Boeing's hiring of its new CEO of Commercial Airplanes is the latest in a series of women who finally break through the glass ceiling at male-dominated companies, but only when there's a crisis to solve. Researchers call this the glass cliff. It can be a once-in-a-career opportunity for women, but it can also be a huge professional liability.

This week on Booming, we ask an expert why the glass cliff exists, and what the future looks like for the first woman to lead Boeing's Seattle-based jet manufacturing department.

Plus, the Department of Justice goes after landlords for an alleged price fixing scheme that uses AI to artificially inflate rates. And the Booming team tries to guess which crises forced companies to finally let women into the boys club.

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"Booming" is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producer is Lucy Soucek. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.

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