Voltaire made his first fortune by exploiting a mathematical flaw in the French national lottery — and spent the rest of his life using that financial independence to pick fights with kings, churches, and the entire ancien regime. He was imprisoned in the Bastille, exiled to England, burned in effigy, and became the most famous writer in Europe by refusing to stop saying the things powerful people did not want to hear.

This episode traces Voltaire from the lottery scheme that funded his independence through his English exile, his years at Frederick the Great's court, the Candide that mocked philosophical optimism, and the free-speech crusades that made him the patron saint of the Enlightenment.

• The lottery hack that made Voltaire rich enough to write without a patron
• The Bastille imprisonment, the English exile, and the L ...