Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
3 episodes
Seinfeld
- Seinfeld drew about 60m American viewers in the first half of 2026, rising to 72m through August, per Nielsen.
- NBC rented the pilot from Castle Rock Entertainment because FCC rules barred networks from owning the shows they aired, and Seinfeld and Larry David each reportedly owned 15%.
19 Oct · 3 h 50 min
The Walt Disney Company
- Acquired's hosts argue Disney's business rested on animation as a new technology, with Laugh O Gram failing in 1923 once theater managers tired of cartoons.
- Charles Mintz's secret signing of Walt's animators after the Oswald loss left the studio's enterprise value effectively zero, per Ben Gilbert.
22 Jun · 4 h 31 min
Vanguard
- Vanguard, owned by its own funds, controls over $10tn in passive index funds and about 24% of the US stock market alongside BlackRock, State Street and Fidelity.
- Jack Bogle's 1951 Princeton thesis argued fees were the main drag on fund returns, a view that later shaped Vanguard's low-cost model.
18 May · 3 h 48 min