When Charles "Chuck" Feeney first appeared on the world's rich lists in the 1980s, he had built a billion-dollar business selling duty free goods to tourists. But he'd also given most of his money to charity. As Good Bad Billionaire takes a short break until March, Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng revisit the story of the billionaire who wasn't. Feeney's journey takes us from Depression-era New Jersey, through the high life of the Jet Age, and ultimately to $8 billion worth of donations given to cause...
Feb 17, 2025•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast A year after first being declared a billionaire, Taylor Swift’s rarely been out of the headlines or the charts. The pop superstar’s Eras tour finally came to an end, and she’s been continuing to break records. Good Bad Billionaire will be back with a new season in March, but until then, here’s a quick update on what Taylor’s been up to and another chance to hear a classic episode from the archives. Zing Tsjeng and Simon Jack uncover the huge public feuds and private legal battles that made the m...
Feb 03, 2025•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast What do Airbnb, Facebook, Spotify, and LinkedIn all have in common? Peter Thiel. They made his fortune, but he’s since rejected Silicon Valley for being too "woke". He’s a contradictory character: a libertarian who made billions from big state surveillance; an intellectual who purports to hate politics, but who’s poured millions into political campaigns, including Donald Trump’s 2020 bid. Some call him a free-thinking genius, while others say he wants to watch Rome burn. Simon Jack and Zing Tsje...
Dec 02, 2024•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast The woman behind the brand that revolutionised the way the world shopped and dressed. Doris Fisher and her husband Don founded The Gap together and made basics cool – their pocket t-shirt was worn by both Mick Jagger at Live Aid and Marty McFly in Back to the Future, while Sharon Stone donned a $25 Gap black turtleneck for the Oscars. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng follow Doris Fisher and The Gap’s rollercoaster story, from its birth in the summer of love selling Levi’s jeans, to crashing out of fas...
Nov 25, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Carlos Slim Helú's financial might has led some people to nickname his native Mexico ‘Slimlandia’. He dominates the country’s businesses, from telecoms to construction. But how did a man whose hero happens to be the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan get to be the richest person in the world? Many have blamed his monopolist business empire for Mexico’s slow economic development. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng tell the story of a baseball fan who’s calm in a crisis, rushing in to invest while others rush ou...
Nov 18, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Roman Abramovich was known as the "stealth oligarch" before he stepped into the limelight as Chelsea football club’s sugar daddy owner. The man loves a yacht: his largest cost $427m, and has bullet-proof windows and an escape submarine. Abramovich made his fortune from post-Soviet privatisation, aided by a man known as the “Godfather of the Kremlin”, Boris Berezovsky, and close ties to Vladimir Putin in the early years of his presidency. But with recent reports of a suspected poisoning and sanct...
Nov 11, 2024•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mukesh Ambani caught the world’s attention when he forked out $600m on his son’s wedding, including a performance by Rihanna – but how did he become Asia’s richest person? Mukesh grew his father’s polyester trading company, Reliance Industries, into a conglomerate. But when he died without a will, Mukesh had to fight his brother for control of the family business. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng follow Mukesh Ambani’s story from living in a Mumbai slum to building the w...
Nov 04, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Metal man and football fan Patrice Motsepe rose out of post-apartheid South Africa to become the country’s first black billionaire. Under apartheid, Patrice had to get a special permit to study at an ‘whites-only’ university - the same that Nelson Mandela attended in the 1940s - becoming a lawyer before following the gold into the mines. When the racist regime finally crumbled, he benefited from Black Economic Empowerment initiatives that turbo-charged his wealth. BBC business editor Simon Jack ...
Oct 28, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jack Ma is the king of ecommerce in China. Nicknamed 'Daddy Ma', the former school teacher even appeared alongside martial arts legend Jet Li in a kung fu movie. But how did a scrawny, belligerent child, who was the only person who failed to get hired at his local KFC, become the chairman and CEO of online mega-platform Alibaba? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng explain how a crazy trip to America, where Jack had to flee from a conman, ended up introducing him to the inte...
Oct 21, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast The story of how Yvon Chouinard, a reluctant billionaire who only wanted to climb and surf, harnessed his passions to create outdoor apparel brand Patagonia - before giving it all away to fight climate change. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng discover how the self-proclaimed "existential dirtbag" went from jumping freight trains and eating cat food to leading the charge for businesses to commit to environmental causes. Simon and Zing track the life of a man who claims th...
Oct 14, 2024•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Whitney Wolfe Herd, the “queen of the swipes”, launched a female-led dating app after a public scandal around her sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against Tinder. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng follow her story from a popular student with a flair for marketing, to carving her own path in the male-dominated tech world. Owning the ‘girlboss’ image, she took her company Bumble public aged just 31 with her baby "on her hip", making her the youngest self-made fe...
Oct 07, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Industrialist Aliko Dangote is known as a mild-mannered cement tycoon who often drives himself to business meetings. How did he become the world’s richest black person? Dangote rapidly dominated Nigeria’s cement, sugar, flour and fertiliser markets. He says his mission is to make Nigeria’s economy self-reliant, without requiring Western investment or imports. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng look back on Dangote’s life - from a childhood selling sweets in the playground ...
Sep 30, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast How is freshly minted billionaire Sam Altman shaping our future through his company OpenAI and ChatGPT? He made his fortune by investing in huge tech start-ups like Reddit and Airbnb, before turning his attention to artificial intelligence - being fired and re-hired by his own company in the process. Altman believes that OpenAI, with him in charge, can make the world a better place. Yet he’s also preparing for the apocalypse, just in case AI turns on its creators and attacks humanity. BBC busine...
Sep 23, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast How did an unassuming software engineer become one of the richest people on the planet? This is the story of how Zhang Yiming transformed social media by creating TikTok, and how the Chinese tech company ByteDance became a multi-billion dollar business. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng explore Yiming’s various successes with different apps before he hit the jackpot with TikTok. Then they decide whether they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire. We’d love to ...
Sep 16, 2024•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw built a pharmaceutical empire after failing to get a job brewing beer. She also overcame gender bias to become India’s first self-made female billionaire. Her company Biocon is now Asia's biggest insulin producer. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng follow her story, from a childhood living on a brewery compound in Bangalore to adventures in Australia and Ireland. How did Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw go from extracting enzymes from papaya fruit to mass-manufactur...
Sep 09, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast George Soros escaped Nazi occupation in Hungary, before becoming one of the most successful investors in history. After making his name on Wall Street and setting up the hedge fund Quantum, he also become known as “the man who broke the Bank of England” after making a billion dollars in a day by “betting against” the pound. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng track the incredible life of one of the world’s most polarising billionaires, and find out how the philanthropist be...
Sep 02, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jerry Seinfeld has a life-long obsession with jokes, but his smash hit sitcom turned the New York stand-up into the richest comedian of all time. Seinfeld was the most watched programme in America when it ended in in 1998, but it’s what came next that made the real Jerry Seinfeld mega rich – streaming and syndication. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng find out how transcendental meditation, a top Hollywood agent, the unexpected death of a parent and an “inability to act” all helped drive his spectacula...
Aug 26, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast How did Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson become one of only four filmmakers worth a billion dollars, and one of just three billionaires from New Zealand? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng find out how a childhood obsession with movies led to a booming film industry in Jackson’s homeland. From Bad Taste to King Kong and The Hobbit, he went from shooting home movies and directing low budget horror films to running a major special effects house and creating some of c...
Aug 19, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast How a communist mime artist became the billionaire boss of a luxury fashion house. Miuccia Prada changed her name, then made it famous with one of the runway’s biggest brands. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng explain how the Italian fashion designer turned her grandfather’s shop into a fashion powerhouse. Alongside her husband, she’s run her empire from Milan for over four decades, becoming known affectionately known as ‘the master of ugly’. Simon and Zing look back on h...
Aug 12, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast By founding Google, tech titan Sergey Brin helped shape the internet. He also got very, very rich, as his company Alphabet became one of the biggest in the world. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the story of the billionaire who partied on planes after escaping prejudice in Russia. Sergey Brin and his best friend Larry Page became two of history’s biggest tech giants by building the planet’s most popular search engine. How did their technology startup become one of ...
Aug 05, 2024•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Golfing superstardom made him incredibly rich. Personal disasters nearly took it all away. How did Tiger Woods go from a child golfing prodigy to the world’s highest paid athlete for a whole decade? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng explain how one of the greatest golfers of all time broke barriers in his sport, winning 15 major golf championships and 82 PGA Tour events. He’s an inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, won the Masters five times, the PGA Championship fo...
Jul 29, 2024•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast How one social media site birthed an empire. The story of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng take us from Zuckerberg's childhood to joining the billionaires' club at just 23, then on to his current status as one of the four richest people on the planet. He dropped out of Harvard to mix with other founders in Silicon Valley, and still retains absolute control over his company, now called Meta. From buying up Instagram and WhatsApp to getting in...
Mar 26, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast From The Exorcist to 400 companies: how music sent Virgin entrepreneur Richard Branson into space. He's an island owning adventurer, but he's incredibly shy. He's the record label owner who doesn't even like music. Journalist Zing Tsjeng and BBC business editor Simon Jack try to understand a man of many paradoxes and ask whether he's good, bad, or just another billionaire. We’d love to hear your feedback. Email goodbadbillionaire@bbc.com or drop us a text or WhatsApp to +1 (917) 686-1176. To fin...
Mar 19, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast He's spent a billion on Manchester United, but how did Jim Ratcliffe become a billionaire? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng learn how the Premier League club's new co-owner got rich via some daring investments and impressive acquisitions. They explain how he made his name in petrochemicals before founding Ineos, one of the industry's biggest conglomerates. Simon and Zing also discover that he mortgaged his own house to fund a business, as well as uncovering his investmen...
Mar 12, 2024•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast How Bernie Ecclestone won control of Formula One, and how it all came crashing down. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng trace a unique rise and fall. From modest beginnings selling second hand cars, Ecclestone built Formula One into a one-man empire worth billions. How did he go from the very top to tax fraud, and is he good, bad, or just another billionaire? We’d love to hear your feedback. Email goodbadbillionaire@bbc.com or drop us a text or WhatsApp to +1 (917) 686-117...
Mar 05, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast How mining magnate Gina Rinehart amassed a $30 billion fortune to become Australia's richest person, but also earned a reputation for being highly litigious. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng uncover a woman who has taken legal action against her father's widow, her own biographer and the biggest mining company in the world, and who has been sued by her own children, twice. They follow Rinehart's story from her outspoken father's discovery of huge deposits of iron ore in ...
Feb 27, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast How oilman Charles Koch turned black gold into dark money. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng investigate the feuding family that has shaped US politics for decades. The Koch family battles made “Dallas and Dynasty look like a playpen” with brother against brother, and even twin against twin. But Charles Koch succeeded as heir to the oil fortune, and spent the billions earnt from oil creating a right wing political network dubbed 'The Kochtopus'. So is he good, bad or just...
Feb 20, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Journalist Zing Tsjeng and BBC business editor Simon Jack uncover the huge public feuds and private legal battles that made the most famous woman in the world. She can change the economy, but is Taylor Swift good, bad, or just another billionaire? We’d love to hear your feedback. Email goodbadbillionaire@bbc.com or drop us a text or WhatsApp to +1 (917) 686-1176. To find out more about the show and read our privacy notice, visit www.bbcworldservice.com/goodbadbillionaire
Feb 13, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast How Warren Buffett became the richest investor in history, amassing a fortune of over $120 billion, without moving from the Nebraska home he bought in 1958. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng discover how Buffett earned his first money as a six year old, bought his first shares at 11 and filed his first tax return at 13. He went on to formulate his own investment philosophy on the way to becoming incredibly rich. Simon and Zing reveal Buffett's biggest deals and pithiest p...
Feb 06, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast How NR Narayana Murthy, now known as the father-in-law of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, first became known as the father of India's IT boom. Journalist Zing Tsjeng and BBC business editor Simon Jack explain how Murthy made Infosys, the technology company he founded with six friends and some cash borrowed from his wife, a world leader in outsourcing. Simon and Zing reveal how 20th Century Indian politics, an early passion for computers, and a shocking experience behind the Iron Curtain all playe...
Jan 30, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
