Episode Details

In this episode of pplpod, we profile Stephen A. Schwarzman, the co-founder and CEO of Blackstone Inc., who built a financial empire managing over $1.1 trillion in assets. We explore Schwarzman’s rise from a dry-goods store family in Philadelphia to becoming the highest-paid CEO in the United States, with a net worth exceeding $40 billion.

Tune in as we discuss his aggressive business philosophy—once stating he “wants war” against competitors—and his lavish lifestyle, which includes multimillion-dollar birthday parties and shipping water tankers to his private estate during a drought. We also examine his influential political maneuvering, from chairing Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum to funding a new White House State Ballroom in 2025. Finally, we look at the tension between his massive philanthropic gifts to institutions like Yale and Oxford and his various controversies, including his apology for comparing tax hikes to Hitler’s invasion of Poland and his presence in the Epstein files.