A nurse named Pearl was burned when a gas stove burst.

He's sitting down for a beer with this doctor he knows at the mining camp and, and he's asks, you know, "How's Pearl?" And the doctor tells him, "You know, it's pretty desperate.

Gangrene is setting in." And, and so Ponzi says, "How c- can you help her?" And he says, "Maybe a skin graft." And, you know, he wanted to try it, but he couldn't find anyone who'd give up their skin to save this woman they, they didn't know at all.

And Ponzi didn't really know her either, but in the moment, Ponzi said, "How much do you need? How much skin do you need?" And he said, "Well, probably 40 or 50 square inches."

It's an incredible story, and it doesn't fit the picture I have of Ponzi.

I love that.

I thought I was gonna write about a guy who was just a schemer, who was just a snake, and the deeper I went, the more I, I felt sort of, um, uh, the stirrings of sympathy, the stirring, stirrings of empathy.

And, you know, what he did was wrong, and, and what, you know, and, and I'm not confused by that.

... you and my listeners, I think the best way to learn history is through the micro, not, you know, a history of America in the 1920s may be wonderful, but if you take one person in the 1920s, you may learn more.

Uh, I couldn't agree more.

And in fact, that is such an important way to look at, at, at this book and, I think, at a lot of books like this, narrative histories, where, you know, Ponzi couldn't have existed at any other time.

You have, you know, World War I is over, Prohibition is in effect, the stock market's revving up.

You've got immigration, you know, people pouring into our shores.

You've got, you know, the, the US population for the first time ever has become more citified, more urban than rural.

Uh, women have just gotten the right to vote.

Go ahead.