In this introductory episode, Professor Seth C. Oranburg demystifies corporate governance as the ”operating system” of corporations, explaining its role in balancing power among shareholders, boards, and executives. He highlights its real-world impact through examples like Boeing’s safety failures, Theranos’s fraud, and Enron’s collapse, emphasizing how governance shapes economies, industries, and accountability. The episode motivates the season by posing key questions—who runs companies, and what happens when it goes wrong?—while previewing topics like fiduciary duties, activism, and takeovers.