8. Melinda French Gates

Young Again

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.6 • 651 Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kirsty Young talks to philanthropist Melinda French Gates about what she’s learned from her life so far. A computer scientist by training, she dated her boss and became one half of one of the world’s most famous power couples. But as she travelled a road paved with gold, French Gates describes the tough lessons she learned along the way, the danger of untrustworthy acquaintances and how she had to dig deep to not lose herself in the maelstrom of extreme wealth and influence.

If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what would you tell them? In Young Again Kirsty takes her guests back to the pivotal moments in their lives. Reflecting on what they wish they’d known at the time, and what they’ve learned along the way, she discovers the honest – and surprising – advice they’d give their younger selves.

Producer: Laura Northedge Content Editor: Richard Hooper Executive Editor: Alice Feinstein Senior Technical Producer: Duncan Hannant Presenter: Kirsty Young

A BBC Audio Production

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why do some big successful brands go bust?
0:05.0	Toast is back for a new series, taking a look at the decisions that often left investors burnt.
0:11.0	I'm Sean Farrington, a BBC business journalist. I'll be hearing about the hype.
0:15.0	They're going to do the deal that makes them the most money at that point of time.
0:19.0	And I'm picking what went wrong, talking to
0:22.1	owners and employees to ask what can we learn. It was being undercut by similar rivals. It just
0:28.9	couldn't survive. Toast. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.
0:38.3	Hi, I'm Kirsty Young and this is Young again, my podcast for BBC Radio 4.
0:45.3	What conversations would you have with your younger self?
0:51.3	How do you reflect on the big decisions you've made? What have you
0:55.4	learned from your life so far? In this edition of Young Again, I'm talking to a philanthropist
1:01.3	whose foundation has, to date, distributed just under $60 billion worldwide on everything from
1:08.6	improving healthcare to empowering women in business and politics.
1:12.8	She's a computer scientist by training who dated her boss in the early days of his fledgling
1:17.8	tech company and went on to become one half of one of the world's most famous power couples.
1:24.2	And yet, when we talked, it was clear that in the beginning, the spotlight and the
1:29.6	riches and the sheer magnitude of her existence felt profoundly at odds with her personality.
1:35.2	And as she travelled that road paved with gold, she learned some tough lessons about who to
1:41.2	trust. I was struck by her thoughts on the mistakes that we make about the super rich.
1:47.2	By her reckoning, they're mostly, well, no smarter than the rest of us
1:50.2	and certainly not experts on how to live a good life.
1:53.8	Speaking of which, as if to prove the point that money truly doesn't necessarily by happiness,
	...

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