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Hello, I'm Erica Kelly from the podcast Southern Fried True crime, and if you want to go from podcast fan to podcast host, do what I did and check out spreaker from iheart. I was working in accounting and hating it. Then after just 18 months of podcasting with Spreaker, I was able to quit my day job. Follow your podcasting dreams, let's break or handle the hosting, creation, distribution, and monetization of your podcast. Go to spreaker.com. That's spreaker.com. In the 1980s and 90s, a psychopath terrorized the country of Belgium. A serial killer and kidnapper was abducting children in the bright light of day. From Tenderfoot TV in iHeartRadio this is La Monstra, a story of abomination and conspiracy. The story about the man who's simply become known as. Lamaster. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Rachel Adams heard. I'm a reporter for Bloomberg News and host of Intrust, a new series from Bloomberg and iHeartRadio. More than a century ago, the Osage nation negotiated something unique that brought a lot of money to its people. In this new series, I look at who ended up with a lot of that land and oil money and how the OH nation is fighting to get it back. Listen to Intrust on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What's in Chicago? Meet me. I'm in Chicago. This is Robert Evans, hosted behind the ******** the show that tells you everything you don't know about the very worst people in all of history. And today I'm in the Windy City that never sleeps on a Big Apple. Chicago, IL with my Co hosts. Today, the hosts of the wonderful Knowledge Fight Podcast. My favorite podcast, Dan and Jordan. Hey everybody, for having us. I don't know your last names. Wow, it's irrelevant. Wave them up. We're not allowed to say our last names on television, so Mr Mix will play the situation to another dimension. Should we say our names? Oddly enough, I have a friend who's like that, and it's Mr, Mr, Mr. Backwards twice, though. So you got them? Yeah, I gotcha. Terrible. You can only visit him on certain occasions. So thanks for having us. You know, it's nice in Chicago, there's so many, so many choices of people you could sit down, but a lot of things going on in Chicago. I was surprised at the cars. Yeah, as a Southerner and then and then a W coaster. I didn't realize you had them here yet, but that's good. That's good. That's good. Pretty recent. Yeah, it's good. Once the city burned down the first time, we were like, well, let's wait for the 2nd to get some cars. But we decided against it. So I'm, I'm proud of y'all. There's a lot going on in Chicago mainly. It's cold. Very cold. Yeah. Have you been yelled at about food at all? Yeah. Oh my God. Actually, I have a tail. This will be dropping an episode of worst year ever. But we went totally on accident when we were covering Cody Johnson. Katie stole, and I were covering Midwest. Perfect. We went to accidentally what has to be one of the fanciest restaurants. It's one of the fanciest restaurants, maybe the fanciest I've been to in my life. So I'm guessing it's one of the fancier ones in Chicago. Potbelly? Yeah. No, it was. Yeah. No. OK. The Capital Grille. It was a place that like we walked in and they asked to take our coats and we said no. And they immediately looked like, oh, you're not supposed to be here. That is just not done. But they they seated us and we ordered lobster bisque, which was fantastic. The food was was phenomenal. And as I was eating my bisque, the waiter walked by and gave me, fetched me a look of pity and said, Sir, is there something wrong with your soup spoon? I had used the wrong spoon. I was. I was half sure the problem was going to be that you put ketchup in the bisque, which is frowned upon. I'm not quite that much an animal, but I am apparently a a filthy animal. Because I used. Yeah. You know, I'm. I'm deeply ashamed as Chicagoans allow us to resolve. Or what is that called? Absolve you of your food. So, yeah, I thought you were going to double down on. I don't give a **** about bisque. So we we have never been to a swanky restaurant. Do I look like I've ever touched as it was? Yeah, purely by accident that we went there. Jordan thought Bouillabaisse was a cold soup. I really did. It's not really did. This is on the way here. Every soup that's not clam chowder, I assume, is Gus Pocho gazpacho. I don't know. Other soups Jordan didn't know about until earlier. Did not know about tripe. That's a shame. I really don't think it. Once I learned about tribe. Did not bother me that I didn't know about it for this long. It's not good, no. So normally y'all host a podcast where you sit around, drink novelty beverages, and talk a little bit about Alex Jones. True, we're not doing anything like that today. That's nothing even vaguely reminiscent of what you told me earlier, that we're going to talk about somebody that has nothing to do with Infowars couldn't be lessened, and I was almost convinced it was a trap. We talked about Alex Jones before him, then Mike Adams. Yeah. Yeah. Normally I would have you on to to discuss someone in Alex Jones's universe, because that's your wheelhouse, but and you are the sausage Packers nearby had sausage packing for a while, but I think we'll we'll start the project again. Well, do you guys know the name of the little fella named Adam Neumann? Have you heard of a company called Wework? Yes, that guy ohboy ohboy. And he is a real ***** ** ****. OK, man, that sounds great. Umm, so I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna dive into this to dive into this **** right now so that that that. Well, now I actually scroll to the bottom of the page. Very professional. This is how the sausage gets made when we don't print it out. Adam, no discernible middle name. Neumann was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, on April 25th, 1979. It's very close to my birthday. I'm already very invested in this story. And you were also born in Tel Aviv. That is correct. Mm-hmm. Well, the American Tel Aviv, yes, yes. Which is Van Nuys, CA. Yes. Yeah. He gets a lot of **** about the right to return laws from California, which is you do not have them stay the **** out of California. There's too many people. From here, yeah. So, yeah, when he was seven, his parents divorced and his mother moved to New York City to do her medical residency. Adam and his sister Avi moved in with her. Now, I found other variations of Adam story that claim the split happened when he was nine and that they moved to Minneapolis first. I think he lies a lot, you know? You know, I don't know. On this show, whenever. It's like, I've heard multiple stories about his life, about like, specifically when he came, like, yeah, like in some consequential details. I don't know. I I ran into both. We don't have a lot of. Anular details of his childhood like. Not a lot of anecdotes about him as a kid, but we know it was rough. He was severely dyslexic. Still is severely dyslexic. You don't just is that why we work as one word? Maybe. Does that? Is that a dyslexic thing? I don't think it is. Welcome to the behind the baskets, the podcast where we slander dyslexia and talk about terrible people. Hmm. So yeah, he was dyslexic, couldn't read or write at all until the 3rd grade, and his mom moved constantly. So he lived in a lot of different homes and usually didn't spend enough time in any one place to build strong attachments to people there. I get that a little bit. Umm, yeah. Now, in 1990, when he was 11, Adams mom moved back to Israel, his family and he settled in a kibbutz. You know much about Kibbutzes? I've kibbutzim, I know a little bit about kid, but SIS, I like the word a lot. Kibbutzim. Yeah, it's like a it's like a commune essentially, right? Yeah, it's like, it's like an Israeli type of commune thing. I'm gonna talk about him a little bit. The first kibbutz was founded in a place called Degania and, you know, in Palestine at the time now. Now, the nation known as Israel in 1909 and 1910. Now this is too complex a topic to do justice to as an aside in this episode, but it's reasonably accurate to say that the inspiring motivations behind the establishment of the first kibitzes kibbutzim, I'm not really sure what's correct. I don't know. Yiddish is a mix of Zionism, admiration of like literal, classical, Spartan values and communism. So it's like a million. It was like an initially like, very militant. So like when the Israeli war for independence. They're worth the, the, the, the Nakba. Yeah. Whichever term you prefer to use. When that happened, a lot of like the cells of like Israeli or no. I mean they weren't Israel at that point of like Jewish partisans who like were active were like based around kibbutzes and stuff. And like, there were bits that were like manufacturing arms and stuff and like later wars and stuff. So there was like a militant swing to them, but also very leftist, very communist, very like, like, like communitary. Yeah, yeah. I assume that will never go wrong. And yeah, just a really ******* complicated. I mean, I I please don't take this like read up more on them. I I don't wanna like, like and they're all different too. So I'm sure there's a lot of kibitzes that that are have very different backgrounds. But I found like a really fun lecture on the history of kibbutz by a guy named Henry near who was a professor, some ******* college, and I'm going to quote from that now. It was governed by all the members gathered in their weekly meetings. Meals were eaten in common in the central dining hall, which also served as a social and Cultural Center. And other items of consumption were distributed freely or in accordance with the principal to each according to his or her need. In its early stages, all decisions were taken in common by all the Members. This is the idea of a kibbutz, like pretty radical ground up democracy. Yeah. Sounds pretty. Pretty alright. Yeah. It sounds like a fun way to live. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know about them making arms part. I don't know if I'm gonna sign up for that aspect of this, but you wanna make some arms? I just it's not my thing, but arms here a little bit arms there. I just feel like I don't have the right kind of like dexterity and those skills. No, like, I mean, you really, really want kids for making art cause their little fingers can getting all those holes, you know? I'm sure, yeah. Yeah, poke the little little baby fingers. Ohh, nobody makes an AK47 like a couple of three month olds. They really, they really know how to. They started me young. Yeah, Umm, now. Women and men both worked all day in the kibitzes kibbutzim. Their children were cared for in small groups, looked after by individuals who were mix of teacher and nanny. Kids spent time in their parents home after working hours, but in most cases slept with other kids in a children's house at night. In the early days at least, all of the Kibitzes were part of a utopian movement towards a better society, one of the founders of the first kibbutz. Joseph Barretts wrote this in his memoirs. We were happy enough working on the land, but we knew more and more certainly that the ways of the old settlements were not for us. This was not the way we hoped to settle the country this old way, with Jews on top and Arabs working for them anyway, we thought that there shouldn't be employers or employed at all. There must be a better way. Very left wing, very like, like utopian projects. I I just want to emphasize that, yeah. This being this show, though, I'm waiting for a hammer to drop. Yeah. It goes in a not not as utopian direction. There's still around. They're not all at least the same that they were. So obviously in the early days they were all about agriculture. Some still focus on that, but today they serve in a variety of industries. For example, Kibbutz Sasa serves the Israeli military, making special military grade plastics is 200 members, sold some $850 million. Products in 2010. So these are not all, these are not small, but yeah, necessary. That's a sizable business. Is very different than what I was. Yeah, yeah. OK. And kibbutz near ARM, where Adam Neumann spent his formative years, currently hosts an Innovation Center that seems to focus as an incubator for the Israeli tech industry and looks like literally any tech building in San Francisco from the pictures I've seen. So, like, these are no longer like, like, necessarily like rural or like, like hard Scrabble things like there's big businesses that are. They're operated in these gotcha now. By the time Adam and his family arrived at kibbutz near AM, Kibbutz had moderated significantly from their early radical leftist ideology, and rather than being educated in a group of children on site, he went to the Shar Hanegan V I'm so sorry for surely pronouncing that school, which is near the Gaza Strip. His mother worked as an oncologist at a nearby hospital, and living in a kibbutz and taking part in its communal life was something that Adam's mom valued, he later recalled. It was important to my mother that we all do something special, so yeah. Every write up, you're gonna find out this guy's life focuses on his time in the kibbutz. It seems to be something Adam himself, May has made a point of discussing with every journalist who interviewed him. Right? Right. Despite how often it comes up, you seldom hear any details of his time there. One of the few scraps I ran into came from a haritz article. As a child who lived in a lot of places. One of the hardest things for me was to join a new community. It was hardest at the kibbutz, but that was also one of the most impressive communities. I remember how much fun it was to be a child in the Gibbons. I feel like I would probably speak the same, but also like, you know, not very in detail about, like the time when I lived in, like, I don't know, Boston. Yeah, I don't remember much of it, but I could probably be like, you know, hey, it made me who I am, right? Right. And he you you get the, like, he really drives home that it was like a formative thing for him, but you also get the the idea that was kind of painful. He talks a lot about how. The the other kids that he that were on the kibbutz had all been born and, like grown up there, and he had moved there when he was like 11 or 12 or so. So that was, like, obviously difficult, right? So he would have been something of an outsider. He says he, like, made his way in, and it was really rewarding. I kind of get the feeling that maybe this guy's never quite felt like he belonged anywhere. It's like being the new kid in school, but the school happens to be a commune and nobody wants you there and nobody wants you there. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I wasn't there. I didn't grow up in that particular Israeli kibbutz. Now, as a young adult, Adam went to the Israeli Naval Academy and served in the Navy for five years. So he didn't do like, the minimum service you need to do. Like, he he he made a thing of it. Yeah, he retired as a captain or left the service as a captain. Once he'd done his time, he followed in his mother's footsteps and moved to New York. He was 22 years old and it was 2001, widely considered to be the very best year industry to move to big. Well, the Blueprint, 3 or no, the blueprint dropped the Yayas first album. That was really, really good. The Strokes first album, that was awesome. And all of those, all of those happened on on a day that I don't think anybody remembers for any reason at all. No, no, no. 2001, particularly like the fall, early winter, 2001, like autumn, great time to be in New York. I assume. 2001, particularly good time to be in New York. Dance Punk was taking the nation by. Yeah, it was fantastic. So he moves there in a perfect time now. His sister Abby had already beaten him to New York. She had been a former teen Miss Israel, and had managed to turn that into a career as a model. She was very successful model and is very famous in Israel, much more famous than actually he is to this day. He stayed in her Tribeca apartment while he worked to figure out what his future would be. Eventually he settled on business and enrolled at Baruch College. In between classes he and his own words spent his first years in New York hanging out at clubs and quote hitting on every girl in the city. You looked for, you know, spent the rest of his time looking for get rich quick schemes his first months in the USA brought with them some sobering revelations about American culture. Quote it's ********. Yeah, kinda, actually, yeah. Yeah, it's it's garbage. Propaganda is around the ******* world. OK that that. A lot of other people are also trying get rich quick schemes. Yeah. ****. The city full of people like me. Yeah. It seems like a lot of people really wish they could get rich quick. This whole thing about the American character being con artists and. It's a mix of con artists and gold rushers. Like the honest people are looking for a gold rush. The dot honest people are con artists. The goal is always the same, which is to spend as little time living in the part of America that exists for people who aren't rich. Mm-hmm. Yeah, which is hard and filled with go fund me for insulin. Places for Americans who aren't rich are are not great. No, no. Most people want to get out of there. Yeah, no. I, for one, don't understand why you would want to live anywhere but the Pacific Palisades. But, you know, my Butler lives elsewhere and he says it's there's, there's, there's there's decent parts. You you fly them in for the weekdays. Or is he a weekend Butler? No, no, no, no, no. Do you split custody of the Butler with your ex-wife? He takes, he takes, he takes the bus in and he's, you know, there's there's a tracking chip on him when he's in the palace. We don't want to stay. Absolutely. Good Lord, though. Not after dark. No, no. Unless there's a party, in which case. You deliver a small series of electric shocks every 15 minutes so it doesn't get too comfortable, you know? Alright, yeah. Ethics. So yeah, the Adam had a rough arrival to the United States and I'm gonna quote him now. After I arrived in the United States, I realized that in the army, Israelis are had to be part of something bigger than themselves. The things I had experienced in my life all came together in our life. We had a lot of movement and a lot of new things. So I feel sorry for someone who's having a bit of a hard time because I know what it's like to be new. He found that he was, like, really frustrated by particularly the the, the distance and kind of facelessness of American culture. Elevator rides were the things that most struck him. He recalled later to an interviewer that whenever he would travel up the elevator in his sister's apartment, he would wonder, why is nobody talking to each other? We're in the same building. How come you don't know everybody? Ohh, man, man, if somebody talked to me in an elevator, I lose my ****. Yeah, absolutely furious. I've had those very similar thoughts, but every time I've tried to. Act the opposite. It's been a disaster. No. Like every time I've tried to say to people there's no, no, no, they don't want to be to say I, I look like me. Yeah. It's a it's a captive environment. I there's no escape route. Yeah, that's that's the issue there. Yeah. You see, I mean, obviously until the doors open. You seem very suspicious. You strike up a conversation and those. No, those times when we've as a culture just decided shut it down. Yeah. Yeah. Start a conversation in the bathroom. The bus now. The bus over the bus. Never the bus lately? Not never elevators. No, no. I keep a tear gas grenade on me at all times. Anyone talks, I just pull that pen. I will end the conversation. That I will begin a conversation if we're stuck in the elevator and I'm just at the place where I have to poop in the corner. And that in that situation, I'm going to start with. Sorry. Yeah. This is gonna be rough for all of us. I think we'll make it through. There are different protocols for once you get to that point. Right, though, right. Yeah. The only place in America it's OK to talk to people is in line at the movies. That's a good one. That works. That's it. Really? OK. That's it. It's a yeah. Other than that, zip it. Yeah, keep it. Keep it shut. Doctors waiting rooms. No. Under no circumstances. No. No eye contact on planes. No, holding cell is probably a good place. Like, yeah, you in on a you're holding cell was another good place to talk. Holding cells movie theater lines more like collaboration. Yeah, you're, you're, you're you're in a holding cell. You're getting something cooking in the beginning of the movie. Blow. That's yeah, that's a bit rich scheme in the in the works. I could say a lot of people at gun stores want to have conversations with you while you're waiting. You should not, you should not, you should not talk to those people. It does not end well. You will learn uncomfortable things. About them. Yeah, I imagine every conversation at a gun store starts with my ex-wife. And that's where it goes, right? Yeah, well, the government. Let me tell you about the government, the federal government. Either that or I got a lot of ******* Gophers on my property. How many misdemeanors for? I can't buy one of these no more. I imagine the the people around there are full of trivia. It is, actually. It's just mostly grossly gun trivia. Yeah, very accurate trivia. Yeah. You know, they changed the way the feeding ramp loads back in 1962. So that's a yeah, it's very, very boring as a general rule. So, yeah, Adam gets to the US fresh out of the military, is frustrated at like, the the, the distance and the kind of soullessness lack of communication in in American culture. Yeah. He challenges his sister Abby to a friend making competition to see who could. Learn the names and establish cordial social relationships with the most people in the building the fastest. That ****** me off. Yeah. This is the first time. This is the beginning of me saying **** this guy. Yeah, that's this is it. Is this all is him trying to connect with people? Like, let's have a friendship contest. **** that guy. **** that guy out. Well, you're trying to gamify, like, right? Natural interaction between people. That just seems weird. Also, his sister's name is Addie. I'm a hack and a fraud and. And spelled it wrong. That first part. Not add edge. Add edge. Yeah, so is that long for something? Probably. I don't know. It's your sister, she didn't do anything wrong. They they get into it. They get into a contest to see who can, like, build the most cordial social relationships the fastest. Yeah, she's super. She's gonna win this contest. She absolutely wins this contest very quickly. Like, almost immediately. This guy seems like a creep. And she's a model. Yeah. This guy's weird. Yeah, he's trying to start conversations in elevators. Yeah. And she's one of the most beautiful. Yes, she wins handles, right? She has like 6 times as many friends as in after a week. It is not a not a close. Not a close thing. Feel for the guy. Not a near run game, but Adam claims as a result of their contest, the entire energy of the building changed. The to what a positive. From what people would he be bothered by sugar from each other? It was good. Umm, I don't know, he says it was good. OK alright, now this is a common refrain in Adams interviews, both the difficulty of meeting new people when you move a lot, the cold and informal nature of life in American Society and oddly enough this sort of like understanding that whatever it is about our hyper capitalist world makes people not want to connect with one another was paired in Adam with a deep bone level belief. And the goodness of capitalism. So that's interesting. That doesn't make sense on any level. It will continue to not. Or maybe it will. OK. Capitalism alienates us from each other and damn it, it's awesome. So good. I believe in it. I think it's more of a capitalism alienates or people in capitalist societies are alienated. What if we could find a way using capitalism to make them less alienated? Alright, yeah, you just gotta put like financial incentives for that friendship contest. Let's see. Ooh boy, that sounds like it's a disingenuous friendship. Got to turn this into, like, a reality show, are there? How many friends can you make other friendships than those based on money? Like my friendship with my Butler, for example. Right. We can Butler. I don't know his name. Why would you? Yeah, of course. Like, why would I? Seems it seems odd, but no. When his wife died because she couldn't afford her insulin, I did consider sending a flower. But then I thought kind of sends the wrong message. Well, I mean, if you inject the flower with insulin, that's a real bad one. Yeah, especially that. I just. I didn't want him to think he could talk to me in my elevator. Right? Right. Alright, that's a good call. You make him take the dumb waiter of course. Oh well absolutely. I mean either that or the stairs. Yeah, usually the stairs. Yeah. Now Adam after this decided to drop out of college and launch himself into a frenzy of ill conceived business ventures. First he started a business selling women's shoes with collapsible high heels for reasons I cannot quite explain. Probably one of those like, like operations, you know, like cutco the knife, say, old people, right. There's probably some women's shoe company he got hooked up with, right? No, no. He started. He started a business. Oh, he did that himself. So he started his first two business. I'll give him credit for that. His first two businesses are not cons their products. They're just bad. They're bad products, but they are. He is trying to start a legitimate business that sells a product, right? We are three people here who have very little use for collapsible heeled shoes. Perhaps we do not. I'm not going to speak for the women listening as to whether or not that's a good idea, but he did not execute it well. OK. As proven by the fact that the company didn't work right now. I think I'm a little bit late, but here's my pitch. OK, put some wheels on those. Do you remember those snakes? The wheels? Yeah. I don't see high wheelies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Soap shoes, collapsible high heels and expanded. Perfect. Perfect. You know, perfect. Perfect. Next, he made the leap to selling specialty baby clothing. It collapses, of course it collapses. What's they're actually break away? Baby clothing turned out that's attracted. Sold very well to the wrong people, absolutely to the wrong people's lives, dressed up like priests and it's about to dance. In fact, the Vatican ordered $7 million worth, which was really. Watch out. Yeah, the the ones he designed were called crawlers with OK, and they were normal baby pants with knee pads sewn into the legs, which actually meshes uncomfortably with my Vatican joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think the Vatican has carpet though, so you don't need to what so in order to distract us from that. Whatever. Like to point out I did not take part in that. That's good. Yeah. You know who else doesn't want to subject it? Yeah. You know who else is a conscientious objector and the realm of. The priests and they've been molesting baby sponsors. The sponsors. And that is that is that is an ad plug products? So by now we imagine that you've seen the theories on Tiktok. You maybe even heard the rumors, your friends and loved ones. But are any of the stories about government conspiracies and cover ups actually true? The answer is surprisingly or unsurprisingly, yes. For more than a decade we here at stuff they don't want you to know have been seeking answers to these questions, sometimes their answers that people would rather us not. Explorer now we're sharing this research with you for the first time ever in a book format, you can pre-order stuff they don't want you to know. Now. It's the new book from us, the creators of the podcast and video series. You can turn back now or read the stuff they don't want you to know. Available for pre-order now, it's stuff you should read books.com or wherever you find your favorite books. Do you love movies or maybe just in need of some recommendations on what new movies to watch next time you sit down in front of the TV? Well, I have the podcast for you. Hey, this is Mike D from movie Mikes movie podcast. Your go to source for all things movies and no matter the genre what you're into, whether it be comedies, romance, action, sci-fi, horror, superhero movies, I cover it all. I'm no critic, I'm just a guy who loves movies. Each episode explores a different movie. Topic plus spoiler free reviews on the latest new movies in theaters and on streaming. And yes, they're always spoiler free so you don't have to worry about anything getting ruined for you. Plus interviews with actors, directors, and writers covering the behind the scenes of your favorite movies. I also keep you in the know with all the latest movie news and movie trailers. Listen to new episodes of movie Mikes Movie podcast Every Monday on the Nashville podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio App Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In the 1980s and 90s, a psychopath terrorized the country of Belgium. A serial killer and kidnapper was abducting children in the bright light of day. His unspeakable crimes and the incompetence or unwillingness of the police to stop him brought the entire country of Belgium to the brink of revolution. From Tenderfoot TV in iHeartRadio this is la Monstra. The story of abomination and conspiracy that led to the demise of the entire institution of Belgian federal police and rattled the foundations of its government. The story about the man who simply become known as La Monstre. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back. And we're talking about Adam Neumann and his so far God awful attempts to make it big in America. Women's shoes. Padded knee, baby clothes. To his credit. Real businesses. Not his crazy actual product. Some things I've heard. No, no. OK, are you telling me that his name is a Neiman? It is. OK. There we go. It is. I just needed that cleared up for hero. I just needed to be. Yeah, the guy. It's the superhero whose power is talking to you in an elevator, right? Yeah. Yeah. His power is never taking the hint. I feel like I have a completely unfair picture of this guy already in my head. But you don't. I think I've nailed him. OK, so now Adam had started crawlers with $100,000 investment from his grandmother, and by the time the financial crisis slammed down in 2008, he'd spent every dime of that investment and his almost shockingly bad idea for a company was nearly out of gas. He had to hire a lawyer just to renew his visa to stay in the USA. Comes from wealthier family. Not like rich, but well enough off. That his grandma had an extra 100K? Yeah, yeah. So the this difficult time for Adam's business prospects proved to be the most important period of his life. For one thing, it's when he met his future wife, Rebecca Paltrow. He was 28 at the time, and Rebecca recalls that he was really, really thin and he was shaking because I think he was smoking too many cigarettes and he was engaged in a friend making contest. To me. And then we got married. She claims simultaneously that when she first talked to him she realized both that he was full of **** and that he was her soulmate. Wow, that's that's that's shocking portrait of another person. Yes, I guess that's the most self aware thing you could say. It is the most self aware thing she has ever said. Yeah, yeah. No, they went out for lunch and Adam couldn't afford to pay for anything or for the cab ride because he was he was broke. Do you accept novelty baby clothes? They did not. Rebecca insulted him for talking a big game but having no actual money, and Adam justified it by calling himself an entrepreneur whose money was all an inventory. Sure, but yeah, they got to either married a couple of months later, so, like very, very quickly, alright. And getting better at making friends. He's gotten a lot. He's good at making this one friend. OK now, at the time, Rebecca had done a little bit more with her life than her her paramour. She'd been a stock trader for like a week or two. She'd spent time in a Buddhist monastery. And been to the Dalai Lama's birthday party because she's rich as well. She toured with Michael Franti and spearhead what? Not playing? She was just like wondering following Michael Francis rejected this. Are you are you are you a spearhead fan? No, I actually, weirdly, I was hanging out with a friend of mine from high school last night and one of the things I've always accused him of being is being super into spearhead. And he claims that that is not true at all. I literally. They literally were something. That I was yelling about last night. Why would that's a wild coincidence. It's because they have a line on one of their songs. Like there's a war on cancer, war on drugs, war on police, war on hugs. And like, there is not a war on hugs. There is absolutely a war. Have you been in an elevator recently? Zero people who when you try to hug someone on it, they do not appreciate it. Dan, I'm. My mind is completely blown that this lady went on tour with spearhead. Yeah, she went on tour with spearhead. Damn spearhead. And it's here. I should drop that. She's gonna. Paltrow's first cousin. Ohh. I totally knew that. Yeah. Yep. Now keep that one in mind. Yeah, the the goopy of it all. Now Rebecca and Adam started dating and she helped him quit smoking and she said, cousin. First cousin. OK, close. She's due. Yes. OK, gotcha. They started dating. She helped him quit smoking and soda. She introduced him to Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, and worked to stop him from obsessing over money so much. I assume that worked. It absolutely. Gotcha. So this is the end of the story. This is the end of the story. Good episode, guys. Good, good. This is about a man who played a friend game in his building and we hate him. And that is the end of his crimes. Kind of endearing? Yeah. Also profoundly lame. This episode is all you need to do. This this episode is just about getting our fans to hunt this man down. He lives in a small apartment in Van Nuys now. So? So grab a gun. Friendless? Yeah. No. So yeah, she tried to make him stop obsessing over money. And Adam later recalled, Rebecca said stop. No more talking about money. We're going to talk about Wellness, happiness, fulfillment. And if the money is supposed to follow, it will. And if it doesn't, it doesn't matter because we will be happy and fulfilled. That's the thing an ******* says. That is the thing a rich ******* says. No poor ******** ever said. If the money's supposed to follow, it will. No, they say. What about the insulin? Poor ******** say, like food is good, yeah. Brass will say, like, we gotta ******* make rent. Hmm? Yeah. So it was clear, though, that making **** loads of money was the only thing that would actually make Adam happy and fulfilled the baby clothes game was not working out, but while he was failing at a second business, Adam fell in love with the building where Crawlers had its office space, an otherwise empty former warehouse in Brooklyn's rapidly gentrifying Dumbo neighborhood. That's a neighborhood. Yes, I know, I every new thing I learned about New York. So many ******* racist crows in that neighborhood, too. Terrible. It's awful they had to have a warning. Yeah, yeah. Disney plus one of the side of the side. That neighborhood. Yeah. Strangest juxtapositions of my life was was as a child the racist crows in Dumbo. Yeah. And then as an adult, the very different but also similar racist crows in Fritz the cat. Yeah. But very different. I don't know. Even like the Rick is really directly deals with things like police violence against the black community. Very complicated film. Yeah. The most complicated film with a mouse Nazi. Right. Was he a mouse? What species was the Nazi biker? I have no idea. I just remember Fritz the cat's the one with the bag, right? I'm way off. I'm thinking of a completely different cat now. I remember what we're actually talking. Fritz. Fritz the cat is the one about the cat who *****. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thinking. I was thinking about a different yeah. Great movie. I've never seen it not tripping, but have seen it five or six times and it remember enjoying it and also feeling confused and conflicted at certain parts. Ralph bakshi. Everybody check him out. He got really turned on by certain things. Yeah. All all of the all of the same issue. Watching the Robin Hood. The Disney movie, if you remember that one. Yeah, yeah. A lot of a lot of complicated feelings. Chippendales rescue Rangers, Jaja Gabor Fritz is interesting because all of the all of the black people are crows, much like in Dumbo, but all of the police are literal picks and it's it's quite a film made in like the 60s seventies. Weird movie. Yeah. Don't haven't haven't seen a good breakdown on a on the. Haven't seen it sober. Maybe I should. Maybe maybe I'm talking about horrible, horrible racist propaganda. I don't think it was, though. I think it was about as woke as possible for the era. Sure, but I may be wrong on that. I remember enjoying it. This has been too long at aggression on Fritz the cat, so yeah, the, the, the, the the baby clothes game. You know, they they. So, yeah, Adam falls in love with the building house where the crawlers had its office space, which is an empty warehouse in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood. He meets up with the neighborhood, Joshua Goodman, and tells him, give me the building. Goodman was like, no, I assume that's at knife point that he told him, give me the building. It's great. It's gonna be great to be like the kind of person who could just be, like, I want that building, that building. Get me that building. I want that building. So Goodman's like, no and shoots back because basically Adam's not saying, like, give me ownership of the building, saying, like, let me control the space and rent it out. It's empty. And Goodman is like, why would I do that? You sell baby clothes. Goodman makes a good point here. Yeah, you know nothing about this industry, Goodman. Good point. And Neumann responds. Your business is empty. What do you know about real estate? Get on. Yeah. So, alright, what do you know about business, he *******. Let's do this. It's *** for tat this all day. Yeah. Feel like they might be at an impasse here. He, he convinces Goodman and Goodman pairs with Adam and his business partner, a guy named Miguel Mckelvey, who'd grown up in a commune in Oregon. So they both have that sort of like similar background. Yeah. And together they found a company called Green Desk, which was billed as an environmentally friendly coworking space. Now, the idea for green dress was actually based on a failed business plan. Adam had created for a competition at Baruch College before he dropped out. The idea was, in his words, Community structured real estate, which would meld working in living space together in a manner reminiscent of the kibbutz. The plan failed to progress to the second round of the contest, and Adam complained to the Dean about this, and the Dean told him there's no 23 year old or any inexperienced real estate person who will ever be able to raise enough money to do anything like concept living. So I really feel like that reminds me more of like when the the railroad barons built their own. Cities and use their own currency and **** like that made people live on them. So that's that's where I'm at right now. I feel like that business model has been tried before. You're heading right in the right direction. OK, there we go. Alright, so now green desk though wasn't a whole lot like a kid, but it was basically a way for small businesses and individuals working as contractors to lease short term office space for an affordable price. And this one up being a really ******* smart move because in 2008 the economy collapsed and there were suddenly a ton of people out of work and switching careers and businesses looking to cut costs. On Green Desk did really well. We have an overhead projector. We have a table. There's pens. None of you have money. Yeah. Within a year, the business was valued at around $3 million. So they do. Not bad. Very successful. Not bad. That's probably more successful than the other two of his business. While neither of the other two succeeded, neither of them made money. No, no. This is his first success. OK. Now, Goodman was like, we should maybe do this in more buildings is a good idea. Let's expand conservatively to other spaces and, you know. You see how far this plan takes us? Very sure thing that, uh, continue and try another couple of spaces. But Neuman and Mckelvey are like, **** that, we're gonna start another business. So they sell out their shares in green desk in 2010 for about $300,000. Most of the money went to the guy who owned the space. Obviously they used this seed money to launch. We work now, unlike Green Desk, which had been a modest ambition based around a compromise with an uncertain landlord. We work was from the beginning, a bold vision. Adam Norman wanted to create what he called. A capitalist kibbutz. A global network of workspaces that would eventually extend beyond merely short term office rentals. So what he'd like to do is create a capitalist commune. Yeah, I feel like there's a contradiction there, but I can't put my. I can't put my finger on it. They both start with CI. Guess alliteration is my issue. Yeah, yeah. Gotcha. Yeah, they should have fixed that in post now from the beginning. They had trouble convincing landlords that they wanted to rent them space of their vision. Mckelvey, his partner, later recalled. We didn't have credibility or credit. We had no business taking out a 40,000 square foot lease. But using atom's charisma, his ability to convince people, which is significant, they managed to not for people on board, but yeah, not for friendships. I mean, not compared to his sister, but she is a model. Now. In that same interview, Neuman explained that the landlords needed a lot more than just a vision. In the end, they were unable to convince one person to rent them one floor in a building as a trial run. But this was a wild success, and over the next five years we work expanded all over the world at an astonishing pace. People started to invest millions and then 10s of millions and eventually billions of dollars. The company would Adam would sell them on the idea he presented. We work as much more than just a real estate company. He spoke about creating the first physical social network. All I hear is Enron. It's interesting. It's interesting that you say that. Yeah. You just described Enron to me. That's all I'm hearing. Yeah, it's interesting. You said physical, social network. And they immediately me and Jordan both. Deep inhale. Yeah. Just who? That sounds like ********. Yeah. A lot of bells. Yeah. OK, well, that's especially knowing what we work is. Yes. Like and like it just it absolutely is. Like, **** this. What I wanted to do was build a flag factory that only builds giant red flags. That's what I'm going for. Right here. Gotcha. Probably more successful than baby clothes. Yes. I mean, I could actually use a couple of red flags. I am full of them. Yeah, he wanted to create the first physical social network. And when he would like explain what that meant to people, he said he wanted we work offices to not just be places where people worked. He wanted them to be places where people could talk about their jobs, their families, their problems and love. Oh, so like an office, like a like a neighborhood, I think is more the idea. He was trying to recreate that like 50 style. Idea of a neighborhood, but condensed within specially catered and decorated office buildings that he owned and sold access to. Hmm. I feel like that's this is the this is him rigging the friendship contest. That's what I'm hearing right here. I'm going to strong voice. This is this is him just being like ******* sister. I'm gonna. I'll show her my business is going to be a friendship competition. You you do feel like this was the result of him fuming over losing the friendship contest and reading like an old history of the labor movement that talked about company towns? Or he's like walking home after his sister wins and he hears that Saint Peter, don't you? Because I can't go sold my soul do the company store wait a tick? Light bulb. Yeah, exploitation. It's an absurd thing to try to sell for hundreds of millions of dollars. A very silly idea. Obviously. The idea of like, let's rent short term office space. Totally reasonable within the context of businesses people can run. Surely people need it. Why not? Which is what green desk was. That's not what Adam's trying to sell. Does green desk continue? Like, through as they don't know? Probably. I think so. But yeah, Adam, this is a dumb idea. A stupid idea to to like literally any normal person. That wasn't selling this idea to normal people. He was selling this idea. To investors. Ah, and investors, if I know one thing about capitalism, are all super ******* dumb. The more money they have to invest, the Dumber they is. Robert, money equals intelligence. How many times do rich people have to tell us that there are betters and that's why. That's why they have money is the most profitable company in the world. Of course it doesn't lose $2 billion every six months or So what a silly thing. People wouldn't keep pumping money into it. What? And if company could exist losing that much money on a regular basis, not smart one. Ohh God. So Adam sold this idea to investors and also to his employees. And the answer to how he sold this very dumb idea basically boils down to the fact that he was really ******* charismatic on one-on-one situations. So he made friends with these investors. He more like cult members. Oh boy, now there's a really good New York Times article, Adam Neumann and the art of failing up, which pretty good way to frame it, I'm going to read. The story of white people in America. I'm going to read a section from that article that I think encapsulates the way Adam both led and sold his company. Quote and this is from to that, yeah. Adam Neumann stood on the 57th floor of the Woolworth Building, the neogothic skyscraper that was once the tallest in the world. It was late on a Friday night in 2013, and the Wework founder and chief executive had just made a move to add the top 30 floors to his rapidly expanding real estate dealings. Mr Neumann and three employees had already enjoyed a few drinks when he decided to bring them to tour his latest coup. In the gutted out space. They tossed beer bottles into empty elevator shafts, listening to them clink on the way down. Then Mr Neumann. Hold them all to follow him out to the ledge. No guardrails, no enclosures. Just four inebriated startup executives teetering on the edge of death. I was up there with him at the top of the world and he said everything is going to be amazing, recalled Harrison Weber, we works editorial director at the time. Then Mr Norman picked up an old beer bottle, a remnant apparently from some previous Bender. He asked the employees to drink the rank liquid. Everyone took a swig except for Mr Weber. What is this, the end of lost? It felt like a loyalty thing, he said. In that moment, I felt would have deeply persuasive person. Years, man. I I assumed that he would be up there the way I would, which is just screaming at them. Do it, man. Push me over. ******* do it. You have the balls to kill me. ******* ball. No, that I'm still CEO. Be one shot right ******* now. You got the balls. That is how you get investment. You can't be too charismatic when you're doing that. I honestly feel like that behavior is very similar to a lot of people that I may have been annoyed by in past jobs. You know, like that that that does not seem far afield from some professional douches. No, no, it's just it's a real bummer. It's an elevation of scale, like if ****** bosses that I've had. Had that kind of ******** charisma as well as just an insane psychopathic confidence. Then they would try and do the same ****. Like it's just a different level of abuse of power. I can't, I can't even, like, suggest music to people less. I, like, feel like they're going to reject me for it, let alone, like, drink this swill. Yeah, it's amazing. And it's a testament to how good he was at doing this to most people that by 2015 we work with. Valued at more than $10 billion. Jesus, they rented out hundreds of properties on multiple continents. So. Whatever you can say about him, at least in 2015, it looks like it's ******* working like gangbusters. It's it's it's such like a things just don't exist anymore. There's nothing. There's no, no, money is not real, is the thing. It's yeah, imaginary. It's entirely imaginary. This story really illustrates a couple of things to me. One, money isn't real, and two, money is like, dumb. Not in the sense like, oh, it's it's so dumb that, like, we have to live in our capital or no, money is dumb in the sense that, like, money. Makes bad decisions. Yeah. The more you have of it, the worse decisions you make. That tends to be the truth. And and the story of Wework is the story of a lot of people with infinite resources making horrible decisions until their resources are less infinite. It's like a. It's like Tarantino's career. Like, once he got enough cachet, he makes movies that are probably an hour too long. Yeah, but when he was when he was coming up is like, perfectly paced. Yep. Right time, all that stuff. You're making the argument that. Like, you got to stay hungry, that kind of thing. But when this dude was hungry, he made collapsible shoes. Yeah, I'm so I'm saying you gotta surround yourself with people who are gonna say no whenever you have a dumb idea. But this isn't a dumb idea, clearly. Well, yes. At the same time, a great idea. I get it. Yeah. I don't know if I've ever, I think I've talked to like, maybe two people who have used Wework spaces. Yeah. And I've talked to a lot of people in my life, so that seems like a low. Engagement. It'll make sense. Why? What's going on here a little bit later? Yeah, great question. I have a desk. I'm poor as ****. I have a desk. Now, in articles at the time, around 2015, 2016 we work was kind of hitting its its zenith. Adam and those around him tended to credit their meteoric rise on the hip, cool flare they brought to what was traditionally at the least soulful part of a person's life, the office we workspaces were decorated and like a variety of super cool, like funky, hip, furnitures, cave fine, like they absolutely have kegs. Yeah yeah, yeah, it's it's. It's controversial Poochie situation, but it works longer than Poochie did. They had funky, comfortable furniture, kombucha, and beer on tap. I'm gonna quote now from a 2016 article. You Oh yeah. Yeah. It's cool, bro. It's cool, bro. We got *******. We got, we got Bruce, bro. I I may have actually worked at a company that supplied a couple we work locations with coffee. I may have actually dealt with their their corporate structure. Before I wanna punch that, probably not. Talk about this. I will say that I worked in the past at an unnamed company that had a thirsty Thursday where they provided employees initially with unlimited beer and wine on Thursday afternoons and people made horrible decisions. It was a really bad idea, actually, to give a bunch of people who are united by nothing then that they work in the same building access to unlimited free alcohol once a week. There was some of there was some of that vibe, but yeah, the **** it had Groupon. By the time I know, until someone threw up in one of the the social rooms and then they were like, hey, let's let's not toned it back. Yeah, that's not a lot of this anymore. I've always thought a lot of my inner office relationships could have been improved by less inhibitions. Sure, yeah. I think the way to run an office really is once a year you just dose everyone against their will and consent with like 9 to 10 hits of MDMA. OK, like, enough that they're hallucinating. Like, not just rolling, but like, really can't. Control their bodies and you gotta go to 9 or 10. Yeah, can't just go three. We're talking about a gram apiece at once. So really just overdose the whole office. Umm, it's the elderly woman who sits at the front desk. Yeah, who's gonna be our test subject here? And then friendship content and this friendship contest. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be a few days after until people are ready to have a friendship contest or talk, but **** a trustful yeah. So I found a fun quote in the 2016 Fast company article about when it was made. We work special. And this was a very positive article. This is back before anyone got questions about wewerka. It has to be the beer, a coworker tells me, believing that the secret to Wework success is the always on tap Brew in its kitchens. But the hip, fun millennial things people most often cite when they try to describe work are almost irrelevant, as I discover while working from 2 New York locations this winter. The room full of old arcade games at the 222 Broadway location is empty all day, and the controllers for a nearby Nintendo 64 sit in a neat line, wrapped tightly by their cords in a way that suggests they've been undisturbed for some time. At the end of the day, I see only three people pull the famous we work tap mostly. People inside we work are just working. Be so funny if they had all this, like video games and beer, but they also had like a really strict dress code. You get the feeling it's the kind of thing, like you go in for a job interview and we work and somebody like you want to be from the tap, but if you actually take it during the job interview, they'll be like everybody's watching you out of the corner of their eye. Just like, yeah, we'll see what you do, but there is a lot of drinking, which we'll get to later. It's just not when you choose to. OK? Now, more than beer we work owed its success to investors. Its whole business hinged on getting Angel investors and giant companies to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into its expansion, not unlike Uber. And the reason so many of these very monied individuals were willing to trust Adam Neumann with fortunes that could have funded whole nations is that he was very good at selling them on a stupid dream. By taking them up to the roof, making them drink his ****. Yeah, invest in my company, ******* do. The focus of his promise is centered around his time in the kibbutz. He would weave a story to investors of the idea that office space could fulfill the same role of the kibbutz and creating community and inspiring creativity. He invented his own buzzword term. This is going to **** you off. Monterey. Monterey? That basically turned down Jordan's Mike before you saw this. The we generation. Yeah, the we generation. He called WIWT. The we generation, the we generation. It's what he used to describe millennials who'd grown up in a world where renting and not owning was the norm and no employment situation was likely to last more than a couple of years. Now, most people, roommates, view this as a starve generation off. Most people view this as a problem. Millennials. But Adam Norman viewed it as a marketing opportunity. The we generation, he told investors, cares about the world, actually wants to do cool things, and loves working. And when he made these claims, it was not without any kind of backing. In 2016, a group called Project Time Off released a study on the work habits of millennials. They measured members of our demographic for habits evident of what they called work martyrdom. Now work martyrs are more likely to forfeit vacation days, more likely to work excessive hours, and more likely to be seen as workaholics. With their colleagues than members of any other generation, this is getting too real. Yeah, yeah. When Adam Newman frames this as loving to work, it sounds like one thing. But if you read the statements that that project time off study found millennials tended to agree with, I think you're presented with a much darker picture and I'm going to read four of them right now. No one else at my company can do the work while I'm away. I want to show complete dedication to my company and job. I don't want others to think I am replaceable. I feel guilty for using my paid time off. That's not healthy, right. Those are symptoms of deep problems within our. Yeah. Yeah, I would. You might as well have just been like, I'm drowning. I am all the dying. I'm drowning. I know the bottom can fall out at any moment. Everything about my I could be on the street in three weeks. Yeah, that's. That's what that says to me. I broke my foot and now I'm homeless. Yeah, exactly. These are signs of panic at the reality of poverty and it's very imminent nature in most of our lives, not signs of a love of work. No, and I think Adam knows that. Ohh, born in 1979, he's not a millennial. The cutoff for that is usually 1981, but he's close enough that I think he gets what it's like for the folks in the we generation. But he also understands how employers think. If you are running a company, you want your employees to spend unreasonable hours at the office and devote. Themselves are rationally to the work that is great for your bottom line. Nap rooms, yoga classes, and free beer seem like perks, but the goal in providing all that is to keep you in the office longer, working more hours. I think what Adam sold more than anything was a vision to employers of employees who made work the center of their very life. Here's another Adam Neumann quote from that fast company interview. If you understand that being part of something greater than yourself is meaningful, and if you're not just driven by material goods, then you're part of the wee generation. Alright. So I am wondering how many people have shipped him because the numbers more than zero, not one more than zero shot, no knives on the roof. You can make a knife out of anything you want your bottle smashed. That really would have been the just way for the story to end. There really was a moment where just a little trip and we would have been. We work all over. None of this would have had to happen. Infinite universes. Yeah, there was a banana peel up on. This is actually the only universe where he wasn't shoved off that roof. Yeah, I knew we were living in the wrong one in the 80% of the universe is where he was. The police didn't even prosecute. No. And this is someone told them the story and they were like, you know what? Nope. This is also the only universe where the baby clothes thing didn't take off. Yeah. Yeah, I'm surprised. Great idea in every other universe. I'm surprise babies are always complaining about their knees. That's why windows about babies, yeah. Has your baby had to have knee surgery? I think you need these. He made ******* pants for babies. I retract my interaction with this bit now. So. Adam's not a dumb guy. Anti materialism, like anti capitalism, has grown up among members of our generation because we've been largely cheated out of the promises that our system may do older generations. Adams Antimaterialism, however, is not a rejection of capitalism. It's a way to make capitalism more profitable. If you convince workers that their job provides them with a variety of non material benefits, then you can work them harder while paying them less. Now, if a potential investor needed proof that millennials could be sold on Adam Neumann's vision of the workplace as neighborhood, they need look no further than the actual staff that we work. I'm going to quote from the New York Times right up here. That's actually really weird to think about. I'm sorry to interrupt you, because people work at we work. Yeah, they do. I mean, it's a big company. Yeah, that's that's so I think of it as like an empty space. We work out well, but you gotta, like, manage all that **** right? Yeah, totally. Sales people. You got the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. Now, I'm gonna quote from that New York Times piece about. The culture of the company. Boy has it. Might be a mic down clip for you, Jordan. Across podcast, people have learned that I need to shut the **** ** OK? Telling Jordan to put the mic down is now the John Munch of podcasts. Mr Neuman would convince employees to take shots of pricey Don Julio tequila, $110 a bottle, worked 20 hour days, attend two AA meetings. He convinced them to smoke marijuana at work, danced to journey around a fire in the woods on weekend excursions, smoke more pot, drink more tequila. Even people who don't really seem that tequila type would go along with his act, including a pre White House Jared Kushner, who imbibed while scoping out a property in Philadelphia. In his view, we worked didn't simply sublease office space to workers, it supplied them with Kombucha cold brew coffee. And then a static sense of community, they're coming to us for energy, for culture, Mr Neuman would say. Don't stop. Believe I'm doing alright. Yeah, I'm doing fine now. Real coiled spring feeling over there. Yeah. You guys wanna guess if Jake Kush is gonna play a bigger role in this episode? I'm getting the sense he is. Ohh, he absolutely is. He's he accidentally entered into a friendship contest. He did. He did in. Everyone lost. OK, you know who? Arguably one doing he's, he's making, he's making weed in Tequila Lane and he's getting the people who work for him to. Be his friends. He's forcing them to drink and smoke at work. Yeah, and drunk. Yeah, in order to break down their defenses, force them to continue working as hard as humanly possible while at the same time worshipping him as something of a charismatic guy. And this sounds familiar to me and I don't know why it doesn't. It sounds like nothing that's ever been done before. As a loyalty test, he makes them dance around a fire to journey, which is mathematically the douchiest thing you could possibly do. All right now, we're not going to, we're not going to be attacking journey on this. Broadcast did you know that the the the keyboardist for Journey is married to Paula White Kane, Trump's spiritual advisor? That makes complete sense. Yep. Yeah, that's entirely. That's entirely. Yeah. Jonathan Kane, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. That makes total sense. And I have now stopped believing. Yeah. I'm not gonna hold on to that feeling. Nope. What are you gonna do? We own the sky. Just stopped turning. You're gonna have to you're gonna have to switch back to rush. Oh yeah, they did that one too. Huh? That was. That's a better song. Don't stop believing. And faithfully. That's not a great song. No, it's not that great. Although in the music video, there's a great shot of Steve Perry shaving. His mustache looking really sad. This is like, you know, hey man, gotta go. Gotta go do shows. Gotta shave this mustache off. He wasn't faithful to it, so this is the most affecting moment. This is the. It's the the push. It's stuck with me. Stuck with yeah. Now. Adam's wife, Rebecca was a major part of the whole operation. She eventually became the chief brand officer more and then a little bit. Not a job. That's not a job. Refused. It is now. Pass. She was an integral part of designing the field of we work as a brand, stop it, get the **** out as a certified Yogi, and more importantly. And more importantly, certified. Jordan. Jordan. Sorry, what's more legitimate than a certified Yogi? I'm very I'm gonna certified Yogi who was the cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow and went to the Dalai Lama's birthday man. Ohboy. Yeah, I'm doing great. I'm doing alright. Next. Total sense. There's rigid certification for yogis. This is something you got to do. 8 years of school, you do 5 year internship. Honestly shocked that you don't know this. There's actually easier to be an oncologist. Remember reading the autobiography of a yoga? A big Yogi by? Cody Barrett 3. Ramakrishna or whatever his name is, and he's, he said, specifically after he learned how to float. That was when he got his certification. To me, that was it. There's government regulations about this. Once he got the power of a of levitation. Now Rebecca, as a certified Yogi and a cousin, Gwyneth Paltrow, was an expert at adding Wooley new Age nonsense to what should have been like a business. She repeatedly claimed in interviews that when she met Adam. It was suddenly taken with a strong belief that he could save the world. In an episode of the School of Greatness, an insufferable YouTube show, she said this. My intention was never to find a way to make the most money. My intention when I met him was just how do we expand this good vibration to the planet? Could explain the vibration. Man get expanded, Adams. Good vibes. Has anybody ever defined megalomania to her? It wouldn't take. OK, I'm going to tell you right now, it would not. It would not take. It would not take. I apologize. Winneth Paltrow's first cousin, always. Every time I think of words. I assume that people understand their meaning and apply them, but I'm having a really tough time because I was coming in with a fairly positive view of her. No, the her cousin. Ohe wife. Because you were you said earlier that, like, when they first met, she made fun of him. She told him he was full of ****. Yeah. And she married him and got involved in his business. Kind of thought, like, yeah, maybe she's pretty cool. And then everything, every added detail, just like, Nah, she's not good. You're full of **** like me. Yeah, I could use you as a weapon now. Adam embraced the image of the Guru CEO. He threw rockets, wild parties in the office where employees were all but forced to drink. He walked around. Barefoot and would have his personal trainer meet him in his office and then walk around afterwards drenched in sweat to lead his employees. School seems like a good guy to work for you. Doesn't Jack do a little bit of that, that Twitter stuff? Like maybe not forcing his employees to drink, but having like sort of a guru vibe jacket Twitter? Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, OK. Every time I watch Silicon Valley, the only thing I can think of is I don't know how to parody these people anymore. You can't go there being parody. You can't go extreme enough. You know? It's not just reality and it's crazy. Oh no, the products and services that support this show. I'm a product that supports Robert. I have no downsides and should be bought immediately. That's a parody in certainly work commercial. No, we work. Actually, you work. Our only sponsors are coke industries, and of course they're subsidiary Nordine Defense Systems, Nordine. If a wedding has to be blown up at range with a thermobaric warhead, it has to be Nordine. Oh boy. Umm World's in a great shape, right? Products. So by now we imagine that you've seen the theories on Tik T.O.K. You maybe even heard the rumors, your friends and loved ones. But are any of the stories about government conspiracies and cover ups actually true? The answer is surprisingly or unsurprisingly, yes. For more than a decade, we hear at stuff they don't want you to know have been seeking answers to these questions. Sometimes there are answers that people would rather us not explore. Now we're sharing this research. With you for the first time ever in a book format, you can pre-order stuff they don't want you to know now. It's the new book from us, the creators of the podcast and video series. You can turn back now or read the stuff they don't want you to know. Available for pre-order now, it's stuff you should read books.com or wherever you find your favorite books. You love movies or maybe just Anita? Some recommendations on what new movies to watch next time you sit down in front of the TV? Well, I have the podcast for you. Hey, this is Mike D from movie Mike's movie podcast. Your go to source for all things movies and no matter the genre of what you're into, whether it be comedies, romance, action, sci-fi, horror, superhero movies, I cover it all. I'm no critic. I'm just a guy who loves movies. Each episode explores a different movie. Topic plus spoiler free reviews on the latest new movies in theaters and on streaming. And yes, they're always spoiler free so you don't have to worry about anything getting ruined for you. Plus interviews with actors, directors, and writers covering the behind the scenes of your favorite movies. I also keep you in the know with all the latest movie news and movie trailers. Listen to new episodes of movie Mikes Movie podcast Every Monday on the Nashville podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio App Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In the 1980s and 90s, a psychopath terrorized the country of Belgium. A serial killer and kidnapper was abducting children in the bright light of day. His unspeakable crimes and the incompetence or unwillingness of the police to stop him brought the entire country of Belgium to the brink of revolution. From Tenderfoot TV in iHeartRadio this is la Monstra. The story of abomination and conspiracy that led to the demise of the entire institution of Belgian federal police and rattled the foundations of its government. The story about the man who simply become known as La Monstre. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. We're talking about we work a perfect company that never did anything wrong. And that's the end of the episode. OK, good. Yeah. Alright. No. As we work expanded and opened new branches around the world, Adams partner Miguel designed office spaces with narrow hallways and large open desks to encourage spontaneous encounters. In his words, let me be let me ask this real quick. They are still not making any money, correct? Their profits double or their revenue double s every year, right? But no, they're not making any much. There we go now. So spontaneous encounters is a real fun. Way to say bottleneck. Yeah, most employees also hot desk, which meant they didn't have assigned desks. They just wound up wherever they could get in the morning. Now, this was supposed to make things feel free and open, but it really resulted in employees spending huge chunks of their day, finding somewhere quiet enough to get some work done. Sounds like a ******* nightmare. I'm gonna go to an office. I better have a ****** ******* desk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now. And I'm not going to go to an office, and you can't make me. I have enough guns at this point that nobody can. I've attempted to cultivate a capitalist kibbutz style culture by hosting yoga classes, wine tastings, networking panels and all night drinking bouts that employees were expected to attend, Burning says. Fun drinking, like mandatory. I really feel like he's, he's doing the kibbutz thing, but that from each to each part he's he's skipping that part. We're going to come to that. There's a quote that's that in a little bit here. Everything's good, but I'm exploiting you. Doesn't sound very good. I thought the kibbutz was cool, but no one liked me. What if they had to force them to? Yeah. Exploited their lane. What if they'd be homeless if they didn't? What if I got them all really ****** **? Yeah. Also, they're wasted. Yeah. OK, good. We work offices. We're in blasted with slogans on the wall like hustle harder and love what you do. These could be seen as either motivational or haunting, depending on your personal attitude. It's the Cowboys locker room, I think. Yeah, yeah. Rapid growth came with equally. Rapid turnover. Few employees were able to handle Adam or we work for very long. The expansion was so rapid and turnover was so high that no one seemed to notice. It was all built on sand. We work would offer potential corporate clients free rent and volunteer to buy out their existing leases. This brought clients into Wework properties but required huge amounts of money, which was furnished by hundreds of millions of dollars in VC cash. Many companies began surfing through a series of free rent deals at sundry Wework properties during the corporate. Excellent of signing up for Uber with a burner e-mail to take advantage of a week of free rides. So this is always keeping spaces open. How he's justifying the massive expansion, right you get free rent, you get like, well, buy out your ******* lease. So the idea is that eventually they'll own so much space that everyone will have to use them. It's kind of like with Uber eventually, like we're going to burn through money now, but at a certain point will be the only ones able to offer this service and then the money will flow. They'll do the loss leader Walmart thing where it's like they're we're willing to take a hit on this just to make sure all the other stores. The town out of business and then we'll raise prices. And unlike Walmart, Walmart is an objectively brilliant idea store where I can buy 9 millimeter bullets. Timecop DVD's in Arizona. IT within 10 feet of each other and it's not. Yeah, there's the necessity. Yes, as it were. The necessity there a thing that exists. Look, if you have time cop on DVD, Arizona IST and enough 9 millimeter ammo you can get all the other necessities. It's true. I can't afford time cop. I had to torrent it. It's unfortunate. It's heartbreaking. From Walmart to dot com. Ohh, and a 2015 industry conference, Adam Neumann declared we are in a consumption phase, like nothing that has ever been seen. Does he mean humans or we were? No, we were OK, yeah, he matched these words with actions by embarking on a mass leasing frenzy, committing we work to filling up more and more office space and more and more cities around the Globe, 1 executive told the New York Times. There was no discipline as to how Adam approved leases, another recalled. No one knew what anyone was doing. Now, empty facilities were being filled by offering businesses free rent, which kept the show game moving along and kept reworks valuation rising because all the investors are seeing is how fast this shoots expanding and revenue, is it doubling every year, net revenue, different story revenue stuff. So it looks like, OK, once we get through this consumption phase, this is going to be going to be making a ******** of money. When you say that they're signing leases and there's clients, yeah, is this like, I have a small business and I want to use the office? Case is that the lease that we're talking about or is it him having a lease? He's leasing space from landlords, OK, He's he's in many cases paying, being like, I'll pay you double whatever your current tenants are paying for the space because he just wants to have the right to all of the space. OK, that's the idea. You you acquire all of the space and then the money negotiator, he's a brilliant just double whatever they're paying you now. By 2015, we work was worth an estimated $10 billion in monopoly money. Keeping all this going, was it exhausting for employees? One of them later recalled quote we would joke that we worked like slaves. Adam would have meetings on Sunday and you could never miss those. Sometimes it wouldn't happen. It would happen hours late and you'd be there all night. You'd cry in the bathroom all the time. It's a good bit good bet. It really feels like the lesson that tech venture people learned from Enron was we should try harder to get away with it. Oh, only one of them died. Yeah, exactly. **** yeah, we're good. We work. CFO for a time was Arial Tiger, one of Adams Navy buddies. Chief fun officer. Yeah, well. Not really. I'm a conscientious objector to that joke. He frequently threatened to fire people while wandering. We works Open desk office from Vanity Fair quote. Every two weeks Ariel would get a print out of payroll and he would go through the and redline the **** out of it, saying he wanted to reduce people's pay, a former executive said. I remember walking through the office and Ariel would loudly say, why do we have all these people? I could do what they're doing with two people. So I got healthy. I kind of like that guy. Healthy work. He is actually the most reasonable person in the story. That's a fun vibe. The guy who threatened the guy shouting that in the office. Not a healthy vibe. No. I'm trying to paint the picture of her. What's your what's your payroll strategy? Well, I either give a thumbs up or thumbs down in one of them die. I don't. I don't. I don't like that guy in the real world, but like in a movie, I might wanna play him. Yeah, you know what I mean? That's the kind of feeling I got. Yeah, Matthew McConaughey would be good. Be a good pick for that. In June of 2015, we work raised. $434 million more to fund their reckless growth. Right around that same time, 32 BJ service Employees International Union, which represents cleaners in New York, launched a protest outside of reworks offices. Their issue was the fact that Neumann and Mckelvey used non union labor to clean their offices for $10.00 an hour, which is like half what they're supposed to get paid in the city of New York. Now, Neuman attempted to deal directly with picketing cleaners by approaching them with a New York Times reporter behind him and talking about his own. Background as an immigrant. And then getting them like you. I came here with not, but $100,000 from my grandmother. Yeah. Free booze and kombucha for all. Yeah. This didn't work. They didn't. They didn't buy that ****. Did you take him to the roof? Yeah. I don't think he got to. I think they they heckled him immediately, Adam later told a reporter with Fast Company. The last thing I was going to do was work with the Union, because I didn't believe that it's fair to blackmail someone to do something. Hmm. You're literally a landlord. Ohboy ohboy now. It's frustrating. He did eventually sit down with Hector Figueroa, the Union president. Figueroa recalled. Rather than talking about the issue itself, he wanted to have a conversation about who we are as people. But Figaro. Shoes off. Break your shoes off, bro. What do you think about stars then? He got me really drunk. Yeah. Figaro was off the roof. Yeah, Figaro was too smart for that ****. He pressed the issue and eventually Adam agreed to hire back unionized cleaners for 1846 an hour and health benefits. Figaro was so grateful that he got his way that he gave Adam a union jacket. For what it's worth, he walked away from the interaction feeling positively towards Adam. Oh God. Less positive was the fact that in 2015, a San Francisco landlord kicked out two tenants rights organizations from their offices to make room for Wework. Adam had offered to pay double the rent, which guaranteed him the space and ensured that. San Francisco's homelessness problem would get even worse. This may seem out of character for someone raised in the socialistic Nexus of a kibbutz, but in later interviews, Adam was quick to mention that he considered the kibbutzim to be failed social experiments. Their chief law, in his eyes, was that everyone made the same amount of money. That's the problem. Community was important to him, but only up to the point where you exhibited any weakness, Adam said. On one hand, community on the other hand, you eat what you kill. So that's where the Spartan kind of yeah. Culture comes in there. I got you. I don't think so, because the actual kibbutzes would have totally ****** that ****. So this guy is just a ******* ***** ** ****? Yeah, yeah, and has a a real misunderstanding of what if I could evict everybody in the kibbutz? Yeah, what if I get to evict them for not being cool enough or drinking patrone with me? But I'm sure he would rationalize it like, alright, this like let's say in San Francisco, this housing organization we take over their their lease here or whatever, but they can just use the we workspace. You just use the way workspace. I'm sure that there's some. Like that's how you sleep at night, knowing that, you know, you you just graded value, man. Yeah, it's value. It's good to create value, sure. And then these ******* people trying to help homeless people get to get ****** ** at work. They exactly. Yeah. Everybody free beer, guys. Anyway, in 2017, Adam got on the phone with an executive from Blackstone, a major investment firm, to complain because it had invested money in a rival company. To we work, we don't work, yeah, we work in hell. Adam also refused to work with landlords who lease space to other coworking companies, and he sued several of these rivals for trademark infringement. Your work, you are work, we labs and high work, he said. We're all infringing on we works copyright. Well, Adams Company did not claim exclusive rights to the word. Work. He believed they owned the use of that word after a two letter pronoun. So that was the the company's argument. So you so they are saying that if you put any 2 letters in front of work you are infringing upon you are infringing on we were. It's copyright. Alright OK, we twerk. I feel like he might sue you. Or hire you to give his employees mandatory twerking lessons. Well, Jordan, we're going to test this. We go. I think we gotta do it now. While the company's valuation rose, they were worrying signs that beneath all the glamour, this was just a grift. In 2013, Neuman tried to buy a stake in a Chicago building that planned to lease space to we work. The board rejected this idea because it would be a conflict of interest for Neumann to personally own property that his company leased. That's a little bit. Little bit. It's called practical integration, Robert. It's vertical integration. That's totally stealing money from investors. Fine. Nobody's ever had an issue with it. Now in 2014, Adam maneuvered himself into control of the Board of Directors so he could approve his plan of personally buying up a number of properties and leasing them back to his company for millions of dollars. We work eventually signed lease agreements with four buildings Neuman owned since 2016. They paid almost $17 million to his properties. This is essentially theft of venture capital money, funneling it directly into the owner's pocket. Without informing the people paying of what's happening. See if it wasn't him getting the money. I'm fine. Yeah, or his venture capital is also. They're also idiots stealing money from venture capital. Venture capital, yeah, but he is. It is. It is. It is. I have some sort of moral compass or whatever, but I'm fine with other people. Robin hooding? Yeah. I'm not gonna do it. It is a huge grift. Yeah, and an obvious one. Yeah. Once we start, we twerk. We wasn't in. There we go. It wasn't obvious at first. None of this actually came out until a while later. When? They filed for their IPO and all this stuff became public knowledge. Now, as the grift spun on, Adam continued to motivate his employees with impossible stories of where the brand was going. In 2015, he claimed we work Mars, as in our pipeline, and took. Red, red flag, red flag. This dude that's a little Batty. You know, they can get a little. In our world, once you say my business is going to Mars, that means we're in Med bed territory. Yeah. **** yeah, that's it. That's generally when if I were in that meeting, I'd I'd have to walk away. Yeah, you know what? OHS been a good ride. Mine is OK. On the off chance you're talking, literally, I have to leave. I cannot. He told his employees that he'd met with Elon Musk and offered the company's services and prepping a future Mars mission. And I I just love the thought that he thinks the company that leases office space would have anything to contribute to that. Yet at the same time, I completely believe him that he he met with Elon Musk. He made that conversation say he met with Elon Musk. He also said that Musk turned him down, which makes sense. Even Elon Musk is a little bit like no. This said Mars, I have a I have a monopoly on the Mars grift right now. Buddy. Don't don't try and step on my game now. Grand Visions of the future where mixed with Adam's own growing reputation as something very much like a cult leader. I'm going to quote Jordan smelled that earlier. Yeah. Yeah, you absolutely did. I'm going to quote now I know a cult leader when I see one. I'm going to quote now from New York magazine. Within we work a mystique quickly developed around Neumann, who did little to downplay it until recently, an executive. Conference room at we work headquarters was decorated with a large photograph of Neumann surfing away. He has bragged about working 20 hour days and regularly called executive meetings that would begin after midnight. I've had meetings that started at 2:00 AM where he joined us 45 minutes late, but that meeting was worth millions of former Wework executive told me. So drunk many people we could not stand ******** ourselves in the room. Yeah, many people told me they bought into we works Grand mission only when Neumann was doing the preaching. At the beginning of every week we work employees. Are required to stay after work for a thank God it's Monday team building event that could last for hours ohk. OK, so they also made them exhausted and tired and less than capable of making a fully realized decisions. All the things that computers don't do. Heard of that before? Nope. It's all the things you don't do as a cult leader. Gotcha. Norman would typically speak, after which employees often walked around handing out shots of tequila that people were expected to consume. Every time I'm out, he brings me back in. Yeah. One former employee says Neuman offered her tequila during her job interview, and liquor was a constant presence at pretty much every company event. Another perk for the largely millennial staff. I'm picturing this dude, like, with a lampshade on his head, just yes, like, just do. Do many employees know the name of Neumann's favorite tequila? Don Julio, 1942, and offices around the country would keep it stocked for when he came to visit one morning in 2014. Not at long after we work open a new location in Washington DC. An employee arrived to find the game room trashed. There were cups lying around the room which smelled to him like weed. When they employee reviewed the security footage from the night before to identify the culprits, he saw Neumann and Michael Gross, we works Vice chairman, drinking and partying, drink time crisis, Arcade machine. Drinking room smelled like weed and there was also like an empty cups. Yeah, I I really feel like I have no problem with that. Of all of the things so far, he owns this business. He got drunk and high. It's not like he was. It's not like. He's tweaking on like, crystal meth or anything. You're no square. Yeah, I'm cool with all of this stuff, the exploiting labor and that ********. I'm against you. You do get the feeling that when he wasn't around, the people didn't really drink or party, like, yeah. Absolutely. My my experience with like, workplaces that have alcohol in them. It's like most people don't. Yeah, even even when it's available. Yeah. Now, not everyone bought the permanent party vibe of the company in 2015. We work bought a fancy private jet, which Adam Neuman immediately took to using all over the world. He smoked weed in it constantly, sometimes breaking international law to do so. His former chief of Staff, Medina Bardhi, got pregnant and had to stop traveling with Neumann to company events because he refused to. Not hot. Bucks the company playing when she was in it, right, right. Good stuff. She wound up filing a federal complaint against Adam for, among other things, retaliating against her for getting pregnant. That's what I was according to the Washington Post Party hurting the wheat. According to the post, Bharti quote alleges that female employees were subjected to sexually offensive conduct, disparage for taking maternity leave, and often paid significantly less than their male counterparts. According to a complaint filed Thursday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Barty had two children during her more than five years that we work and claims Neuman referred to maternity leave as retirement and vacation. According to the complaint, she alleges she was demoted after both pregnancies and replaced by men at higher wages and given no instruction about her new responsibilities. So cool, yeah? Yeah. Now, that story didn't drop until 2019. In 2016, the company was still riding high, flushed with billions of dollars in VC money and on its way to becoming the largest private office renter in New York City. In the spring of that year, Neumann met the CEO of Softbank's Masayoshi Son. At a dinner, Masayoshi held the purse springs to Softbank's $100 billion investment fund. He was one of the biggest investors in the startup world, or the rest of the world for that matter. Adam badly wanted his money. He invited Masa on a tour of the company offices, and Masa told him he had 12 minutes to listen to a presentation. Newman gave him the pitch and followed him out to his car when it was over. Continuing to pitch. Yeah, and then he played Masayoshi Takanaka 7 goblins, I assume, for 12 minutes. I don't understand that joke in any way. Somehow, Adam won Masayoshi son over the elder businessman told Neumann that the only problem with his business plan was that we work was thinking too small. It should move from leasing office space to small businesses and working to leasing space to all businesses. Masayoshi offered him $4.4 billion on the spot. OK, all right. No bad. Seems like a bad idea, right? Seems like a ridiculous thing to do. What you should do is own your own country, yes? That's kind of where this goes. Yeah. OK, this is right. Isn't this now just becoming entirely like real estate based? Cause like if you're gonna go to bigger companies, then you're gonna need a building at like an entire building that you would then rent to them. Yeah, you would rent to them instead of them renting it because they all rent their spaces. Yeah, this is, it's a stupid idea. This is an inversion of reality. Yeah. As a business model, it's it. It's this this thing people talked about with Steve Jobs, this reality distortion field that he had. Like, Adam clearly has that ability and he enraptures. This guy and convinces him that like, this dream of changing the world, changing work is more than just like what it actually is, which is we rent office space. Yeah, I don't understand how he did it, but he did it and he got 4.4 billion ******* dollars to do it. That's that's one of those things that I've, I've talked about on our podcast is like, I I would love to just like measure whether or not, like, I want to talk to this guy and see if he can get me on his. Yeah. I wanna measure my ability to fight off a cult leader. I really don't want you to do that, because I know that you'll lose. Gotta I gotta. I was. I was born in it. I need closure on my life. I have to defeat a cult leader before I can grow as a person. I mean, we could hunt down Adam Newman and throw rocks at him. I am. Would that count with that? Would count. I don't think I trust you to go to the roof with Adam. Ask me to go to the roof by myself, yeah. I would. I do think that it should. You know, our lives ever go in that direction. Let's say some investor gives us 4.4 and I I get to start my the cult that I've been working on for years. I feel like a nice offshoot of that would be like maybe we make a reality show where we try and we see you. They do. Terrible. Terrible. Yeah. Cults of personality. Absolutely. Well, Speaking of terrible, cults of personality, the episodes over part one part. And it's time for you to plug your own. Cults of personality. Sure. Well, we do a podcast called Knowledge Fight. Indeed we do. That people can find just by, I guess, Googling it. It's on iTunes. We talk about Alex Jones. Alons. It's on Spotify. That's true. Various other places around. Yeah. And then we have Twitter and. All that stuff. But that knowledge under score fight, and I'm Jordan. I am a somewhat of a comedian, and if you're looking to book me, I'm available. Get open calendar, tweet, tweet at go to bed, Jordan. That'll be that'll do it. If you run a comedy. Than you and no malaska. Hmm? Please force Jordan to come up. I'm not busy. I wanna try to send you to Alaska. That's my goal for this ticket. And no, not you. Go. I can't go. No, just Jordan. Wow. Come on. I'm gonna follow. I'm gonna send you to do. I wanna send. I want to send you to Panama. I wanna get you both opposite sides of the hemisphere. Alright. I'll just Panama song the whole time. They're drinking Cabo wabo tequila in honor of Adam Neumann. Well, I'm Robert Evans. This is my podcast. You're listening to it so you know what it is. You can find the sources on behindthebastards.com. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram and at ******* pot. You can find me on Twitter at I write. OK, and you can find love in your heart, anywhere. You also find a dollar. Because capitalism, my friends, is the essence of love. And that's the note we're going to write out on. Hello, I'm Erica Kelly from the podcast Southern Fried True crime, and if you want to go from podcast fan to podcast host, do what I did and check out spreaker from iheart. I was working in accounting and hating it. Then after just 18 months of podcasting with Spreaker, I was able to quit my day job. Follow your podcasting dreams, let's breaker handle the hosting creation distribution. And monetization of your podcast go to spreaker.com. That's spreaker.com. In the 1980s and 90s, a psychopath terrorized the country of Belgium. A serial killer and kidnapper was abducting children in the bright light of day. On Tenderfoot TV and iHeartRadio, this is La Monstra, a story of abomination and conspiracy. The story about the man who simply become known as. Lamaster. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Rachel Adams Hurd. I'm a reporter for Bloomberg News and host of Intrust, a new series from Bloomberg and iHeartRadio. More than a century ago, the Osage nation negotiated something unique that brought a lot of money to its people. In this new series, I look at who ended up with a lot of that land and oil money and how the OH nation is fighting to get it back. Listen to Intrust on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.