This episode of RIP Corp is a look at the commodity trading industry through the history of Marc Rich, the company, and about the tension of telling an industry’s history through its most infamous guy. Was Marc Rich the exception that makes the rest of the industry look bad or the rule who just happened to get caught? How does his style of trading live on today, and what does that legacy tell us about commodity trading more broadly? And how on earth does a guy—how on earth does an industry—intersect with so many major geopolitical events and still insist that the work is “not political”?
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RIP Corp is written and hosted by Ingrid Burrington. Produced by Meghal Janardan and Mike Rugnetta. Associate producer, Taylor Behnke. Original music and sound design from Andrew Atkin and Michael Simonelli. Fact-checking from Matt Giles. Logo design by Beatriz Lozano and illustrations by Megan Mulholland. Executive produced by Jason Oberholtzer.