Part Two: Prince Mohammed Bin Salman: The Tyrant of Saudi Arabia

Summary

Podcast Summary: Behind the Bastards

Episode: Part Two — Prince Mohammed Bin Salman: The Tyrant of Saudi Arabia

Date: January 22, 2026
Host: Robert Evans (often using the pseudonym Brett Weinstein here)
Guest: David Bell

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Overview of the Episode's Main Theme

This episode continues the deep-dive exploration of Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de facto ruler, tracing his upbringing, the peculiar dynamics of Saudi royal succession, and the early life experiences that shaped his personality and leadership style. The hosts dissect the unique contradictions of immense inherited privilege mixed with acute familial insecurity, dysfunctional systems of power and patronage in Saudi Arabia, and hints of the ruthlessness that would later define MBS’s reign.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Saudi State's Oil Dependency and Welfare Structure

• Saudi Arabia is described as a state catastrophically dependent on oil revenue (Aramco comprising 80% of state spending by the 1980s).
• The government employs about two-thirds of Saudi men, mostly in nominal roles—essentially a welfare system meant to "bribe" the male populace and prevent unrest.
• Creative, poorly-thought-out benefit systems led to bizarre incentives—such as salary “bumps” for trivial skills—and policies that actively discouraged hiring Saudi nationals in some sectors ([04:22]–[07:30]).
• Quote:
  “Most of the state jobs they have are lifetime gigs. They exist as a form of welfare—they’re a way for the House of Saud to bribe enough of the free male population to ensure there’s never too much unrest.” – Brett ([04:27])

2. MBS’s Family Background and Early Upbringing

• MBS is the eldest son of Prince Salman’s second wife—thus part of his father’s “B family,” with a lower internal status and fewer privileges than his siblings from the first marriage ([07:57]–[13:05]).
• Raised in lavish, insular palaces, mostly surrounded by servants, nannies, bodyguards—people who could not discipline him meaningfully.
• Quote:
  “That’s how you make a monster… if a group of people were like, ‘Hey, you know what would be funny? If we made a monster?’ That sounds like what you would do.” – David ([09:36])

3. Isolation, Status Anxiety, and Sibling Rivalry

• MBS and his siblings suffered bullying from the “A family” half-brothers; he developed an inferiority complex despite immense privilege.
• His mother worked to get her children more “face time” with their father, engineering visits to the “White House” palace.
• Quote:
  “[He] grows up with the distinct impression that his dad was prioritizing his first family—because he was.” – Brett ([18:01])

4. Privilege and Peculiar Hardships

• MBS had a $500/month allowance as a fourth grader—a pittance compared to wealthier cousins’ $5,000/week ([17:13]).
• The “B family” stayed at luxury hotels, not the family palace, when abroad—a symbolic slight that nurtured resentment ([17:38]).
• Quote:
  “It’s again, perfect storm. It’s like you have so much privilege, but also like the weird anger of someone who doesn’t feel like they do.” – David ([18:11])

5. Emotional Development and Socialization

• MBS grew up with constant reminders of dynastic violence (family members killing one another), reinforcing callous attitudes toward power ([14:46]).
• He was socially awkward, initially shy (afraid to perform in a school play) and retreated into video games—the only permissible entertainment not yet banned by the religious police ([15:59]).
• Still has his original Neo Geo console in his palace bedroom ([16:20]).

6. Insights from a British Tutor

• Rashid Sakai, his English tutor, provides rare third-party insight—describes MBS as top dog within his immediate family but awkward in the larger familial hierarchy ([25:20], [26:17]).
• MBS enjoyed pranking, often using his privilege to tease staff via walkie-talkie during lessons ([26:52]–[27:13]).
• The royal household was “jaw-dropping”—even for a so-called “poorer” palace ([21:21]).

7. Adolescence: Petty Crime, Reckless Behavior, and Early Business Ventures

• MBS’s adolescence rife with stunts and risky behaviors: preferring the most extravagant cars, totaling a Lamborghini at 16 ([31:26]–[32:03]).
• Developed a fiery temper and keen jealousy of richer relations—wired for both vengeance and imitation.
• Early failed attempts at business (asphalt imports, day-trading)—he quickly lost his first $100,000 ([41:58]).
• Fails mattered little; the cushion of wealth allowed endless respawns.

8. Learning from His Father and Familial Loss

• The deaths of two older half-brothers thrust MBS into a position to grow close with his father; he started accompanying him at work, learning about wielding power, and observing Salman’s use of patronage and “cousin jail” as disciplinary tools ([33:35]–[36:30]).
• Quote:
  “It’s like any family – you blackmail the rest of your family.” – David ([36:17])

9. Building Bonds, Cultivating Power, and the Father of the Bullet

• MBS performed the role of patriotic prince to his father while throwing wild parties and breaking religious rules with his peers ([37:54]–[38:10]).
• Exhibited both cunning and pettiness—sending a bullet to a landowner who refused to sell, earning the nickname “Abu Rasala” (Father of the Bullet) ([50:41]).
• Quote:
  “Whether true or false, the anecdote earned him the name Abu Rasala, the father of the bullet, within the royal family.” – Brett ([50:41])

10. Climbing the Ladder Through Nepotism and Ruthlessness

• Eventually amasses wealth through real estate speculation, aggressive (and sometimes slightly comical) strong-arm tactics, and insider trading.
• Enjoyed a privileged track into public office, heading councils and programs, typically in posts designed for patronage ([47:50]).
• Close relationship with his father as his father becomes King in 2015—a transition marked by prior “bloodless” agreements to limit succession drama.
• Sets the stage for MBS’s later, more violent power plays (to be covered in Part 3).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “She was a great cat.” – Brett, jokingly paralleling gratitude for podcast participation with thanks for cat-sitting, setting the tone for irreverent banter ([01:28]).
• “You should know that you could get a smack from somebody…a classmate, some guy at the bar—that's important for people.” – Brett, on why MBS’s inability to be challenged shaped his personality ([10:25]).
• “It’s a world exclusively built for him. He’s living on the holodeck.” – David ([10:11])
• “If you gave me $500 as a fourth grader and brought me to the mall, I would die.” – David, mocking the relative “poverty” MBS felt ([17:13])
• “He’s doing a great job at being a shitty rich kid—he’s nailing it.” – David, summarizing MBS’s youthful persona ([39:21])
• “My son made millions for the family as a result of this…even though, again, it doesn’t work out.” – Brett, exposing the hollow nature of MBS’s “successes” ([53:11])
• "Mail me a bullet. If enough people mail me a bullet, I'll have a shitload of bullets. I have no guns, but, yeah." – David, in a closing moment of dark humor ([57:11–57:18])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Saudi oil dependency and labor system explained: [04:22]–[07:41]
• Early life, family hierarchy, and the 'B family': [07:57]–[13:05]
• Bullying and stories of royal treachery: [12:57]–[14:54]
• MBS’s childhood, shyness, video games: [15:23]–[16:34]
• Allowance, financial envy, “palace poverty”: [17:13]–[18:19]
• Insight from tutor Rashid Sakai: [25:20]–[29:26]
• Adolescent behavior: luxury cars, pranks, failed business deals: [31:26]–[43:25]
• Deaths in the family and increased proximity to power: [33:14]–[36:30]
• How MBS forged alliances and partied at home and abroad: [37:54]–[38:50]
• Early real estate hustles and “Father of the Bullet” story: [50:41]–[51:54]
• Transition to power and family succession intrigue: [53:35]–[55:58]

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, darkly humorous, and irreverent: Hosts maintain playful banter even as they discuss serious and sometimes gruesome topics.
• Deeply skeptical of royal self-mythologizing and “bootstrap” narratives: The hosts consistently undermine any notion of meritocracy in MBS’s life story.
• Accessible analogies: Frequent comparisons to pop culture (Simpsons, GTA) and self-deprecating jokes about privilege.

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Flow and Utility

This episode paints a vivid, often damning portrait of MBS's formative years, stressing how a combination of isolation, unearned privilege, familial slights, and violent dynastic tradition helped shape a ruler renowned for both bold reforms and brutality. The hosts’ irreverence and use of pop-culture analogies make this a particularly accessible entry point for those unfamiliar with Saudi history or royal intrigue.

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For listeners seeking to understand how Mohammed bin Salman became one of the world's most notorious modern autocrats, this episode lays clear the psychological, familial, and political groundwork for his rise—a story of privilege that bred resentment, and insecurity that bred ruthlessness.

Transcript

[Brett Weinstein]

Call Zone Media. Welcome back to behind the Bastards, a podcast about Mohammed bin Salman for this week and next week with my former colleague and current friend, David Bell. David, hello. Hi. Where can the good and bad people on the Internet find you?

[David Bell]

You know, before that, I realized I don't think I've said thank you for having me on. I didn't say that.

[Brett Weinstein]

Oh, you don't need to thank me.

[David Bell]

I know. It's just the thing you say on podcasts. And it occurred to me, I was like, I didn't even say that. Anyway, thank you for having me on. You asked where you could find me. Google. Gamefully unemployed. G A M E F U L L Y. Unemployed. It's a movie. Podcast mostly. And tv. Or watch some more news. Hosted by Cody Johnston. News show. Like a talking head? New show. I am the head writer over there. I'm bossing people around.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, you're the. You're the. You're the king over there. Just like Mohammed bin Salman kind of is in Saudi Arabia. And Dave, I would thank you for being the guest, but actually I'm going to thank you for watching my cat for half a year that one time, which is much bigger of an ask than being on a podcast.

[David Bell]

Oh, yeah, that cat left a scar on me. I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere.

[Brett Weinstein]

That's good. She left some on me, too. She was a great cat.

[David Bell]

Well, she didn't have. Yeah, she got a bite on her.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, she got a bite on her.

[David Bell]

Yeah. She also got along with my cat way more than my current second cat gets along.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, she and Ken were best friends for, well, again, like, half a year.

[David Bell]

Yeah.

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[Brett Weinstein]

So by the time Prince Mohammed bin Salman was born in 1985, the Saudi state had reached a level of what we might call catastrophic dependence on oil revenues. Aramco accounted for roughly 80% of state spending, which meant that any serious drop in oil prices rendered the state insolvent, living off its savings in order to continue spending. Nearly two thirds of Saudi men were government employees, right? And that doesn't mean they're working. It just means they're government employees. Most of them aren't doing real jobs, you know, most of the state jobs that they have are lifetime gigs. They exist as a form of welfare. They're a way for the House of Saud to bribe enough of the free male population to ensure there's never too much unrest.

[David Bell]

Because then you'll lose your job, right? Like I would be fine with a government that I Guess you could call it bribing, but just paid us all to live. But that's what's happening here, right? It's just enough people so that they can screw other people.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. And they have to bring other people in the country to really fuck over. Like, to have an underclass that they can fuck over enough, you know?

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

And this state of affairs leads to some complications. Because so many jobs are lifetime things, giving raises to certain classes of jobs is financially untenable. If you give, like, everyone who has this job a raise, that's a meaningful percentage of the country, and you just can't afford to do that because you have to then keep that raise going for everyone who holds that job forever. Instead, the government gets into a habit of adding benefits to jobs which are salary bumps for employees who have specific skills. Like classes of workers will get an amount of money every year for knowing how to type or knowing how to use. Like Microsoft Office. And workers who have these skills, you get these bumps. And there are so many of these bumps that over time, many workers get paid more as a result of all of the bumps to their salary than the actual base value of their salary itself. Saudi government employee Benefits constitute between 10 and 150% of worker income by the late 20th century. They get around this to try to avoid paying more money, and it winds up costing a huge amount of the national budget to do.

[David Bell]

Right. That really got away from them. Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

They're robbing Peter to also pay. Peter. Yeah.

[David Bell]

Right.

[Brett Weinstein]

Now, the fact that most people working in Saudi Arabia were not Saudi represented another issue. The state again tries to fix the problem by fiddling around the edges. They issue a novel benefit for employees in departments that have fewer than 50% Saudi workers. The idea is that if they give a benefit to these jobs, more Saudis will get jobs in these fields because these jobs have higher pay. But it actually discourages the hiring of Saudi employees because every work in that field is like, if we hire any more Saudis, we won't get that huge pay bump. So we have to not hire any Saudis. We have to only hire foreign workers, right? Yeah, yeah. It's just a constant series of, like, really avoidable. If, like, you'd spent three, if it was anyone other than a bunch of, like, princes who's never worked making these decisions, you'd be like, but wouldn't this just encourage them not to hire more Saudis?

[David Bell]

It's one of those situations.

[Brett Weinstein]

Why would you do a thing that gets them their pay cut?

[David Bell]

Right. It's one of those Things where you just have to kind of go, like, all right, everybody stop. Let's start over. Like, it's like we're building a crop of country. Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

Gonna do a scratch scratch on this country, guys.

[David Bell]

Yeah. We gotta take all the wiring out, put in new wiring.

[Brett Weinstein]

It's like when you're working on a screenplay or a novel that just isn't coming together, sometimes at some point, you just have to throw the idea out, right?

[David Bell]

Oh, yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

And some people can't do that. It's like that, but with a country. MBS's father, Prince Salman, during most of MBS's child, all of MBS's childhood, is the governor of Riyadh. And Muhammad bin Salman is the first son of his dad's second wife, because, again, he had, like, six kids with his first wife, Sultana. But then she gets, like, this recurrent kidney infection, and she can't have any more kids. So he kind of reluctantly gets a second wife, this lady, Farah bint Fala Al Hathlim, who is brought on to let him continue to have sons. And over the years, she gives him six more sons. Muhammad bin Salman is the oldest of these kids, Right? So he is the oldest son from his dad's second family. On paper, again, he's the oldest son of the second family. So he should never have wound up anywhere near becoming the king. Right. His dad shouldn't have become the king, let alone him. He's even further down the line. He is the sixth son of the original king's 25th son and was literally several generations removed from. From being in line for the throne. Mohammed bin Salman's early life was, in Ben Hubbard's words, steeped in inherited and unearned privilege. He spends most of his childhood in palaces, socializing with other members of the royal family, almost to the exclusion of anyone else. When he travels from one palace to the other, it's in convoys of armored cars surrounded by bodyguards. He's raised mostly by a mix of nannies and tutors who watch over him on a daily basis alongside servants and other household staff who don't have the power to discipline him in a meaningful way. So most of the people raising him can't punish him.

[David Bell]

That sounds healthy. Can't you yell it? Really healthy?

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You can be like, I can have your family killed. You know that if you're mean to.

[David Bell]

Me, that's how you make a monster. Like, that's like.

[Brett Weinstein]

That's how you make a monster. Yeah, yeah.

[David Bell]

That's like, if a group of people Were like, hey, you know what would be funny? If we made a monster.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah.

[David Bell]

How do we do that? And that sounds like what you would do.

[Brett Weinstein]

It's one of those things. There's a sweet spot. Because it's bad if a kid is always afraid that his parents are going to hit him. But it's also bad if a kid knows no one he could possibly talk to will ever smack him in the mouth. Right.

[David Bell]

It's true.

[Brett Weinstein]

Like, it shouldn't be your parents, but you should know that if you bop off to a stranger, who knows what they'll do. Right. As opposed to the stranger will be scared that you'll have their family killed. Right. One of those is worse than the other.

[David Bell]

He's living on the holodeck. Like, that's what it is. It's a world exclusively built for him.

[Brett Weinstein]

Exactly.

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

You should go through, like, brain damage. Yeah.

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Yeah.

[David Bell]

You should know that you could get a smack from somebody.

[Brett Weinstein]

Someone. Not your parents, but someone. Yeah.

[David Bell]

A classmate, some guy at the bar, you know, like, that's.

[Brett Weinstein]

Someone could put you in check if you're out of pocket enough. Right. That's important for people.

[David Bell]

Right. Because it seems like you don't want.

[Brett Weinstein]

To learn that late right now. It's a measure of how fucked up this kid's upbringing is that almost no one in his life is allowed to call him by his real name. Right. That's how separated from the world this boy is. A handful of close friends and his family members can call him Mohammed bin Salman. Right. To people actually raising him, who are largely servants, which are most of the people he talks to on a daily basis, they call him tal Omrach. This means literally, may God prolong your life. But a more accurate translation is what people like. People. It's like, your highness. Right. That's what they mean when they call him Tal Amrak. Right. In recent interviews, MBS has claimed that his father took responsibility for organizing his and his siblings educations. They were each assigned a book a week to read and would be quizzed on it. His mother used a lot of the family clout and money to bring in scholars and academics from around the kingdom to lead discussions with the royal family and take her kids on field trips. Per Hubbard's book, MBS quote, both parents were strict. Showing up late for lunch with his father was a disaster, in Salman's words. His mother was harsh, too. My brothers and I used to think, why is our mother treating us this way? She would never overlook any of the mistakes he made. He later concluded that the Scrutiny made him much stronger. MBS is rather unique among the royalty we covered on the show in that we don't have a lot of detail on his, like, early life. Right. You get a lot of that with, like, European royalty because there's someone making notes of everything they do for, like, the entirety of their early life. And we don't have that with him. He doesn't say much about his childhood. And the people who would know more were mostly servants and state employees who, again, could be seriously punished if they told anybody. And they never do. We know that Prince Salman, his father, continued to live with his first wife and family in a palace referred to in jest as the White House. MBS's mom, who's his dad's second wife, raises the kids in another palace. And so he's already the B family, Right? He grows up knowing he's the B family, but his mom takes him and his siblings to the main house regularly. Cause she wants her kids to have FaceTime with their dad, which guaranteed them a future in the power structure in the country. And as you might guess. This is awkward.

[David Bell]

Yeah, it's just such a perfect storm of, like, we're gonna give you an inferiority complex. But also still a palace.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, still a palace. And no one can yell at you except for your dad and mom, who will do it and then never raise you. Right. That's all they're there for, is to yell at you. Now, Sultana doesn't like her husband's second family, right? And her kids follow suit. The older kids, the first kids, treat all of the second kids like shit. You know, like, he is the only people who can bully him are his half brothers, right? Like, they're the ones talking shit about him constantly. And MBS's early memories involve a lot of bullying from these siblings. He's also raised on stories of his royal ancestors that would have emphasized how normal it was for members of the Saud family to kill each other. While his paternal grandfather was King Abdulaziz, his maternal grandfather had murdered the king's only brother and the man who would be king. Karen house adds. Indeed, MBS's maternal ancestor, Didan Al Hith Lane's Ajman troops had wounded Abdulaziz in a 1915 battle that killed his only full brother. More than a decade later, Alhaith Lane was treacherously murdered bearing a letter of safe conduct signed by Abdulaziz al Hitlayn and 11 companions with Abdulaziz's regional governor's son, while he declined to stay overnight, saying his men would come looking for him if he didn't return. His host refused to allow him to leave. When the Ajman tribesmen did arrive, their chief's throat was slit along with those of his 11 companions. Some Saudis see this treachery as parallel to that of a murder of a nearly a century later of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist invited to a Saudi consulate in Istanbul and then murdered in 2018. So he grows up on stories of, like, his family members killing each other and was told that this is, like, this is what made your grandpa strong, is that he killed this other grand member of your family.

[David Bell]

Right. It's like stories of, like, your grandfather fighting in the war, but it's fighting in the war against your other grandfather or something.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, his cousin who killed his brother. Yeah, yeah. So MBS grows up constantly mocked and derided by his older, more accomplished half brothers. And he is initially a shy and anxious boy. During a third grade play, he is so uncomfortable with the idea of performing in front of people that he can't take the stage when the moment comes, even even though his dad, the governor of Riyadh, is in the audience to see him. So one of the few times his dad shows up to see him do something, he's like, I can't be. I got stage fright. I can't show up on stage.

[David Bell]

Oh, man, listen, I feel for the kid. Like, I don't want to go on stage either, but man, man, that's a rough one.

[Brett Weinstein]

That's a rough one. His earliest memories would have involved a lot of rage at the religious police too. Again, movies and music are illegal while he's a child. Television exists in Saudi Arabia, but it sucks complete ass because you can't watch a lot of the TV that other people are watching. It's basically just news and boring religious discussions.

[David Bell]

Yeah, we all grew up with those, like, weird neighbor kids who didn't have a tv.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, yeah. And they develop a complex about it.

[David Bell]

Yeah, that's what happens.

[Brett Weinstein]

His only entertainment option at home is video games, because video games are a new enough concept that the actual fun police Saudi Arabia has hasn't gotten around to banning them yet. Right. Like, they kind of get grandfathered in. So he is, he is, for his whole life up to the present moment, a huge video game nerd because it's just kind of the only cool thing he can do as a kid.

[David Bell]

Incredible.

[Brett Weinstein]

And in this way, his childhood's not that different from a lot of people listening. His first console was a Nintendo, followed by a Neo Geo which he got when he was 6. Biographer Karen House notes that he still has his original Neo Geo in his childhood bedroom at the family palace.

[David Bell]

Amazing.

[Brett Weinstein]

Kept it. I think it's worth some money these.

[David Bell]

Days, you know, not that he cares, but. Yeah, he could sell it. Throw that up on ebay. Yeah, that'd be a hell of a buy.

[Brett Weinstein]

As I said earlier, Prince Salman was not rich by Al Saud standards. That's, again, MBS's dad. He was certainly in the top 1% in the country, probably still in the world, but that still puts him in the bottom 50% of the house of Saud. MBS was conspicuously aware of this fact as a child. His monthly allowance was equivalent to about US$500 while he was a fourth grader. And it says a lot that he felt poor next to his cousins, the wealthiest of whom received about $5,000 a week. Right.

[David Bell]

If you. If you gave me $500 as a fourth grader and brought me to the mall, I would die. Like, I would be dead from that somehow.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. That would get me killed.

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

I would have overdosed on Warhammer models. Yeah, absolutely. I would have had pewter poisoning or some shit.

[David Bell]

I'd find a way. I don't know how, but I'd die.

[Brett Weinstein]

I would find a way.

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

MBS's frustration with his family financial situation was compounded by the fact that things were worse for Prince Salman's second family. Again, they live in the second palace. They have a smaller cut of the family income. And when the family goes on vacation to Spain, Prince Salman takes his first wife and their kids to his mansion in Marbella. And MBS's mom and the kids have to stay at a hotel in Barcelona. Now, it's a nice hotel, right? But you're not staying in the palace your dad owns because you're not allowed there because you're not the real family. Right. That's gonna fuck a kid up. Yeah.

[David Bell]

It's again, perfect storm. It's like you have so much privilege, but also like the weird anger of someone who doesn't feel like they do.

[Brett Weinstein]

Exactly.

[David Bell]

And we're giving you just nothing but video games, which, I mean, I love video games. There's something about that.

[Brett Weinstein]

Also, no parental love, but all of the video games you can eat. So, as a father, Prince Salman was more hands on than most of his family. He sets an aggressive curriculum for his kids, and he devotes a significant amount of money to their education, but he doesn't spend time with them face to face. He manages them like. Like, Sims basically. Right. Like he's a spreadsheet dad. MBS grows up with the distinct impression that his dad was prioritizing his first family because he was. He watches with jealousy as one older half brother becomes the first Muslim astronaut and another gains international renown helping American journalists during the first Gulf War. In more recent years, a rumor has spread that MBS was always his father's favorite. And this is true. Now he's definitely. His dad has made him the crown prince. It doesn't seem to have been true back then. MBS himself told Karen House, I was.

[David Bell]

Yeah, if my kid, if one of them was an astronaut, I feel like no one would even ask what the favorite was.

[Brett Weinstein]

I'd like an astronaut more.

[David Bell]

Yeah, yeah, that's really tough to compete.

[Brett Weinstein]

With the one who went the straight, yeah, easy, yeah. MBS himself told Karen House, I was not my father's favorite, and then listed the names of four siblings that his dad preferred. And the fact that he had a list ready to hand says a lot about this kid where he's like, no, I knew my rank. I knew my exact rank in the family.

[David Bell]

They had it on the wall. They had a letter board.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, they had a letter board. And the astronaut was top.

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

One family associate postulated a house that quote, he felt a need to strive for distinction from an early age. This was stoked by his father, who treated his kids with his second wife like they were the bee family. Right. You know, like, this is. This is the way that they're. He's, like, almost saying this to them. So envious, grows up with a bone to pick in regards to his half siblings and a burning sense that he has a great deal to prove if he's going to win his father's affections. This becomes more of an urgent need as he gets older. By sixth grade, he's aged out of his shyness. And according to his recollections, he'd replaced his younger brother Turkey as the leader of his siblings. One of the few good sources we have on his childhood that isn't either MBS himself or someone who he could imprison for having something negative said about him is a British tutor that his father hired to teach his sons English. This guy, Rashid Sakai, had been a teacher at a fancy school in Jeddah before the prince called him up in 1996 when MBS was 11. And he's one of our only sources who can be kind of objective about these kids in this period of time. Here's how he describes the family living arrangements when he went to work with the family. And keep in mind these are poorer members of the royal family. Once through the heavily guarded gates, the car would wind past a series of jaw dropping villas with immaculate gardens maintained by workers in white uniforms. There was a car park filled with a fleet of expensive luxury cars. It was the first time I saw what looked like a pink Cadillac.

[David Bell]

Oh my God.

[Brett Weinstein]

This is like. Yeah, that's his second. His second family's house. Right?

[David Bell]

It's like when you read about Stephen Miller and you're like, his family had to downgrade and it's like. What do you mean by downgrade? It's like, well, he still had maids and stuff and like servants.

[Brett Weinstein]

Not as maids, but it wasn't as.

[David Bell]

Yeah, yeah, it was slightly smaller.

[Brett Weinstein]

It was fewer maids than he thought.

[David Bell]

He ought to have and that him up for the rest of his life.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, he never got over that.

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

You know who isn't like Stephen Miller? Dave.

[David Bell]

Hold on now.

[Brett Weinstein]

Just tell me the sponsors of this podcast who are probably not Stephen Miller. There's not a zero percent chance.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

Hey, this is U.S. olympic gold medalist Tara Davis Woodhull.

[Hunter Woodhull]

And I'm U.S. paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.

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A clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust.

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[Tara Davis Woodhull]

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[Brett Weinstein]

This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. The new year doesn't require a new you, maybe just a less burdened you. Therapy can help more easily. What weighs you down or hold you back? By offering an unbiased perspective to better understand your relationships, motivations and emotions. If you're considering therapy, whether it's to help you get ready for the new year or it's just something that you've been looking to do for a while. You might consider Better Help Better Help therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the US BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and their 12 plus years of experience and industry leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first time, but you can switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored recommendations. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10% [e-mail] behind that's betterhelp.com behind support for the show.

[Public Investing Announcer]

Comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any item idea into an investable index. With AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures [e-mail] disclosures.

[Brett Weinstein]

And we're back. I've just looked. Stephen Miller is still not a podcaster, so we're doing good.

[David Bell]

He's not a sponsor.

[Brett Weinstein]

Not yet, not yet, not yet. We do look forward to him sponsoring the show though. Yeah, so we're talking about this guy Rashid Sakai, who starts teaching the second family of Prince Salman when MBS is 11. And he recalled that when he starts working for the family, he notices that MBS is close to the palace director and the palace guards like the people who are like the servants who are kind of running the household, all really like this kid. He tends to prefer mbs, tends to prefer socializing with the guards to paying attention during his English lessons quote. As the oldest of his siblings, he seemed to be allowed to do as he pleased. My ability to command the younger prince's attention would only last until Muhammad would turn up. So again, he's not the top of his family, but he's the top of the second family. So it's like again, it's constantly the worst of all worlds, right?

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

Where he's the, he's the head, the head of his small world, but he also regularly butts up against this other world where he's nothing, you know. Since his dad lives in a different palace and is seldom around, this means that MBS is effectively the man of the house from like sixth grade on. He is in charge in a very literal sense and he gets to give orders to a staff of dozens of adults. He develops a habit of playing pranks, as Rashid recollected. I still have a memory of him using a walkie talkie in our classes, borrowed from one of the guards. He would use it to make cheeky remarks about me and crack jokes between his brothers and guards on the other end. That's a wonderful.

[David Bell]

That's not a very good prank.

[Brett Weinstein]

That's not a prank at all.

[David Bell]

It's just being a dick.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, yeah. Again, a teacher should have the right to like at least spray water at a kid if they do something like that. A little bit of water, right? Like just like a cat. Like a cat, exactly. Like. Stop it. Yeah.

[David Bell]

They had to give them like some sort of special pass for this stuff.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Sakai himself still says that he became fond of Muhammad and his siblings. He describes them all as curious to learn but keen to play around, just like his non royal students. Sakai's account gives us an interesting insight into the bizarre world of royal family life. For example, quote, on one occasion I was taken aback when Muhammad told me that his mother, the Princess, said that I had said that I seemed like a true gentleman. I had no recollection of meeting her. Saudi women royalty don't appear in front of strangers and the only female I came across was a nanny from the Philippines. I was oblivious to the fact that I was being watched until the future heir to the throne pointed to some CCTV cameras on the wall. From that point onwards, I would always feel self conf conscious in my lessons. Like that's, that's the vibes here.

[David Bell]

Oh my God. Just off I think about, I think about what like school teachers have to deal with in this country. Not being recorded like that is. Oh God, no.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, just. Just a bad time. After several months on the job, the Future King Salman, MBS's father, scheduled a meeting with all the different tutors that he'd hired for his children.

[David Bell]

Children.

[Brett Weinstein]

Sakai initially thought that this might be a good opportunity to discuss the kids behavioral issues. So we can infer that despite his fondness for Mohammed bin Salman, Sakai did consider the kid to have a behavior issue. When he appeared before us, the teachers instinctively rose up and I watched in awe as they approached the Riad governor one by one, bowed, kissed his hand and hastily conferred about the children and moved on. And when my turn came, I couldn't for the life of me been like they did. I had never done it before. And before I froze completely, I reached out to take the future king's hand and shook it firmly. I. I remember a faint grin of amazement on his face. However, he made no fuss about my faux pas. Now Sakai does not decides like, I've already pushed my luck enough. I'm not gonna talk about the fact that your kid's acting up in class. He says this is because he'd already decided to leave for the uk. But he does recall that afterwards, the house manager yells at him for not showing respect for the future king. Right. That he's like, you shook his hand, you fucking asshole.

[David Bell]

Yeah. This is a job where you're like, I'm not gonna marry Poppins. This is. I'm getting the hell out of here. I'm not.

[Brett Weinstein]

This is weird.

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. This can't be on me to figure this out.

[David Bell]

It's that feeling of like, if you speak up, they might go like, well, I have a different plan. We're just gonna execute you.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. We're gonna kill you.

[David Bell]

Get out of there.

[Brett Weinstein]

We decided to go in a different direction. By the time he enters his teen years, Prince Muhammad had jettisoned the shy, awkward side of his personality. He continued to play pranks and act up in class and in public. His relatives describe him as being frustrated and angry with a sharp temper that went off explosively for little to no reason. One of his earliest defining character traits is that he was completely unsatisfied with his family's level of wealth. In the fourth grade. Again, he's making about $500 a week as a fourth grader, so we're talking about like a pretty good monthly income for a 10 year old. But he complains again about the fact that his other relatives get more caring. House describes the young prince as saying, that his immediate family sat below the salt. Right? Like, that's the term for, we're not making as much money as the other people in the royal family.

[David Bell]

It's hard for me. It's normal for if it's the only life, you know, if you go to your cousins and you're like, I have all the pogs in the world. And they're like, I have all the pogs in the world plus several cars. And you're like, oh, yeah, I have custom pogs. Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

And again, like, by the time he's in high school, it's normal for princes at his level to have Porsches or BMWs, but that's not good enough for him. He, like, he can't stand having the same kind of fancy car as the other poor princes. I'm going to read a quote from the man who would be king here. Quote. As a high school senior, MBS was old enough to get his first car. His father urged his son to get a car like the other boys had luxury, but low key MBS declined. He had saved money from gifts his uncles had given him on Islamic holidays. And he was going to have the car he wanted, even though it cost nearly $230,000. So he buys the car, which is like a fancy Lamborghini, but he doesn't get a lot of time to show it off for long because. Because, I don't know, this might be surprising to you, Dave. 16 year olds are not ready to drive Lamborghinis.

[David Bell]

I was literally. My mind was flashing through my history of cars as you're saying that. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what you want to do. That's absolutely. I don't care how much money you have. Yeah. You want something you'll drag race with your friend on the highway or off road with.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. Give that kid a lancer, MBS rear ends some poor fucker in Riyadh and totals his Lamborghini. He has to call a friend to be rescued. I don't. He's probably not drunk. He's probably just incompetent. I doubt the person he hits gets to file. Imagine filing a claim against the fucking prince.

[David Bell]

I would run like, I would literally on the street just see him and get the fuck out of there.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah.

[David Bell]

Holy shit.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. What a horrible time. It's like hitting a cop car, like. Like fuck.

[David Bell]

Yeah. Yeah. It's like hitting a dinosaur. You're just like, I need to get out of here right now. That thing is going to kill me.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. There's only one kind of dude driving a Lamborghini in Saudi Arabia right now. Yeah, now. The turn of the millennium brings several huge changes to Muhammad bin Salman's life, two of which bring a rapid and unexpected alteration to his chances at reaching the throne. In 2001, Prince Salman's oldest son, Fahd, the guy who'd helped reporters during Desert Storm, dies unexpectedly of a heart condition. His second brother, Ahmed, who's 46 a year later. And like, this is the guy. He, like, owned a Kentucky Derby winning horse. He'd been great at shit. He dies at age 44 of another heart related issue. In his biography, MBS, Ben Hubbard writes, quote, the declared cause in both cases was heart attack, but the underlying reasons were never made clear. Right. So were they poisoned? Were they killed in that heart attack?

[David Bell]

In quotes, Big heart attack quotes.

[Brett Weinstein]

It's a little soft. Right?

[David Bell]

Right.

[Brett Weinstein]

That said, MBS probably wasn't the culprit either way because he's just a kid at this point in time, it would.

[David Bell]

Be tough to live in a family like this and then there be an actual, like, genetic medical issue because you might not even know, like, what if it is just heart attacks and they're like, well, we assume they were poisoned, so. So we're not going to look into that. I'm not going to go to a cardiologist.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. Who knows they're rich. Are they doing like coke or something like that? I don't know. Does his mom orchestra? Who's to say it's entirely possible these are what they seem to be. Whatever the case, this shifts the family dynamics in very short order. For one thing, MBS's dad, Prince Salman, is devastated and his most prominent biographers tend to agree. Right. This presents an opportunity to MBS because his dad has other older kids from his first marriage. But by the time the two oldest sons die, they're all mature adults following their careers and ambitions, while mbs is just 16 years old and has nowhere better to be during his father's time of need and vulnerability than right by his dad's side. So while the other older kids are off doing stuff, MBS starts showing up to support his dad while he's grieving, which is going to immediately put him in a better position. Right. Yeah. It's just, Yeah, a smart play. It's not hard to see why this pays dividends for him.

[David Bell]

Yeah. And a convenient one where it might have even naturally happened, where, like you said, everybody else is fucked off doing other things. They don't seem like as interested in the family business, essentially.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Now, the main consequence of these deaths isn't just that two names get pulled from the front of the line. It's that imbs and his dad get really close. People note that Mohammed bin Salman starts following his father to work on a daily basis and gets to watch him do the job of governing the capital. He starts to get a feel for how power works in the kingdom, and he gets a lot of facetime with his father. Power players in the state apparatus get used to seeing MBS as well, and he becomes a default part of increasingly large bits of the power structure. One thing he comes to understand is that his father wields power and influence within the Al Saud family. In his article for the Africa Report, Jihad Gillen writes, as governor of Riyadh, he had access to a small private prison where he could punish any badly behaved relatives for offenses such as public intoxication, unpaid hotel bills in Paris, and reckless driving. I have several princes in my palace at this moment, he bragged to the British writer Robert Lacey. In this way, his position meant that he knew all the secrets, big and small, of the Al Saud clan and possessed incriminating information on many of them. Right. So he's, he's kind of able. His dad is. Part of what MBS grows up seeing is his dad is, is padding his money and is kind of increasing his power by punishing a lot of his relatives who have less power. Right. And MBS becomes aware of, like, oh, that's how you get ahead in the family, you know, by getting leverage and wealth over your loved ones.

[David Bell]

It's like any family. You blackmail the rest of your family.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. You put them in the prison you keep for family members.

[David Bell]

Yeah, exactly. Everybody needs a cousin jail. You just need one.

[Brett Weinstein]

If I had a cousin jail, believe me, it would have gotten used when I was a kid.

[David Bell]

Oh, yeah, Listen, here's the thing, Robert. It can be a shed. Like, it could be anything you need it to be. Ideally, you want like a, you know, like, like a 10 person cousin jail.

[Brett Weinstein]

If you have a pair of handcuffs, you have a cousin jail.

[David Bell]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. If you have like a cinder block and some rope, you have a cousin jail.

[Brett Weinstein]

If you really need jail, anyone can have a cousin jail. So Ben Hubbard cites an interview with an anonymous member of the family entourage who claims, quote, MBS's social life centered around using his royal privilege to help build bonds with the people. In the summer, his family would decamp for the Red Sea coast where MBS would Rent a fleet of jet skis for the young man. For the young men. In the winter, they would set up camp across the desert where MBS would have the biggest camp, serve roast lambs on huge platters of rice, and keep fleets of buggies for the Bedouin who dropped by to greet the locals. In Bin's reading, one of Bin Salman's strengths is that he loved or at least was able to convince his father and a lot of power brokers in the country that he loved Saudi Arabia, while his cousins and siblings and half siblings loved the west and spent their time in foreign countries. He was primarily, like, hanging out at home. Right. This isn't totally accurate. He parties overseas a lot and he violates the religious laws his family's supposed to abide by constantly. But he. He puts in a good show of liking Saudi Arabia. Right. And that gets. That pays dividends for him, you know?

[David Bell]

Right. I mean, he's a rich kid. You have to party overseas. That's just what you gotta do.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. That's just part of the life. Yeah.

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

But you throw in some parties at home too, you know?

[David Bell]

Yeah. No, he did it.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. And the fact that this is a deliberate lie doesn't mean that his dad isn't convinced that his son feels this way. The evidence suggests that MBS is able to keep a sort of Jekyll and Hyde situation going for most of his adolescence and young adulthood. To his father, he's this disciplined, obedient, patriotic boy, the perfect successor to a lot of his peers and relative. He makes a habit out of petty crime and disobedience, stretching the limits of his royal immunity as far as possible. Per an article in the Africa Report, quote, as a teenager, he was a bad tempered troublemaker who sometimes behaved outlandishly. Like the time he dressed up as a policeman so he could wander around a Riyadh shopping center. He was caught in the act by actual police officers, but they let him walk free when he real. They realized who he was.

[David Bell]

He's doing like a princess Jasmine. He's going out. He wants to blend in. But normally when you want to blend in, you don't dress like a cop. That's the opposite of blending in.

[Brett Weinstein]

No, I mean he doesn't want to blend in. He wants to bully people.

[David Bell]

Yeah, it sounds really like real. My dad owns the dealership Energy where, like, he's a jerk, but he's a perfect angel to the family, to the people who are keeping him in that position. Like, in terms of.

[Brett Weinstein]

He has to be good too. Yeah, yeah.

[David Bell]

Like he's doing a great job at being a shitty rich kid. Like he's, he's nailing it.

[Brett Weinstein]

It sounds like that's exactly right. Now, as a young man, one of the first revelations MBS has is that unlike many of his close relatives, he's going to have to work for his money. Now, to be clear, he's not going to have to work to have access to life of luxury and excess. He's guaranteed that as a member of the royal family. But he wants power and influence, and his birthright isn't going to guarantee him that. It's become increasingly clear to him by this period that Prince Salman is in a lot of debt both to other family members and to non royal rich Saudi guys. MBS is keenly aware of this fact, and he's also paying a lot of attention to the financial situations of his closer relatives. During a conversation with one such cousin, he comes to the horrifying conclusion that his branch of the family is going to get left on the sidelines. Per an investigation by Jahad Gillen published in the Africa Report, quote, while still a teenager, MBS told his father that he wanted to start a business, an atypical ambition for a Saudi royal family member. One that extracted nothing other than a smile from Sam Salman. MBS's significant relationships with his male relatives are all based around either vengeance or imitation. As an insecure teenager, the cousin he most wants to imitate is his cousin, Prince Al Waheed Bin Talal, who's the richest man in Saudi Arabia. Reporting on Bin Talal's earlier business dealings makes it seem like this is the kind of thing where MBS would regularly bring up his rich cousin during business deals. To be like, I'll be richer than him in like two years, you know, like, this guy's the cousin I most admire now, but I'm gonna get more money than my cousin. Like, you think he's rich now. You get in bed with me, I'm gonna have even more money, right? He's not initially good at business. The first big business deal he tries to set up involves trying to buy, like trying to land a deal importing asphalt from Kuwait. And this falls apart, as do most of his subsequent business deals, because despite having a lot of cunning and a work ethic that surpasses his relative, he's not good at a lot of stuff by age 16. Yeah, exactly. Like, I know things.

[David Bell]

I, I feel like being born into wealth, it's, it feels harder to be into business because it's like, it's like it's like driving in GTA where, like, the stakes are not high enough for me to be good at this.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah.

[David Bell]

You know, if I. If I fuck up. Yeah, it'll be fine.

[Brett Weinstein]

And like, if you get good at driving a gta, that's fun. But you still fucked up enough that if you'd been a real person, you would have died a million times by that point. Yeah, exactly. Right?

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

Case in point, at age 16, he saved up about $100,000 in cash, mostly from hawking gold jewelry and fancy washes. He got his birthday gifts from his, like, dad and uncles, and he uses that money to launch an investment portfolio that he's going to try to turn into a personal fortune. Right. He wants to turn this hundred thousand into millions of dollars so that he independently wealthy Gillen writes that quote. At first, the value of his share portfolio went up, but soon enough, MBS was losing money and in financial ruin, as he would later admit. Like he. He takes a bath on all of this money because he's basically day trading and he doesn't know what he's doing right now. Yeah, of course. The greatest advantage, again, just stick that money in an index fund, man, you'd have been fine.

[David Bell]

Give it to me.

[Brett Weinstein]

You're fine.

[David Bell]

Give the money to me.

[Brett Weinstein]

Give the money to Dave. It'll work out just as well for you. The greatest advantage of being born into money is that a setback like burning your life savings at age 16 does not have any consequences. You're not going to starve, and you're not going to fail to meet any bills. You're just going to have to keep saving up birthday Rolexes until you can try again. So he does that and he graduates high school as one of the top 10 students in Saudi Arabia. And I know you're wondering, did he really earn that honor or was it nepotism? And the best answer I can give is this. Can you think of a real national education system that has a list of the 10 best students in the country? No, because that's stupid. Real countries don't do that.

[David Bell]

No. No, they don't. You're right. That's a good point. I mean, it's almost like 10 best students in America. Yeah, but it's like, what is going to happen? Is he not going to graduate? There's no world where it's like, is he a good student or not fail? Yeah, maybe he's smart. We'll never know.

[Brett Weinstein]

Guy whose teachers will get shot for not giving good grades has good grades. News at 11, right?

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

Speaking of people who might get shot, probably not our advertisers, I think.

[David Bell]

Solid, solid, real smooth.

[Brett Weinstein]

Thank you.

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Tara Davis Woodhull and I'm US Paralympic Gold medalist Hunter Wood Hall.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

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[Hunter Woodhull]

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[Tara Davis Woodhull]

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[Hunter Woodhull]

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[Tara Davis Woodhull]

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[Public Investing Announcer]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, LLC SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures hi, I'm.

[Tara Davis Woodhull]

Cindy Crawford and I'm the founder of Meaningful Beauty. Well I don't know about you but like I never liked being told oh wow, you look so Good for your age. Like, why even bother saying that? Why don't you just say you look great at any age, Every age. That's what Meaningful Beauty is all about. We create products that make you feel confident in your skin at the age you are now. Meaningful beauty, beautiful skin at every age.

[Brett Weinstein]

Learn [e-mail]. And we're back. So we're talking about Muhammad bin Salman. He's graduated high school at this point. He goes to college at a university named after his great grandfather, King Saud. I'm sure he earned his admittance the hard way. And he gets a law degree. He graduates second in his class, which, again, I'm sure he did the honest way. By this point, Mohammed bin Salman decided to take another stab at trying to get rich on his own. He makes the smart move of finally reaching out to actual professionals, businessmen in Riyadh who are scared of pissing off the governor and wouldn't tell his annoying kid to off. One imagines that Prince Salman puts in a good word with them on behalf of his son and perhaps maybe brings up some blackmail gently. However it happens, happens. MBS winds up with $800,000 to try his hand at starting another investment portfolio. Right. Wow. He managed to bootstrap himself up again to having even more money to try to make money with.

[David Bell]

Amazing.

[Brett Weinstein]

He invests in US corporations, and this goes better for him. In 2008, when he's 23, he starts investing in the Tadawul Exchange, which is the Saudi stock exchange. Right. Now, since nearly all of the companies on the Saudi exchange are owned or run by the government, AKA his family, it's pretty easy for someone like MBS to do what we would call insider trading, which he would call calling his cousin who runs the company and says, hey, are you about to have any good news? Should I get some stock now?

[David Bell]

I'm surprised he even had to try. It reminds me of the Stonecutter Simpsons episode where they're all just letting Homer win, where it's like, do you even have to call? Like, yeah, they could just. Yeah, man.

[Brett Weinstein]

And it's a mark of how sketchy he still is at this that he does get invested for insider trading and now nothing happens to him. But he's still obvious enough that someone looks into it.

[David Bell]

Who looked into that? That's incredible.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, someone who got fucking bone saw, that's who. Right?

[David Bell]

To do something so bad or illegal that someone's like, okay, this is gonna kill me, but I have to do something about this.

[Brett Weinstein]

I just can't ignore this man, yeah. Now, MBS's first years after graduation are a blizzard of firms and businesses launched by him, usually in partnership with someone who needed favors from his dad or the royal family. Because he is somewhat willing to do real work, he does get appointed to some actual jobs, although again, they're nepo jobs. He's made secretary General for the Riyadh Competitive Council. He's made special advisor for a foundation named after his grandfather. That sort of stuff. He creates his own philanthropic foundation, cultivating leadership skills in young Saudi. He's got his little Lebowski Urban Achievers program of his own. Right. And in 2009, he gets made special advisor to the governor of Riyadh, who is his dad. Now, this is probably the earliest clear sign that this middle son of Prince Salman had somehow engineered his way into being a favored son of the heir apparent. This still puts him nowhere near the Roman running for throne or for the like, running the entire kingdom. His focus at this point is just on getting rich. Real estate speculation is finally how he succeeds financially in a big way. Per that article in the Africa Report, quote, MBS teamed up with landowners who agreed to give him a cut of the revenue generated by property sales to build developments on greenfield estates. The business model turned out to be lucrative, and the prince began to amass a small force. Then a rumor made the rounds that MBS had sent an envelope containing a bullet to an owner who dined to refuse to sell a plot of land to him. Whether true or false, the anecdote earned him the name Abu Rasala, the father of the bullet within the royal family.

[David Bell]

That's a father of the bullet. That is cool. Yeah, I think that's just a complicated way of saying a gun, right? Like a father of a bullet.

[Brett Weinstein]

Is it gun. The father of the bullet? Is it more of a mother? Bullets are more like eggs in a gun, but also bullets, more guns. So maybe they're not good at. Yeah, that's what H.R. giger would have argued, per the painting on my wall.

[David Bell]

Oh, yeah. H.R. giger would have done all sorts of things.

[Brett Weinstein]

He would have done a lot of things.

[David Bell]

It would have been both and none at the same time.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. Ah, Geiger. Geiger. And again, that's also such like. That is kind of like a weak sauce version of threatening someone with murder is like just sending them an envelope with a bullet in somebody.

[David Bell]

That is really funny because then there's something like. I guess the thing about mailing someone a bullet is that then you get to imagine that they had to, like, go out, get some stamps, put the bullet in the envelope, mail the envelope. Like, there's just something, like, kind of silly about that. That threat where it's almost, like, too much work. I don't know.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, yeah. It's just, like, kind of sweaty, right? Like. Yeah.

[David Bell]

It's like when you watch seven and you're like, he had to mail that head. Which means that he had to, like, go to UPS and, like, wait in line and, like, get it all. Get it all wrapped up. And I don't know, it just kind of takes the edge off when you think about that a little too much. Father of. The bullet's cool, though.

[Brett Weinstein]

When you get mailed a bullet, do you call me, like, do you want me to, like, shoot myself? What am I doing with a bullet?

[David Bell]

Did you mean to mail me a bullet?

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. Was this purposefully? Were you sending this to an assassin? What are we doing here?

[David Bell]

Yeah. I don't know. It's sweaty. It's very sweaty.

[Brett Weinstein]

His masterstroke in terms of financial deals is this deal he inks in 2008 with Verizon. Weirdly enough, that's how MBS gets his major financial success. He takes a minority stake in a joint venture involved with one of his many companies to bring the fiber optic infrastructure to Saudi Arabia. Arabia. Right. This partnership helps boost MBS's growing stature, although it doesn't actually get off the ground. Right. This is, like, his. One of his big deals, and it never happens, but he doesn't get paid for it. And Prince Salman is said to have bragged, my son made millions for the family as a result of this, even though, again, it doesn't work out. Right. Like, all that matters is we got paid, you know?

[David Bell]

Well, fiber optic.

[Brett Weinstein]

Did we get fiber optic? No.

[David Bell]

Fiber is like laserdiff. You know what I mean? Where I feel like I was talking to someone like, oh, I can't wait to get fiber optic. And it's like, they don't. We have wireless Internet now. Like, we're completely skipping over fiber optic.

[Brett Weinstein]

He's like that deadbeat dad who, like, promises his family, we're getting fiber, and then he just gets, like, faster. Dial up. Yeah, yeah.

[David Bell]

Hey, that works too.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. In late January of 2015, King Abdullah died. MBS's father, Governor Salman, had been the crown prince for some period of time, and so he becomes the king after the old king's death. This was noted as being an unusually smooth transition given the messy circumstances of the Saudi family in general. And the fact that this is smooth is seen as there's a kind of an agreement that now King Salman and the old king had. And basically the former king is like, I will make you the king, but you have to appoint these people to positions in the government. Right. Who would otherwise be your rivals and agree not to fight them or have bloodshed with them. Right. So they kind of make an agreement before the old king dies to try to spare the kingdom any sort of power struggles. Saudi kings, as you might gather, don't have to follow a strict family line to decide who gets power when they're gone. They get to pick a successor. Salman gets the job because he convinces the old king he was the most capable option. And he promises to do a bunch of stuff that the old king says. Now, he doesn't follow all of these to the left letter. Before King Abdullah died, he had picked a crown prince that he wanted to be the crown prince for King Salman, the guy who would succeed if Salman died. And this was Prince Merckin bin Abdulaziz, who at age 72 was just seven years younger than Prince now King Solomon. I found a write up by Stephen Matthews who noted what was interesting about Prince Merkin becoming crowned prince is that he was officially designated in a royal decree by former King Abdullah as next in succession after King Salman. After a further rule of royal decree by King Abdullah stated that Prince Merkeen would become crowned prince after Crown Prince Salman became king and cannot be changed by anyone. Now, this doesn't last. Right. And there's some speculation that because Merkin's mom was Yemeni, he was seen as an unacceptable heir. I think that King Salman just kind of knew the guy wasn't going to be a good successor. He was too old. And so after a few months, he picks a more capable successor. And this guy kind of steps aside. And the man he picks for the job is not his son, but his nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef, otherwise known as mbn, a very capable man who would have the misfortune of being the first person targeted for destruction by Mohammed bin Salman, who's going to succeed him as the crown prince. And we will tell that story in part three. How you feeling so far about this kid, Dave? Optimistic.

[David Bell]

You know, no warning signs, no red flags. Seems fine to me.

[Brett Weinstein]

None at all.

[David Bell]

I'm sure it'll go fine.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah.

[David Bell]

You know, nobody sawed. Sawed up.

[Brett Weinstein]

No, nobody's sawed up. He's mailed a bullet to some guy. I'm sure that's the worst thing he'll do.

[David Bell]

Yeah, I mean, listen, that's like real Teenage edgelord stuff where it's like, I can see someone doing that here. I could see.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah.

[David Bell]

Like if you, you know. I don't know.

[Brett Weinstein]

At least you had a free bullet, you know? Yeah. I wonder what kind it was, I guess. Yeah.

[David Bell]

You could sell that to, like, a Chinese child doesn't know how much a bullet costs, they'll give you anything.

[Brett Weinstein]

They don't know that. That's not worth that much money. Yeah, well. David, got any pluggles to plug before we roll out here?

[David Bell]

Same as before. Gainfully unemployed. Some more news. Google those things if you feel like it.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. Google those things if you feel like it. If you don't. Still do it. Yeah.

[David Bell]

Blue sky, I guess.

[Brett Weinstein]

Okay. Okay. Okay.

[David Bell]

Movie hooligan. Why not? I'm not really on it, but, you know, I'm on it.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. Anyway, find Dave on the Internet. Harass him on the Internet. Find him on the street. Talk to him there.

[David Bell]

Mail me a bullet.

[Brett Weinstein]

Mail Dave a bullet.

[David Bell]

If enough people mail me a bullet, I'll have a shitload of bullets.

[Brett Weinstein]

That's right.

[David Bell]

I have no guns, but, yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah, those are as good as money. You could pay your rent in bullets in some places. You actually probably can't. That might be illegal, but, oh, yeah, try paying your rent. And no, they. They probably would take that as a threat.

[David Bell]

Yeah.

[Brett Weinstein]

Yeah. Well, Dave, I think that's going to be all for those of us here at behind the Bastards and those of us here at David Bell. Until next week, continue not living in Saudi Arabia, unless you live in Saudi Arabia, at which point, good luck. In which case, good luck, I guess, either way, whatever.

[David Bell]

Yeah, and have fun.

[Brett Weinstein]

Have fun. Behind the Bastards is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Behind the Bastards is Now available on YouTube. New episodes every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to our channel YouTube.com behindthebastards.

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