Corporate Gossip

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

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

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 <3 the IRS and you will too after this episode! 

Support the pod 

Pics on our substack

Links: 

How Intuit Reinvents Itself (Fortune)

The TurboTax Trap (ProPublica Investigation series)

IRS makes free tax return program permanent and is asking all states to join in 2025 

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