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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Introduction

01:19 — Meet Lane Brown

02:12 — What Extreme Wealth Does to a Person

03:21 — The First Thing Money Does: Isolation

06:36 — Who Counts as Ultra-Wealthy?

07:28 — How Lane Got Mark Cuban to Talk

09:31 — Why the Rich Refused to Participate

11:22 — Self-Made vs. Inherited Wealth

13:18 — Is It All Just Luck?

14:16 — The Goalpost That Never Stops Moving

17:41 — The 8-Step Descent Into Corruption

20:23 — Do Billionaires Know People Hate Them?

23:24 — When Luxury Purchases Lose Their Thrill

27:03 — Are Billionaires Actually Cheap?

29:02 — The Tax Strategy Behind the Spending

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

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