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How We Got Here with Chris Kohler

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Business history is wilder than you think.

 

Join finance journalist and digital storyteller, Chris Kohler, as he delves into the corporate moments that were too ridiculous to make up, but too important to ignore. The deals that collapsed empires. The decisions that accidentally built them. The scandals that still echo through every boardroom today. Tested and refined through millions of social media views, these are the stories that explain why modern business looks the way it does.
IKEA is a barn filled with two types of things - furniture... and psychology.The story of the world's biggest furniture business is one filled with tricks and traps that are designed to exist just below our awareness. The origins of the business are also a mix of things the company does, and doesn't, want you to know about.
Australia just gave gig delivery workers a legal minimum wage. It's a big win for workers - and it means your Uber Eats order is about to get even more expensive. Here's how UberEats built an empire on the bait... and made billions on the switch.

0:00 Intro

6:00 Two truths and a lie

8:13 The guy who couldn't get a car

20:42 The deal

26:59 How they get you

34:50 The business in the middle of it

38:17 Last one standing

40:08 A tricky business to actually run

41:40 Solving the pay problem

48:10 Two truths and a lie

How Housing Became So Broken

10 aug 2026 | 01:00:58

Chris and Alan Kohler talk about the housing crisis that is shaping the Australian economy. It's a puzzle, so Chris made Alan a crossword - can he crack it while simultaneously explaining why nobody can afford homes anymore?

0:00 Intro

5:05 Supply

17:30 Demand

24:00 Density

26:30 Auction

30:50 Incentives

34:05 Transport

42:30 Investor & Rent

55:00 Summary

The Toxic Economy of Gaming

27 jul 2026 | 00:50:05

The video game industry makes more money than movies and music combined - and it got there by deploying the greatest hits of dark consumer psychology.
Gambling, paywalls, and slowly but surely chiselling ownership out of the hands of their customers. It’s doing so well, in fact, that it’ll start growing outwards. 
This episode explores the origin of modern gaming and the moments that ensured it ended up being a sinkhole for money and frustration.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why Are All Our Movies Ads Now?

13 jul 2026 | 00:53:21

When we watch a movie we see 4-5 brands every 10 minutes. The advertising is hidden in plain sight and this episode goes looking for where and how that trick first came to Hollywood.
E.T. and a bag of Reese's Pieces, Lois Lane chain smoking Marlboros, Happy Gilmore’s Subway t-shirts… and Jerry McGuire taking Reebok’s money and then screwing them over. All steps on the path to the situation audiences now find themselves in - marketing campaigns dressed up as movies.
All that… plus a two truths and a lie with a twist - one "casual" mention in this very episode was a paid placement.
Check out Cool Shirtz - https://shirtz.cool/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Tupperware is one of those words so common we forgot it's a brand. It's also one of the great untold business stories, with a pioneer who was deliberately erased from view.
Did she design a pyramid scheme? Not really.
There's more to it than that.
This is the story of Brownie Wise... and what it costs to build something you don't own.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ryanair: How The Bad Guy Won

15 jun 2026 | 00:50:26

A cheap flight… that ends up feeling expensive. 
This episode: how Ryanair and Michael O'Leary perfected drip pricing and made billions doing it. 
Removing olives, lukewarm off-brand soft drinks, expensive wheelchair hire… and the hardest two truths and a lie segment yet.
0:00 Intro
5:05 Two Truths & A Lie
7:10 The Industry That Counts Olives
11:00 Enter The Accountant
16:10 The Southwest Effect
21:55 O'Leary Takes The Controls
28:02 Since When Is A Wheelchair A Frill?
35:52 The Charge Sheet - And Why It Works
41:05 The Point

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Kodak didn’t make a mistake. The digital camera was invented in their own building but it was missing more than film. It was missing a business model.
0:00 Intro
3:15 Two Truths & A Lie
4:15 The Man Who Gave Everyone A Camera
15:40 Advertising Done To Perfection
23:06 Welcome Steve
35:25 The Point
39:15 The Ending
44:10 Two Truths & A lie

Madmen Scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq3n2sJ43Hg&t=4s
A Long Time In Finance w/ Steve Sasson - https://open.spotify.com/episode/407q6PT4umq9BVECyJsLhy
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This episode contains adult topics and themes
Ever wondered how the world's most popular cereal ended up in your breakfast bowl?
The story behind Cornflakes is stranger than you'd think, meet John Harvey Kellogg, the man whose obsession with gut health and moral purity accidentally changed the way the world eats breakfast.
0:00 Intro
5:40 Two truths and a lie
7:30 The religious pipeline
10:40 Picking the doctor
13:35 The San
17:45 Gut Health
24:34 The anti masturbation crusade
29:41 The accidental invention
35:11 The rival next door
37:26 The brothers split
43:52 A note on more dark stuff
46:06 The end
50:42 Two truths and a lie
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A complete corporate disaster.
Blockbuster stuffed up so badly that the world started walking down a path away from one-off payments and towards subscriptions. And the best part is, Blockbuster's demise was baked in from the start. It just grew so fast the problems were hard to see... for a few years.
0:00 Intro
9:10 The VCR
19:09 The War
24:42 Hello Rental Industry
28:15 Welcome To BlockBuster
36:00 Huizenga
40:27 Viacom Era
44:51 Injured By DVD
48:59 Enter The Wolf
50:43 The Collapse
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Adidas vs. Puma. Two brothers. One town. A feud that changed sport forever.
 
Adolf and Rudolf began as partners, cobbling shoes together in central Germany before a family fallout split them into bitter rivals. What followed was decades of corporate warfare, played out on the world's biggest stages, that transformed sports marketing into one of the most powerful industries of the 20th century.
Howe We Got Here
 
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Introducing.... How We Got Here

16 apr 2026 | 00:00:20

Business history is wilder than you think.
 
Join finance journalist and digital storyteller, Chris Kohler, as he delves into the corporate moments that were too ridiculous to make up, but too important to ignore. The deals that collapsed empires. The decisions that accidentally built them. The scandals that still echo through every boardroom today. Tested and refined through millions of social media views, these are the stories that explain why modern business looks the way it does.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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