The Treasure Hunt that Broke America (Part 1)
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Pushkin Industries
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Forrest Fenn never does things the regular way. Despite no formal training and little knowledge of art, he becomes a millionaire gallery owner. An outsider by nature, Fenn’s charm, audacity, and disregard for convention earns him both wealth and respect. When a streak of bad luck threatens to destroy his empire, Fenn dreams up an audacious final act. He'll mastermind the greatest treasure hunt America has ever known. As the legend spreads, and gold fever grips the nation, Fenn begins to lose control.
The story of Forrest Fenn's treasure hunt will continue next week.
Find "Who Can You Trust?" by Rachel Botsman (19:45), on Apple Books or where ever you get your audiobooks.
This episode discusses death by suicide. If you are suffering emotional distress or having suicidal thoughts, support is available - for example, from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US, or the Samaritans in the UK on 116 123
Read more about Tim's work at http://timharford.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:04.4 | Malcolm Gladwell here. |
| 0:05.8 | This season on Revisionous History, we're going back to the spring of 1988 to a town in northwest Alabama. |
| 0:11.3 | Where a man committed a crime that would spiral out of control. |
| 0:14.5 | The amount of damage this man did is incalculable. |
| 0:17.6 | It's still damaging all of us. |
| 0:19.6 | Listen to Revisionous History, the Alabama murdersders, Anywhere You Get, Podcasts. |
| 0:23.9 | Binge the entire seven-episode series early and ad-free with a Pushkin Plus subscription. |
| 0:29.0 | Head to the Revisionous History show page on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm slash plus to sign up. |
| 0:40.8 | Pushkin. |
| 0:43.3 | If you're in the Bristol area, you might be interested to know that cautionary tales is |
| 0:48.4 | appearing live at the Bristol Festival of Economics on the evening of Friday the 21st of November. |
| 0:54.7 | I'll be speaking to the Financial Times columnist Sarah O'Connor |
| 0:58.3 | about what really happens when the robots come for our jobs. |
| 1:02.7 | She's brilliant, she's wise, |
| 1:04.4 | it's going to be an amazing conversation full of cautionary tales for us all. |
| 1:08.4 | If you want a ticket, just search for cautionary tales at the Bristol |
| 1:12.4 | Festival of Economics. A warning before we start, this cautionary tale discusses death by suicide. |
| 1:21.4 | If you're suffering emotional distress or you're having suicidal thoughts, support is available. |
| 1:27.3 | For example, from the 9888 suicide and crisis lifeline in the US. |
| 1:36.7 | 1968, Major Forrest Fenn is leading a group of fighter planes over the Hocci Minh Trail. |
| 1:44.6 | Their mission, bomb the trail and the North Vietnamese troops |
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