Great show, sour taste
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“Still really uncomfortable with the fallout from Reply All but listened to most of this up to the present day. Feels weird that PJ Vogt is still working with Sruthi Pinnameni, both of them having famously contributed to a dehumanising and union-busting culture at Gimlet.
Until today, to my shame, I sort of ignored the cognitive dissonance. But I seriously can’t handle PJ opening the most recent episode with the revelation that he and Steven Levitt from Freakonomics are going to interview each other. The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen saga that caused Reply All to blow up was in part an exposé of workplace racism, while Gimlet’s hands were hardly clean of the kinds of structural toxicity they were describing - and yet PJ is happy to engage in mutual back-scratching and inevitably softball interviewing with the author of an incredibly, shockingly racist book (for a very good primer, see the very first episode of If Books Could Kill). It’s like PJ hasn’t even learned the lessons of Test Kitchen yet, let alone the lessons of his time at Gimlet.
Despite the endearing candour that is PJ’s style, I sense an overall lack of self-reflection or contrition in deciding to keep working with Sruthi, and deciding to associate in any way whatsoever with Freakonomics. It’s really dispiriting and kind of suggests he’s more at home with the sorts of grifters who create credulous and one-sided content that lampshades some seriously nasty behaviour and irresponsible pseudoscience. It’s like when Your Undivided Attention interviewed Johann Hari - for me it just immediately discredits everything else, it throws everyone’s judgement into disrepute.
I’m supposed to give a rating at this point. But that’s where it’s hard for me - I really enjoy this show. It’s entertaining. But I can’t recommend it when it’s propped up by murky weirdness like this.”
ralct via Apple Podcasts ·
Great Britain ·
09/08/24
More reviews of Search Engine
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“As a crypto newbie, this is a fascinating peak into an almost foreign culture.
Keep up the great work — I can’t get enough of the episodes!”
thisisprohibitive via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
05/08/22
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“This is genuinely great stuff. I loved the old show, was crushed when it lost PJ, and equally as thrilled to find him again.”
Rage 2010 via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
04/29/22
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“I am enjoying the show thus far!”
Ahh trump via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
05/07/22
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