A conversation that Stephen Dubner had on an airplane inspired a show.  He was on his way to South Africa when fellow passengerNassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan and Antifragile, told him something remarkable: “If you look at ten or twenty or thirty of the richest countries around the world, among the richest people in those countries is someone from Lebanon.” Of course Taleb would say this, Dubner thought. He is Lebanese. But the idea stuck.

How successful is the Lebanese diaspora? And how did they get to be this way?

Who Are the Most Successful Immigrants in the World? Full Transcript.