| Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates | |
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| Genre | Docuseries |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
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| Running time | 51-56 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Netflix |
| Release | September 20, 2019 (2019-09-20) |
Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates is a 2019 three-partdocumentary television series created and directed byDavis Guggenheim. The series explores the mind and motivations ofBill Gates, co-founder and former CEO ofMicrosoft and founder of theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation, together with his then-wifeMelinda French Gates.[1][2]
The documentary "toggles between [Gates'] storybook upper-middle-class childhood, the creation of Microsoft, and his current status as the world’s second-richest man."[3] The opening sequence features a montage of archive footage, including Gates being caked inBelgium byNoël Godin, while on a visit toEuropean Union officials.
Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates was released on September 20, 2019 onNetflix.[1] The release came after a summer of "unusually bad press" in which "The New Yorker published emails from the MIT Media Lab suggesting that Gates was "directed" by the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to donate $2 million to the institution (Gates' representative has pushed back on that characterization), and activists have organized protests and petitions against the Gates Foundation's decision to give Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a humanitarian award."[4]
The first episode explores Gates's interest in improvingsanitation indeveloping countries and the development of the "Omni Processor". His two sisters share their childhood memories.[5]
The Omni Processor is treating 1/3 of the fecal sludge in Dakar, Senegal; it also produces potable water.
In November 2018, theLixil Group announced that it would develop one of Bill's toilets.
Bill is seeking access to thesource code of thePDP-10 computer.
Kent Evans, a teenage computer expert and friend of Bill Gates dies in an accident in 1972.
The second episode focuses on Gates' work toeradicate polio inNigeria and advancepolio vaccination, also exploring his youth and friendships, for example with Kent Evans and withPaul Allen, later the Microsoft co-founder.[5]
The third episode explores Gates' search forclimate change solutions. This includes the development of a noveltravelling-wavenuclear power reactor, under development byTerraPower, a nuclear reactor design company founded by Gates. In addition to exploring Bill's relationship and marriage withMelinda Gates,[6] the third episode also details his friendship with fellow billionaireWarren Buffett and theantitrust law case in 1998-2001, using original footage from the trial. In this trial, the U.S. government accusedMicrosoft of illegally maintaining itsmonopoly position in the PC market (seeUnited States v. Microsoft Corp.).
One review in 2019 said "Inside Bill’s Brain often feels more superficial than it actually is because it switches topics so freely". Much of this documentary is about hischarity work with theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation, not about his life, personality, or beliefs.[6] The same review said the second episode is the best one as it comes closest to "decoding" Gates.[6]
According toThe Nation, "The documentary’s blind spots are all the more striking in light of the timing of its release, just as news was trickling out that Bill Gates met multiple times with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein." The documentary features an interview with Bernie Noe, a friend of Gates, but "Guggenheim doesn’t tell audiences that Noe is the principal ofLakeside School, a private institution to which the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given $80 million. The filmmaker also doesn’t mention the extraordinary conflict of interest this presents: The Gateses used their charitable foundation to enrich the private school their children attend."[7]
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