Ninety-six percent of Americans now shop online, snapping up everything from rare coins to industrial-sized barrels of hand sanitizer. Almost half of those purchases take place on one website: Amazon. 

But before sales were a click away, Walmart was the top dog, decimating main streets across America with its big-box efficiency and ruthlessly low prices. 

It’s 1994, and a slim 30-year-old with thinning hair dreams of leaving his high-paying finance job to sell books on the internet — a move he’s convinced is his ticket to one day dominating the world of e-commerce. Jeff Bezos just has to break the news to his parents. Luckily, he’s already found the perfect name for his new venture. 




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Amazon vs Walmart - The Big Bang Theory of E-Commerce | 1

Netflix vs. HBO. Nike vs. Adidas. Business is war. Sometimes the prize is your wallet or your attention. Sometimes, it’s just the fun of beating the other guy. The outcome of these battles shapes what we buy and how we live.&nbsp; Business Wars gives you the unauthorized, real story of what drives these companies and their leaders, inventors, investors and executives to new heights -- or to ruin. Hosted by David Brown, former anchor of Marketplace. From Wondery, the network behind Dirty John and American History Tellers. New episodes come out Wednesdays for free. Binge new full seasons early and ad-free, plus get exclusive past seasons, only with Wondery+.

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A lot has happened at OpenAI since that whiplash week in November 2023 when the board ousted its chief executive. There was an investigation to determine whether Sam Altman’s firing was just, and a lawsuit from OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk. Meanwhile, the company’s competition has been charging ahead. Julia Black, a reporter with The Information, joins host David Brown to break down the latest developments and shed light on where Sam Altman — and the future of AI — are going next. 

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Sam Altman & the Battle for OpenAI | Is OpenAI Out of the Woods? | 4

After five intense days, Sam Altman prevails over the OpenAI Board and is reinstated as CEO, with a new board in place.  But the turmoil has shown that OpenAI is vulnerable and its competitors, including Google and Microsoft, are ready to take advantage of OpenAI’s weakness.  And with OpenAI’s old board out and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever’s role at OpenAI murky, the path is clear for OpenAI to develop and commercialize AI at an even faster rate than as before.  

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Sam Altman & the Battle for OpenAI | Blood in the Water | 3

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s move to fire Sam Altman with no warning kicks off five days of chaos for the tech company. After he gets over the shock, Altman uses all his corporate savvy to fight back. For days, over McDonalds and Boba tea, Altman and the board feud over the path forward for Altman and OpenAI, while the business community waits on tenterhooks to find out the future of one of the most important AI companies in the world.







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Sam Altman & the Battle for OpenAI | If You Come At the King… | 2

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Enron was like no corporation on earth. It was the ultimate corporate success story. But the key to Enron’s success? Accounting fraud. At the time, the scale of illegal manipulation of the American financial system was unprecedented. The sheer breadth and complexity of Enron’s crimes stunned the world, and in the aftermath, many wondered how such massive fraud could go undetected for so long.

This is just a preview of American Scandal. Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, or at wondery.fm/american-scandal.

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Costco's membership retention rate is the stuff of other retailers' dreams, nevermind the love they get on social media. With very little paid advertising, the company has managed to keep its spot as the third largest retailer in the U.S. We’re finding out how they do it with Susan and David Schwartz, authors of “The Joy of Costco: a Treasure Hunt from A to Z,” and Business Insider reporter Dominick Reuter.

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Amazon vs Walmart - The Big Bang Theory of E-Commerce | 1

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