What is money? And what can a small island in Micronesia teach us about how it works? On Yap, a remote island in the western Pacific, giant calcite “Rai” stones once functioned as currency, where ownership and collective trust — rather than physical possession — defined wealth and status. In this episode of The Story of Money, macroeconomist and author Felix Martin joins hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth to explore the stones of Yap, the origins of money and why the traditional “barter theory” may be a myth.

Further reading:

Money: The Unauthorised Biography (2015) by Felix Martin

Uap of the Carolines (1910) by William Henry Furness III

A Treatise on Money (1930) by John Maynard Keynes

The Island of Stone Money (1991) and Money Mischief (1992) by Milton Friedman

‘Tralla La’ in Uncle Scrooge #6 by Carl Barks (1954)

His Majesty O’Keefe (1954) Warner Bros

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Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Guest: Felix Martin

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producers: Laurence Knight and Michela Tindera

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editors: Kristen Kenyon and Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 19th-century America almost anyone could print their own money – and many did. One of the most notable figures to take this up was a man named James Brown, a charismatic conman who built a fortune producing fake banknotes. In this episode of The Story of Money, Stephen Mihm, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, introduces hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth to “the hardest working man in counterfeiting”. They discuss the parallels between banking in the Wild West and the advent of cryptocurrencies today, and the role trust plays in all financial systems.

Further reading:

A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States, by Stephen Mihm (2007)

The Square and Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power, by Niall Ferguson (2018)

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, and also follow the show's dedicated YouTube channel here.

Learn more at ft.com/tsom

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Guest: Stephen Mihm

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producer: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editor: Kristen Kenyon at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every now and then a new technology comes along that changes everything – electricity, computers, potentially AI. In mid-19th-century America, that technology was the steam locomotive. It knitted the US economy together, driving the nation’s industrialisation during the Gilded Age. But along the way, it also caused one of the biggest financial crises in American history. FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth tells his co-host, FT columnist Gillian Tett, the story of the great railway bubble that ended in the Panic of 1873. It’s also the story of the spectacular rise and fall of Jay Cooke, the greatest banker of his day, who lost a fortune betting on a railroad that would eventually span the North American continent – just not in time to repay its debts. Robin and Gillian discuss what lessons the financier’s fate holds for the investors gambling on today’s AI boom.

Credits: New York Times Archive, Otto Herschan Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Further reading:

Jay Cooke: Financier of the Civil War, by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer (1907)

Jay Cooke's gamble: the Northern Pacific Railroad, the Sioux, and the Panic of 1873, by M John Lubetkin (2006)

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, by Richard White (2012)

Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great For The Economy, by Daniel Gross (2007)

A Fabulous Debt: The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World, by Robin Wigglesworth (2026 – forthcoming)

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here:

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producers: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music and sound design: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editor: Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.