Family Fortune and Misfortune with Janny Scott (Encore)

Crazy Money with Paul Ollinger

Janny Scott is the descendant of railroad barons and financial tycoons. She grew up on an 800-acre estate on the Philadelphia Main Line. In her book The Beneficiary: Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father, she shares the details of both the opulence and the tragic complications of her family’s vast fortune. While things appeared perfect from the outside, alcoholism, suicide, divorce, and idleness derailed many of her relations. In this conversation, we discuss what it was like to grow up on property the size of Central Park and how the presence of so much wealth affects her attitudes about money today. We also cover the tragedies that befell many of her ancestors as they struggled to find purpose amidst massive affluence. Janny worked for 14 years as a reporter for the New York Times where she was a member of the team that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Prior to the NYT, she reported for the LA Times and The Record of Bergen County (NJ). Her first book, A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother earned her a nomination for the PEN/Jacqueline Bogard Weld Award for Biography and was named to Time magazine’s top ten nonfiction books of 2011. A graduate of Harvard College, Janny spoke with me from her home in New York City. This episode was released in October, 2020.

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About Crazy Money:

Unlike traditional personal finance or investing shows, Crazy Money is not about how to make a million bucks, how to beat the stock market, or how to save money by switching cable providers. It is about deciding what role we want money to play in our lives and how we can use it to achieve our best selves. Topics covered include: philosophy, happiness, contentment, meaning, dreams, purpose, success, mental health, Buddhism, Stoicism, the hedonic treadmill, morality, mid-Life Crisis, business, work, careers, authors, books, consumerism, values, capitalism, economics, investing, saving, spending, personal finance, charity, philanthropy, altruism, affluence, wealth, wealth management, culture, society, and status. Crazy Money is edited by Mike Carano. Are you really still reading?