Corporate Gossip – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Thank you for listening to another season of the podcast! We'll be back in February with new episodes. Got suggestions / thoughts / feedback? Email becca@nitetoast.com

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Trigger warning: suicide, drug use, overdose 

Tony Hsieh had a life other entrepreneurs dreamed of. He was the wealthy CEO of a wildly successful ecommerce company with a legion of devoted customers and employees, currently on a bus tour to spread the gospel of his unique management style. But under the surface, cracks were starting to show, and Tony was falling into a severe drug and alcohol addiction. Years after his death that bus tour was a clear turning point in Tony's story, but for those around him at the time, it was just Tony being Tony. They had no clue how much darker things could get. 

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Thank you to our episode sponsors: 

New York Interventionist

Goodword

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Timestamps: 

2:00 - Intro / show notes 

6:00 - Zappos / Tony Hshei story 

1:20:00 - Good News & Adam breaks a chair

Links: 

Wonderboy (Book)

Internal Memo: Zappos is offering severance to employees who aren't all in with Holacracy

How Tony Hsieh Tried to Single-Handedly Transform Downtown Las Vegas

The Rise and Fall of the Management Visionary Behind Zappos

The Death of Zappos's Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and Extreme Behavior

Amazon Changes at Zappos Slowly Dismantle Tony Hsieh's Legacy

'Money's a powerful motivator,' Friends, documents detail Las Vegas entrepreneur Tony Hsieh's final months alive

Spinato's Employees Get a "Slice of the Pie" as Spinato Family Transitions 49% of Company Ownership to Eligible Employees

Iconic Cincinnati company Graeter's to become partially employee-owned

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We're back with part two of our series on Open AI (we're done after this one for a while). Everyone's making everything up all the time and no one has any idea what will happen in the future. In this episode, we cover the wild claims made about AI and AGI and how those predictions are being used to justify environmental destruction and human exploitation. Also Sam Altman stands on his tippytoes. 

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Today's sponsors are Darling Beasts, a book by Michelle Gable and The Talent Spot

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 Pictures from this episode

Submit a good news story by email to our good news correspondent elizabethliu526@gmail.com 

Links: 

Empire of AI (Book) 

'There was all sorts of toxic behaviour': Timnit Gebru on her sacking by Google, AI's dangers and big tech

AI is draining water from Areas that need it most

Small Oregon county reckons with fallout from data center scandal

Arizona city defeats massive data center project over water, energy concerns

Behind the AI boom, an army of overseas workers in 'digital sweatshops'

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CW: Child Sexual Assault 

Meet Sam Altman, one of the most powerful men in tech (also maybe evil Pete Buttigieg??) and his posse of boy pests. We take you deep into the bunkers of Silicon Valley to Sam's inner circle to figure out how he became so rotted. Was it insecurity? Napoleon syndrome? OR SCURVY INDUCED PSYCHOSIS ??? 

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Today's sponsors are Brick of Chicago and Neurorenew PT

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Pictures from the episode

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Links: 

You look like a thing and I love you (Book)

Empire of AI (Book) 

The Worst Hard Time (Book) 

Sam Altman Is the Oppenheimer of Our Age

Sam Altman's Manifest Destiny

Sam Altman on His Plan to Keep A.I. Out of the Hands of the "Bad Guys" 

Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

Know Your Rights Virtual Workshop

Why is it that no one wants to see a hot guy succeed?!!!?

This is the story of the three best friends, lead by Bell Air Boy Boss Sean Rad. They created Tinder and became the coolest millennials in LA, hosting parties with Jason Derulo and Kristen Doute and preparing their bank accounts for an influx of cash after being acquired by Match.com. But it's hard to read the fine print on a legal document by the light of a glow-stick! And while they were partying, Barry Diller was scheming from his megayacht. Soon, their viral app would be swiped from under them. 

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Pictures from today's episode 

10:00 - Intro 

23:30 - Corporate Gossip #1: Here, put on this bedsheet and gladiator sandals, we're going to a COLLEGE TOGA PARTY!! FOR BUSINESS!! 

37:00 - Corporate Gossip #2: Business daddy issues 

46:00 - Corporate Gossip #3: Tinder founders - "we're stupid, BUT we're also sexual harassers, (allegedly)"

51:30 - Corporate Gossip #4: Nanci Jo Sales strikes 

56:30 - Corporate Gossip #5: The VC urge to give a bunch of 20 somethings a million dollars and no oversight 

1:04:00 - Corporate Gossip #6: Literally Match I Double dog dare you to find someone to be CEO who isn't a dumb creep

1:12:25 - Corporate Gossip #7: Nasty Grams from Blatt

1:15:00 - Corporate Gossip#8: Follow up & Takeaways 

Links: 

'Sodomy' and scandal: Tinder's thoroughly embarrassing stock-market debut

 A Tinder Revenge Story The revolutionary dating app made a lot of people rich. Co-founder Sean Rad didn't feel rich enough.

An Open Letter to Tinder's Sean Rad from V.F.'s Nancy Jo Sales

Thank you to today's sponsors! 

Karinas Confectioneries

Ellin Lolis

The CEO of tech company Astronomer was caught at a Coldplay concert canoodling with the head of HR in a video that has since gone mega-viral. And SUDDENLY everyone is interested in what I thought was a niche topic - CEOs behaving badly!! 

In this emergency episode, I review the latest in the Astronomer scandal and recap my favorite executive cheating scandals that we've covered on the podcast. 

Correction: In an earlier version of this epiosde, I said Friends and ER were on CBS. They were not, they were on NBC. I also said Rupert Murdoch's wife was "Jerry Halloway" not "Jerry Hall." That's because I'm a millenial and I'm always thinking about the Spice Girls. 

Timestamps: 

00:00 Astronomer 

07:25 - Kevin Plank (Under Armour) 

13:30 - Sergey Brin (Google)

20:00 - Les Moonves (CBS) 

24:30 - SBF (FTX) 

26:00 - Jack Welch (GE) 

27:20 - Rupert Murdoch (NewsCorp / Fox News) 

I also touch on Dov Charney (American Apparel), Eddie Antar (Crazy Eddie), The Insys Sales Reps, and Vince McMahon (WWE) 

Checking in before our OFFICIAL Corporate Gossip Summer Research Break! We'll be back in July with regular episodes.

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This Brain Had a Mouth: Lucy Gwin and the Voice of Disability Nation

Audubon chapter rejects offer from The Hartford to reinstate coverage

BTW - we forgot to mention, but after The Hartford said they'd reinstate coverage, the Audobon chapter told the company to kick rocks! 

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We wrap up this absolute UNIT of a two part episode by examining the Facebook story by stepping into our proverbial blue sequined rompers and seeing the world behind Mark Zuckberg's baby bangs. BUCKLE UP as Becca and Adam try to figure out - did the accumulation of unchecked power and extraordinary wealth over 20 years take ice cream scoops out of Mark Zuckerberg's brain? OR did his unique position on top of business boy mountain give him the freedom to reveal the curly-haired gremlin that was always hiding within??

Links: 

Pics from the episode

The Zuckerberg Files

It's Time to Break Up Facebook

 How Mark Zuckerberg Led Facebook's War to Crush Google Plus

Mark Zuckerberg Apparently Didn't Tell Congress the Whole Truth About Facebook

An Ugly Truth

Careless People

Good News: Inside a Union's Fight Against Trump's Federal Job Cuts

Got good news? Email our Good News Correspondent elizabethliu526@gmail.com

For bonus content and discussions on each episode join us on Patreon

If Sheryl Sandberg & Mark Zuckerberg never encountered one another at a Christmas party in Atherton in 2007 would the world have been a better place? Find out as we go ALLL the way back and trace the story of Sheryl Sandberg's Dr. Frankenstein and her Mark Zuckerberg monster.

Was there sexual tension between the two of them (no one explicitly has said that but I PICKED UP ON A FEW THINGS!)??. Were either of them good people who were corrupted? Or were they destined to seek power and destroy once they reached the top? What about now? Do they feel ashamed about the lives they've destroyed, directly or indirectly? Do they hate themselves more than we could ever hate them? Are there ANY heroes in this story at all? What do you think?!

Links:

Pics from the episode

Why Sheryl Sandberg Quit Facebook's Meta

"When You Get That Wealthy, You Start to Buy Your Own Bullshit": The Miseducation of Sheryl Sandberg

An Ugly Truth

Careless People

Got good news? Email our Good News Correspondent elizabethliu526@gmail.com

This was going to be a Patreon exclusive but I decided to make it free for everyone! If you want to support this indie podcast, consider joining the Patreon. You'll get bonus content twice a month, discussion posts with me and other members, and extra juciy content that didn't make the cut on regular episodes! 

The jury is now deliberating! What do you think? Guilty or Not Guilty?

At the closing arguments of US vs. Charlie Javice, aka the Jose Baez oral rollercoaster. WEEE!!! Highlights include:

• The Monopoly Man is ACTUALLY J.P. Morgan

• Jamie Dimons "widdle baby" defense

• A scorned bank employee hopes to save bank daddies reputation

• As always, hyper realistic drawings that bring you into the belly of the lower Manhattan District Courthouse

   

In 2007, the mecca of hipster paradise was the Etsy headquarters in Brooklyn. Etsy epitomized elder-millennial quirk with a sprinkle of digital delusion, and no one personified the vibes quite like their CEO and founder, Rob Kalin. 

But while Kalin and his friends were building a crafters utopia, a ruthless venture capitalist had another plan for the company: destroy it from the inside out and get SUPER rich doing it.

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Pictures now on Patreon (no paywall!)

Links:

Etsy Wants to Crochet Its Cake, and Eat It Too

Etsy Was a Twee Culture Punchline. Now It's a Wall Street Darling.

Etsy CEO says company is escaping 'race to the bottom' and getting back to its artisan roots