This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy

What do you do when you have a lot of cash that wasn't exactly earned legally? Easy. You launder it. But here's the harder question: How EXACTLY do you launder it? Host Kal Penn sets out to talk to people in the know --international bankers, lawyers, investigative journalists, and money launderers themselves, to find out how the world's dirty money gets cleaned. Kal starts his journey in Miami, talking to convicted money launderer, Humberto Aguilar, about how it's done. Aguilar's expertise from the "glory days" of Miami's cocaine heyday leads Kal to the island nation of Cyprus. There, he meet a slew of characters who reveal all the ways that money laundering has played into Cyprus's economy -- but is it still going on? Kal eventually has to leave Cyprus to get the clearest answer. He travels to London to meet Panicos Demetriades, former governor of the Bank of Cyprus, who fled the country after blowing the whistle on continued money laundering in the country. Panicos reveals the ways that powerful people across the globe are continuing to launder money through secret networks -- and not just through Cyprus. Back in America, Kal gets advice from a man who has truly seen and done it all -- including money laundering, jewel smuggling, Bin-Laden hunting and working for three-letter government agencies to stop money laundering: Felix Sater. Like the Wizard of Oz, Sater reveals that the thing Kal's been looking for has been right at home in the US all along. This episode includes appearances by Joel McHale and Thomas Middleditch.

What is it about having a lot of money and a willingness to step over anyone to get more of it that seem to go together? Is there a correlation between "richness" and "dickness"?

What if planes couldn't land? Or trucks couldn't transport food? Without rubber, the economy as we know it ceases to exist. Kal Penn traces the path of rubber and uncovers a blind spot in the free market economy that's putting us at risk.

Kal Penn meets meets artificial intelligence face-to-interface and gets an anus-puckering glimpse of how A.I. is learning - on its own - to self-drive the global economy straight into the next industrial revolution.

Kal meets those in the fight against fakes, trying to save industries from the threat of bogus goods and terrorism. But he also learns that a symbiotic relationship between copycats and creators might be what lets economies thrive.

Death is our final destination and a real money-maker. Kal Penn dives into the death economy to learn the true value of a human life. Hitmen, judges, funeral directors and football fans all help Kal lay his burning questions to rest.

What is money, really? Kal Penn navigates a return to the barter system, the politics of the gold standard and the logic of fiat currency. He also untangles complexities of cryptocurrency and learns how to survive an economic apocalypse.

Why is that people in power so often use that power for personal gain? Host Kal Penn explores the wide range of corruption -- from petty bribery to grand corruption -- and how it can cripple entire economies. Traveling from San Francisco to Prague, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, and Singapore, Kal witnesses the various ways governments and individuals are fighting to keep their countries corruption-free. Kal begins his journey at UC Berkeley, where former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, gives him a crash course in corruption. From there, he travels to India, where petty bribery is part of everyday life. Back in New York, Kal talks to New Yorker journalist Adam Davidson about how you know when corruption goes beyond a few bad apples and has infected the larger system. Interested in getting a front-row seat to corruption in the wild, Kal takes a "CorrupTour" in Prague, and then meets with a spokesman for Transparency International, the world's foremost anti-corruption agency, to hear about the uphill fight against corruption. The next part of Kal's journey is a tale of two countries -- Malaysia and Singapore. Malaysia was recently rocked by its biggest corruption scandal ever. In the aftermath of a historic election, which forced the corrupt government out -- Kal talks to activists and politicians about how corruption on a grand scale hurt Malaysia's economy and trickled down to the pockets of the populace. From there, he travels to Singapore, which has a squeaky clean reputation, mostly based on a zero tolerance policy for corruption. Kal talks to government officials and a local about how Singapore adopted these hard-core policies, and whether it's possible to eradicate corruption entirely. Kal ends his journey back in India, where a former economic advisor to the country lays out a simple but radical approach to stopping corruption: legalize it. This episode includes appearances by Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and Jason Sudeikis.