The McDonald's Invasion | New Beginnings | 1
Business Movers
Wondery
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2023
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
George Cohon gives up his career as a Chicago attorney to open the first McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Canada. As George moves up the McDonald’s corporate ladder, a chance meeting with members of the Russian Olympic Committee sets him on a path to attempt to open the first McDonald’s in the Soviet Union.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to business movers add free on Amazon music, download the app today. |
| 0:25.0 | It's 1906 on a ship dock in Bremen, Germany. |
| 0:29.0 | A young Ukrainian mother, Ms. Kaganov, clutches her sleeping six month old son close to her chest. |
| 0:35.0 | She's at the back of a line that stretches across the dock, and like everyone else here, she's waiting aboard a ship. |
| 0:41.0 | She hopes will whisk her and her family away to safety. |
| 0:44.0 | Over the past several months, the Russian pogroms against Jews in Ukraine have intensified. |
| 0:50.0 | In the past three years alone, roughly 2,000 Ukrainian Jews have been killed. |
| 0:57.0 | Mrs. Kaganov and her husband fled Ukraine with their baby and came here to Bremen, Germany in the hope that they could sail to America and start a new life. |
| 1:05.0 | But if they can't get on the ship today, Mrs. Kaganov fears they'll never make it out. |
| 1:10.0 | She worries that Jews aren't safe anywhere in Europe, including Germany, a growing hotbed of anti-Semitism. |
| 1:17.0 | Mrs. Kaganov needs her family to get on this boat and get to the United States as soon as possible. |
| 1:23.0 | Mrs. Kaganov grows worried as she spots her husband walking toward her. |
| 1:27.0 | He went to the front of the line to investigate and hopes he's coming back with good news. |
| 1:32.0 | So how many people are in front of us? |
| 1:34.0 | Too many to count. Ukrainians, Russians, Jews from everywhere. |
| 1:38.0 | Is there enough space on the ship for everyone? |
| 1:40.0 | Her husband averts his eyes. It's hard to say. |
| 1:44.0 | Look at me and tell me the truth. Are we getting on that ship? |
| 1:47.0 | No. The line's too long. |
| 1:50.0 | No, no, no. I refuse to accept that. |
| 1:52.0 | I'm going to get on that boat. But how do you plan to do that? |
| 1:56.0 | Mrs. Kaganov takes a deep breath and tries to remain calm. |
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