ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Billionaires in the News: Trump has COVID. We have been imprisoned for 6 months by a reactionary minority political faction in the United States. I’m losing my grip on reality. The pharma billionaire Sackler family may get off and get to keep their money. More Americans died of opiate overdoses since 1999 than died in all of WWII.
Billionaire #1: Robert Rowling, 7/10 on the DKMALI (10:00)
Joe introduces us to Robert Rowling, owner of TRT Holding Co., who owns (among other things), Gold’s Gym. Heir to an oil and gas fortune. Rowling is a big-time donor to Karl Rove’s ghoulish super PAC American Crossroads (coincidentally, so is this week’s Billionaire #2). American Crossroads was very well funded, but ultimately not that good at promoting winning candidates.
Billionaire #2: B. Wayne Hughes, 8/10 on the DKMALI (31:45)
B. Wayne Hughes got rich in self-storage. He also owns American Homes 4 Rent. We talk a little about self-storage, late capitalism, and desire. We get an intimate glimpse of Joe’s childhood in the middle of a bit on Herbert Marcuse. I think we come up with a solid theory about how self storage fits into the moral universe of American hyperconsumerism. Hughes also has a decades-long friendship with O.J. Simpson and was closely involved in the trial and its aftermath.
Links!
Rowling:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/rove-rides-again-193291/
Hughes:
Great bio of Hughes: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-05/usc-secret-donor-billionaire-wayne-hughes
American Homes 4 Rent exposé: https://www.cbs46.com/investigations/complaints-soar-against-american-homes-4-rent/article_23cf78a8-eefd-11e9-abea-5ff0decbb1c5.html
Jon Ronson interview: https://www.gq.com/story/amber-waves-of-green-jon-ronson-gq-july-2012
Billionaire #1: Robert Rowling, 7/10 on the DKMALI (10:00)
Joe introduces us to Robert Rowling, owner of TRT Holding Co., who owns (among other things), Gold’s Gym. Heir to an oil and gas fortune. Rowling is a big-time donor to Karl Rove’s ghoulish super PAC American Crossroads (coincidentally, so is this week’s Billionaire #2). American Crossroads was very well funded, but ultimately not that good at promoting winning candidates.
Billionaire #2: B. Wayne Hughes, 8/10 on the DKMALI (31:45)
B. Wayne Hughes got rich in self-storage. He also owns American Homes 4 Rent. We talk a little about self-storage, late capitalism, and desire. We get an intimate glimpse of Joe’s childhood in the middle of a bit on Herbert Marcuse. I think we come up with a solid theory about how self storage fits into the moral universe of American hyperconsumerism. Hughes also has a decades-long friendship with O.J. Simpson and was closely involved in the trial and its aftermath.
Links!
Rowling:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/rove-rides-again-193291/
Hughes:
Great bio of Hughes: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-05/usc-secret-donor-billionaire-wayne-hughes
American Homes 4 Rent exposé: https://www.cbs46.com/investigations/complaints-soar-against-american-homes-4-rent/article_23cf78a8-eefd-11e9-abea-5ff0decbb1c5.html
Jon Ronson interview: https://www.gq.com/story/amber-waves-of-green-jon-ronson-gq-july-2012
English
United States
explicit content
IN THIS EPISODE
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
Are you the producer of this podcast?
Add a podcast transcript
Need Audio-to-Text?
Transcribe with Listen411 in Just 60 Seconds
OTHER EPISODES IN THIS PODCAST
Welcome back everyone. This episode ended up orbiting around the idea of being suspended in a universe beyond time and causality. It’ll make sense in context. The podcast is on a monthly schedule now, in case you’ve been wondering where this episode is. Life events have conspired to prevent us from…
It was a lot of work to get to 20 episodes. Thanks to everyone who’s listening. We are excited to start the next season of shows in the new year and have a lot of great ideas for improvements.
Reflecting back on this episode, I realize that we talked a lot about a particular kind of barrier. Joe i…
WE’RE BACK!!! Welcome (back) to Zero Sum Empire, the podcast that’s taking a critical census of the mostly-anonymous American billionaire class. Sorry we’ve been gone for so long. Joe was on paternity leave. Please like, subscribe and share.
In the News: Vinod Khosla is back with some new lawsuits…
We are back with a new episode after an extended break. We talk about why we were gone in the episode. I think we forgot to mention that we are also returning to our regular schedule of releasing episodes. I missed doing this! It was a lot of fun to record again.
In the News (6:00): We wanted to k…
I checked Twitter while I was writing these show notes and noticed that today—the very day we are releasing an episode about two billionaire NFL owners—the Washington Reds***s have announced that they are “conducting a study” that will likely end up with them changing the team name. Almost simultan…
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from A Census of the Billionaire Class, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
EDIT
Thank you for helping to keep the podcast database up to date.
