There are plenty of life events known to change the way we think about things.

Having a child, coping with a serious illness, retiring from work, or grieving a loved one.

There is one other biggie that probably will

never happen to us, but which might have the most significant impact of all on how we live,

and that is becoming enormously rich. From KERA in Dallas, this is Think. I'm Chris Boyd.

The ultra wealthy don't just live in nicer places and have more

luxurious things than the rest of us. They truly live differently. My guest wanted to understand

whether having hundreds of millions or billions of dollars at one's disposal might shape the way

people think and act in predictable ways. So he started cold calling them, or maybe calling their

people. And the small fraction willing to entertain his questions gave him some fascinating insights.

Lane Brown is a features writer at New York Magazine where you can find his article,

What Does Extreme Wealth Do to the Brain? Laine, welcome to think.

Thank you so much for having me.

I mean, when you ask a question like, what does extreme wealth do to the brain? I think many people would raise their hands and volunteer to be part of that clinical study. What got you

thinking about whether being very wealthy might shape people's personalities? Well, I think that, you know, the ultra wealthy people sort of really, whether we want this to be true or not,

sort of rule our lives in a lot of ways at the moment, they rule our politics, they rule our culture,

they rule our tech, they are sort of the, almost all of the characters on TV are ultra wealthy right now.

And I think that we sort of have a, maybe sort of a low resolution understanding of what is sort of actually happening inside their heads.

And so I decided I wanted to, you know, maybe try to put myself a little bit into their brain space and see what, you know, what having lots and lots of money actually does do the way a person thinks in hopes, I don't know, maybe sort of pushing toward a greater, greater understanding. And so that was sort of the genesis of this.

So some people may hear this and

think, oh, poor wealthy people, they're misunderstood. But they are misunderstood in some ways.

And to be clear, right off the top, nobody that was willing to talk to you struck you as

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