blessing.

I know. To give Alan his due, he was very sympathetic.

Guys.

He said we could have prayers, didn't he? Mm. But we're hardly big churchgoers, so it's not the end of the world.

I know. Thank goodness we didn't do open farm Sunday. I couldn't have coped yesterday, not with this hanging over me.

I doubt Ruth would have been up for it either. No. I've written down all our questions so try and jot down the answers, okay,'cause it'll be a lot to remember.

Thanks Why won't they ring? I just want to get this over with now. I'm wrung out with waiting.

Me too.

The engagement's really positive, George. Pass the tomatoes, will you?

Sure.

Yeah.

Now they are. Now we're doing it my way.

You're the brains on the beauty.

The landscape is the beauty. But you have captured it brilliantly.

All this work better bring loads more people to the show. 'Cause that's what David Archer wants.

The proof of the pudding, as Clary says. Attendance numbers, yeah.

Although, now I want to put in

Yeah.

Ooh, yes, please. I could graze all day long.

Well, it all goes to the baby so grays away.

But hopefully I won't gain too much baby weight.

I don't care if you do.

Yeah.

How I see it is there'll be more of you to love.

Yeah.

There you go.

Thank you.

When we get paid for the show, we can buy that pram buggy car seat thing you like.

All in one, yeah. Should cover it hopefully with my sponsorship deals. Oh It's David. Oh w I was literally just saying to George, the engagement is really impressive.

Uh well, whatever that means, uh sounds excellent.

It is, David. So how can I help?

Um I'm trying to get to the bottom of why our trade

are so low are they?

Oh, uh wait, let me put you on speaker so George can hear.

Hey David.

George, hi. Uh yeah, basically someone mentioned that the payment system was a problem last

Oh right. Uh in what way?

I don't know exactly. But I'm told farm supplies have been slow to book this year, so I wondered if you

No worries, I'll give my boss a ring now.

Um and in the meantime target local businesses with some of your content.

Sure, same what?

There are still trade stands available. I need to do that.

We'll have a think.

I do not want to be the chair who made a massive financial loss.

Don't worry. Leave it with us, David.

You're doing a wonderful job.

You're very welcome. All right, bye. Bye, bye, bye.

Another satisfied customer?

One anyway. Although if we get this job every year, the extra money would be amazing.

And other shows in Borsitshire. Sky's the limit with us, eh?

Absolutely.

Anything?

Uh just Ian about the parent teacher meeting later.

Oh yeah. Helen nabbed me this morning when I dropped Rosie off. It's a three line whip by the sound of it.

Yeah. Everyone's worried about the offstead report. But at least the head teacher's resigned properly now, rather than staying off sick.

So the governor's gonna appoint someone else?

Yeah, it might take a while though.

Well the main thing is Rosie adores that school, doesn't she? She's thriving there, so yeah, let's not panic. No.

Thanks for hanging about today Stella. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, it's fine. I got a visit at three, but you should be done by then.

Well let's hope so. Well mum will be on my back about afternoon milking.

Pip, just a quick I need final numbers for the minibus on Friday to Edgbeston.

Oh.

Are you and Stella coming with us?

Are we on the minibus on Friday?

Uh I try

Uh l can I let you know later? Sorry, is that okay? That's fine. Thanks, I will. Alright, bye. Bye now. This waiting is killing me.

Yeah.

Uh yes. It must be. Oh finally.

I'll leave you to it. Good luck, okay?

Thanks, Stella.

You can do this.

hope so. Uh hello. Pip Archer speaking.

That's it, chapter.

Hey, David.

Oh George.

Oh that is one gigantic bull. Are we okay to come near him?

Yeah, sure, he's a softie. Aren't you, Hector?

Yeah, don't worry. Hey Hector.

Look at that.

He's in fine shape, isn't he?

Amazing beast.

Hector always cheers me up, don't you boy? Which is a good job because I just had more bad news. Our usual car dealership isn't doing Borchester Show this year. Uh how come? Only doing Felpisham. Which is particularly crushing because he always takes a big stand around the main arena.

That's not good.

I'm not sure if it helps, but we have got some intel for you.

Intel? Sorry, have you tried ringing me?

No no, where's drop round Grandma's broken clock for Leonard anyways.

Ah, I see. Yep, if it's broken, then it'll mend it.

Thing is, David, I called my boss and he thinks the show's Wi-Fi might be the issue.

Aha!

It's incredibly slow, so payments can take a while to go through.

Uh embarrassing for the businesses and annoying for the customers.

I see, yeah. I wonder if we can upgrade it.

Worth considering.

I'll talk to the committee. Thanks both. This could make all the difference.

Oh sorry love, that meeting really ran on.

I've made her a coffee.

Oh cheese! Uh so. What did they say?

Quite a lot in the end. She talked about the testing process and how it can throw up all kinds of issues. Okay. A lot of it about the implications for my family and how I felt about

But did you say we'd talked it all through?

Uh with each other, obviously. That's why we bought the test, even though we haven't discussed it with Mum, Josh or Ben.

But it's still your decision.

Of course. But if I have the test, Josh is bound to find out the result one way or another,'cause we have to tell Mum Ben.

Well unfortunately that can't be helped.

So um uh what else did I write down?

Um depending on outcome, options, um what was that say?

Uh baby.

Peace.

Babies.

Well, if I'm positive if if I have the bracogene variant, that means I'm high risk for ovarian cancer too, doesn't it?

Yeah.

So there are surgical options, obviously, but then having another baby becomes a problem. Yeah, Rosie would love a little brother or sister. She said that more or less since she could speak, and I suppose I've always assumed that I'd have more than one child, you know? Mum and dad had us three. There's even more of you. No, I I wouldn't call it chaos.

No, fair. But surely we we're we're getting ahead of ourselves here. The the test is the first thing to get done and then we know what we're dealing with.

Sure, yeah. But I mean she felt we're lucky in that we've got some options for another baby, haven't we?

Uh yeah, yeah, I guess we're not gonna be able to

They both got overeat in a womb.

That's true. But I I think we need to focus on what's ahead of us now. Not not get distracted with other stuff that can be sorted out later on, y you know, if we need to. Yeah, okay. We can only take things one step at a time. So you said yes to the test?

I did. It'll come in the post in a week or so.

And the results.

about a month or so.

Then we'll have some solid answers. Which she hasn't even asked for yet. This is really hard, isn't it?

It really is.

But once you've done the test

What do Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney?

YouTube Megastar Mr Beast. All being discussed in the new season of Good Bad Billionaire, the podcast which explores the lives and fortunes of the world.

That's good, bad billionaire. From the BBC World Service.

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