1
00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:12,559
Speaker 1: Get in text with technology with tex Stuff from dot com.

2
00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,400
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. I'm your host,

3
00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:18,880
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland, senior writer for house stuff Works dot com.

4
00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:20,959
Speaker 1: And today we're going to pick up where we left

5
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,360
Speaker 1: off in our last episode about the history of Samsung.

6
00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:27,760
Speaker 1: So if you have not listened to the previous episode,

7
00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:30,800
Speaker 1: you should probably go back and do that because I

8
00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,800
Speaker 1: cover a lot of basic ground in that show. That

9
00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:37,800
Speaker 1: includes an overview of the conditions in Korea leading up

10
00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,440
Speaker 1: to the founding of Samsung up to the stage where

11
00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:44,680
Speaker 1: the company finally got into the electronics industry. Because Samsung,

12
00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,280
Speaker 1: as it turns out, is a conglomeration of companies that

13
00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:51,879
Speaker 1: do lots of different things. Electronics is just part of it.

14
00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:55,560
Speaker 1: It's one of the more forward facing components, especially outside

15
00:00:55,560 --> 00:01:00,960
Speaker 1: of Korea, but it's just one element of the overall company. Also,

16
00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:03,840
Speaker 1: keep in mind, I'm talking about a Korean company with

17
00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,640
Speaker 1: a lot of Korean names, So again I apologize right

18
00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:11,240
Speaker 1: up front for the numerous occasions I'm sure I will

19
00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:15,120
Speaker 1: mispronounce Korean names. It is not through any lack of respect,

20
00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:19,679
Speaker 1: but rather just a simple ignorance of the correct pronunciations

21
00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:23,240
Speaker 1: for that language. I will do the best I can. However,

22
00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:25,840
Speaker 1: it will get a little confusing because I'm gonna talk

23
00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:29,480
Speaker 1: a lot about the family who who is in charge

24
00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:32,800
Speaker 1: of Samsung, and there are an awful lot of them,

25
00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:35,319
Speaker 1: But we will get to that a bit later. Now,

26
00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:38,440
Speaker 1: if you remember, I left off at the point when

27
00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:42,360
Speaker 1: Samsung began to produce its first televisions and washing machines.

28
00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:45,160
Speaker 1: That brings us up to the nineteen seventies. So what

29
00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:49,000
Speaker 1: was going on in Korea during that time? Well you

30
00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:51,720
Speaker 1: might remember then the last episode, I told you that

31
00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:55,600
Speaker 1: Korea had come under the rule of a military leader,

32
00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:00,320
Speaker 1: a general named Bak Jong he or also sometimes spelled

33
00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:06,040
Speaker 1: Park Chung he Uh. These names are Anglicized versions of

34
00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:09,480
Speaker 1: the Korean names, so often it's as close to an

35
00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:14,280
Speaker 1: approximation of an anglicized pronunciation as we can get. So

36
00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:18,040
Speaker 1: there are different spellings uh. Park chung y is probably

37
00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:20,440
Speaker 1: the most common, but I've also seen Bak Jong key

38
00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:24,200
Speaker 1: same person. However, In fact, this is a good time

39
00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:26,120
Speaker 1: for me to mention this. In the previous episode, I

40
00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,120
Speaker 1: talked about a US backed leader, and I talked about

41
00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:32,400
Speaker 1: him a lot. I said Li sungman Um and also

42
00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,560
Speaker 1: mentioned a man named Sing man Ri. Both of those

43
00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:40,520
Speaker 1: names are actually the same person. Uh. See, in the

44
00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:44,200
Speaker 1: western world, we will say a person's uh surname last,

45
00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,280
Speaker 1: But in Asia and many Asian cultures at any rate,

46
00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:51,240
Speaker 1: you say the surname first. So Lee is the surname

47
00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:55,920
Speaker 1: Li Sungman or sing Manrie is the way that we

48
00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,079
Speaker 1: often see. It's spelled um, depending upon the source you're

49
00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:01,519
Speaker 1: looking at. So I know it gets a little confusing,

50
00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,760
Speaker 1: but these are the same people. They're just anglicized versions

51
00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:07,880
Speaker 1: of the name. Anyway, let's go back to Park Chung He,

52
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:10,560
Speaker 1: the general, the person who had been in charge of

53
00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:15,160
Speaker 1: South Korea in nineteen seventy two. He put the country

54
00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:19,119
Speaker 1: under martial law and solidified his power in South Korea,

55
00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:23,799
Speaker 1: they would hold elections and Park Chung He would win

56
00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:26,359
Speaker 1: those elections. But there were a lot of people who

57
00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:28,320
Speaker 1: essentially said that Park Chung he was really just a

58
00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:32,560
Speaker 1: military dictator. Just a military dictator is probably the wrong

59
00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:35,040
Speaker 1: way of saying it, but he was a military dictator

60
00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,040
Speaker 1: as opposed to a legally elected president according to whom

61
00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:41,840
Speaker 1: you ask. Meanwhile, at the same time, South Korea government

62
00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:45,760
Speaker 1: officials were starting up talks with their counterparts in North

63
00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:52,280
Speaker 1: Korea and the two countries talked about wanting to reunite,

64
00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:56,400
Speaker 1: to have a reunification of Korea. They said that there

65
00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:58,360
Speaker 1: were a lot of requirements for that. One of the

66
00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:02,160
Speaker 1: big ones was that they demand did no outside interference.

67
00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:05,520
Speaker 1: They didn't want other entities coming into Korea to try

68
00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:09,600
Speaker 1: and guide the process. Remember, Korea had been the subject

69
00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:13,080
Speaker 1: of a lot of interference from the Soviet Union, from

70
00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:17,400
Speaker 1: the United States of America before that, Japan, and China,

71
00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:20,440
Speaker 1: so they were really determined to do this themselves. But

72
00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:25,400
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, that never really happened. In nineteen seventy nine,

73
00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:31,400
Speaker 1: the head of the Korean Intelligence Service, Kim jgu, assassinated

74
00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:36,760
Speaker 1: Park Chung he So, the head of the Korean version

75
00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:41,480
Speaker 1: of the c i A, assassinated the president of the country.

76
00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,719
Speaker 1: After that, there was a brief period of civilian rule

77
00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,440
Speaker 1: where the Prime Minister assumed roles of the president before

78
00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:54,520
Speaker 1: another general, This one fellow by the name of General

79
00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:59,080
Speaker 1: Chu dou Pan sees power in nineteen eighty and thus

80
00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:02,840
Speaker 1: returned the country to a dictatorship with token elections, and

81
00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:05,040
Speaker 1: that would continue to be the case until the late

82
00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:08,920
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. So Korea still had a tumultuous and often

83
00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:14,880
Speaker 1: violent uh power structure, with people struggling to rule the

84
00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:19,120
Speaker 1: country in different ways. Remember, even though you know you

85
00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:22,440
Speaker 1: would say that that Park Chung he was a dictator,

86
00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:26,440
Speaker 1: he was largely seen as someone who worked very hard

87
00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:31,200
Speaker 1: to improve conditions in Korea, So it wasn't just exploiting

88
00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:35,800
Speaker 1: his power, at least not in the view of many people. However,

89
00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:39,440
Speaker 1: that being said, he also wasn't willing to have a

90
00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,880
Speaker 1: transition of that power, and thus eventually he was assassinated.

91
00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:47,120
Speaker 1: So very complicated political structure in Korea at the time,

92
00:05:47,279 --> 00:05:51,400
Speaker 1: and despite all that political chaos, Samsung continued to do well.

93
00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:54,880
Speaker 1: I'll talk more about how they did that a little

94
00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:58,240
Speaker 1: bit later in this episode. The company had, for one thing,

95
00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:01,480
Speaker 1: diversified quite a bit. It was getting into so many

96
00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:04,919
Speaker 1: different industries and it was playing a key component in

97
00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:08,520
Speaker 1: the economy of South Korea. It was also creating Korean

98
00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:13,080
Speaker 1: electronics with Korean parts, so they weren't importing elements and

99
00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:16,760
Speaker 1: then building television sets and then selling them. They were

100
00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:20,640
Speaker 1: making all of this stuff piece by piece. This helped

101
00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,279
Speaker 1: established Korea as one of what was called the Four

102
00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:28,360
Speaker 1: Little Dragons. The Four Little Dragons were nations in East

103
00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:34,000
Speaker 1: Asia that were very rapidly expanding economically and technologically, and

104
00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:39,320
Speaker 1: they also included Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, so these

105
00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:44,719
Speaker 1: Asian countries were really quickly catching up to other nations

106
00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:50,279
Speaker 1: like Japan and China. In nineteen seventy seven, Samsung began

107
00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:54,320
Speaker 1: producing color televisions and exporting them to Panama. So this

108
00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:58,160
Speaker 1: was a humble step towards Samsung becoming a global player

109
00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:02,800
Speaker 1: in consumer electronics. Before that, they had really been selling

110
00:07:02,839 --> 00:07:06,440
Speaker 1: mainly to to South Korea, but now they were expanding

111
00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:10,920
Speaker 1: beyond that, and they were determined to really continue this

112
00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:15,520
Speaker 1: level of success with all different types of electronics. Around

113
00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:18,880
Speaker 1: the same time, Samsung began to produce other products in

114
00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:23,120
Speaker 1: consumer electronics, including air conditioners, which I have covered in

115
00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:26,480
Speaker 1: previous episodes of tech Stuff and the microwave, And there

116
00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:29,200
Speaker 1: is also a classic episode of tech Stuff about how

117
00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:31,440
Speaker 1: the microwave works. So I'm not going to go into

118
00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:34,520
Speaker 1: a full explanation, but because this episode is going to

119
00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:39,239
Speaker 1: be a lot about corporate politics and actual politics because

120
00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:43,920
Speaker 1: of the complicated uh nature of Korean business, I thought

121
00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:46,480
Speaker 1: why not go ahead and have at least a brief

122
00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:50,960
Speaker 1: explanation on the science slash technology side of microwaves to

123
00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:54,160
Speaker 1: really have this podcast earned the name of tech stuff,

124
00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,640
Speaker 1: because otherwise we're just gonna be talking about lots of economics, politics,

125
00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:01,360
Speaker 1: and and and very complicated issue. So I'm gonna give

126
00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:04,600
Speaker 1: you some highlights of how microwave ovens work. So the

127
00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:09,720
Speaker 1: radiation microwaves UM microwaves are in the electromagnetic spectrum in

128
00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:15,200
Speaker 1: between infrared and radio waves, so they are longer waves

129
00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:18,920
Speaker 1: than visible light. Microwave ovens produced microwaves that are frequency

130
00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:21,560
Speaker 1: of two point four or five giga hurts. That's two

131
00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,640
Speaker 1: point four or five billion wave lengths passing through a

132
00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:30,600
Speaker 1: given point within a second. Now, certain stuff like fats, sugars,

133
00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:34,280
Speaker 1: and water absorb waves that are at this two point

134
00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:38,720
Speaker 1: four or five giga hurts frequency. As they absorb those waves,

135
00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:41,640
Speaker 1: their atoms begin to get excited. That means they start

136
00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:44,960
Speaker 1: to move around, and we call this heat. Right, If

137
00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:48,920
Speaker 1: atoms are moving around a lot, they they are warm,

138
00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:50,960
Speaker 1: they're giving off heat, and they're giving off that form

139
00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:55,440
Speaker 1: of energy. Likewise, if you apply heat to materials, you

140
00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:59,120
Speaker 1: start to make their atoms move around more rapidly. So

141
00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:04,280
Speaker 1: stuff like glass, ceramics, and plastics do not absorb waves

142
00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:06,720
Speaker 1: at that frequency. So if you were to put a

143
00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:12,320
Speaker 1: glass like a glass uh container in a microwave and

144
00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:14,280
Speaker 1: you turned it on, and then you took the glass

145
00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:16,840
Speaker 1: container out, assuming there was nothing on it to heat

146
00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:20,640
Speaker 1: up to absorb those microwaves, it should not be really

147
00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:24,680
Speaker 1: any significantly warmer to the touch. So that's why the

148
00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:27,119
Speaker 1: food and a microwave will heat up, but the containers

149
00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:31,480
Speaker 1: do not. Metal, by the way, reflects microwaves, which is

150
00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:35,120
Speaker 1: why the interior of most microwave ovens tends to be metallic.

151
00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:38,319
Speaker 1: It's to reflect waves back into the oven in order

152
00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:40,480
Speaker 1: to give the food a better chance at absorbing the

153
00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:43,080
Speaker 1: waves and heating up and cooking in the process. This

154
00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:45,640
Speaker 1: is also why we say that this this kind of

155
00:09:45,640 --> 00:09:49,360
Speaker 1: food cooks from the inside out, uh And you're not

156
00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:53,320
Speaker 1: applying any heat to a surface, so you don't get

157
00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:57,080
Speaker 1: that seared nature you would get if you were to say,

158
00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:01,000
Speaker 1: cook in a pan. One other thing, microwaves are not

159
00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:05,280
Speaker 1: a form of ionizing radiation. That means that the waves

160
00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:09,600
Speaker 1: don't carry enough energy to ionize atoms or molecules, or

161
00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,400
Speaker 1: to simplify it even further, it means microwaves don't pack

162
00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:17,839
Speaker 1: enough of a punch to strip electrons away from atoms.

163
00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:23,640
Speaker 1: Ionizing radiation includes stuff like ultra violet radiation, X rays,

164
00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:26,960
Speaker 1: and gamma rays, and they do have enough energy to

165
00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:30,520
Speaker 1: strip away electrons, and if you are exposed to that

166
00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:33,880
Speaker 1: sort of radiation, you can suffer immediate and long term

167
00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:37,559
Speaker 1: damage as a result. So in a short term, very

168
00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:41,599
Speaker 1: brief exposure, you might suffer burns. In the case of

169
00:10:41,679 --> 00:10:43,920
Speaker 1: ultra violet radiation, it may take a little bit longer

170
00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:45,679
Speaker 1: for you to actually suffer burns, but you know that's

171
00:10:45,679 --> 00:10:49,480
Speaker 1: what sunburn is. In the long run, you're talking about

172
00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:53,160
Speaker 1: bigger risks like cancer, so you want to really minimize

173
00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:57,200
Speaker 1: your exposure to ionizing radiation. But happily microwaves are not

174
00:10:57,280 --> 00:11:00,319
Speaker 1: in that category, nor are radio waves. It's the stuff

175
00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:04,040
Speaker 1: and those those uh, bigger wavelengths, they don't have the

176
00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:06,680
Speaker 1: energy to do that, which is why you shouldn't have

177
00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:10,280
Speaker 1: to worry about microwaves or radio waves or anything like

178
00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:13,640
Speaker 1: that causing you any harm. They just don't have the

179
00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:17,200
Speaker 1: energy to do that to you. Whereas X rays, gamma rays,

180
00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:20,480
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff certainly has that sort of energy. Now,

181
00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:22,640
Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about how microwaves work,

182
00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:26,560
Speaker 1: including how they actually generate the microwave radiation in the

183
00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:29,680
Speaker 1: first place. Make sure you check out that classic Tech

184
00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:35,880
Speaker 1: Stuff episode. It is titled how Microwave Ovens Work. Yeah,

185
00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:39,920
Speaker 1: we thought long and hard about that title. Anyway, that

186
00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:44,559
Speaker 1: episode came out way back on March one. Let's get

187
00:11:44,559 --> 00:11:49,160
Speaker 1: back to Samsung. In nineteen eighty, Samsung made another big acquisition.

188
00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:52,520
Speaker 1: Remember that's how this company was really growing. It was

189
00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:55,080
Speaker 1: buying up other companies and getting involved in as many

190
00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:59,120
Speaker 1: different industries as possible. This time it was a telecommunications

191
00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:03,760
Speaker 1: hardware company, Hangook Jinja tongs In. The number one product

192
00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:07,280
Speaker 1: the company made was telephone switchboards, so they were starting

193
00:12:07,280 --> 00:12:11,960
Speaker 1: to install more telephone infrastructure in Korea. Samsung soon expanded

194
00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:15,400
Speaker 1: this to produce telephone and faxt systems, and much later

195
00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:19,480
Speaker 1: on mobile phones. More on Samsung's mobile phones. A bit later,

196
00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:26,520
Speaker 1: Samsung expanded the operations of its electronics division into other nations,

197
00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:29,240
Speaker 1: including the United Kingdom in the US, and the company

198
00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:33,160
Speaker 1: had become an empire. And that's when it lost its emperor.

199
00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:38,040
Speaker 1: It was and Lie Byong Chol, who was the man

200
00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:41,839
Speaker 1: who founded Samsung when he was just twenty eight years old,

201
00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:45,920
Speaker 1: passed away. Now, if you listen to our last episode.

202
00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:48,320
Speaker 1: You know, he had come from a wealthy family to

203
00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:52,040
Speaker 1: begin with, but his company had elevated him and his

204
00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:57,960
Speaker 1: family to truly wealthy status billionaires. Now at the time

205
00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:00,160
Speaker 1: of his death, he had one of the large just

206
00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:03,720
Speaker 1: private collections of Korean art in all of the nation,

207
00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:06,360
Speaker 1: which was opened up to the public after his passing.

208
00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:10,840
Speaker 1: He had ten children, six daughters and four sons. There

209
00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,720
Speaker 1: were also rumors of him having other children with other

210
00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:19,120
Speaker 1: women besides his wife in Korea, but that was a rumor.

211
00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:22,000
Speaker 1: That the family is very secretive in the first place,

212
00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:27,400
Speaker 1: so it's not like this was necessarily open information. Now

213
00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:29,160
Speaker 1: at the end of this podcast, I'm going to trace

214
00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:34,160
Speaker 1: the very complicated history of Lee's family. I'll do this

215
00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:37,640
Speaker 1: because in Korea it is still traditional for families to

216
00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:41,959
Speaker 1: keep control over businesses, so you can inherit a position

217
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,760
Speaker 1: of leadership in a company. The world, a board of

218
00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:47,959
Speaker 1: directors and choosing a CEO isn't the way things are

219
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,960
Speaker 1: done in Korea, at least not for a lot of companies.

220
00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:55,000
Speaker 1: They follow a more traditional pathway uh and that has

221
00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:58,440
Speaker 1: caused some constern nation. As it turns out, now the

222
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:02,000
Speaker 1: company split into four are major business groups that eventually

223
00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:06,720
Speaker 1: became their own individual companies, and at least according to

224
00:14:07,559 --> 00:14:11,280
Speaker 1: the people running those companies, have nothing to do directly

225
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:17,319
Speaker 1: with one another anymore. Those include the Shinsega Group or

226
00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:20,400
Speaker 1: sinse I Guess Group, i should say, which is mostly

227
00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:23,480
Speaker 1: concerned with retail businesses, you know, department stores, that kind

228
00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:26,920
Speaker 1: of thing. There's the c J Group, which includes businesses

229
00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:32,720
Speaker 1: in food, chemical, entertainment industries. There's the Hensaul Group, which

230
00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:36,680
Speaker 1: includes telecommunications and paper manufacturing industries. And then you have

231
00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:40,280
Speaker 1: the Samsung Group, which is pretty much everything else. So

232
00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,120
Speaker 1: for right now, the only important thing you need to

233
00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:46,280
Speaker 1: remember is that Lieb Young Chu, the founder of Samsung,

234
00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:51,200
Speaker 1: died in and I'll try to focus exclusively on Samsung

235
00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:54,000
Speaker 1: Electronics from here on out, though I should mention the

236
00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:58,960
Speaker 1: company as a whole consisted of eighties smaller companies at

237
00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:02,200
Speaker 1: one point or another or eighty. It was a really

238
00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:04,920
Speaker 1: a conglomerate in the true sense of the word. It

239
00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:09,560
Speaker 1: was a company filled with other companies. Many, in fact,

240
00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:13,280
Speaker 1: most of those companies had nothing to do with consumer electronics.

241
00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:18,720
Speaker 1: In the late eighties and early nineties, Samsung Electronics began

242
00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:22,400
Speaker 1: opening manufacturing facilities in different parts of the world. The

243
00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:24,840
Speaker 1: company was really making a name for itself, becoming a

244
00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:28,720
Speaker 1: global player in the electronics space. This is pretty remarkable

245
00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:31,200
Speaker 1: when you remember that companies like Sony had been in

246
00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:35,640
Speaker 1: the electronics industry for decades, whereas Samsung really only began

247
00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:39,240
Speaker 1: to dive into it in nineteen sixty nine nineteen seventy,

248
00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:41,000
Speaker 1: so they had a lot of catching up to do.

249
00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,280
Speaker 1: Samsung continued to expand the types of electronics it produced

250
00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,000
Speaker 1: in the nineteen eighties, like I said, with air conditioners

251
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,920
Speaker 1: and microwaves starting off, but by nine eight three the

252
00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:53,960
Speaker 1: company also began to get into the personal computer business.

253
00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:59,920
Speaker 1: The very first Samsung computer was the SPC one thousand,

254
00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:03,800
Speaker 1: which came out in March nine three, and it was

255
00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:06,720
Speaker 1: an eight bit personal computer which looked more like a

256
00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:11,880
Speaker 1: giant electronic typewriter. It had sixty four whole kilobytes of

257
00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:16,480
Speaker 1: RAM and about four mega hurts processor. Yeah, it was

258
00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:20,200
Speaker 1: from the time it was, you know, it was good,

259
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:26,880
Speaker 1: but by today's standards, it is it is almost laughably underpowered.

260
00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:30,480
Speaker 1: But we have Moore's Law to thank for that. The

261
00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:34,320
Speaker 1: computer included the keyboard, a game pad, external disk drives,

262
00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:36,400
Speaker 1: and a TV like monitor and you would hook them

263
00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:38,160
Speaker 1: all up and then you'd be able to run stuff

264
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:44,479
Speaker 1: using the DOSS operating system good times. In four Samsung

265
00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:48,120
Speaker 1: began to export VCRs to the United States. And I've

266
00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:50,840
Speaker 1: covered VCRs in the past, including a deep dive on

267
00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:54,360
Speaker 1: the format wars between VHS and Beta Max, so I'm

268
00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:56,480
Speaker 1: not going to really dive into it again. Here you

269
00:16:56,480 --> 00:16:58,720
Speaker 1: can listen to that classic episode of tech Stuff if

270
00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:02,360
Speaker 1: you like. And a ninety eight six, Samsung created what

271
00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:08,000
Speaker 1: was then the smallest videotape recorder, four millimeter video tape recorder.

272
00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:10,520
Speaker 1: By the end of the nineteen eighties, the company's products

273
00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:13,320
Speaker 1: could be found on store shelves around the world, so

274
00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:18,320
Speaker 1: they really made rapid progress. From the mid seventies up

275
00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,359
Speaker 1: to the late eighties, TVs were still leading the way,

276
00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:26,359
Speaker 1: with Samsung's twenty million color television produced in nineteen eighty nine.

277
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,040
Speaker 1: The company developed its first mobile phone handset in nineteen

278
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:33,800
Speaker 1: though it would continue to work on the software side

279
00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:37,920
Speaker 1: and the systems side for another year. By two, Samsung

280
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:41,239
Speaker 1: had become the global leader in producing memory chips for

281
00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:45,640
Speaker 1: electronics so essentially RAM and it fell only behind Intel

282
00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:49,600
Speaker 1: for chip making in general, so Intel was the number

283
00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:55,959
Speaker 1: one producer of computer chips in and Samsung was number two, again,

284
00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,320
Speaker 1: a remarkable story for a company that had only recently

285
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:04,080
Speaker 1: started to get into electronics at all. Samsung pioneered work

286
00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:06,600
Speaker 1: and building l c D displays in the mid nineties,

287
00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:09,359
Speaker 1: and if you listen to my History of TV series,

288
00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,040
Speaker 1: you know that the l c D panels really helped

289
00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:15,600
Speaker 1: push televisions into a new era, allowing for a thinner

290
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:20,000
Speaker 1: form factor and flat screen TVs. Samsung Electronics would end

291
00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:23,359
Speaker 1: up making millions of dollars by licensing l c D

292
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:27,040
Speaker 1: panel technology to other companies that became a chief source

293
00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:31,199
Speaker 1: of revenue for the for the Samsung Electronics division. Also

294
00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:37,000
Speaker 1: in Samsung began manufacturing in China and producing computer components

295
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:39,600
Speaker 1: such as RAM and hard disk drives, with a two

296
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,919
Speaker 1: fifty megabyte drive released that year, which again sounds like

297
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,119
Speaker 1: nothing at all two and fifty megabytes. I mean, you

298
00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:49,800
Speaker 1: can get multi gigs on a single flash drive these days,

299
00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:53,360
Speaker 1: but back then it was pretty impressive. Samsung was also

300
00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:56,920
Speaker 1: producing industrial robots at this time and managed to hit

301
00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:00,840
Speaker 1: the ten million products ship by the end of nine

302
00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:05,040
Speaker 1: and by products, i'm talking specifically robots. They produced ten

303
00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:08,840
Speaker 1: million industrial robots by the end of nineteen two. That's

304
00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:11,800
Speaker 1: pretty incredible. Now I've got a lot more to talk

305
00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:14,879
Speaker 1: about with Samsung's electronics, but before I dive into the

306
00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:17,920
Speaker 1: next section, let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor.

307
00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:29,400
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology, also

308
00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:33,440
Speaker 1: known as s a I T or SAITE, developed the

309
00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:38,800
Speaker 1: first digital versatile disc recorder or DVD R device. I

310
00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:41,159
Speaker 1: guess I mean it couldn't have been the DVD we

311
00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:45,320
Speaker 1: all know because that didn't exist in nine That wouldn't

312
00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:50,880
Speaker 1: be introduced until as a joint project between Sony and Panasonic. Honestly,

313
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:55,080
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure how Samsung's device fits into the

314
00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:59,040
Speaker 1: history of DVDs and dvd rs. In particular, I found

315
00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:03,000
Speaker 1: the entry that the company first produced this first DVD

316
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:09,600
Speaker 1: R on Samsung's actual website, so this is according to

317
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:12,240
Speaker 1: the company itself. But that really strikes me as strange

318
00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:14,920
Speaker 1: because as far as I know, the standard didn't really

319
00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:18,600
Speaker 1: exist until So how do you produce a product two

320
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,879
Speaker 1: years before you've figured out the standard. It's possible that

321
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,800
Speaker 1: the entry is erroneous, but it did come from Samsung itself,

322
00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:29,159
Speaker 1: so I thought it would include it. So you know

323
00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:31,439
Speaker 1: grain of salt. It may very well be that they

324
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,080
Speaker 1: produced a DVD R on an early version of what

325
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,879
Speaker 1: would become the standard in but it just seems a

326
00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:42,080
Speaker 1: bit early to me. Totally possible, just something that I

327
00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:45,560
Speaker 1: did not hear about when I was researching DVDs years ago.

328
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:49,639
Speaker 1: In the mid nineties, Samsung products began to number on

329
00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:53,160
Speaker 1: the top sellers for certain categories like l C D screens.

330
00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:57,600
Speaker 1: Samsung was definitely leading the way there. Meanwhile, Lee Kun he,

331
00:20:58,119 --> 00:21:01,560
Speaker 1: who was a son of Lee Byung Choll. Remember I

332
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:04,280
Speaker 1: said Leeb young Chol had ten children. Well, Lee kun

333
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:08,360
Speaker 1: he was the third son. He would join the International

334
00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:12,320
Speaker 1: Olympic Committee in the mid nineties, and that move is

335
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:17,399
Speaker 1: really important to note because it illustrates how critical a

336
00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:21,440
Speaker 1: role Samsung was to the country and economy of Korea.

337
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,199
Speaker 1: And it also showed how critical the Lee family was

338
00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:28,440
Speaker 1: and how strong their political influence was at the time.

339
00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:31,639
Speaker 1: I have a lot more to say about that towards

340
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,640
Speaker 1: the end of this episode. In ninety four, Samsung unveiled

341
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:40,040
Speaker 1: the first four power zoom camera that came from Samsung Aeronautics,

342
00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:45,800
Speaker 1: and Samsung launched the Samsung Entertainment Group that same year

343
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,320
Speaker 1: site you know s A I T showed off a

344
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,800
Speaker 1: real time MPEG three technology. And then there was a

345
00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 1: story from that same year or around I guess that

346
00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:59,920
Speaker 1: Lee Kun He, who again was the head of sam

347
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:03,359
Speaker 1: Sung Electronics at that time and in fact still is today,

348
00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:09,679
Speaker 1: ordered an entire inventory of smartphones destroyed because they apparently

349
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:14,400
Speaker 1: did not work properly. So the story was that an

350
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:18,040
Speaker 1: early smartphone really an internet connected phone, It wasn't a

351
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:22,320
Speaker 1: smartphone the way we would imagine today, didn't work properly

352
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:26,240
Speaker 1: as it came out of production, and so rather than

353
00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:31,000
Speaker 1: trying to fix the inventory league when he just ordered

354
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:34,679
Speaker 1: them all to be burned. Samsung obviously didn't give up

355
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:37,639
Speaker 1: on the mobile business, and in fact, eventually the mobile

356
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:40,680
Speaker 1: business would become one of the most profitable divisions within

357
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:45,119
Speaker 1: the country. The year two thousand and sixteen notwithstanding, and

358
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,119
Speaker 1: in n the company produced what it claimed to be

359
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:53,280
Speaker 1: the fastest central processing unit chip, the fastest CPU. They

360
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:57,760
Speaker 1: called it the Alpha. In nine, South Korea, along with

361
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 1: countries like Indonesia, tile and and the Philippines, were all

362
00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:06,400
Speaker 1: caught in a terrible financial crisis. It began in Thailand

363
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,160
Speaker 1: with the collapse of Thailand's national currency, and that created

364
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 1: a sort of ripple effect, and South Korea was caught

365
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 1: in it. In fact, you could argue caught some of

366
00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:19,040
Speaker 1: the worst of it, with national debts surging as a result.

367
00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:23,359
Speaker 1: Samsung was affected by this problem just like other companies were,

368
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:25,959
Speaker 1: although Samsung was in good position to be able to

369
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 1: weather the storm better than a lot of its competitors.

370
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: According to the company's website, Samsung reduced the number of

371
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 1: affiliated companies to forty five, which is still an enormous

372
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:40,920
Speaker 1: number of affiliates, right, I mean, that's a big conglomerate,

373
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:45,439
Speaker 1: and keep in mind this is family owned businesses. The

374
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:49,520
Speaker 1: company ended up laying off about fifty thousand employees and

375
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 1: sold ten business units. And one of the businesses Samsung

376
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,840
Speaker 1: sold off was its motor vehicle business or it used

377
00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 1: to be Samsung Motors, but the company sold off its

378
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 1: interest to Reno at a big loss. Renault uh Samsung

379
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:08,080
Speaker 1: is mostly owned by Renault like ownership, and less than

380
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,360
Speaker 1: that ownership falls to Samsung. In the late ninety nineties,

381
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:15,920
Speaker 1: Samsung began to produce larger l C D screens and

382
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 1: they ushered in a new era of large flat screen

383
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 1: televisions and monitors, and they also started mass producing digital televisions.

384
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,080
Speaker 1: The semiconductor branch of the company was busy creating RAM

385
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:32,680
Speaker 1: and flash based chips, and in Samsung launched a smartphone.

386
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 1: This would be a true Internet capable mobile phone handset.

387
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:40,639
Speaker 1: But keep in mind again, smartphones are not the same

388
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 1: thing as the smartphones of today. You're still talking about

389
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 1: pretty simple form factors, not the big touch screens that

390
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:51,439
Speaker 1: we think about when we use smartphones these days. Now,

391
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,119
Speaker 1: at the turn of the millennium, you know, around two thousand,

392
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,760
Speaker 1: Samsung got into the h d TV game. High definition

393
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:01,000
Speaker 1: television was still pretty young. I mean, it been pioneered

394
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,920
Speaker 1: in the nineties, but two thousand was when consumers were

395
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,880
Speaker 1: starting to really look at HDTV for the first time

396
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:10,960
Speaker 1: in a serious way, and Samsung was able to secure

397
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:15,480
Speaker 1: a spot among giants in the industry like Panasonic and Sony.

398
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,439
Speaker 1: Samsung Television's remained one of the top brands on the market.

399
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 1: So it's a real triumph for the company to get

400
00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 1: their products right next to these other big name brands,

401
00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 1: considering that they had a much, you know, much shorter

402
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:36,239
Speaker 1: history in the consumer electronics field. Through sheer willpower and

403
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:39,480
Speaker 1: lots of investments. They were able to do this. By

404
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 1: two thousand one, the company's subsidiary, Samsung Techwin, would become

405
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:47,640
Speaker 1: the supplier for engine parts for the Airbus A three

406
00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:51,920
Speaker 1: eighty and for the Boeing seven seven, so they also

407
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,639
Speaker 1: were doing a lot of business to business deals. In

408
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:59,320
Speaker 1: two thousand five, Samsung became the largest producer of l

409
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:03,639
Speaker 1: c D P anneals globally. The following year, two thousand six,

410
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 1: Samsung and Sony formed a deal in which Samsung would

411
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,600
Speaker 1: supply Sony with l c D panels, and this partnership

412
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 1: was almost fifty almost sam Sung owned one share more

413
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 1: than Sony did, and in two thousand eleven, Samsung would

414
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,720
Speaker 1: buy out Sony's steak in this partnership and take over

415
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 1: the business completely. As for the mobile phones, Samsung really

416
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 1: joined the fray in when it launched the Galaxy S

417
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:37,120
Speaker 1: that was its first flagship Android phone. Since that time,

418
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 1: Samsung and Apple would engage in numerous court battles around

419
00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 1: the world over various patents and designs, with each side

420
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:50,320
Speaker 1: accusing the other of copying the first one. So Apple

421
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:53,200
Speaker 1: would say Samsung copied us. In this way, Samsung would

422
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 1: say Apple copied us, and this way, and these got

423
00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: really complicated and enormous. We went into some detail of

424
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,360
Speaker 1: the story in an episode called the Patent Wars, which

425
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:07,919
Speaker 1: came out in two thousand eleven, but obviously those have

426
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:13,400
Speaker 1: continued since then. Samsung also manufactured the first popular consumer

427
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:15,879
Speaker 1: tablet running on Android in two ten. That was the

428
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:20,400
Speaker 1: Galaxy Tab, and it began to experiment with smart televisions.

429
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:23,800
Speaker 1: Those are TVs that pull in content directly from the Internet.

430
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 1: You probably are familiar with the many of the of

431
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 1: you may have a smart TV. I your humble host.

432
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,000
Speaker 1: I'm still falling behind the times as my TV is

433
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,359
Speaker 1: not smart, but I got a lot of smart stuff

434
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:41,879
Speaker 1: connected to it anyway. In Samsung actually overtook Nokia or

435
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 1: Nokia if you prefer. It's definitely not Nokia as the

436
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:49,119
Speaker 1: number one production company for mobile phones. So this is

437
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:52,400
Speaker 1: a big deal for Samsung to overtake the giant Nokia

438
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: in the company is a true powerhouse in Korea. It

439
00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 1: accounts for it almost fifteen percent of the gross domestic

440
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:05,919
Speaker 1: product in Korea back in and in case you're rusty.

441
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,920
Speaker 1: Under economic terms, gross domestic product refers to the total

442
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 1: value of goods and services originating from inside a country

443
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:20,200
Speaker 1: within one year. So Samsung's business accounted for fent of

444
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:25,399
Speaker 1: all of Korea's GDP in twelve That is enormous. There's

445
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:28,400
Speaker 1: no company in the United States that comes close to that,

446
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 1: and the overall company has an employee base of nearly

447
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 1: half a million people. Huge, huge, huge company. Now they

448
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:43,040
Speaker 1: now focus on just a few core businesses, which include

449
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 1: mobile technology, electronics, and biopharmaceuticals, among a couple of others.

450
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 1: It really is big. It is the third largest company

451
00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 1: in the world by revenue, and it holds more US

452
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 1: patents than any other company. It's also involved in emerging markets,

453
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 1: including stuff like virtual reality and wearables. Oh and there's

454
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: some notable stories about some of the Samsung products that

455
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:07,720
Speaker 1: are out there. You know, some things that suffered a

456
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 1: couple of issues. Let's talk about the one that I

457
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 1: bet you already know I'm referring to. It is, in fact,

458
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:19,520
Speaker 1: the Samsung Galaxy Note seven. This phone became infamous after

459
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,600
Speaker 1: more than one hundred of the handsets were reported to

460
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 1: have burst into flames. So what happened, Well, the phones

461
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 1: have lithium ion batteries, and lithium ion batteries are flammable.

462
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 1: That's why you're not supposed to put any in your

463
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 1: luggage that you're gonna store unless you're gonna check. You know,

464
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 1: when you go to an airport, you don't check bags

465
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 1: have lithium ion batteries in them because of the potential

466
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 1: danger for fire. So what can happen is a short

467
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 1: circuit can create this this dangerous situation, and a short

468
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,280
Speaker 1: circuit is kind of what it sounds like. It's when

469
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: you create a shortcut in a circuit, an elect rons

470
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: can flow that can follow the shortcut rather than the

471
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:07,600
Speaker 1: path you want them to follow. So the basics of

472
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:11,840
Speaker 1: electronics is this, we harness electrons to do what we

473
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 1: want them to do, and we do it through making

474
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 1: all these different pathways and gates. And as long as

475
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 1: we've got that working, the electrons can only follow the

476
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 1: gates and go through the gates that are that we

477
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 1: allow them to go through, and they don't go through

478
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:26,239
Speaker 1: the ones we don't allow them to go through. Our

479
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 1: electronics work. But if we create a shortcut so that

480
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: electrons can jump from one pathway to another directly, then

481
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 1: we have a problem. Electrons will take that path of

482
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:40,440
Speaker 1: least resistance, no pun intended, and as a result, it

483
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 1: starts to heat things up. You've got this extra energy

484
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,240
Speaker 1: being given off the form of heat. So with batteries,

485
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: if there's a puncture between the positive and negative electrodes,

486
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 1: you can have a direct change of electrons and the

487
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 1: material will start to heat up. Well, Lithium ion batteries

488
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,160
Speaker 1: are really flammable, so if they heat up and off,

489
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 1: they'll burst into flames. Originally, Samsung tried to address this

490
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 1: problem by replacing batteries, but they received reports of several

491
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: replaced handsets also catching fire, so the company was forced

492
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,640
Speaker 1: to issue a full recall on the device, or rather

493
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: they did issue a full recall before the forced thing

494
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:23,719
Speaker 1: became a real necessity. Meanwhile, you started seeing representatives at

495
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,440
Speaker 1: airports telling travelers that they had to surrender any Galaxy

496
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 1: seven phone before getting on a flight. It was really

497
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 1: bad pr for the company, and Samsung is still kind

498
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: of dealing with that to some extent, although it's already

499
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 1: starting to slack off a little bit because now we've

500
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:43,520
Speaker 1: got the Samsung Galaxy S eight coming out. As I

501
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 1: record this podcast, earlier reviews are coming out about this

502
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,600
Speaker 1: new phone, and most of the reviews I've seen have

503
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:53,880
Speaker 1: been generally positive. The new phone has a twelve megapixel

504
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 1: camera on the back and an eight megapixel forward facing camera,

505
00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 1: and Samsung has introduced a personal assistant similar to Siri

506
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 1: or Alexa called Bixby, which I think is kind of adorable.

507
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: And it also the new phone has an Irish scanner

508
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:09,760
Speaker 1: so that you can use that for authentication. You can

509
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:12,080
Speaker 1: go totally James Bond with your phone. That's pretty cool.

510
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 1: So the company is still producing these gadgets, not like

511
00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:20,880
Speaker 1: they've backed off after the problem with the Galaxy seven,

512
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:24,320
Speaker 1: but that was really bad pr for them. Uh. I

513
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: should also say that before I get into the next section,

514
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:32,320
Speaker 1: which is largely about the behind the scenes at Samsung

515
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:38,640
Speaker 1: and the incredibly complex political struggles within the Lee family,

516
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:44,360
Speaker 1: that Samsung makes some awesome products. I have several Samsung

517
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,880
Speaker 1: products myself, So while I'm gonna talk a lot about

518
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:53,120
Speaker 1: some of the controversies behind Samsung, I don't want that

519
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: to come across as me slagging the company as a whole.

520
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 1: I think that there are a lot of really good

521
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 1: Amsung products out there, but it is really fascinating to

522
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 1: take a look at the family behind the company and

523
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 1: their relationships with one another. Because you know this is

524
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 1: some Game of Thrones stuff, and I'm not kidding. You

525
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:20,920
Speaker 1: should probably grab some popcorn, and I'm going to take

526
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:30,800
Speaker 1: a quick break to thank our sponsor. Let's get back

527
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:36,120
Speaker 1: to Lee Byong Chul's legacy. His is a complicated story.

528
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 1: I talked about him a lot in the last episode

529
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 1: and about his dreams for Samsung and how he wanted

530
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:46,280
Speaker 1: his company to be a contributor to Korea's economy and

531
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 1: help the country create an industry of its own. But

532
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 1: it's not as simple as that or as heroic. Necessarily,

533
00:33:55,280 --> 00:34:01,560
Speaker 1: there's some complications to the tail. He was really intent

534
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,760
Speaker 1: on the success of his company even as you saw

535
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:09,920
Speaker 1: regime changes. He even led Samsung from Japan. He was

536
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 1: in Japan when there was the Kudata where Park Park Chunky,

537
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:20,400
Speaker 1: the military general, took control of the of the Korean government.

538
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:27,560
Speaker 1: Um this was partially because Lieb Young chol had developed

539
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:31,320
Speaker 1: a beneficial relationship with the former leadership of South Korea.

540
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: You know that US backed president that was in charge

541
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 1: of South Korea before the Kudata. Well, Young Chul was

542
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 1: buddy buddy with that president and had worked very closely

543
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,759
Speaker 1: in order to ensure Samsung's success and the growth of

544
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:53,239
Speaker 1: the Korean economy. So some would argue that perhaps this

545
00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:58,640
Speaker 1: was evidence of corruption, that perhaps Samsung had been buttering

546
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:04,080
Speaker 1: up the Korean government meant for preferential treatment. So because

547
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 1: there was a kutata where one regime was replacing another,

548
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:12,400
Speaker 1: that put Bong Chul in a delicate situation. Also, according

549
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:15,719
Speaker 1: to at least some journalist reports, although I have not

550
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:20,120
Speaker 1: been able to completely verify this, he was in Japan

551
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:23,799
Speaker 1: at the time, staying at the house of his Japanese wife.

552
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:28,000
Speaker 1: Back in Korea he had a wife as well, a

553
00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 1: different one at the same time, So according to this journalist,

554
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 1: he kept two households, one in each nation and was

555
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,800
Speaker 1: practically open about it, or at least didn't go to

556
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,280
Speaker 1: great links to hide it. Again, according to the journalist

557
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:46,200
Speaker 1: I was reading, but he did return to Korea after

558
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:48,520
Speaker 1: he was given assurances that he wouldn't be put on

559
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:51,399
Speaker 1: trial for corruption charges. And again, to be fair, those

560
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:55,480
Speaker 1: charges wouldn't necessarily be accurate. You know, Samsung had flourished

561
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 1: under that previous regime, and now you had a new

562
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,480
Speaker 1: regime in place, and that new regime is trying to

563
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:05,520
Speaker 1: wipe out everything from the previous one away, trying to

564
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,319
Speaker 1: start with a clean slate, so it was a tricky time.

565
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:12,360
Speaker 1: You could argue that perhaps there was some evidence that

566
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 1: he had colluded with the president, or maybe it was

567
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:19,800
Speaker 1: just that, as the story goes, that he was trying

568
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:22,680
Speaker 1: very hard to make Samsung a power player in the

569
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:28,200
Speaker 1: East Asian economy. Now, General Park Chung he gave Samsung

570
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:32,919
Speaker 1: some preferential treatment that really is beyond question, and also

571
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:36,000
Speaker 1: a few other Korean companies received this kind of preferential treatment.

572
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,320
Speaker 1: This was in order to encourage an era of industrialization

573
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:43,040
Speaker 1: and modernization, but the government made out pretty well too

574
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:45,759
Speaker 1: as a result. So from one point of view, you

575
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:48,680
Speaker 1: could argue that Samsung had managed to nuzzle up to

576
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:51,640
Speaker 1: one leader then turn around to get buddy buddy with

577
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:55,239
Speaker 1: the next one in order to maintain its advantage. But

578
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:58,440
Speaker 1: from a different point of view, you could say Samsung

579
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 1: was able to lead the charge and bring in Korea

580
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 1: up to speed with the rest of the industrialized world

581
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:06,120
Speaker 1: in a very short span of time. So again I'm

582
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 1: not trying to demonize Liebyung chual, but I'm also not

583
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:14,400
Speaker 1: shying away from the fact that this is complicated. Now

584
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:19,360
Speaker 1: ninety seven, Leebyung Chol had to officially resign as chairman

585
00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 1: of Samsung. This was due to a charge that his

586
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 1: second son Lee chang He, had been smuggling saccharin into Korea.

587
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:33,319
Speaker 1: So this scandal breaks out, Lee Byung Chul, as part

588
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:37,359
Speaker 1: of this news break of his second son being part

589
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,640
Speaker 1: of a smuggling operation, announces that he will step down

590
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:47,360
Speaker 1: as the head of Samsung Group and thus control of

591
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:50,920
Speaker 1: the company passed, as his tradition in South Korea to

592
00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 1: the eldest son that was Lie Mang Kee. Now keep

593
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 1: in mind, Samsung Group is a company of companies, and

594
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:03,240
Speaker 1: we're talking around a companies at this point. But founder

595
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:06,560
Speaker 1: lead Byong Chol still had the power to choose which

596
00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 1: of his children would officially lead the company after his death,

597
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:14,320
Speaker 1: which is common in Korea. Leadership can remain within a family,

598
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:18,600
Speaker 1: and Biong Chol watched as his eldest song son mong

599
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:23,560
Speaker 1: He began to alienate the leadership of the various divisions

600
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 1: within Samsung, and in fact, according to some reports, he

601
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:29,920
Speaker 1: had even written that within six months he had plunged

602
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:35,759
Speaker 1: that upper echelon of executive leadership into chaos. There were

603
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,520
Speaker 1: a lot of reports that Mong He was short tempered

604
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 1: and ill suited for leadership. Meanwhile, Biong Chol's second son,

605
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:47,040
Speaker 1: Chong He, tried to position himself into a power position

606
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:52,279
Speaker 1: despite his previous scandal of smuggling Sacharin by talking to

607
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 1: the President of South Korea and revealing that Biong Chol

608
00:38:56,360 --> 00:38:59,920
Speaker 1: had some slush funds that he was hiding from the government,

609
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:04,480
Speaker 1: presumably for bribery and other purposes. And this is the

610
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:06,960
Speaker 1: point where we should really just be humming the Game

611
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,480
Speaker 1: of Thrones theme and probably just keep it up for

612
00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:13,320
Speaker 1: the rest of the episode. So Young Chal made a

613
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:17,080
Speaker 1: decision at that point that the ownership of the Samsung

614
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:20,879
Speaker 1: group would not go to either of his first two

615
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:24,080
Speaker 1: sons because he felt that they were both plotting against

616
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:26,759
Speaker 1: him and would be a bad fit. So instead he

617
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:30,520
Speaker 1: decided that that we should go to the third son. Now,

618
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:32,719
Speaker 1: as you can imagine, this did not exactly go over

619
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 1: very well within the Lee family, so in when Bong

620
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:39,840
Speaker 1: Chal passed away, the control of his company went to

621
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:44,800
Speaker 1: his third son, Lee Kun He. Now Samsung itself is

622
00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:48,879
Speaker 1: what is called a chable, which is an institution peculiar

623
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:53,839
Speaker 1: to South Korea. Essentially, a chable is a large conglomerate

624
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:56,759
Speaker 1: of businesses that more often than not fall under a

625
00:39:56,960 --> 00:40:00,480
Speaker 1: single families ownership and leadership, and it can get really

626
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:04,919
Speaker 1: complicated and be really dense and difficult to suss out

627
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 1: who owns what percentage of which company, so you can

628
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:11,800
Speaker 1: make a lot of arguments as to whether or not

629
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,719
Speaker 1: things are on the up and up. Well, Lee kun

630
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:19,080
Speaker 1: He became the head of Sam Suck Group, and individual

631
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:21,880
Speaker 1: businesses and divisions fell under the control of some of

632
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:27,320
Speaker 1: his siblings. You might remember I mentioned earlier that Samsung

633
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:31,080
Speaker 1: Group kind of broke into four major components at this point,

634
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:34,759
Speaker 1: while those components went to other siblings, one of those

635
00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 1: was Lee mangy Um. He ended up taking control of

636
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 1: the CJ Group, you remember I mentioned that earlier. Well,

637
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 1: later on, much later on, like in two thousand twelve,

638
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:50,680
Speaker 1: Lee mang He and one of his sisters would go

639
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:54,840
Speaker 1: on to sue Lee kun He and Lee mong He

640
00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 1: was accusing his younger brother of hiding shares from the

641
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:03,120
Speaker 1: company after their father's death, and that lot loss it

642
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:05,160
Speaker 1: would last couple of years, only coming to a close

643
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:08,880
Speaker 1: in fourteen when Soul's High Court upheld a verdict that

644
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:12,560
Speaker 1: said Lee kun He was innocent of that. Really more

645
00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 1: it was more about how the the the claim of

646
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 1: any you know, any sort of claim you would have

647
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 1: for inheritance would have expired after ten years um had

648
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:30,319
Speaker 1: passed from the death of Young Chal and Young Chal

649
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:33,600
Speaker 1: died in so by twelve it was far too late.

650
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 1: But that's not the end of the animosity within the

651
00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 1: Lee household. It actually gets very complicated. So one of

652
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:44,920
Speaker 1: Young Chul's daughters still second generation here, her name was

653
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:49,320
Speaker 1: Li Suki, still is Li Suki. She married into another

654
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:52,840
Speaker 1: family in Korea, another prominent family, the kulm Sung family.

655
00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:56,840
Speaker 1: Now the kulm Sung family is the head of another

656
00:41:56,960 --> 00:42:01,919
Speaker 1: table namely l G and as LGS electronic business began

657
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 1: to flourish, this put a strain on relations between the

658
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 1: Cum Song and Lee families. So that created some more

659
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:16,000
Speaker 1: tension inside the family. Now getting into the more complications

660
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:19,120
Speaker 1: in this web of relationships that were tested after Young

661
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:22,040
Speaker 1: Cholls passing, I need to talk about some of the

662
00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:26,840
Speaker 1: other folks. Lee Cheung he founded a company called Sahan

663
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 1: which was an electronics and textiles company. Also made one

664
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: of the first MP three players called the MP Men.

665
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:38,200
Speaker 1: Chung he would pass away in I think he was

666
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:42,040
Speaker 1: the first of Young Choll's children to pass away, so

667
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:44,600
Speaker 1: he only you know he lived only three years after

668
00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 1: his father. Well Lee in He one of you Young

669
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:53,280
Speaker 1: Choll's daughters, another again second generation here became the leader

670
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:59,880
Speaker 1: of Samsung's home furnishing businesses, and another one of the daughters,

671
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:04,480
Speaker 1: Lee Jung Hee, would end up leading Samsung's retail businesses.

672
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:08,640
Speaker 1: Both groups of businesses would split off from Samsung. The

673
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:13,320
Speaker 1: home furnishing business split off in n and the retail

674
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 1: business split off in n So Lee and he founded

675
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,520
Speaker 1: the Handsall Group, which is an electronics production company and

676
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:26,840
Speaker 1: paper manufacturing business. And according to Handsall, they have no

677
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:30,360
Speaker 1: connection with Samsung Group at all, that there's no ownership

678
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:34,120
Speaker 1: connection between the two. Leemyng he would go on to

679
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:39,360
Speaker 1: found the Shinsga Group that was the department store franchise

680
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:43,280
Speaker 1: in South Korea, and both of them are very powerful

681
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:46,960
Speaker 1: leaders in Korea as an economy. Then you had C

682
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:50,279
Speaker 1: J Child Judang, which is a business it sells all

683
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:53,840
Speaker 1: sorts of stuff including food and biopharmaceuticals. Lee mang He,

684
00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:57,759
Speaker 1: the eldest of Bjong Chol's sons, lead this company and

685
00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:01,880
Speaker 1: then passed it on to his son Lee j Hun so.

686
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 1: Lee j Hun is third generation is a grandson of

687
00:44:05,719 --> 00:44:10,200
Speaker 1: Bjong Cho Lee j Hun led c J child Judang

688
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:14,320
Speaker 1: until and then he was convicted of charges of theft

689
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:18,040
Speaker 1: and embezzlement and sentenced to four years in prison. He

690
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:21,200
Speaker 1: would not be the only Lee to be accused of

691
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:26,520
Speaker 1: and convicted for charges such as these. In in fact,

692
00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:30,359
Speaker 1: Lee Kun He he's the guy again, the third son

693
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,799
Speaker 1: of the founder who had taken over control of Samsung Group.

694
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,399
Speaker 1: He was accused of and convicted for charges of paying

695
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:41,719
Speaker 1: bribes to Chun do Huan. That was the general who

696
00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:48,600
Speaker 1: took over after Park Chung Hee's assassination. So Chount do

697
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:52,839
Speaker 1: Juan was a president of Korea. South Korea and Uh

698
00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:58,360
Speaker 1: Lee Kun He was convicted of charges of bribing the government.

699
00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 1: Uh He also was accused of bribing the successor to

700
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:11,680
Speaker 1: Chun do Huan, who was Row Tai Wou. So was

701
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:13,960
Speaker 1: a bad year for Lee. Couldn't he he had these

702
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:17,520
Speaker 1: charges of bribery for two of South Korea's recent presidents

703
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:22,239
Speaker 1: but a n the then president of South Korea Kim

704
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 1: Yong sam, this was the next successor. Granted, couldn't he

705
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:31,160
Speaker 1: a pardon? So couldn't he gets a presidential pardon in

706
00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:34,960
Speaker 1: nine after being accused of bribing the two previous presidents.

707
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:37,960
Speaker 1: By the way, at this point, Korea had entered into

708
00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:41,440
Speaker 1: what is called the sixth Republic, which is what it

709
00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:46,919
Speaker 1: currently is in Korea's In the sixth Republic, the third

710
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:53,960
Speaker 1: and fourth republic were Park Chung He's um presidential administrations,

711
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:56,879
Speaker 1: I guess you could call it, And then you had

712
00:45:56,920 --> 00:46:02,560
Speaker 1: the fifth one with Do Juan and Thai who alright, So,

713
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:07,080
Speaker 1: Kim Young sam also pursued pursued charges of corruption and

714
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:10,800
Speaker 1: treason against his predecessors Do Huan and taiwou So. The

715
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:15,640
Speaker 1: the president who granted the pardon to Samsung's Kun He,

716
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:19,960
Speaker 1: president of South Korea, also went after the two previous

717
00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:23,600
Speaker 1: presidents of South Korea, but then eventually, after having them

718
00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:27,640
Speaker 1: both convicted, would grant them both a pardon. So Samsung's

719
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:30,600
Speaker 1: politics are confusing, but so are Korea's, right, because you

720
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:37,000
Speaker 1: had a a current standing president accuse and convict two

721
00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:40,880
Speaker 1: former presidents of corruption charges and then grant them pardons.

722
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:46,280
Speaker 1: Complicated stuff, alright, So Sam sungskun he gets his pardon

723
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:49,920
Speaker 1: in nine for those bribery charges. Then he goes back

724
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 1: to managing Samsung. He has a son, and he had

725
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:57,920
Speaker 1: three daughters, all of whom attended school in the United States.

726
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 1: His son Lee j Long, also known in the West

727
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:07,440
Speaker 1: as j y Lee, assumed control of fourteen internet venture companies,

728
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:09,360
Speaker 1: but they went out of business within a year, so

729
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:16,080
Speaker 1: that didn't exactly instill a lot of of enthusiasm because again,

730
00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:20,320
Speaker 1: the way Samsung operates, the way Korea businesses operate, especially

731
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:25,600
Speaker 1: in this old family tradition, Jay Lee stands to inherit Samsung.

732
00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:29,440
Speaker 1: His father kun He is the is the current leader

733
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:33,960
Speaker 1: and would traditionally pass it down to his eldest son. Well.

734
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:39,120
Speaker 1: J Lee is the only son of kunt He. Kun

735
00:47:39,239 --> 00:47:42,759
Speaker 1: He's daughter, Lee Yun Yung, is the subject of a

736
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:46,040
Speaker 1: really tragic story, and he may have heard about this

737
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:49,279
Speaker 1: because it was big news when it happened. When she

738
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:53,120
Speaker 1: was twenty six years old, the heiress to the Samsung

739
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:57,319
Speaker 1: fortune hanged herself in a New York apartment building. Her

740
00:47:57,400 --> 00:48:00,880
Speaker 1: death was international news. She was the daughter of one

741
00:48:00,960 --> 00:48:03,920
Speaker 1: of Korea's wealthiest men, and in Korea, her death was

742
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:07,920
Speaker 1: originally reported as the result of a car accident. She

743
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 1: had an avid interest in race cars, and people knew

744
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:14,200
Speaker 1: that about her. But according to some people close to her.

745
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:17,280
Speaker 1: She was also prone to bouts of loneliness and depression,

746
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:21,600
Speaker 1: possibly because she had hoped to marry a man she

747
00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 1: had fallen in love with back in Korea, but she

748
00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:27,120
Speaker 1: had been told by her parents that the man was

749
00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:31,160
Speaker 1: not of the right stature for her to marry, and

750
00:48:31,239 --> 00:48:35,040
Speaker 1: they forbade her from marrying him. Now, the true story

751
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:40,839
Speaker 1: that led to her suicide is probably not fully known,

752
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:44,279
Speaker 1: and I'm sure it is far more complicated than that

753
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 1: simple answer, but it was a shocking and tragic tale

754
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:53,239
Speaker 1: that made world headlines. In two thousand and eight, Lee

755
00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:56,920
Speaker 1: kunhe was accused of and convicted for tax evasions. So

756
00:48:57,719 --> 00:48:59,879
Speaker 1: ten years after a little bit more than ten years

757
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:03,360
Speaker 1: after his last conviction, he gets accused and convicted for

758
00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:06,560
Speaker 1: another set of crimes. The charges said he failed to

759
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:10,120
Speaker 1: pay forty five million dollars in taxes and he was

760
00:49:10,239 --> 00:49:13,600
Speaker 1: hit with a fine that was nearly ninety million dollars.

761
00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:16,480
Speaker 1: As a result of the scandal, he was forced to

762
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:20,919
Speaker 1: resign as chairman of Samsung. That put his son, Jay

763
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:25,200
Speaker 1: Lee's claim in danger, actually, because since he had to

764
00:49:25,239 --> 00:49:28,279
Speaker 1: step down, there was a question of whether or not

765
00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:31,640
Speaker 1: he would be able to pass along the ownership of

766
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:34,520
Speaker 1: the company to his son. But then in two thousand

767
00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,360
Speaker 1: nine he received another presidential pardon for giving him for

768
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:42,279
Speaker 1: his conviction of tax evasion, and in twos ten he

769
00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:46,960
Speaker 1: reassumed leadership of Samsung Electronics. All right, let's get back

770
00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:50,080
Speaker 1: to c J Group, which again spun off from Samsung

771
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:52,719
Speaker 1: in the early es. This was the part of the

772
00:49:52,719 --> 00:49:55,799
Speaker 1: company that dealt with food and biopharmaceuticals and later got

773
00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:59,920
Speaker 1: into the entertainment business, forming subsidiaries like c J Media,

774
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:04,200
Speaker 1: c J Entertainment, and c J Internet. Lee mong He,

775
00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:08,880
Speaker 1: remember he was the eldest son of the founder of Samsung.

776
00:50:09,719 --> 00:50:12,480
Speaker 1: He had a son, Lee j Hun, you remember I

777
00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:14,800
Speaker 1: mentioned him earlier, who became the head of c J

778
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:18,600
Speaker 1: Group in two thousand two, So this is a Samsung

779
00:50:18,719 --> 00:50:23,919
Speaker 1: founder's grandson. Lee j Hun would be grandson to Byung Chul,

780
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:28,960
Speaker 1: the founder of Samsung. Anyway, in Lee j Hun was

781
00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:33,200
Speaker 1: arrested on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement, so you

782
00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:36,920
Speaker 1: might be sensing a theme here. He would also eventually

783
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:41,279
Speaker 1: receive a pardon from the president in As for Mong He,

784
00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:46,160
Speaker 1: the eldest son, he passed away in the second of

785
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:50,040
Speaker 1: Byong Chul's children to pass away. Now, of course, this

786
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:53,160
Speaker 1: is not where the story ends. You have probably heard

787
00:50:53,280 --> 00:50:56,359
Speaker 1: about a scandal that is sweeping South Korea that hit

788
00:50:56,400 --> 00:50:59,880
Speaker 1: worldwide news. In it is often referred to as the

789
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:03,880
Speaker 1: Choice Sun Sil scandal. Samsung is caught up in that,

790
00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:06,600
Speaker 1: as well as lots of other companies and entity. So

791
00:51:06,719 --> 00:51:10,000
Speaker 1: what is the scandal all about? Who? Boy? I hope

792
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 1: you still got some popcorn? Here we go. Well, as

793
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:15,800
Speaker 1: you've no doubt gathered from this and the previous podcast,

794
00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:19,560
Speaker 1: Korea's government has had a real rocky time since World

795
00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:22,560
Speaker 1: War Two, and even before that was several leaders doing

796
00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:25,279
Speaker 1: their best to maintain a position of power beyond what

797
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:28,959
Speaker 1: we're supposed to be legally binding protections for the Korean people.

798
00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:33,480
Speaker 1: Many Korean leaders have been involved in various scandals that

799
00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:36,839
Speaker 1: revolve around bribery and corruption. And honestly, I think it's

800
00:51:36,840 --> 00:51:39,960
Speaker 1: impossible to really lay blame here because the nation of

801
00:51:40,040 --> 00:51:43,239
Speaker 1: Korea has been the subject of so much interference in

802
00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:48,719
Speaker 1: international intrigue, But this particular scandal really stands out. Choi

803
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:52,560
Speaker 1: Sun Sil is the name of a woman. She was

804
00:51:52,719 --> 00:51:55,960
Speaker 1: the daughter of a man named Choi Thai Men. Thai

805
00:51:56,120 --> 00:52:01,960
Speaker 1: Men was the head of a set of South Korean Christians.

806
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:06,399
Speaker 1: He was formerly a Buddhist and converted to Roman Catholicism.

807
00:52:07,160 --> 00:52:11,480
Speaker 1: Uh and some people call his group occult. I do

808
00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:14,359
Speaker 1: not know enough about it to give it a term,

809
00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:18,880
Speaker 1: but he'd certainly led a sect of religious followers in

810
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:22,000
Speaker 1: South Korea. He became friends with and a mentor to,

811
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:26,960
Speaker 1: a woman named Park gun he Um, and I know

812
00:52:27,080 --> 00:52:30,120
Speaker 1: I'm butchering her name, but she was. She was the

813
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:35,480
Speaker 1: daughter of Park Chung hee, the military general who became

814
00:52:35,719 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: the dictator of South Korea for many years for the

815
00:52:39,120 --> 00:52:44,200
Speaker 1: Third and Fourth Republics of Korea. Now Park Yun He

816
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:49,840
Speaker 1: was elected to the position of president in and she

817
00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:53,600
Speaker 1: was friends with Choice Sun Sil that time. Men had

818
00:52:53,600 --> 00:52:55,600
Speaker 1: passed away in the nineties, but his daughter Soon still

819
00:52:55,680 --> 00:53:01,360
Speaker 1: remained very close to Gun he In twenties, team it

820
00:53:01,520 --> 00:53:05,279
Speaker 1: became public knowledge that there were a string of accusations

821
00:53:05,320 --> 00:53:08,680
Speaker 1: and arrests that were flooding the South Korean government, many

822
00:53:08,719 --> 00:53:12,600
Speaker 1: of them targeting the people around the president herself, and

823
00:53:12,680 --> 00:53:15,839
Speaker 1: the story unfolded that Soon Sealed had been using her

824
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:20,360
Speaker 1: considerable influence over the president to create favorable deals for

825
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:23,160
Speaker 1: herself and her family and her friends, and that many

826
00:53:23,239 --> 00:53:27,319
Speaker 1: government officials have been accepting numerous large bribes from lots

827
00:53:27,360 --> 00:53:33,479
Speaker 1: of businesses, including businesses related to Samsung. This scandal has

828
00:53:33,680 --> 00:53:37,719
Speaker 1: rocked South Korea. The president has stepped down, she was impeached.

829
00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:40,399
Speaker 1: She stepped down from the role of president. The Prime

830
00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:45,120
Speaker 1: Minister took over. But as for Samsung, this led authorities

831
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:48,320
Speaker 1: to go investigate j Lee, whom I hope you'll remember

832
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:52,719
Speaker 1: is kun He's son and therefore a grandson of the

833
00:53:52,840 --> 00:53:57,719
Speaker 1: founder Young chull So. J Lee was serving as vice

834
00:53:57,840 --> 00:54:03,320
Speaker 1: chairman for Samsung Electronics is essentially the heir apparent to Samsung.

835
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:06,759
Speaker 1: He was accused of bribery, among other things, and was

836
00:54:06,880 --> 00:54:11,759
Speaker 1: arrested in January seventeen. The accusations include one that says

837
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:14,920
Speaker 1: that he made sizeable contributions to the tune of about

838
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:18,719
Speaker 1: thirty five million dollars to two nonprofits that Choye Soon

839
00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:22,839
Speaker 1: Seal allegedly controls Now the story is still unfolding at

840
00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:24,759
Speaker 1: this time of the recording, and so the future of

841
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:28,359
Speaker 1: Samsung leadership remains an open question. It could turn out

842
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:31,640
Speaker 1: that it has merit and that Jay Lee will be

843
00:54:31,719 --> 00:54:34,640
Speaker 1: convicted of these charges. It could turn out that we

844
00:54:34,719 --> 00:54:38,960
Speaker 1: see yet another presidential pardon, come out and UH absolve

845
00:54:39,080 --> 00:54:44,279
Speaker 1: him of these charges. Who knows one possible successor to

846
00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:49,000
Speaker 1: the Samsung Empire could be Kunh's daughter, Lee bou Jin.

847
00:54:50,200 --> 00:54:52,480
Speaker 1: She is sometimes referred to as Little Kun Heat by

848
00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:56,360
Speaker 1: the Korean public. She's the president of Hotel Shila and

849
00:54:56,520 --> 00:55:00,040
Speaker 1: co president of Samsung Everland, which is a company it

850
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:06,759
Speaker 1: oversees Korea's oldest amusement park under the umbrella of Child Industries. Now,

851
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:08,919
Speaker 1: if you listen to part one of the Samsung Story,

852
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:11,760
Speaker 1: you might remember I mentioned Child Industries in that episode.

853
00:55:11,920 --> 00:55:15,040
Speaker 1: It started off as a very humble business. It was

854
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:19,000
Speaker 1: a woolen mill back when Samsung first was diversifying in

855
00:55:19,040 --> 00:55:24,520
Speaker 1: the mid twentieth century. Well, liebu Jin's sister, Lee Shun,

856
00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:28,200
Speaker 1: is the other co president of Child Industries, so the

857
00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:32,719
Speaker 1: two sisters sit at the top of that company. There

858
00:55:32,800 --> 00:55:35,480
Speaker 1: was also a recent story where in an effort to

859
00:55:35,600 --> 00:55:38,360
Speaker 1: streamline things, there was a plan to have Child Industries

860
00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:42,880
Speaker 1: acquire Samsung C and T. So that's not the overall

861
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:47,239
Speaker 1: Samsung company, it's the construction and transportation company that's was

862
00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:50,840
Speaker 1: part of Samsung. But Paul Singer, who is an investor

863
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:54,239
Speaker 1: UH with more than seven percent ownership of stock, and

864
00:55:54,320 --> 00:55:58,360
Speaker 1: Samsung C and T blocked that plan. He led a

865
00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:00,480
Speaker 1: charge to block it, saying that he felt that the

866
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:05,520
Speaker 1: nine point four billion dollar stock offer was undervaluing Samsung

867
00:56:05,680 --> 00:56:08,080
Speaker 1: C and T and that shareholders wouldn't be paid a

868
00:56:08,160 --> 00:56:12,680
Speaker 1: fair amount for their their ownership. Um that caused some

869
00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:15,640
Speaker 1: headaches over on the Samsung side for the leadership for

870
00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:18,880
Speaker 1: the Lee family, I suppose I should say shareholders have

871
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:22,120
Speaker 1: pressured Samsung trying to get them to change to a

872
00:56:22,200 --> 00:56:25,359
Speaker 1: more traditional holding structure, you know, like with a board

873
00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:28,640
Speaker 1: of directors and that sort of thing. Many other tables

874
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:31,640
Speaker 1: in Korea have given up the ghosts, they have disappeared,

875
00:56:31,680 --> 00:56:34,279
Speaker 1: They got broken up by the government and dispersed and

876
00:56:34,360 --> 00:56:38,960
Speaker 1: turned into more traditional Western style corporations. But Samsung's Lee

877
00:56:39,120 --> 00:56:43,200
Speaker 1: family has not followed suit, and they have been putting

878
00:56:43,280 --> 00:56:45,640
Speaker 1: up resistance to this and have said that it's completely

879
00:56:45,719 --> 00:56:49,360
Speaker 1: unnecessary and in fact would end up causing more harm

880
00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:52,680
Speaker 1: than good. That's their claim. So you could say they

881
00:56:52,719 --> 00:56:59,040
Speaker 1: are disinclined to acquiesce to such pressures. The company itself

882
00:56:59,280 --> 00:57:02,279
Speaker 1: is so vad and complicated that it's hard to wrap

883
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:05,680
Speaker 1: your mind around the whole thing. And seriously this could

884
00:57:05,680 --> 00:57:09,240
Speaker 1: be an amazing documentary following the story of Samsung's ruling

885
00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:13,120
Speaker 1: family as they gain prestige and power, occasionally turning on

886
00:57:13,239 --> 00:57:16,120
Speaker 1: one another in the process. I really do think it's

887
00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:20,000
Speaker 1: like like Game of Thrones mixed with sopranos, mixed with

888
00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:25,760
Speaker 1: a few other big stories about enormous, sprawling families and

889
00:57:25,840 --> 00:57:32,440
Speaker 1: their control of important interests. Not saying that it's necessarily

890
00:57:32,920 --> 00:57:37,280
Speaker 1: all self serving or dark or anything like that, but

891
00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:40,720
Speaker 1: there's definitely a lot of politics going on behind the scenes.

892
00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:44,840
Speaker 1: Fascinating stuff, and I want to learn more, and maybe

893
00:57:44,880 --> 00:57:46,960
Speaker 1: in the future I will do another episode to kind

894
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:49,959
Speaker 1: of shed more light onto this company. But I felt

895
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:53,160
Speaker 1: like a two parter was the best approach in this case,

896
00:57:53,560 --> 00:57:55,120
Speaker 1: because the more I looked into this, the more I

897
00:57:55,200 --> 00:57:58,840
Speaker 1: realized that I just I lack the cultural knowledge to

898
00:57:59,040 --> 00:58:02,600
Speaker 1: dive into it even further. I would have to study

899
00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:05,200
Speaker 1: this for a couple of weeks to really get my

900
00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:08,040
Speaker 1: head around it. So maybe I will revisit it in

901
00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:10,440
Speaker 1: the future, but I think it's a pretty fascinating story.

902
00:58:11,040 --> 00:58:14,240
Speaker 1: If you guys have any suggestions for future episodes of

903
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:16,760
Speaker 1: Tech Stuff, or maybe you've got an idea for someone

904
00:58:16,800 --> 00:58:19,280
Speaker 1: who should be a guest on our show. You should

905
00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 1: go and let me know via email. The address for

906
00:58:23,720 --> 00:58:27,240
Speaker 1: this podcast is tech stuff at how stuff Works dot com,

907
00:58:27,560 --> 00:58:30,360
Speaker 1: or you can drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter.

908
00:58:30,840 --> 00:58:33,360
Speaker 1: The handle for the show is tech Stuff h s W.

909
00:58:34,200 --> 00:58:37,360
Speaker 1: Normally I would be streaming live on twitch dot tv

910
00:58:37,520 --> 00:58:40,400
Speaker 1: slash tech Stuff, but as I'm recording this right now,

911
00:58:40,880 --> 00:58:45,880
Speaker 1: our office is suffering some internet connectivity issues, so I'm

912
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:48,160
Speaker 1: just recording an episode. No one's getting to watch this

913
00:58:48,480 --> 00:58:51,560
Speaker 1: amazing performance I'm giving over here, which is a pity.

914
00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:55,320
Speaker 1: But usually you can watch me record the show live

915
00:58:55,440 --> 00:58:59,479
Speaker 1: on Wednesdays and Friday's. Just go to twitch dot tv

916
00:58:59,680 --> 00:59:02,160
Speaker 1: sladh tech Stuff and you can find the schedule there

917
00:59:03,160 --> 00:59:06,360
Speaker 1: and I will talk to you guys again really soon

918
00:59:12,560 --> 00:59:14,960
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is

919
00:59:15,000 --> 00:59:16,240
Speaker 1: it how stuff Works dot com.