Take the Monopoly Money and Run | 143

Scamfluencers

Wondery

Society & Culture

4.1 • 7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the midst of the Great Depression, out-of-work salesman Charles Darrow sold the board game he created, Monopoly, to Parker Brothers. The game was an overnight success, and Charles became a hopeful example of the American dream. But soon, fellow game obsessives questioned Charles’s inventor status. Decades later, another game creator’s tireless pursuit of the truth reveals Monopoly’s subversive origin story and the twisted journey it took before landing in Charles Darrow’s hands.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, scam influencers fans, Sachi here.
0:02.2	If you live for the outrageous stories and unbelievable cons that we cover, you need Wendry Plus.
0:07.2	It's like sitting in the room with us as we unravel every twist.
0:10.5	Add free a week ahead of everyone else and packed with exclusive content you won't hear anywhere else.
0:16.1	Start your free trial in the Wendry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify now.
0:27.7	Sarah, are you a big board game player?
0:33.7	You know, I'm not, I'm not someone who, like, would own a board game or be the one to suggest playing a board game, mostly because I don't love the amount of rules you have to remember
0:38.5	right off the bat.
0:39.9	But if the night goes there and someone is patient with me to explain the rules, I'm down.
0:46.2	That's fair.
0:47.2	Do you have a favorite board game or a least favorite board game?
0:52.0	I don't think I have a true favorite of like a go-to, but you know, Scrabble is always fun.
0:58.1	We like Scrabble because we're good at words.
1:00.0	Nobody else likes Scrabble.
1:01.1	It's just us.
1:02.4	Well, today I get to tell you about the humble and complex origins of a board game that to this day makes me want to runaway screaming every time it's pulled out at a family
1:12.4	dinner, a house party, or a long weekend away at a cottage.
1:16.8	We're going to talk about the game that somehow never, ever ends.
1:20.8	Monopoly.
1:25.2	In the spring of 1974, Ralph Ansbach walks into the lobby of an enormous office building in San Francisco's financial district.
1:33.2	Ralph is in his 40s on the shorter side, with blue eyes and a disheveled look.
1:37.5	And today, he's feeling anxious because he's about to give a deposition that could completely ruin his life.
	...

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