Bernie Madoff’s Empire of Deception with Brent Pella and Joey Dardano | 91
The Big Flop
Wondery
4.6 • 884 Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bernie Madoff wasn't just good at making money disappear—he was a master at making people believe in financial magic. But when the 2008 financial crisis hit, his house of cards came tumbling down, revealing the largest Ponzi scheme in history and leaving everyone from Kevin Bacon to cancer research charities holding the bag.
Brent Pella (Wildin’ Out, Good Trip) and Joey Dardano (The Method, Help from a Hypocrite) join Misha to do an in-depth accounting of the Bernie Madoff story
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Transcript
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| 0:06.7 | With Wondery Plus, you can enjoy the floppiest of flops, completely uninterrupted. |
| 0:12.0 | It's like having a front row seat to the world's biggest train wrecks. |
| 0:15.7 | Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts and upgrade your listening experience today. |
| 0:26.5 | Besties, you know that song, I'm looking for a man in finance, 6-5, Blue Eyes? Well, what if I told you I found him? Yeah, he's in finance, |
| 0:41.4 | he's got blue eyes, but he's not 6-5. Is that a deal-breaker? No? Great. What if I also told you |
| 0:49.6 | he was the mastermind behind a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. |
| 0:57.4 | Still not a deal breaker? Besties, we may have to re-examine your standards, but I think you may |
| 1:03.0 | know him. The name Bernie Madoff ring a bell. Uh-huh. Let's get into it, besties. |
| 1:10.9 | You mass the trappings of wealth, a penthouse apartment, summer homes, boats, and designer clothing. |
| 1:16.9 | Adolf conducted a $65 billion fraud that left thousands of victims financially shattered. |
| 1:23.0 | The FBI arrested him this morning after he told senior employees yesterday that his business was a giant Ponzi scheme. |
| 1:30.7 | We are on a sinking ship. |
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