Episode 46: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire, Part II - Bill Gates in Africa
Citations Needed
Citations Needed
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 August 2018
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Russia, as we all know, has sinister "oligarchs" whereas in the United States, we are told, we have "philanthropists," "job creators," and "titans of industry" who earn their wealth through hard work, moxie, and guile. Aside from a few cartoonishly evil billionaires – like the Walton family, Peter Thiel, and the Koch brothers – the average American has a warm and fuzzy feeling about the super wealthy.
The most notable of these Benevolent Billionaires is Bill Gates, whose foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, operates the largest overseas "nonprofit" regime in the world, worth over 40 billion dollars–– twice that of the next biggest foundation. The Gates Foundation receives almost uniformly softball coverage from the media, many of whom receive funding from Gates through various investment and donor arrangements, both from his personal coffers and the foundation that bears his name.
In Part II of this two-part episode, we ask how the media is - or isn't - holding Gates accountable for his deeply ideological, often opaque efforts in sub-Saharan Africa.
We are joined by Mariam Mayet, executive director of the African Centre for Biodiversity.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is Citations Needed with Nemeshirazi and Adam Johnson. |
| 0:09.3 | Welcome to Citations Needed, a podcast on the media, power PR and the history of bullshit |
| 0:14.6 | I am Nemeshirazi. |
| 0:16.0 | I'm Adam Johnson. |
| 0:17.0 | Thanks everyone for listening. |
| 0:18.1 | This week, this will be part two of our billionaire nose best or the not so benevolent billionaire |
| 0:25.9 | trope in the media that we started last week and we urge you to listen to the first episode |
| 0:32.8 | and then come back to this one if you have not already. |
| 0:36.2 | That would probably be best. |
| 0:37.6 | But thanks everyone for listening. |
| 0:38.6 | Of course, you can follow us on Twitter at CitationsPod, Facebook, Citations Needed, |
| 0:43.5 | help the show out at patreon.com forward slash Citations Needed podcast and that's with |
| 0:49.4 | Nemeshirazi and Adam Johnson. |
| 0:51.9 | So thanks everyone for listening. |
| 0:53.1 | Yeah, and any help through patreon makes it so we don't have to go and ask the Gates |
| 0:57.7 | Foundation for money, which keeps us independent and allows us to do programs where we piss off |
| 1:03.1 | the richest most powerful people in the world. |
| 1:05.4 | And if we don't have that support, I'm just going to click send on this grant proposal. |
| 1:09.0 | It's true. |
| 1:10.0 | And we try to do it in a way that's meaningfully subversive, which I think is somewhat |
| 1:13.4 | hard to do. |
| 1:14.4 | So kind of drafting off last week's episode, we will this week be speaking with Miriam |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Citations Needed, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Citations Needed and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.