Why do people want to become very rich? In this series, Eric Schoenberg, a psychologist who studies the behavior of the very wealthy, offers an answer by looking at the stories of nine Americans who became among the richest people of their time, with a particular focus on what happened to their great wealth after they died.
You Can't Take It With You: The Life and Afterlife of America's Greatest Fortunes
Claim This Podcastby Eric Schoenberg
5.0(15 reviews)
8 episodes
Updated Inactive
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Podcast Overview
Why do people want to become very rich? In this series, Eric Schoenberg, a psychologist who studies the behavior of the very wealthy, offers an answer by looking at the stories of nine Americans who became among the richest people of their time, with a particular focus on what happened to their great wealth after they died.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
12/4/2022
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Recent Episodes
December 11, 2022
8. Like Father, Like Son
<p>In 1918, Forbes Magazine published a list of the 30 richest Americans. At the top was oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, Sr, whose wealth was estimated at a whopping $1.2 billion — more than 5 times as much as his closest rival for the title of richest American, Henry Frick. But by that time, Senior had already started giving much of his vast fortune to charity; by the time he died in 1937, he had given away a total of precisely $530,853,632.<br/><br/>He also had passed along $470 million to his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr -- forty times what he gave to either of his surviving daughters -- because he trusted his son to give most of <em>that</em> away, too, which Junior proceeded to do, giving away around $500 million before he died in 1960, while still passing on around $160 million to his own six children. </p>
December 10, 2022
7. Dead Hand Control
<p>The will of Wellington Burt, a Michigan timber baron who died in 1919, created a trust for his $13 million estate that called for less than 1% of it to be distributed annually until 20 years after his last <em>grandchild</em> had died. Although his family would fight the will in court for the next 40 years, in 2011 a dozen lucky descendants of Burt’s ranging from 19 to 94 split a $100 million jackpot when the trust was finally dissolved.</p>
December 9, 2022
6. Dead Sons and Lovers
<p>On Oct 15, 1906, a legal battle over the estate of the drug industry pioneer William Weightman, which was worth $40-100 million dollars, came to a sudden, screeching halt when a mysterious note was introduced as evidence. Asked about its contents, the husband of Weightman’s granddaughter said that "I would rather have my tongue cut out than reveal what was in that paper." The contents of the note were never revealed. In this episode, I play history detective and offer a theory about what that note said and why it ended the case so quickly.</p>
8 total episodes available
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