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Sleep Number Announcer / Chelsea Handler
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Jordan Sillers
good life Sleep Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.
Unidentified Witness
I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed. Then there was a pool of blood.
Andrew Madoff
Somebody somewhere knows something.
Jordan Sillers
I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts to
Steve Fishman
listen all at once ad free. Subscribe to True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts. Welcome to Lives of Crime. True Crime from True Criminals. I'm Steve Fishman from Orbit Media. Usually we feature criminals telling intimate stories of their outlaw lives in their own words. Today we're doing something a little different. I think of it as putting two people in conversation who weren't able to hold a conversation. Let me explain. One of those people is Bernie Madoff, mastermind of the largest Ponzi fraud ever. Bernie made $65 billion disappear. Billion with a B. Madoff had been a Wall street star, innovative, rich, honored. He was chairman of the nasdaq. Also, he was quietly managing other people's money, or said he was. Madoff paid freakishly steady returns, but in fact, he never invested. He paid those returns with the money coming in from new investors. In 2008, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years and 50 federal prison. That's when I launched a campaign to get him to talk to me. It took a year. He wasn't talking to the press. Then my home phone rang. We called this episode Frauds and Sons.
Andrew Madoff
And how about 12? Bernard Madoff? Bernie? Yes, David.
Steve Fishman
Bernie and I spoke for three hours. And then I reached out to Andy, his youngest son. Andy and his brother worked in the legit side of the Madoff business. When they learned of dad's Ponzi scheme, they turned him into the FBI. And then they didn't speak to him anymore ever again. Bernie's oldest son, Mark, committed suicide in shame. Andy was stonily silent.
Andrew Madoff
I can't get it to him. I can't, I can't. He doesn't want to talk to me and I can't communicate with him.
Steve Fishman
Oh, but Andy did want to communicate with his father. He desperately wanted answers. When I told Andrew that I'd spoken to his dad, he wanted to know all about the conversation. I became a kind of intermediary. I related to Andrew what his father had to say and let Andrew respond. It was like he was talking to his dad through me. In this episode of Lives of Crime, the greatest financial crook in history and his son have one final exchange.
Andrew Madoff
See, what happened was Andy, Mark went to my brother and said, what's wrong with. What's wrong with that? Looks, he looks exhausted. He looks terrible. Just doesn't look right. And then my brother came in to me and said, I asked you what's going on? And I did it to my brother. He said, well, you know, and you have to tell the boys, you know, you know, something's wrong, I don't know what it is. I said, I can't tell them any. Orbit says I'm just gonna fall apart. So we got into my car and we drove a few blocks to drive and drove a few blocks to the apartment. That's when I broke down and I, you know, I told him, I started crying and I said, I told him what deal was that? You know, I owe all this money out and I not going to be able to recover it. Everybody was like stunned, you know, I was crying and I don't think it totally gets everybody. I mean, look, picture it. One thing you think, you know, your father is running this multi billion dollar business and everything is fine and happy and they're happy and all of a sudden the oil pumps crashing down. He remember, took me in his arms, you know, he felt sorry for him. Sure.
Mark Madoff
I didn't. Okay, I was just stunned. I kept running through my mind people who I knew were going to be destroyed by what he had done. I knew of course that I had many millions of dollars that were he'd just be gone. But I didn't care. My own situation was the last thing in my mind. I was thinking about My mother in law, my cousins, friends who I knew, I mean, every member of my family, every one of our friends. There was nobody. There was not a single soul who I knew who wasn't going to be, best case, deeply impacted, worst case, absolutely destroyed. And he had done this. That was just. Just anger. Just anger.
Andrew Madoff
The afternoon I told them all, they immediately left.
Mark Madoff
And the next thing I knew, I'm walking down Lexington Avenue with my brother and we're, we could barely speak.
Andrew Madoff
I said, but you, I don't know what you're supposed to do now that I've told you this.
Mark Madoff
And we, you know, we were into lawyers within hours.
Andrew Madoff
The lawyer said, you got to turn your father in.
Mark Madoff
Probably the hardest thing I've ever done. What we were doing, he was our father. He was going to go to jail for the rest of his life.
Andrew Madoff
I never saw them again.
Superhuman Podcast Narrator
Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the Enhanced Games. Some call it grotesque, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all. Embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.
Mark Madoff
Within probably 10 days, I'd put on £10.
Lowe's Announcer
I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.
Superhuman Podcast Narrator
Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Jordan Sillers
Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.
Unidentified Witness
I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed. Then there was a pool of blood.
Andrew Madoff
Somebody, somewhere, something.
Jordan Sillers
I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Debbie Brown
The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This mental health awareness month, tune into the podcast Deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self discovery and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace and self mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected.
Sleep Number Announcer / Chelsea Handler
We're becoming more individualized.
Debbie Brown
But we actually need people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you. To hear more. Listen to Deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Mark Madoff
I grew up talking about the business all the time. Never really wanted to do anything else. I spent my summers in the office, and it was fascinating. I'm a big numbers guy. I love math. I really got into this. This was perfect for me. And I got to go on the trading desk and watch my father trade. I sat next to him while he traded. He was great. He was an unbelievable trader, and it was exciting to watch him. He was an idol. I'm not embarrassed to say you never considered that something else would be as exciting as a career. I was extremely good at it.
Andrew Madoff
I was very proud of their accomplishments. We had a wonderful legacy, which they helped build.
Mark Madoff
We did a good job. I mean, we built the business to the point where it got very large, very profitable, and had an excellent reputation. And he didn't have to do shit.
Andrew Madoff
Sure that anyone that saw me operating over the last years knew that I was under tremendous pressure. Look, I would sit there and stare out the windows at times. I'd probably talk to myself at times.
Mark Madoff
Arizona blinds in the trading room. And he would be on his knees on the counter, straightening the stupid slats to make sure that they were straight very well. You could raise them, they'd put them down. One would get stuck. Crazy. They weren't at the right angle. It's ridiculous. Parents would say to their children things in private that they would never say in public. Okay. Bernie didn't have that. Still doing so. He would say things sometimes in the heat of the moment on the trading desk that for other people might have been absolutely shocking. He wanted you to do something. And I wanted a clear, rational explanation as to why. You know, it's conceptually along the lines of because I said so. But for me, it was like it completely rolled off my back. People didn't, as a general, might see the fight in the training room, but they didn't see the four of us getting together in Bernie's office afterwards or around the dinner table or on vacation. He was a. He was a very loving father and effusive with his praise. He went out of his way to express pride. There was constant, constant expression of pride and love on his part, more often in private.
Andrew Madoff
And everybody loved him. They were nice guys. There was nothing not to like about.
Mark Madoff
He was absolutely devastated when I was diagnosed. Physically, he was a vegetable for weeks. When it happened, you could barely speak. He could barely leave the house. After my cancer, my interests started to strike. You really reassess what. What you're going with your Life, who your friends are, what your career is, what you want to do, what your goals are, what you enjoy. I just started looking at things through a very different lens. So the frustrations that for years had rolled off my back were much less likely to. There were other things that I was interested in doing. I just started following my own path. There was pressure put on me to step. Some of it was very subtle, some of it I didn't even realize other than an hindsight. Some of it was incredibly right out there. He was a bully. I don't think enough can be said about his bullying ways. The fact that hedge fund managers of multi billion dollar funds could be bullied by a guy who was supposed to be working for them is a fascinating fact. I mean, that. How does that happen? He held sway over people in a million different ways, many of whom didn't even know it. You could talk to his closest friends who were among his biggest victims, certainly emotionally amongst biggest victims. And to this day, they have no fucking clue how this happens. These people's lives were absolutely flushed down the toilet. It happened to all of us. He's such a master of deceit and one of history's greatest liars. He had a way of imposing his will on people and winning you over in ways that felt sometimes felt good, sometimes didn't. But it was sort of undeniable that I was manipulated to stay absolutely triggered by fairness.
Andrew Madoff
You have to understand that for a number of years I was managing buddies successfully without any problem. So it wasn't like I thought I could do it. I knew that I could do it. I always had a good feel for direction of the market. I had this model which I thought was a great model and was a good model. But what didn't work was that all of a sudden I was trying to put a billion dollars to work.
Mark Madoff
I have absolutely no idea when he started trading other people's money and how that progressed in scale.
Andrew Madoff
I take on a whole bunch of individual accounts, then all of a sudden the market just goes into a total stupor. That's the problem. But my mistake was I just should have left it at that. Instead, these funds that just kept pouring money into me and it was very hard to turn down. You say to yourself, all right, all of a sudden these banks are trying to give you the time of day. Some of them, all of a sudden they're willing to give you a billion dollars.
Mark Madoff
Am I supposed to forgive you and feel badly that you got trapped into this terrible thing? Who was he trying to impress? He was Trying to impress himself. He resented the hell out of people. He resented the hell out of his clients. He was at the beck and call of people continuously. If you tried to get him on the phone, anybody could. Anyone who needed to get his ear got it. No matter where he was on Earth, he was reachable, and he returned every message. Wouldn't go places on Earth where he couldn't be reached by phone, so if there wasn't satellite coverage, he wouldn't go. So people could always get. Get his ear. And he resented that.
Andrew Madoff
Look, the one thing that everybody asked me, why did you do this? It didn't make any sense. Everybody said, look, it wasn't that you needed the money. It wasn't like you needed the recognition. What they need to do this. You know, you had a million. You had a billion dollars. You know, why did you have to do this? And you can't explain that to these people. Fought enough to explain it to. To myself.
Mark Madoff
He was famous, and I don't want to say popular, but certainly highly regarded. That should have been enough. And I think for most people, it would have been enough.
Andrew Madoff
I must look like an insane person.
Superhuman Podcast Narrator
Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the Enhanced Games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.
Mark Madoff
Within probably 10 days, I'd put on £10.
Lowe's Announcer
I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.
Superhuman Podcast Narrator
Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Jordan Sillers
Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.
Unidentified Witness
I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed, and there was a pool of blood.
Andrew Madoff
Somebody somewhere knows something.
Jordan Sillers
I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Jared O'Donnell
Hey, I'm Jared o'. Donnell. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out help on the Internet.
Debbie Brown
Help.
Mark Madoff
Somebody, please.
Jared O'Donnell
But there's so much more to me than that. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Psych. I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice, Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary. Cream of chicken soup.
Steve Fishman
Hey, Cream. Cream of chicken soup.
Jared O'Donnell
This is Help from a Hypocrite. The worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite as part of the Mike Kultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Steve Fishman
In 2008, the stock market collapsed. Bernie's customers wanted their money back, and he didn't have it. This was the moment when America's banking system seemed on the brink of collapse. Bernie seemed a poster boy for all that was wrong with Wall Street. The media went crazy for the story.
Mark Madoff
One of the things that was very important for me in getting through this was not isolating myself. Very difficult to just to even leave the house. I would hand somebody my credit card at a restaurant or a store, and they'd say, madoff, are you any relation? And I would say, yes. And they'd say, I've been praying for you. My heart goes out to you. And that had a big impact on me. We had a bunch of friends over the Friday night after this whole thing happened, and they were very supportive. My daughters had a huge crowd of their friends come over to spend the weekend in my apartment. I was getting calls of support from all their parents. So right out of the shoot, I had love and support of everybody who I knew. They didn't care what the news was saying. They knew that I had nothing to do with this because they knew me. And being able to have that as a wall of defense against all of this shit was a lifesaver. I disconnected cable. I mean, I took my cable box out, I threw my backpack, I rode my bike down, turned in my cable box. I just insulated myself from the shit and put myself into the arms of my friends and extended family, all of whom were there for me. Mor didn't do that. He isolated himself. He was afraid. He. He didn't know how people were going to react.
Steve Fishman
He, he.
Mark Madoff
He was. He was consumed with reading the blogs, reading the comments on articles, and it was. It was awful. He saw the.
Andrew Madoff
The.
Mark Madoff
The world's perception of him and us through the eyes of all of these hateful people who take the time to write a nasty comment on a New York Post article, Wall Street Journal article on deal breaker and he thought, you know, the world hates us, and he would be crushed. He would forward it to me and business this horrible. And, I mean, I didn't ever have to read anything because I knew that I would get it from him. And I would say, why are you doing this to yourself? Why are you reading this shit? Shut off your fucking computer. Get out of the house. And he just couldn't stop. He couldn't stop. He would have. I mean, he had friends, groups of friends would invite him to dinner and he wouldn't show. And they told him Monroe,
Andrew Madoff
Through the chaplain, came with the FBI, knew something happened. That's how they notify you when someone dies. When Mark took his life, I didn't either. I didn't come out of my room for days. You know, I didn't speak to anybody. And then eventually I forced myself out of bed. They make you do that here. They check on you every hour, make sure. Okay, I. I cried for well over two weeks. You know, after he died, I cried in private because I didn't want to do it here. And if they saw me. If they saw me, they probably would have put me in a suicide watch. And I was a basket case for four weeks. But I blame myself 100% for my son's death. I mean, you know what. You know what that is to live with? Blame myself for it. I mean, if this happened, you wouldn't have taken adult life. And, you know, Celine, I. I have tears in my eyes when I'm talking to you about certain things that not a day goes by, and then I. I don't suffer. I may sound okay on the phone. Trust me, I'm not okay. It never will be. They have wonderful psychologists here, and they're very helpful to me. I have, you know, tearful sessions with a few weeks.
Mark Madoff
Oh, good for him. I hope that works out.
Andrew Madoff
I asked him, am I a sociopath? You're not a sociopath. You have morals, you have remorse. You.
Mark Madoff
I mean, I'm not a. I'm not an expert, but see, it's. It's fucked up. That's my study thing.
Steve Fishman
I'm not an expert. I mean, he's fucked up. That's my studied opinion. And that's what Andrew said about his beloved father. Andrew Madoff's cancer returned in 2011. He blamed the stress of his father's misdeeds for his relapse. Andrew died three years later. Bernie died in prison in 2021, having not heard from his son since the day he turned him. The creator and host of lives of Crime is Steve Fishman Executive producers Steve Fishman and Kevin Wardes Senior Producer Drew Nellis Producer and engineer Austin Smith story Editor Dan Bobkoff. Our Sound designer is Bianca Salinas Assistant Producer Eric Axelrod. Special thanks to the inimitable Fisher Stevens, the glamorous Rhea Julian and our agents at wme, Evan Krasic, Marissa Hurwitz, Ben Davis. Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Company Number One. Follow us @orbitmediafm on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Jordan Sillers
Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.
Unidentified Witness
I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed and there was a pool of blood.
Andrew Madoff
Somebody somewhere know something?
Jordan Sillers
I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Debbie Brown
The story I told myself can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection this Mental Health Awareness Month. Tune into the podcast Deeply well with Debbie Brown. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you. To hear more, listen to Deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sleep Number Announcer / Chelsea Handler
This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler. We have some fantastic guests like Emilia Clarke. When, like young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever, my first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? I'd rather be disappointed in do that.
Mark Madoff
David Oyelowo I love this podcast.
Steve Fishman
Whether it's therapy or relationships or religion
Mark Madoff
or sex or addiction or you just
Steve Fishman
go straight for the guts.
Sleep Number Announcer / Chelsea Handler
Dennis Leary, Gaten Matarazzo from Stranger Things, Tana Mongeau, Camilla Marrone, Carrie, Kenny Silver and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host: Steve Fishman (Orbit Media)
Date: May 5, 2026
This episode, "Frauds & Sons," deviates from the typical "Lives of Crime" format by replaying—through an unusual, mediated conversation—the collapse of the world’s most notorious Ponzi scheme, orchestrated by Bernie Madoff. Rather than presenting a straightforward criminal narrative, host Steve Fishman acts as an intermediary between Bernie and his son Andrew, relaying each one’s words and emotional truths in the aftermath of Madoff’s exposure. The episode explores themes of betrayal, family legacy, guilt, and the emotional fallout that extends far beyond the financial scandal.
"Picture it. One thing you think—you know your father is running this multi billion dollar business and everything is fine ... and all of a sudden the oil pumps crashing down." —Bernie Madoff ([05:13])
"There was nobody. There was not a single soul who I knew who wasn't going to be, best case, deeply impacted, worst case, absolutely destroyed." —Mark Madoff ([06:16])
"He was our father. He was going to go to jail for the rest of his life." —Mark Madoff ([07:28])
"He was an idol. I'm not embarrassed to say ... I was extremely good at it." —Mark Madoff ([09:55])
"He was a bully. I don't think enough can be said about his bullying ways ... these people's lives were absolutely flushed down the toilet. ... He's such a master of deceit and one of history's greatest liars."—Mark Madoff ([12:36], [13:21])
"It wasn't like you needed the money. It wasn't like you needed the recognition. ... You can't explain that to these people. It's hard enough to explain it to myself." —Bernie Madoff ([16:40]) "He was famous and ... highly regarded. That should have been enough. For most people, it would have been enough." —Mark Madoff ([17:07])
"One of the things that was very important for me in getting through this was not isolating myself. ... I insulated myself from the shit and put myself into the arms of my friends and extended family, all of whom were there for me." —Mark Madoff ([19:52])
"I blame myself 100% for my son's death. ... I may sound okay on the phone. Trust me, I'm not okay. It never will be." —Bernie Madoff ([23:33])
"I asked him, am I a sociopath? You're not a sociopath. You have morals, you have remorse." —Bernie Madoff ([24:01])
"I'm not an expert. I mean, he's fucked up. That's my studied opinion." —Mark Madoff ([24:10])
True to the "Lives of Crime" approach, the tone is deeply personal, sometimes raw, and unvarnished. There is no attempt to excuse or justify; instead, listeners hear broken people trying to make sense of ruin. Fishman’s mediation gives the episode a wrenching intimacy, amplifying the unresolved emotional chaos within one of America’s most infamous criminal families.
"Frauds & Sons" is not just the exposé of a criminal scheme, but a tragedy about the corrosion of trust, the shattering of family, and a meditation on the impossibility of redemption when the damage is irrevocable. The episode’s innovative structure—a nearly posthumous, indirect conversation between father and son—underscores the lasting burden of crime on loved ones, leaving listeners with lingering questions about justice, remorse, and whether some wounds can ever truly heal.