After causing the 2008 financial crisis through reckless deregulation, Larry Summers got hired by Barack Obama to fix the disaster he helped create. Then in November 2025, emails revealed he'd been using Jeffrey Epstein as his wingman.

Welcome to part two. Last episode covered his arrogant rise. Now we cover his spectacular fall.

The 2008 Financial Crisis

Summers made $5 million at D.E. Shaw in 2008 whilst the economy collapsed. He earned $20 million speaking to banks he'd deregulated.

Then his policies came home to roost. Derivatives crashed. Lehman collapsed.

Who did Obama call? Larry Summers.

Christina Romer calculated the economy needed $1.8 trillion in stimulus. Summers capped it at $890 billion. The final stimulus was $787 billion. Too small.

Banks got bailed out. Homeowners got foreclosed.

The Epstein Scandal

After Obama, Summers returned to Harvard. Joined OpenAI in 2023. He'd survived everything.

Then came November 2025. The House Oversight Committee released Epstein's estate documents. Among them: emails between Epstein and Summers from 2017-2019.

Summers was asking Epstein for dating advice about pursuing a younger woman economist, his "mentee." Code name: "peril." Epstein workshopped his messages over seven months.

Epstein wrote: "im a pretty good wing man, no?"

Summers asked whether to thank her or apologise for being married. To Harvard professor Elisa New. Who had also emailed Epstein, thanking him for funding her poetry project.

The fallout was immediate. Summers resigned from OpenAI, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and multiple think tanks. On 3rd December 2025, the American Economic Association imposed a lifetime ban.

Summers called it "a major error in judgement."

What We Learn

Brilliance doesn't mean being right. Summers was wrong about derivatives, Glass-Steagall, Russia, the stimulus, and Epstein.

"Failing upwards" works until it doesn't. For 50 years, every disaster led to a bigger job. Until one scandal proved too toxic.

Stiglitz warned everyone about everything in the 1990s. He was right and kept from power. Summers was wrong and kept getting promoted.

The system enabled Summers for decades: valuing confidence over wisdom, connections over competence. His deregulation helped cause the 2008 financial crisis, his Russia policies created oligarchs, he was implicated in numerous scandals during his tenure in Harvard. He got away with failure for decades...until he used Jeffrey Epstein as his dating coach.

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How did one economist cause the 2008 financial crisis, get hired to fix it, protect his corrupt mate whilst Harvard paid millions in settlements, suggest women might be genetically inferior at science, and still remain one of the most powerful figures in American economics for decades?

In this episode of History's Greatest Idiots, we explore the spectacular career of Lawrence Henry Summers, the man who failed upwards for nearly five decades, leaving economic destruction, hurt feelings, and dodgy friendships in his wake. This is the story of how brilliant people can be catastrophically wrong about everything whilst sounding extremely clever, and how it all came crashing down in November 2025 when emails revealed he'd been using a high-profile buddy as his personal dating coach.

Part one of this epic two-part series covers Larry's rise from golden child to economic disaster architect.

The Golden Child: How Larry was born into economics royalty (both parents were economics professors, two uncles won Nobel Prizes) The three-year-old who argued with everyone and drove his mother crazy Writing to his Nobel Prize-winning uncle at age 13 to solve maths problems (the audacity!) Skipping grades, enrolling at MIT at 16, and becoming one of Harvard's youngest tenured professors at 28 Winning every major economics award before age 40 (perhaps a bit too confident)

The Clinton Years: How to Deregulate an Economy and Call It Progress: The infamous 1991 "toxic memo" suggesting dumping pollution on poor countries (economics or eugenics with dollar signs?) Championing the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999, removing Depression-era banking protections Crushing Brooksley Born's attempts to regulate financial derivatives Pushing through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, banning regulation of derivatives (what could go wrong?) His fundamental disagreements with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who was actually correct about regulation The Russia disaster: "shock therapy" privatization that created oligarchs, sent poverty from 2% to 40%, and caused a 43% increase in male death rates Why Summers, like most economists, only thought five years ahead instead of 15, 20, or 30 years

Larry Goes to Harvard (And Everything Goes Wrong Again): Becoming Harvard's 27th President in 2001 and lasting exactly five years (one of the shortest tenures in modern history) The Cornel West affair: calling a renowned philosopher's hip-hop album an "embarrassment" and sparking an exodus to Princeton The Andrei Shleifer scandal: protecting his corrupt protégé from the Russia privatization disaster whilst Harvard paid a record $26.5 million settlement January 2005: suggesting women are underrepresented in science because they don't want to work hard enough and might be genetically inferior (listing discrimination third) MIT biologist Nancy Hopkins feeling physically ill and walking out of his speech The faculty vote of no confidence (218 to 185) and his eventual resignation in February 2006 Why being the smartest person in the room means you should be able to read the bloody room

This is only part one. In part two, Larry gets to witness the worldwide economic collapse caused by his deregulation policies, gets parachuted in by Obama to help fix the problems he created, and we reveal the massive 2025 scandal that ultimately ruined his already damaged legacy.

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Panic, paranoia, and spectacularly stupid predictions! This episode of History's Greatest Idiots (featuring Mandy Gardner from the History Obscura Podcast) explores Y2K, the millennium bug that convinced the entire world that civilization would collapse at midnight on January 1st, 2000, leading to the most expensive non-event in human history.

The Technical Problem: Back in the 1960s and 70s, when computer memory cost a fortune, programmers saved space by writing dates with two digits instead of four (65 instead of 1965). Nobody thought about what would happen when 1999 became 2000.

Would computers think it was 1900? Would banks collapse? Would planes fall from the sky? Would nuclear missiles accidentally launch? These were genuine questions people were asking in 1998.

The Media Frenzy: By 1999, reasonable concerns about bank systems had spiralled into headlines like "Will your pacemaker stop working at midnight?" and "Could nuclear power plants explode?" Governments didn't help. Bill Clinton established a Y2K council. Britain spent £396 million (equivalent purchasing power of £9 billion today).

Countries stockpiled fuel, food, and medical supplies as if they were preparing for war. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan compared it to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ed Yardeni predicted a 70% chance of a worldwide recession.

Experts warned that elevators would trap people, traffic lights would fail, water treatment plants would shut down, prison doors would automatically unlock, and planes would literally fall from the sky.

The Survival Industry: Y2K preppers made pandemic preppers look casual. People bought generators (manufacturers couldn't keep up), mountains of tinned food, warehouses of bottled water, gold, and guns (sales spiked 700% in some US areas).

Companies sold Y2K survival kits for $2,500 containing a year's freeze-dried food. An entire industry monetised fear. Products got "Y2K Compliant" stickers, including toasters that didn't know what year it was anyway.

The Price Tag: Worldwide spending reached $300-600 billion. That's more than the Apollo moon landings and Manhattan Project combined.

The US alone spent $100 billion. Some COBOL programmers charged $1,000 per hour ($1800 in 2025 money) just checking old code.

With that money, we could have ended world hunger for years, eradicated malaria, or provided universal water and sanitation globally.

New Year's Eve 1999: Airlines grounded flights. Russia put nuclear forces on high alert with Yeltsin in a command center (drinking vodka).

Emergency teams stood ready worldwide. Some families withdrew all their money and moved to remote cabins with six months of supplies. As midnight hit New Zealand, then Asia, then Europe, reporters sounded increasingly disappointed that nothing was going wrong.

The Anticlimax: The complete list of significant Y2K problems: slot machines in Delaware stopped working, some bus ticket machines failed in Sheffield and Australia, a few credit card terminals had issues for hours, and the US Naval Observatory website displayed January 1, 19100. That's it. No planes crashed. No nuclear war. No apocalypse. Just slot machines in Delaware that nobody noticed because it's Delaware.

The Aftermath: People with 500 tins of beans couldn't exactly return them ("the apocalypse was cancelled"). Politicians claimed credit for preventing disaster by spending billions. We'll never know if the preparations prevented catastrophe or if the problem was massively overblown, making it the geopolitical equivalent of Lisa Simpson's tiger-repelling rock.

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Artist: Sarah Chey

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Abdications, gluttony, world wars, and child tantrums! This special greatest hits episode of History's Greatest Idiots celebrates the season with four legendary monarchs who proved that unlimited power and terrible judgment make the perfect recipe for spectacular failure.

First up: King Adolf Frederick of Sweden, the 18th-century monarch who literally ate himself to death at a royal feast, proving that even kings should know when to stop at dessert number fourteen. His final meal included lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, kippers, champagne, and a staggering amount of semla pastries served in hot milk. He died of digestive problems so severe they're still taught in Swedish schools as a cautionary tale about gluttony.

Then we meet Edward VIII, the British king who chose love over the crown, abdicating after just 326 days to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson. His decision triggered a constitutional crisis, gave Britain an unexpected king (his brother George VI), and led to decades of exile, Nazi sympathies, and becoming the world's most expensive royal footnote.

We'll explore Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German Emperor, whose combination of insecurity, aggressive foreign policy, and terrible judgment helped trigger World War One. Born with a withered arm he spent his entire life compensating for, Wilhelm alienated Britain, Russia, and France while building a massive navy nobody needed, ultimately fleeing to the Netherlands where he spent 23 years in exile chopping wood and blaming everyone but himself.

Finally, Richard II rounds out our line-up: crowned King of England at age 10, he faced the Peasants' Revolt at 14, developed a massive persecution complex, and spent his reign oscillating between tyranny and incompetence until his nobles had enough and deposed him. He died in captivity, possibly murdered, possibly starved, definitely regretting his life choices.

From fatal desserts to world wars, these royal catastrophes prove that absolute power combined with zero common sense creates historically epic disasters.

Perfect for history buffs, monarchy enthusiasts, and anyone who's ever wondered how someone can wear a crown and still make monumentally stupid decisions.

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Artist: Sarah Chey

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Animation: Daniel Wilson

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Music: Andrew Wilson

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Schemes, scams, and spectacularly stupid greed! This special greatest hits episode of History's Greatest Idiots celebrates the season with four legendary criminals who proved that audacity and terrible judgment make the perfect con artist cocktail.

First up: Charles Ponzi, the Italian immigrant whose name became synonymous with financial fraud, promising impossible returns while building a house of cards so unstable it makes modern crypto schemes look sophisticated.

Then we meet Howard Marks, the Welsh drug smuggler who turned marijuana trafficking into a global enterprise, juggling fake passports, MI6 connections, and enough aliases to confuse even himself before his spectacular arrest.

We'll explore John Factor, the mafia conman whose brother founded Max Factor cosmetics while he specialized in extortion and fake kidnappings, somehow parlaying criminal notoriety into Las Vegas respectability.

Finally, Melissa Caddick rounds out our line-up: the Australian fraudster whose Ponzi scheme funded designer shoes and luxury living until she vanished, leaving behind one of true crime's most bizarre mysteries.

From postal reply coupons to disappearing feet on beaches, these criminal masterminds prove that sometimes the biggest cons collapse when greed meets absolutely zero exit strategy.

Join Lev and Derek as they count down the greatest hits of history's most gloriously idiotic fraudsters.

Perfect for true crime fans, scam history buffs, and anyone who's ever wondered how someone can be simultaneously brilliant and catastrophically stupid.

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Artist: Sarah Chey

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Animation: Daniel Wilson

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Music: Andrew Wilson

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Welcome to Part Two! If you thought decades-long affairs were wild, wait until you hear what Palmerston did with actual power. In this episode of History's Greatest Idiots, we explore his most spectacular diplomatic overreactions: sending 14 warships to collect £150, fighting two wars over opium trafficking, allegedly assaulting Queen Victoria's lady-in-waiting in her own palace, becoming Prime Minister at 70, and literally dying in office at 80.

This is the story of gunboat diplomacy, imperial arrogance, and refusing to retire.

What You'll Discover:

The Don Pacifico Affair (Most Spectacular Overreaction Ever): Portuguese Jewish merchant in Athens had his house ransacked in 1847. Claimed £26,000 damages (£30 million in relative purchasing power). Palmerston sent 14 warships, 731 guns, 8,000 sailors to blockade Greece for two months. Actual damages awarded: £150 (£13,500 today). His famous five-hour speech: "Civis Romanus sum" (I am a British citizen). Commons voted 310-264 in his favour, became "most popular man in the country."

The Opium Wars (Britain's Least Defensible Policy): British merchants illegally smuggling opium into China for decades. China banned it (catastrophic health crisis). Britain's solution: get Chinese addicted, use drug money to buy tea. 1839: China destroyed 20,000 chests of British opium. Palmerston insisted war was about "free trade." Gladstone called it "a war more unjust in its origins, more calculated to cover this country with permanent disgrace." Vote: 271-262 for war (nine votes!). First Opium War (1839-1842): Britain destroyed Chinese forces, Treaty of Nanking forced China to pay indemnity, open treaty ports, cede Hong Kong. Second Opium War (1856-1860) fully legalised opium trade. China's "century of humiliation" began. All because Victorians really liked tea.

The Windsor Castle Scandal: Late 1830s/early 1840s: Palmerston, staying at Windsor Castle, entered Lady Dacre's bedroom late at night (drunk and "enterprising"). She screamed, threw him out. Entire castle learned immediately. Claimed he mistakenly entered wrong room, but locked door behind him. Victoria furious, wanted him sacked. Only Lord Melbourne's intervention saved his career. Victoria wrote years later about "old offences which sunk deep into her mind." She explicitly said in 1853: "Nothing will induce Her Majesty to have Palmerston as Prime Minister." Had to accept him twice anyway. 1863: 78-year-old Palmerston accused of adultery with Mrs O'Kane. Public reaction: "Good for him!"

Becoming Prime Minister (Finally): Crimean War going badly, Aberdeen's government fell. 1855: Palmerston became PM at 70 (oldest person ever to take job for first time). Brought Crimean War to reasonable conclusion. 1857: Called election campaigning on being "tough on China," won considerable majority ("Vote for me, I'll send more gunboats!"). 1858: Government fell over restricting refugees. 1859: Returned as PM at 75 with Russell and Gladstone. Final ministry until death in 1865.

The Final Years: Navigated American Civil War carefully. Presented Italian Unification as British victory (Britain barely involved). Schleswig-Holstein Question: "Only three people understood it: Prince Consort (dead), German professor (mad), and I (forgotten)." Blocked electoral reform for working class. 1865 election slogan: "Leave it to Pam," won convincing majority at 80. Died 18 October 1865, two days before 81st birthday. Alleged last words: "Die, my dear doctor? That's the last thing I shall do."

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How did an 18-year-old aristocrat become one of Britain's longest-serving politicians, spending 20 years in the same boring job before discovering his true calling at age 46?

In the latest episode of History's Greatest Idiots, featuring Emily Jackson, one third of the Trauma Agora Podcast, we explore Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, the man known as "Lord Cupid" who survived an assassination attempt, conducted a decades-long affair with his friend's wife, and accidentally built one of the most remarkable political careers in British history.

The Origin Story: Born in 1784 literally in Parliament's shadow, inheriting an Irish peerage at 18 that was considered "lesser" by British gentry. Educated at Harrow (one of seven PMs from there) and Edinburgh University. Described as having "the most faultless character" (the last time anyone would say that).

The Reluctant Politician: Lost his first two campaigns, then paid £1,500 (£1 million in today's purchasing power) to become MP for Horsham at 22. Later represented Newtown with one condition: never visit the constituency. Democracy was more suggestion than requirement.

The 20-Year Training Montage: Appointed to admiralty at 22, turned down Chancellor of the Exchequer at 25 (too young!), accepted Secretary at War instead. Spent a mind-numbing 20 years doing army finances under five Prime Ministers. Called "a brilliant young man wasting his talents, destined to remain a second-rater."

The Assassination Attempt: Shot by Lieutenant Davies (ex-officer with PTSD) in 1818, survived with minor injury, then paid for Davies's legal defense and psychiatric care. But refused to intervene when poacher Charles Smith was executed on his estates in 1822.

Lord Cupid: Earned his nickname through notorious affairs with Lady Jersey, Princess Dorothea Lieven, and dozens of others. The big one: 30-year affair with Emily Lamb, Countess Cowper, whose boring husband "sank into ill health." At least two of her five children were likely Palmerston's.

Finally Getting Married: Lord Cowper died in 1837. Emily's children objected (he's too old and a womanizer!). Queen Victoria (age 18) thought people in their 50s were too old to marry. They married anyway in 1839 after 30 years of waiting. Extraordinarily happy marriage, described as "perpetual courtship."

The Career Finally Begins: Resigned in 1828 after 20 years with Tories, gave brilliant foreign policy speech in 1829, switched to Whig party, appointed Foreign Secretary in 1830 at age 46. The training montage was over.

Coming Up In Part Two: Sending 14 warships to collect £150, fighting two wars over opium, allegedly trying to 'seduce' Queen Victoria's lady-in-waiting in her own palace, becoming PM at 70, and dying in office at 80.

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Artist: Sarah Chey

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Welcome to Part Two of the William Buckland saga, featuring Laurel Rockall of the High Tales of History podcast.

If you thought licking cathedral floors and revolutionizing palaeontology through fossilized poop was weird, wait until you hear about his lifelong mission to eat every animal on Earth. In this episode of History's Greatest Idiots, we dive deep into Buckland's practice of "zoophagy," his house that was basically a Victorian zoo gone wrong, and the most infamous dinner party in history where he ate the mummified heart of King Louis XIV of France.

This is the story of how brilliance and complete insanity can coexist in one man who served his guests mice on toast while a hyena in academic robes wandered through the living room.

The Zoophagist's Manifesto:

• William Buckland's lifelong goal: eat his way through the entire animal kingdom

• His philosophy: "The stomach rules the world! The great ones eat the less, and the less the lesser still!"

• The actual, documented menu from the Buckland household (these aren't rumours, these are from his children's memoirs)

• Regular dinner items: mice on toast, hedgehogs, crocodile steaks, panther chops, rhinoceros pie, roast ostrich, elephant trunk, porpoise head, horse's tongue, kangaroo ham, puppies, slugs, earwigs, and bluebottle flies

• The only two things Buckland declared disgusting: mole and bluebottle fly

The House of Chaos:

• Why the Buckland home was less "Victorian residence" and more "natural history museum gone catastrophically wrong"

• The indoor menagerie: guinea pigs, snakes, frogs, ferrets, hawks, owls, cats, dogs, a pony (INSIDE THE HOUSE), eagles, and monkeys

• Billy the Hyena: the real, living hyena who roamed the house in academic robes

• Tiglath Pileser the Bear: the black bear treated as an honorary Christ Church College member who attended wine parties, enjoyed horseback riding, and once raided a sweet shop

• The outdoor chaos: a giant tortoise William let people ride, plus foxes, chickens, and various creatures for "observation"

• Growing up Buckland: nine children raised in a house with a hyena, a bear, and a poop table

The Heart of a King:

• The 1848 dinner party at Nuneham House (residence of the Archbishop of York)

• The silver casket containing the mummified heart of King Louis XIV of France

• How a French king's heart ended up in England (spoiler: French Revolution and "Mummy Brown" pigment)

• Buckland's infamous declaration: "I have eaten many strange things, but have never eaten the heart of a king before"

• The moment he popped a 140-year-old royal organ into his mouth and swallowed it

• The horrified reactions from distinguished guests watching a priceless historical artifact get eaten

The Serious Scientist (Because He Actually Was One):

• First scientific description of a dinosaur: Megalosaurus (1824)

• Pioneering coprolites (fossilized faeces) in palaeontology and coining the term

• Revolutionary work on Kirkdale Cave winning him the Royal Society's Copley Medal

• Discovery of the Red Lady of Paviland (one of Britain's oldest known human remains)

• Contributing to modern geology by embracing glaciation theory over biblical flood narratives

• Training future scientific leaders including Charles Darwin's mentor

The Decline and Perfect Ending:

• Moving to Westminster Deanery in 1845 (with 16 staircases for maximum chaos)

• The perfect burial: discovering solid Jurassic limestone in his grave plot and needing explosives to excavate it

• His legacy today: lunar ridges, islands, and that coprolite table still on display at Lyme Regis Museum

  
  

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  Artist: Sarah Chey

  
  

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How did a Victorian priest become the first person to scientifically describe a dinosaur, revolutionize paleontology through the study of fossilized poop, and terrify students by shoving hyena skulls in their faces while screaming about stomachs?

In this episode of History's Greatest Idiots, featuring Laurel Rockall of the High Tales of History podcast, we explore the spectacular life of William Buckland, the eccentric geologist who dressed like a wizard, licked cathedral floors, and proved that brilliance and madness are often the same thing.

This is the story of how to change scientific history while being absolutely insufferable at dinner parties.

The Fossil-Hunting Childhood:

• How young William grew up in fossil-rich Devon with a father who took him rock hunting instead of, you know, normal parenting

• His journey from Blundell's School to a scholarship at Oxford's Corpus Christi College

• Why he became obsessed with geology before it was even a proper subject (hipster geologist energy)

The Most Terrifying Teacher in History:

• The infamous lecture technique of shoving hyena skulls in students' faces while screaming "THE STOMACH RULES THE WORLD!"

• How he'd get on all fours and prance around the lecture hall imitating dinosaur gaits (one colleague said it made him want to vomit)

• Why he dressed in full academic robes for fieldwork, looking like a wizard on a fossil hunt

• The students who attended his lectures: future Cardinal John Henry Newman, Samuel Wilberforce, and Charles Darwin's mentor Charles Lyell

The Greatest Discovery (And It's Poop):

• The 1821 Kirkdale Cave discovery: workers using prehistoric bones to fill potholes in Yorkshire roads

• How Buckland proved the cave was a prehistoric hyena den by comparing ancient faeces to fresh hyena droppings (dedication!)

• The invention of "coprolites" (fossilized faeces) as a scientific field of study

• His infamous poop table: a dining table inlaid with fossilized faeces that he made guests eat on before revealing what it was made of

• Winning the Royal Society's Copley Medal for his work on ancient hyena shit

The Dinosaur Whisperer:

• The 1818 discovery of mysterious bones near Stonesfield, Oxfordshire

• Consulting with Georges Cuvier, the founding father of vertebrate palaeontology

• February 20, 1824: Buckland becomes the first person in history to scientifically describe a dinosaur (Megalosaurus)

• How he changed our understanding of prehistoric life forever

The Tasting Geologist:

• Buckland's habit of identifying geological deposits by licking them

• His honeymoon with wife Mary Morland: touring Europe's geological sites and tasting rocks together

• The cathedral floor incident: licking "holy martyr blood" and declaring it bat urine

He Ate Everything:

• He set out on a mission to eat every living animal, which led to him creating recipes including: including mice on toast, panther chops, crocodile steaks, and...puppies

The story gets even wilder in part two. William Buckland's lifelong mission to eat everything on Earth continues, including the mummified heart of King Louis XIV of France. Plus: his house that was basically a chaotic zoo, his pet hyena Billy who wore academic robes to wine parties, and how his scientific brilliance was matched only by his complete inability to behave like a normal human being.

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Artist: Sarah Chey

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Animation: Daniel Wilson

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Music: Andrew Wilson

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/andrews_electric_sheep⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Welcome to Season 6! In Part Two of our Spotify saga, things get MUCH darker. If you thought underpaying musicians and overpaying Joe Rogan was bad, wait until you hear about the military drones, ICE recruitment ads, and the AI-generated music flooding the platform.

This is the story of how a music streaming company became a weapons investor, government propagandist, and AI content farm, all while claiming they can't afford to pay artists more.

⚠️ REMINDER: We're still hosted on Spotify's platform. This is basically career suicide at this point, but we're committed to the bit.

The AI Apocalypse:

• Spotify's secret "Perfect Fit Content" program: commissioning fake artists to avoid paying real musicians since 2016

• How AI tools like Suno and Udio flooded Spotify with millions of fake tracks

• Aventhis: The "verified artist" with 1 million monthly listeners whose entire catalogue is AI-generated (57 tracks in 4 months!)

• Why your Discover Weekly is now filled with AI slop instead of actual human musicians

• Deezer implements AI detection tools. Spotify's response? crickets

Spotify Goes to War:

• Daniel Ek's €700 million ($800 million) personal investment in Helsing, an AI military weapons company

• How the CEO of a music platform became chairman of a company developing drone warfare technology

• Artists pull their catalogues in protest: Deerhoof, Massive Attack (possible Banksy collaborators!), and more

• The brutal irony: "We can't afford to pay musicians more" but somehow there's $700 million for battlefield AI

• Daniel Ek's defence: "AI, mass and autonomy are driving the new battlefield" (yes, really)

The ICE Recruitment Scandal:

• Spotify runs U.S. government ads with phrases like "millions of dangerous illegals are rampaging the streets"

• Users get ICE recruitment propaganda between their favourite songs

• Spotify's defence: "We're just following orders" (a historically great excuse!)

• The #BoycottSpotify movement becomes a quarterly tradition

• Oh, and Spotify donated $150,000 to Trump's 2025 inauguration

The Swedish Tax Rebel:

• Daniel Ek's 2016 open letter threatening to move Spotify out of Sweden

• "The country that gave me free healthcare and education wants me to pay taxes? Outrageous!"

• How Sweden actually reformed its laws to accommodate billionaires... and Ek STILL complained

• The wealth tax that cost Sweden $166 billion in capital flight

The Good Stuff (Because Balance):

• Yes, Spotify democratized music access (100+ million songs for $10/month is incredible)

• The Partner Program actually helps small-to-mid-size podcasters earn decent money

• Spotify paid out $10 billion to the industry in 2024 (10x more than in 2014)

• The algorithm genuinely helps people discover new artists

• ...But does any of this excuse the rest?

The Future:

• Daniel Ek steps down as CEO in January 2026 (but stays as Executive Chairman, pulling the strings)

• Can Spotify maintain profitability while fighting Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon?

• Will governments regulate AI-generated music?

• Can Spotify's brand recover from Joe Rogan + military drones + ICE ads + underpaid artists?

Want to actually support artists?

• Buy their music directly

• Go to their concerts

• Buy their merch

• Download, don't just stream

• If you stream, loop their songs on repeat (300 streams = 1 album sale)

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Artist: Sarah Chey

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Animation: Daniel Wilson

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/wilson_the_wilson/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music: Andrew Wilson

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/andrews_electric_sheep⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠