Avsnitt
-
Don't forget to rate and review!
Becca and Adam talk about the Giggly Grain Grandpa: Bob Moore of Bob's Red Mill. But don't toss your oats just yet, this is a good episode. We'll teach you how to have a Bob Moore Summer (Perfecting your porridge, socializing the means of production, hyperfixating on hobbies, and being jolly) and restore your faith in CEOs.
Then we answer listener questions (37 min mark).
THANK YOU! For another great season - we'll see you soon :)
Support the pod
Pics on substack
Links:
Bob’s Red Mill: Securing The Future Through Employee Ownership
Bob Moore, Who Founded Bob’s Red Mill, Is Dead at 94
Executive greed is driving the labor shortage, says 93-year-old leader whose workers own 100% of the company
-
Put on your flower crowns and don your skinniest jeans and join us at the center of the Millennial universe: Coachella 2007!
Adam & Becca meet the personification of the turn of the century hipster entrepreneur, Dov Charney. Sitting atop a pile of v-neck t-shirts ethically made in the USA, Charney was somewhat of a renegade business oddity on wall-street. But for the 20-something dreamers that clamored for the brand’s clothing, he was a captivating revolutionary. Their devotion, along with a bevy of young corporate employees, easily exploited under the guise of “a greater purpose,” allowed American Apparel to rapidly expand and IPO in 2007. The stores were everywhere you wanted to be… until they weren’t.
Eventually, abuse allegations coupled with financial mismanagement threatened Charney’s reign as king of t-shirt mountain. With the walls closing in on him, he spiraled out of control… taking the company he founded with him.
CW: Sexual abuse
Pics on substack
Support the pod
Links:
Read Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles
Watch Big Rad Wolf
The Young Garmentos (and the If Books Could Kill episode on Malcom Gladwell)
Meet Your New Boss
Dov Charney's Sleazy Struggle for Control of American Apparel
-
Saknas det avsnitt?
-
NO ONE does fraud like Eddie Antar, and Crazy Eddie is the bizarre story that got Becca hooked on fraud!
Adam, Becca, and their Dad Jeff pop a few ludes and drop down the rabbit hole into a 1970’s New York City punk rock fever dream. They meet a young Eddie Antar scamming tourists in a seedy Time Square clip joint and follow his journey to become the eccentric millionaire founder of Crazy Eddie Electronics. Antar was a marketing genius, and by the mid 1980’s commercials for the chain were inescapable, shoppers were practically screamed at to rush out to Crazy Eddie’s because ‘HIS PRICES ARE INSANE!!!!’
The insane prices, of course, were facilitated by an elaborate criminal racket. Money laundering, insurance fraud, tax evasion, bribery, insider trading… Eddie Antar did it all! But when the cash begins to dry up, Eddie’s increasingly desperate and brazen behavior puts him in the crosshairs of the SEC. That’s when Eddie Antar became an international fugitive and left his family, who enabled and benefited from his behavior, holding the bag.
Support the pod
Pics on our Substack
Links:
Read Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie
Crazy Eddie commercial from 1982
Remembering Crazy Eddie: His Prices Were Insane
-
Why does doing taxes suck so much? Because Capitalism!
Over the past 20 years, the lovable dweebs at the IRS have been on a quest to make filing personal taxes free and easy. They say America should be like other countries, where the government sends you a pre-filled tax return and all you have to do is sign-off. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Like what kind of deranged psychopath wouldn’t want that?
Enter Intuit, maker of tax preparation software Turbo Tax, and their disgruntled band of lobbyists. Their entire business model depends on you being afraid to screw up your taxes. So they bribe lawmakers to over-complicate tax laws, threaten the government into underfunding the IRS, and run dubious misinformation campaigns alleging that free tax filing is somehow… racist?
The nefarious knuckleheads at Intuit would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for the determined efforts of Propublica journalists. They joined forces with the unlikely heroes at the IRS, and from a muggy basement office in Washington they stood up to Big Tax and won.
We
-
ANOTHER BONUS EPISODE! Becca & Adam talk to Evan Drellich, the author of Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball's Brightest Minds Created Sports' Biggest Mess
Read Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball's Brightest Minds Created Sports' Biggest Mess
Support the pod
-
America's pastimes: Baseball and Fraud!
What happens when a bunch of fleece-vested jabronis take over a Major League Baseball team? Becca and Adam hop the fence at the stadium formerly known as Enron field and bring you the tea from the front-office of the Houston Astros.
Two years after the Astros won the World Series, the Athletic dropped a bombshell: the team had cheated. The public fallout was swift - fines were levied, rules were changed, and championships were threatened. The players and coaches bore the brunt of the blame, while the true schemers at the root of the scandal evaded scrutiny. That is until a group of tenacious reporters uncovered how Astros leadership were infected by the MBA-pilled corporate villains at McKinsey.
If you listened to our episode on McKinsey you know what happens next. Values were trashed as profits were maxed by any means possible. Ultimately, the Astros clubhouse became an environment where cheating was acceptable. Because after all, Winning Fixes Everything.
Listen to all of Season 4 on Patreon
Support the pod
Links:
Pics on our Substack
Read Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball's Brightest Minds Created Sports' Biggest Mess
Watch The Astros Edge
The Astros opened baseball ops to McKinsey consultants, from scouting to R&D and the farm
The Astros stole signs electronically in 2017 — part of a much broader issue for Major League Baseball
-
If you thought Sumner Redstone was a degenerate, just WAIT until you meet his pervy protege, Les Moonves!
CBS CEO Les Moonves, aka “Mr. TV” is one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. He transformed CBS from a sleepy granny network into a ratings powerhouse with shows like Survivor, Big Brother, Criminal Minds, and The Big Bang Theory. The business part of this story is one Cheezy Blaster away from being a 30 Rock episode. The action behind closed doors on the other hand, feels more like Law & Order: SVU.
CW: Sexual abuse
Listen to all of Season 4 on Patreon
Support the pod
Pics on substack
Links:
Read Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
Les Moonves’ spectacular rise before his fall from grace
Why Sumner Redstone’s men; Leslie Moonves and Philippe Dauman; made a king’s ransom
Les Moonves and CBS Face Allegations of Sexual Misconduct
Paramount+’s Existential Questions
Leslie Moonves Fined $11K by L.A. City Ethics Commission for His Role in LAPD Scandal
-
The Paramount / Viacom story is just like Bravo’s Summer House, but SCARIER!
Our main character, Paramount CEO Sumner Redstone, is a horny teenager trapped in the body of a crusty old billionaire. At 92, despite being barely conscious, he was still chairman of TWO publicly traded companies.This real life Weekend at Bernie’s scheme was made possible by a group of executive-level lowlifes who took advantage of their absent boss and enriched themselves at the expense of shareholders. It wasn’t until a group of unlikely heroes exposed the elder abuse taking place at Sumner’s mansion that someone finally pulled the plug. But by then, the stench emanating from the geriatric bachelor pad was too strong for even the most devoted Paramount / Viacom supporters to ignore.
Join Becca and Adam as they tell the story of the unlikely rise and fall of Sumner Redstone and Paramount Global.
CW: Elder abuse, Sexual abuse
Listen to all of Season 4 on Patreon
Support the pod
Pics on substack
Links:
Read Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
The Cringey Sexcapades of a Horny Billionaire
Who Controls Sumner Redstone?
Viacom Is Having A Midlife Crisis
Spring Owl Activist Investor Deck
-
Insys was the startup unicorn of the opioid crisis, and boy did they know how to party.
Becca & Adam meet Insys CEO John Kapoor and his rowdy band of crooked pharmaceutical reps as they slither their way through doctors offices across the country, pushing their marquee product: Fentanyl! The shady sales reps unleashed the powerful opioid on unsuspecting patients and bribed their doctors to increase dosages through an illegal kickback scheme. Eventually their shameless conspiracies and criminal shakedowns lead to a public meltdown and federal racketeering charges, but not before Kapoor could be crowned Forbes coverboy!
CW: Drug abuse
Links:
Pictures on our Substack
The Pain Hustlers - NYT Expose
Read Pain Hustlers - the book
An Opioid Spray Showered Billionaire John Kapoor In Riches. Now He's Feeling The Pain
A potent painkiller, and the drug maker’s marketing, are faulted in a woman’s death
Pharmaceutical Executive John Kapoor Sentenced To 66 Months In Prison In Opioid Trial
Tracking the Opioid Settlement Cash
-
IT’S A BONUS EPISODE, BROTHER!
Becca and Adam talk with the author of Ringmaster, Josie Riesman
Read Ringmaster by Josie Riesman
Follow Josie on Instagram, her website josie.zone, or the book website
Josie’s article mentioned in the interview: Wrestling turned me cis, then it turned me trans
-
Welcome back brother!! Season 4 is here and ready to SMACKDOWN! WWE style.
Binge ALL of Season 4 NOW on Patreon!
We’ve seen this story before - a deeply traumatized child inherits their father’s business and fills the void left by the adults that failed them with, what else… MONEY!!!! Rather than spend time examining his emotional shortcomings, Vince McMahon creates an alter ego, Mr. McMahon, to live out his darkest fantasies. But what happens when the CEO of a public company is also the greatest heel of all time? Find out as Becca and Adam step into the Hell in a Cell of the business of professional wrestling and battle through 60 years of the stinkiest secrets of World Wrestling Entertainment.
CW: Drugs, Sexual Abuse
Links:
Support the podcast
Pics in our Substack
Read Ringmaster by Josie Riesman
Now It Can Be Told: Those Pro Wrestlers Are Just Having Fun
2003 Vince McMahon on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel
Federal Prosecutors Investigate Vince McMahon Sex-Trafficking Allegations
-
It's the Season 3 Finale! We answer listener questions and meet the Yogurt King of New York: Chobani's founder, Hamdi Ulkaya. From nomadic Turkish farmer to millionaire milk mogul, Ulkaya became known as the Anti-CEO, prioritizing people over profit and creating one of the fastest growing food companies in America.
Correction: We said the Chobani Idaho factory was in Idaho falls. It is actually in Twin Falls. Thanks to the listener who pointed that out!
If you liked this season don't forget to RATE AND REVIEW THE PODCAST
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Timestamps & Links:
01:30 - Listener Questions
How did you guys come up with this idea for the podcast? What’s the best / juiciest piece of corporate gossip that didn’t make the cut? Why are your seasons so short? I would pay for a subscription to get a weekly episode until the end of time! I'm a final year student in finance and I'm worried I have made a terrible mistake studying this degree, as it seems that corporations mostly cause more harm than [good], and benefits an elite few. is there any field you would recommend where I could use my degree for good? Is there a way that finance can be a force for good? Given the intricate web of corporate scandals involving entities like FTX, McKinsey, Koch Industries, SVB, etc. I'm curious to know: What common threads or distinct patterns have you observed across these cases, and how do these scandals reflect broader issues within the corporate landscape? Have there been any surprising twists or unique aspects in these stories that stand out to you guys, providing deeper insights into the world of corporate misconduct18:00 - Chobani's Anti CEO
Links:
The Profile Dossier: Hamdi Ulukaya, the Shepherd-Turned-Billionaire CEO
Chobani CEO says pulling IPO was one of the best decisions company has made
Chobani hired hundreds of refugees at its plants. Average tenure now exceeds industry average
Chobani’s CEO is giving up to 10 percent of his company to employees
Capitalism and Humanitarianism Can Coexist. Chobani's CEO Is Trying to Prove It
-
In 2017 Carlos Ghosn was on top of the world, he was a Japanese national hero, renowned for bringing Nissan back to life from the brink of failure. His face was on the cover of magazines, his story was depicted in Manga, he even carried the torch at the Olympics in his home country of Brazil. His sudden arrest in 2018 for financial crimes was an unexpected twist in his story that made him the center of international intrigue. As extraordinary as his life had become, no one could have imagined what would come next...
Pictures & links on our substack
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Timestamps:
5:40 - CG#1: Carlos Ghosn joins the growing number of wayward CEOs with daddy issues
9:15 - CG#2: Meet carlos’s car daddy: Francois Michilin
17:40 - CG#3: It’s time for Carlos’ Makover montage!
31:25 - CG#4: Carlos Ghosn enters his dwight schrute era
36:50 - CG#5: Ghosn follows the CEO playbook - time for an ostentatious company sponsored personal party that definitely will have no negative PR implications whatsoever
49:00 - CG#6: All Partied out!!
52:33 - CG#7: What do they say? You either die a hero or live long enough to be smuggled out of Japan in an equipment box?
56:30 - CG#7: What do they say? You either die a hero or live long enough to be smuggled out of Japan in an equipment box?
-
Becca is joined by Corporate Gossip startup correspondent Aaron Cohn to dip our tube-socked toes into the FTX trial. We meet Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a rumpled 28-year-old-grown-adult-boy-genius who built a $40 billion crypto empire in less than three years. But his meteoric rise to crypto kingpin was followed quickly by his fall to the bottom of shit-coin mountain. And now, SBF is facing up to 115 years in federal prison for fraud.
Check "build a website" off your to-do list with realnice website builder!
Pictures & links on our substack
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Timestamps:
17:40 - Corporate Gossip #1: Sam Bankman Fried raises $420.69m from 69 founders in a “meme” funding round and raises zero red flags
33:45 - Corporate Gossip #2: This guy can’t be a criminal… I mean, come on, have you ever seen a criminal in wrinkly cargo shorts???
45:00 - Corporate Gossip #3: To the moon!
50:00 - Corporate Gossip #4: FTX: Fraud on top of shit mountain
1:09:40 - Corproate Gossip #5: When people stop being polite, and start getting indicted
1:13:30 - Corporate Gossip #6: Will the Smol bean / Widdle baby defense work for Sam?
-
A very haunted episode of the Corporate Gossip Podcast! Becca and adam talk about the House of Villains that is Pacific Gas and Electric. The collection of CEOs that have lead the utility company over the past two decades are are more dubious than Omarosa and more dimwitted than Jax Taylor. On the upside, this episode should cure even the most chronic cases of imposter syndrome.
Pictures & links on our substack
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Timestamps:
11:00 - “You guys need to stop talking about Enron” - said no one ever
15:00 - Peter Darabee is possessed by the ghost of Jack Welch and then gets scammed by Accenture
22:00 - Stay humble Tony Early
31:00 -Geisha Williams is rewarded for her job as pain sponge after the San Bruno explosions and is crowned CEO
46:00 - Bill Johnson, blink and you’ll miss him
53:00 - Patti Poppe: New decade, same bullshit
-
It’s hard to talk about corporate gossip without talking about McKinsey. They're everywhere! They advise the biggest companies in every industry in practically every company in America (90% of the Fortune 100 companies use Mckinsey). From Las Vegas Casinos to the Vatican, McKinsey consultants, armed with their Thinkbooks and Tumi rollerbags, dispense their advice on maximizing the bottom line under a veil of secrecy.
That is until recently, when dogged reporters sifted through thousands of documents made public as part of a series of lawsuits and criminal investigations into the firm. Becca and Adam read through it all and are bringing you the juiciest stories. They find out that when it comes to systemic corporate malfeasance, McKinsey isn’t the one who lit the match, but they’re often found fanning the flames.
Pictures & links on our substack
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Timestamps:
10:00 - Corporate Gossip #1: McKinsey, this is why we can’t have nice things (Intro and background)
30:00 - Corporate Gossip #2: If Jack Welch is Theresa Giudice, McKinsey is Juicy Joe and today’s billionaire boss-boys are 4 year-old Melania (How McKinsey influences the world's largest companies)
52:00 - Corporate Gossip #3: McKinsey: Our consultants are happy to provide clean pee for your patients who are addicted to heroin!! (McKinsey's role in the Opiod Crisis)
1:05:00 - Corporate Gossip #4: Enron is basically a McKinsey spinoff in which Jeff Skilling visits Ken Lay at the summer house in Montauk (McKinsey's role in the Enron rise & fall)
1:09:00 - Corporate Gossip #5: If you’re looking for the Lizard people controlling the American economy it’s not the west coast elites… it’s McKinsey! (McKinsey as a Corporate Villian)
1:15:00 - Corporate Gossip #6: Clarence Thomas really went - guys know what would make McKinsey better??? If they had access to more white men!! Hey now… white men who can take me on Yachts. (How the overturning of affirmative action plays into McKinsey's ability to continue weaponizing capitalism)
-
This is part two of a two part episode.
This week, Billy Koch turns into a corporate vigilante, as he takes the Department of Justice and the FBI on a private tour of the grounds where all the Koch corporate secrets are buried. We then tell the story of courtroom fight as dramatic as a Beverly Hills housewives reunion, with siblings rehashing decades-old conflicts and clawing at their share of billions of dollars. Then, Charles Koch continues his campaign to be voted “most-miserly” in the 2008 Billionaire Yearbook by funding an artificial-grassroots organization to promote his libertarian big business-first policies. Meanwhile, Bill Koch’s son Wyatt asks the Sharks to invest $100,000 for a 10% stake in his palm-beach-boroque men’s blouse line.
See the Koch family tree
Pictures & links on our substack
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Timestamps:
02:00 - Corporate Gossip #5: Woke up this mornin’ and I got myself some oil from Native American reservations
11:30 - Corporate Gossip #6: Law and Order - Special Boss Bois Unit
21:00 - Corporate Gossip #7: Profit is my religion and regulation is the devil!!
24:15 - Corporate Gossip #8: It's a 45-day plan. 45 days! To get us back, on track. 45 points! It's a 45-day, 45-point, one point per day. We get 45 points, we're back in business! [cheers] And you can take that to the bank! And limo lady! We are going to completely destroy Barak OBAMA! [more cheers] I love you New York!
29:30 - Corporate Gossip #9: Charles Koch: Ooops! Did I do that????
33:00 - Corporate Gossip #10: Okay That was dark, let’s end on a high note - Bill Koch’s son’s quest to create the ugliest t-shirts of all time
-
The only thing more toxic than the emissions spewing from the smokestacks at Koch industries are the relationships between the four adult heirs to the family fortune. This story has EVERYTHING: court battles, private investigators, homosexual blackmail, ANNA NICOLE SMITH, sibling rivalry, and libertarian summer camp! Join Becca and Adam as they wade into the stinky, polluted waters of the Koch family dynasty in this two part episode!!
See the Koch family tree
Pictures & links on our substack
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Timestamps:
09:00 - Corporate Gossip #1: Duck, duck, Fred Koch Sr. dies of a heart attack
16:15 - Corporate Gossip #2: Growing up Koch
39:00 - Corporate Gossip #3: Charles is our daddy now and you better believe he’s gonna take his unresolved trauma and unexamined political beliefs and make all of our lives miserable
48:00 - Corporate Gossip #4: At the Koch family christmas party, Bill confronts David & Charles over stealing his Dolce & Gabanna lifestyle and wagers a war that will destroy the family
-
David Zaslav is having the worst summer ever. He was heckled by thousands of graduates during his Boston University commencement address, publically shamed for holding a hunger games style gala in france, and had to fire his best friend! Oh and to top it all off, all of the workers he extracts his wealth from are on strike. Why doesn't anyone want to work anymore!!
Pictures & links on our substack
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Timestamps:
6:30 - Corporate Gossip #1: With friends like David Zaslav, who needs enemies? Zas fires his pain sponge, Chris Licht, on their morning walk in Central Park under the apocalyptic orange-haze of the Canadian Wildfires.
15:00 - Corporate Gossip #2: In the year 2023 - the same year that CEOs have pissed away $44bn on a social media app, killed 5 people in an ill fated trip to the Titanic, and challenged each other to a cage match, David Zaslav is STILL in the running for dumbest CEO of the year…
27:00 - Corporate Gossip #3: I think David Zaslav is just here for the zipline
40:15 - Corporate Gossip #4: C’mon guys, don’t strike, I had plans this summer! I was gonna hang out!
52:45 - Corporate Gossip #5: You can’t keep getting away with this Zaslav *shakes fist in air*
-
Content warning: this episode references child abuse and suicide
Ted Turner has more BDE in his pencil mustache than Zuck and Musk combined. In the span of 5 years he captained a champion sailing yacht through the deadly celtic sea, pulled out an underdog win in the America’s cup, bought two professional sports teams, and created the first ever 24-hour news network: CNN. His life is what LinkedIn Lunatics fantasize about. He created TBS, TNT, TCM, Cartoon Network, AND the iconic environmental superhero cartoon, “Captain Planet.” He is cherished by unproblematic icons Jimmy Carter and Jane Fonda and despised by degenerate psychopath Rupert Murdoch.
Turner disrupted the media industry and spent years on top, but like so many of the characters in our podcast, he couldn’t conquer his inner demons. Deep pain from a traumatic childhood and unaddressed mental health issues destroyed his marriage and threatened his fortune. In this episode, Becca & Adam attempt to trace the life of the chaos cowboy while expertly pronouncing the word "documentary."
Pictures & links on our substack
Support the pod by buying us a coffee
Check out our reading list
Follow us on youtube, instagram, and tiktok
Hosts: Becca Platsky ([email protected]) Adam Platsky ([email protected])
Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike
Cover art:
Creative director @laurensubers
Photographer @danielcanophoto @instajasp
Props / Wardobe @__julesrose__ @mellerycellery
Makeup / Hair @mardeaubeautyTimestamps:
8:40 - Corporate Gossip #1: In terms of Corporate Villains, David Zaslav, who we’ll discuss next week, is the straight up evil, sociopathic type. But the other Corporate Villian in this story, Ted Turner, is more like the villain with a heart of gold.
36:50 - Corporate Gossip #2: Would you believe that the reason we have a 24 hour news cycle in America is because of Ted Turners undiagnosed mania?
48:10 - Corporate Gossip #3: Now it’s time for Jimmy Carter to make an appearance as the empathetic king and Ted Turner’s daddy figure (by the end of this segment, Jimmy Carter will be all of our dads).
59:10 - Corporate Gossip #5: As Ted’s professional life is unraveling, Queen Jane Fonda throws in the towel and Ted lives out our collective fantasy - taking revenge on a boss that did you dirty.
1:04:20 - Corporate Gossip #6: Let’s meet back up with Ted in present day as David Zaslav is meticulously picking apart his legacy with his hands and licking his little fingies like he’s elbow deep in a pile of buffalo ribs.
- Visa fler
