Bonus: Introducing Inheritance: Samsung
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When the Samsung Chairman has a heart attack, his heir is pushed into the spotlight. The complex manoeuvring to secure his succession re-opens old family wounds, prompts one of the biggest scandals in South Korea’s history, and – eventually – helps to bring down a President.
Everyone’s heard of Samsung: more than a billion people have one of their smartphones . This is the drama behind the tech giant that changed the world.
From a fruit and vegetable store to a global empire, Samsung’s story is more than business—it’s an epic family saga. Behind the success lies a dynasty driven by ambition, wealth, tradition and rivalries, where power struggles shaped not just the company but South Korea’s economy.
In this brand-new 10-part series from the BBC World Service, we take you behind closed doors- inside the billion-dollar deals and the family power struggles that shape global empires. When your relatives are also your business partners, every decision is personal. In these dynasties, the boardroom isn’t just about profit - it’s about survival.
You can hear episode 1 right here but for the whole series search "Inheritance: Samsung" wherever you get your podcasts.
Host: Elise Hu
Producers: Simon Tulett and Sally Abrahams
Fact-checkers: Matt Toulson and Su-Min Hwang
Music: Thomas Ross Fitzsimons
Mixing and sound design: Charlie Brandon-King.
Series Editor: Matt Willis
With special thanks to Geoffrey Cain, Sojin Lim, Jaeyeon Lee, Jake Kwon and, also, Mary Wilkinson.
Senior Commissioning Producer: Sarah Green
Commissioning Editor: Jon Manel
Inheritance is a BBC Long Form Audio Production
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.8 | Hi, thanks for listening to Business Daily. |
| 0:08.8 | We thought you'd like to hear an episode of a brand new podcast from the BBC World Service |
| 0:13.6 | that tells the stories of some of the world's biggest family-run companies. |
| 0:18.5 | Each series focuses on one dynasty, starting with Samsung. Inheritance |
| 0:23.1 | looks behind closed doors inside the billion-dollar deals and family power struggles that have |
| 0:29.3 | shaped its global empire. Here's episode one. To hear more, search inheritance, Samsung, |
| 0:35.8 | wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:42.2 | February 2017. Wintertime in South Korea. |
| 0:47.8 | Bright sunshine, a chill breeze just above freezing. |
| 0:53.5 | In Central Seoul, a blue prison bus rolls to a stop. |
| 0:59.6 | Peering out through its tinted windows, |
| 1:01.8 | the accused man can see what is waiting for him. |
| 1:05.8 | Police and photographers line the road, protesters too. |
| 1:11.2 | In a moment, the doors will open, and he'll have to face them. |
| 1:16.0 | But E.J. Yong, known as J.Y. Lee, isn't your usual kind of prisoner. |
| 1:23.2 | He's Aaron waiting to Samsung, a global tech giant, one of the biggest names in phones and TVs, |
| 1:30.9 | but an empire built on much more. |
| 1:34.4 | Memory chips, construction, insurance. |
| 1:38.2 | It's South Korea's biggest company. |
| 1:41.1 | Its biggest success story by far. |
| 1:54.0 | 48 years old, Jay-Y. Lee is one of the country's richest, most powerful people. One of the most powerful people in the history of technology. |
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