Pushkin too quick.

No, it's perfect push kit stuff.

You got it.

Robert Smith, do you know the story of Crassus the Roman?

No, I don't know the story of Crassus throw over.

Crassus was one of the richest men in Rome, and part of the way he.

Got so rich was by starting a private fire brigade.

Okay, the brilliant business model.

What they would do is when your house was on fire, they would come to your house and they would say, we'll buy your house off you right now at a discount.

And then if you said no, they'd say, Okay, we'll let it keep burning.

Oh the discount just got bigger.

Do you want to sell it now?

Yes?

Yes, it's genius.

It's a genius story about history, of course, but also about business.

You should tell the people who we are in what our init show is.

I'm Robert Smith and this is Jacob Goldstein.

We used to host a show called Planet Money together, and then you went off to write a.

Book Money, The True Story of You Made a Thing, and Robert.

You went up to get an mba Master of Business Administration.

And now we're back making this new podcast about the best ideas and people and businesses in history.

And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business.

First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight.

Its way into the airline business.

The most Texas story ever.

There's a lot of mavericks in that story.

We're gonna have mavericks on the show.

Werena have plenty of robber barons, so.

Many robber barons, and you know what, they're not all bad.

And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business geniuses along with some of the darker moments that often get overlooked, like Thomas Edison.

And the electric chair.

Itsld to come up with a name.

Decided to call it Business History.

You know why?

What does this show about the history of business?

Available all the places that anyone has ever got their podcast?

You probably have it now it's your folks.

You can also listen ad free with a Pushkin Plus subscription.

Sign up on the Business History Show

Page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus