12 Ultra-Rich People Opened Up About What Money Did to Them

What does extreme wealth actually do to a person? Their psychology, their relationships, their behavior?

New York Magazine features writer Lane Brown set out to answer that question by interviewing a dozen ultra-high net worth individuals, people worth $30 million or more. (Read his full story here.) Almost no one wanted to talk. The ones who did had never spoken about this before.

Lane and Amy discuss what he found: why sudden wealth immediately isolates you, how self-made billionaires think versus inheritors, why the goalpost never stops moving no matter how much you have, and the eight-step psychological descent — mapped out by a therapist who treats the ultra-wealthy — that can turn an ordinary rich person into someone completely detached from reality.

Part 2 is available to Back Row premium subscribers at backrow.net/subscribe, which includes full newsletter access. You can also subscribe through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Introduction

01:19 — Meet Lane Brown

02:12 — What Extreme Wealth Does to a Person

03:21 — The First Thing Money Does: Isolation

06:36 — Who Counts as Ultra-Wealthy?

07:28 — How Lane Got Mark Cuban to Talk

09:31 — Why the Rich Refused to Participate

11:22 — Self-Made vs. Inherited Wealth

13:18 — Is It All Just Luck?

14:16 — The Goalpost That Never Stops Moving

17:41 — The 8-Step Descent Into Corruption

20:23 — Do Billionaires Know People Hate Them?

23:24 — When Luxury Purchases Lose Their Thrill

27:03 — Are Billionaires Actually Cheap?

29:02 — The Tax Strategy Behind the Spending

This episode was produced by Amy Odell and edited by Joyce Ciesil and Jonathan Voytko.

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