エピソード

  • The double mastectomy that crashed a political dynasty

    The double mastectomy that crashed a political dynasty
    2026/10/30
    The wife of a powerful political figure makes a shocking medical announcement, challenging public perception and impacting a political dynasty.

    The double mastectomy that crashed a political dynasty

    This episode explores the life of Happy Rockefeller, a woman who navigated the intense scrutiny of American public life and made a profoundly personal decision that reverberated through the political landscape. What was it like to live in the shadow of a legendary family name, and what led to her unprecedented public announcement?

    Person: Margaretta Large Fitler Murphy Rockefeller (Happy Rockefeller)
    Event: Double mastectomy
    Date: October 1974
    Location: Fifth Avenue, New York

    - Happy Rockefeller lived in a home filled with copies of famous paintings, the originals having been donated to public institutions.
    - Nelson Rockefeller, Happy's husband, was a four-time Governor of New York and served as Vice President of the United States.
    - Nelson's divorce from his first wife, Mary Todhunter Clark, in 1962, was a significant political scandal.
    - Happy, previously married with children, became First Lady of New York in 1963, stepping into a life already established around Nelson's first wife.
    - Happy's double mastectomy in October 1974 followed Betty Ford's mastectomy by two weeks, pushing further into public disclosure of breast cancer.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The Lochner Concession Pretended to Be Crown Authority and Cracked the Firm

    The Lochner Concession Pretended to Be Crown Authority and Cracked the Firm
    2026/10/29
    A royal-chartered company pretended to speak for the Crown and secured mineral rights from an African king; how do you fall from that high?

    The Lochner Concession Pretended to Be Crown Authority and Cracked the Firm

    In this episode, we trace how a company founded under Queen Victoria used a royal charter to promise fortunes, govern vast territory, and extract concessions-then struggled as its founding claim proved false. What happened when the promise of a second Witwatersrand unraveled and the firm had to renegotiate the empire it had sold?

    Person: Cecil Rhodes
    Date: 20 December 1889
    Location: Mashonaland / Lozi territory
    Event: Lochner Concession (1891) and subsequent replacement concessions (1897, 1900)
    Status: Company listed as non-active in Companies House, last annual report filed 2011

    - A Royal Charter created the British South Africa Company to govern, police, and extract profit over territory larger than Western Europe.
    - Directors included a duke, a viscount, financiers backed by Rothschild, Alfred Beit, and Cecil Rhodes, using prestige to open doors in Whitehall and on Threadneedle Street.
    - Rhodes and agents promised gold north of the Limpopo-selling investors and settlers a second Witwatersrand that never materialized.
    - Agent Frank Lochner obtained mineral rights from King Lewanika by presenting himself as Crown representative, a claim unsanctioned by the Foreign Office.
    - The company patched its authority by renegotiating concessions in 1897 and 1900 while settlers and investors waited for the riches that never came.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    24 分
  • The Rothschild grandson who chose obscurity and watched his fortune fade

    The Rothschild grandson who chose obscurity and watched his fortune fade
    2026/10/28
    A Rothschild heir lies in a San Francisco hospital and says God told him to lead the hippies - how do you fall from that high?

    The Rothschild grandson who chose obscurity and watched his fortune fade

    In this episode, we follow Samuel L. Lewis from his privileged birth into the Levi Strauss-Rothschild orbit to his five-decade devotion to Sufism, Zen, and other spiritual traditions. We trace the concrete choices he made to refuse inheritance and public acclaim, and ask what it means to be decades ahead of the world that ultimately needed him.

    Person: Samuel L. Lewis
    Date of birth: October 18, 1896
    Family: Grandson of a Rothschild; son of Jacob Lewis (vice president of Levi Strauss and Company) and Harriett Rosenthal
    Locations: San Francisco; Fairfax, California; travels to India, Pakistan, Japan, Egypt
    Event: Co-founded the first Zen meditation hall in San Francisco (1926)

    - At 22, Samuel entered a Sufi community in Fairfax and began a lifelong study with Murshida Rabia Martin and Hazrat Inayat Khan’s lineage.
    - In 1920 he began Zen study with Nyogen Senzaki, and in 1926 he and Senzaki founded San Francisco’s first zendo without leveraging his family name.
    - Over decades he studied with masters across India, promoted organic agriculture and seed exchange, and trained in practices like General Semantics.
    - For forty-eight years he deliberately avoided public visibility and the family’s business world, building institutions and practices outside mainstream notice.
    - In 1967, recovering from a heart attack in San Francisco, he reported that God told him to lead the hippies - a turning point that brought thousands to his walking meditations and dances.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    21 分
  • The annuity stopped and Highclere's upkeep swallowed her fortune

    The annuity stopped and Highclere's upkeep swallowed her fortune
    2026/10/27
    A wealthy heiress watches the annuity that built her life halt-how does a woman born into Rothschild money end up penniless?

    The annuity stopped and Highclere's upkeep swallowed her fortune

    In this episode, we follow Almina Carnarvon from Mayfair birth to the cold halls of Highclere, tracing the money, the marriages, and the choices that kept a castle running. What decisions and dependencies slowly emptied a fortune once underwritten by Alfred de Rothschild?

    Person: Almina Carnarvon
    Date (birth): 14 April 1876
    Location (death): Bristol hospital, 8 May 1969
    Event: Marriage to George Herbert, 26 June 1895 at St Margaret's, Westminster
    Topic: Alfred de Rothschild's financial support and the annuity ending in 1918

    - Born Almina Wombwell, her legal father was Captain Frederick Wombwell while Alfred de Rothschild was the secret financier behind her life.
    - Alfred provided a £500,000 marriage settlement and a £12,000-per-year annuity that sustained an aristocratic lifestyle and Highclere's upkeep.
    - Alfred quietly paid Lord Carnarvon's debts before the 1895 wedding, making the Earl solvent and enabling the marriage to proceed.
    - Almina repeatedly authorised funding for her husband's Egypt excavations, signing off on annual commitments without recorded hesitation.
    - Alfred's death in 1918 ended the annuity; the Mayfair freehold and £50,000 remained but the steady income that had underwritten Highclere stopped.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    23 分
  • The Epstein contract she signed that toppled a Rothschild heir's reputation

    The Epstein contract she signed that toppled a Rothschild heir's reputation
    2026/10/26
    How did Ariane de Rothschild end up signing with Jeffrey Epstein - and what did those meetings mean?

    The Epstein contract she signed that toppled a Rothschild heir's reputation

    In this episode, we trace Ariane de Rothschild’s rise from a peripatetic childhood to the executive helm of Edmond de Rothschild and the disputed deal that followed. What led a banker who had spent decades building institutional programs and philanthropic initiatives to negotiate with a convicted sex offender, and how did the bank respond when journalists pressed?

    Person: Ariane de Rothschild
    Date: 30 January 2015; meetings between 2013 and 2019
    Event: $25 million consulting contract with Jeffrey Epstein
    Location: Bank records and meetings across multiple years
    Topic: Negotiations between a banking executive and a convicted sex offender

    - Born in San Salvador in 1965, Ariane learned five languages and moved across Bangladesh, Colombia, and Zaire before arriving in New York at 22.
    - She joined AIG, transferred to Paris, met Benjamin de Rothschild as a client, married him in January 1999, and later had four daughters.
    - From 2003-2010 she launched philanthropic programs bearing her name and restructured the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations across five pillars.
    - She climbed corporate ranks: supervisory board (2006), board of directors (2008), vice president (2009), and president of the executive committee on 30 January 2015.
    - Bank records later made public show more than a dozen meetings with Jeffrey Epstein between 2013 and 2019 and an initially denied then acknowledged contract.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The gold convoy that saved England and stalled a dynasty's ascent

    The gold convoy that saved England and stalled a dynasty's ascent
    2026/10/25
    A private counting house in 1825 rushes gold to the Bank of England - how does a textile trader's son build that power?

    The gold convoy that saved England and stalled a dynasty's ascent

    In this episode, we trace how a family firm grew from a Frankfurt lane to the financial backbone of Europe and the decisions that shaped its rise. The episode asks how financial sovereignty can outpace civil recognition and what that gap cost the next generation.

    Person: Nathan Mayer Rothschild
    Date: 1825 (financial panic), 1798 (Nathan arrives in England), 1836 (Nathan dies)
    Location: Bank of England; St Swithin's Lane; Frankfurt Judengasse
    Event: Latin American speculative bubble burst and subsequent credit collapse
    Topic: Rothschild family network supplying gold and cross-border finance

    - Mayer Amschel Rothschild maps his five sons across European capitals to create a transnational trading and finance network.
    - Nathan arrives in Manchester in 1798 at age 21 with a textile consignment and uses price arbitrage to build capital.
    - During the Napoleonic Wars the family’s courier network moved sovereign payments and issued loans, building unique leverage with governments.
    - In 1825 the Rothschild firm supplied physical gold to the Bank of England as its reserves drained during a domestic banking panic.
    - Lionel de Rothschild wins a Commons seat in 1847 but faces repeated exclusion tied to religious oaths, revealing limits to the family's civil acceptance.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The twenty-five‑foot threshold slab that doomed the Triple Palace

    The twenty-five‑foot threshold slab that doomed the Triple Palace
    2026/10/24
    A twenty-five‑foot threshold slab under the Triple Palace outlasts William H. Vanderbilt - what clause in his will set ruin in motion?

    The twenty-five‑foot threshold slab that doomed the Triple Palace

    In this episode we trace the construction and opulence of William Henry Vanderbilt’s connected Fifth Avenue mansions and the decisions that set them on an irreversible path. How did a single clause in a dead man’s will and a vanished forty‑four thousand pound stone shape the fate of the Triple Palace?

    Person: William Henry Vanderbilt
    Date: 1879-1885
    Location: Fifth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets, New York
    Event: Construction and occupation of the Triple Palace
    Object: 25‑foot threshold slab, 44,000 pounds

    - A single stone, 25 feet wide and 44,000 pounds, was barged across New York Harbor because no railroad car could carry it.
    - William Henry changed exterior plans from Ohio limestone to Connecticut brownstone at the last moment, shifting the critics’ focus inward.
    - The Triple Palace comprised three connected mansions with 58 rooms in varied historical styles and a ten‑volume catalog of the house and collection.
    - Sixty sculptors and up to 700 workers labored on the project; 250 men worked on interior decoration alone.
    - William Henry’s will included a clause intended to bind the family and the house together after his death.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    24 分
  • The bridge's wooden truss gave way and 92 people fell

    The bridge's wooden truss gave way and 92 people fell
    2026/10/23
    A packed passenger train plunges through a wooden truss on a cold night-how do you fall from that high?

    The bridge's wooden truss gave way and 92 people fell

    In this episode, we follow the night the Pacific Express went down at Ashtabula and the long arc of a railroad corridor stitched together piece by piece. We outline the decisions, workarounds, and local confrontations that built the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern-so how did a fragile structure hold so much for so long?

    Person: Pacific Express
    Date: December 29, 1876
    Location: Ashtabula River bridge, northeastern Ohio
    Event: Bridge collapse carrying passenger cars into a frozen gorge
    Company: Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway

    - Four small railroads were stitched into a corridor connecting Buffalo to Chicago through legal workarounds and private actions.
    - Judge Stanfield bought and held right-of-way land personally, leasing it back to a railroad to bypass charter restrictions.
    - The Erie gauge war forced relaying track to standard gauge, ending a local transfer economy and enabling through service.
    - The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern operated as a single corridor in practice for a decade before legally merging on April 6, 1869.
    - The Ashtabula bridge had carried thousands of crossings for eleven years before failing and sending passenger cars into the frozen gorge.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分