John Wordock spent decades working for the biggest names in financial journalism — Bloomberg, CBS MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones. He interviewed Jack Bogle, and Mike Bloomberg personally sent him to Washington DC to build a broadcast bureau. John knew everyone worth knowing in the world of money. And then he put his savings in index funds and stopped thinking about it.
Chris Hill sits down with John to find out what three decades inside financial news actually taught him about his own relationship with money, as well as:
- How his money story began in blue-collar Maine
- Why knowing all the right people made him less likely to tinker with his portfolio
- How he and his wife, both journalists, built a financially independent life and sent three kids to college without student loan debt
- The one purchase he still regrets (due to terrible Bluetooth)
To read more from John, check out his Substack!
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What's your favorite movie or TV series about money? Tell us at info@moneyunpluggedpod.com.
Opening clip – “Moneyball”

Hannah Cole grew up watching her father, a successful architect, call family meetings at the dinner table whenever the economy turned. Belt-tightening conversations. No explanation of how bad things actually were. Just anxiety, and a dad in a bad mood.
Cole spent her early career as far from the world of money as she could get — a master's degree in painting from Boston University and years as a working artist in New York City. Then reality intervened. And when she finally sat down with an accountant for the first time, he opened the meeting by asking, "So when are you gonna get a real job?"
That question changed everything.
Today she's a tax expert, the founder of Sunlight Tax, financial education firm built specifically for creative people, and the author of Taxes For Humans.
She talks with Chris Hill about:
- Why the feast-or-famine reality of artist life turns out to be one of the best teachers of financial discipline
- The two competing messages she received growing up about money and passion
- What it actually means to make peace with money
- How reality TV can be a counterintuitive teacher of good money habits
What's the last thing you splurged on? Tell us at info@moneyunpluggedpod.com.
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Opening clip – “The Big Short”

Joseph Moore grew up in rural South Carolina, the son of an electrician who worked during the day and went to school at night. Money wasn't discussed in his house (there wasn't enough of it to make conversation).
Today, Moore is a historian and author of the national bestseller How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn’t) who achieved financial freedom in his mid-40s. But the path there was anything but straight: a detour through seminary, a near-financial disaster in 2008, and a decade spent asking the question that would define his career — where does our financial advice actually come from?
Chris Hill talks with him about:
- The $56.56 mortgage payment that haunted his grandfather and shaped Moore's relationship with debt
- Why developing a "peasant mentality" about money is not all bad
- How marriage, more than almost anything else, predicts financial success
- What the animated movie Ratatouille gets right about wealth and talent
Discover Mar Mar, the chili garlic flavor that goes on everything. Go to ilovemarmar.com and use the promo code “MONEY” for 10% off .
What's your favorite movie or TV series about money? Tell us at info@moneyunpluggedpod.com.
Opening clip – “Fiddler On The Roof”