StartUp Podcast

StartUp Podcast episodes:

• 08.21.2020

  Introducing How to Save a Planet

  Does climate change freak you out? Want to know what we, collectively, can do about it? Us too. How to Save a Planet is a podcast that asks the big questions: what do we need to do to solve the...

  
• 02.14.2020

  Introducing StartUp

  A series about what it's really like to start a business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  
• 01.03.2020

  Alex Talks to Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley

  Normally, being the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, means paying attention to everyday issues, from garbage pickups to municipal budgets. But in the early morning hours of August 4, 2019, a gunman opened fire at a downtown bar in the city,...

  
• 12.27.2019

  Alex Talks to Voting Rights Activist Desmond Meade

  When Desmond Meade got out of prison after serving time for a nonviolent felony, he was homeless and wrestling with addiction. A decade later, he started a campaign that very few people thought was winnable: amending the Florida constitution to...

  
• 12.20.2019

  Alex Talks to Cycling Whistleblower Jonathan Vaughters

  Jonathan Vaughters was a member of the famed USPS pro cycling team when his teammate Lance Armstrong won the first of a record-breaking seven straight Tours de France. While fans were awed and inspired by the victories, Jonathan knew there...

  
• 12.13.2019

  Alex Talks to Country Songwriter Shane McAnally

  Ever since he was young, Shane McAnally knew he wanted to be a country music star. But as a gay man, he didn’t fit the Nashville mold, and so he hid his true identity for years as he struggled to...

  
• 12.06.2019

  Alex Talks to Rom-Com Revolutionary Aline Brosh McKenna

  Aline Brosh McKenna got her big break as the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada. But even after successful box office hits and many years in Hollywood, she found herself having to compromise her vision over and over again. So...

  
• 11.29.2019

  Alex Talks to Billion-Dollar Business CEO Janice Bryant Howroyd

  Janice Bryant Howroyd’s company started in the front of a rug shop with just a phone, a fax machine, and a lot of hustle. 40 years later, that company is a huge multinational serving some of the biggest Fortune 500...

  
• 11.22.2019

  Alex Talks to Nick Kroll

  Comedian Nick Kroll became a star by playing a cast of over-the-top characters like Bobby Bottleservice and Gil Faizon. But for years he was careful to keep his own story out of his comedy. Now, with his hit show Big...

  
• 11.15.2019

  Introducing How’s Work? with Esther Perel

  This week, we’re sharing the first episode of Esther Perel’s new show How’s Work? In it, the couples therapist behind the beloved show Where Should We Begin? sits down with coworkers, cofounders and colleagues, and brings her inimitable perspective to workplace...

  
• 11.08.2019

  Alex Talks to Ira Glass

  In November 1995, Ira Glass quietly launched the first episode of This American Life. The rest, as they say, is history. Today his show is a colossal success and Ira Glass is a household name. But in the intervening two...

  
• 11.01.2019

  Alex Talks to Hollywood Hitmaker Nina Jacobson

  Nina Jacobson is a force in Hollywood. She’s behind some of the biggest movies of the last 20 years: The Sixth Sense, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hunger Games, and most recently Crazy Rich Asians. She’s...

  
• 10.25.2019

  Alex Talks to Fashion Icon Dapper Dan

  Dapper Dan made a name for himself as one of Harlem’s premier fashion designers in the 1980s, creating unique leather designs covered in counterfeit logos from brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton. But when the fashion houses found out, they...

  
• 10.18.2019

  Exit

  As acquisition talks with Spotify continue, Alex and Matt face their hopes and fears about what might lie ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  
• 10.11.2019

  Thanksgiving in Stockholm

  Just days before Thanksgiving, Alex and Matt board a red-eye to Stockholm for a conversation that could change everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  
• 10.04.2019

  Our Company Has Problems

  It's the spring of 2018, four years after Alex and Matt launched Gimlet, and things are not going well. Audiences are flat, ad sales are flagging, and the company is burning through cash at an alarming rate. And with all...

  
• 09.27.2019

  Introducing StartUp: The Final Chapter

  Five years ago, StartUp began chronicling the life of a fledgling Brooklyn-based podcasting company called Gimlet Media. This year, the streaming giant Spotify bought that company. In the final season of StartUp, what it's really like to sell a business. Learn...

  
• 09.13.2019

  Introducing The Journal.

  Alex introduces an episode of The Journal. about companies monitoring their workers. It's common, it's legal. And it can lead to employers having surprisingly personal information about the people who work for them.

  
• 08.23.2019

  Alex Talks to Missouri Star Quilt Company Co-Founder Jenny Doan

  Jenny Doan and her husband, Ron, lost most of their savings in the 2008 financial crisis. Retirement was just around the corner, and they didn’t know how they would make it through. That’s when the family went all-in on an...

  
• 07.26.2019

  Alex Talks to Former Senator Heidi Heitkamp

  As a Democrat from a red state, Senator Heidi Heitkamp built a reputation for her willingness to buck party pressure and reach across the aisle. But when Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court, she found herself facing a...

  
• 07.19.2019

  Alex Talks to Elaine Welteroth

  When Elaine Welteroth was appointed editor in chief of Teen Vogue in 2015, she was the youngest and first black editor in the publication’s history. She set out to transform Teen Vogue into something more than just a fashion magazine...but...

  
• 07.12.2019

  Alex Talks to CEO Whisperer Jerry Colonna

  Jerry Colonna was a high-flying venture capitalist in New York City at the height of the dot-com boom. He looked like the picture of success—but as time wore on, he felt more and more like a fraud. And when the...

  
• 06.21.2019

  The Nod's Eric Eddings Talks to Erika Alexander

  Actor Erika Alexander came of age at a moment when there were lots of Black TV shows airing in primetime. She got her break in the early ‘90s with a role on the Cosby Show, and found fame as fast-talking...

  
• 06.14.2019

  Alex Talks to Gretchen Carlson

  Gretchen Carlson, the long-time co-host of Fox & Friends, set off shockwaves in 2016 when she filed a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment against Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. Just two weeks later, he was ousted from the network. But it...

  
• 06.07.2019

  Alex Talks to Pose Co-Creator Steven Canals

  Steven Canals was a virtual unknown when he co-created the award-winning TV series Pose. Set in the 1980s ballroom scene of New York, the show is unlike any prime time television drama that had come before it — and that...

  
• 05.17.2019

  Alex Talks to a Podcasting Pioneer

  Jeff Ullrich was a struggling business manager with a drinking problem and a waning sense of professional direction when, in 2010, he saw an opportunity: podcasting. It was a brand new medium, and no one had really tapped its potential....

  
• 05.10.2019

  Alex Talks to Award-Winning Chef Edouardo Jordan

  When Edouardo Jordan’s Seattle restaurant JuneBaby won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant last year, it was the first time that an African American chef had won that particular honor. Edouardo won for a restaurant that reclaims black...

  
• 04.26.2019

  Alex Talks to an Early Facebook Insider

  Dave Morin’s love for the internet began when he was a geeky kid in Montana. By his early 20s, it had led him to Apple and then to Facebook, where he became employee number 29. He helped the company innovate,...

  
• 04.19.2019

  Alex Talks to Actress Anna Chlumsky

  Anna Chlumsky became famous virtually overnight at the age of 10, when she starred in the 1991 hit My Girl opposite Macaulay Culkin. And then, a few years later, she disappeared. She left acting completely and decided to become something...

  
• 04.12.2019

  Alex Talks to a Tragedy Expert

  In the days after September 11, 2001, Kenneth Feinberg took on an unenviable task. Congress had created the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and it was his job to figure out who should receive money and how much they should...

  
• 03.29.2019

  Alex Talks to a Cold Case Investigator

  Paul Holes was starting out in the field of criminology when, one day in 1994, he spotted a filing cabinet in the library of the crime lab where he was working. He opened a drawer, pulled out some files, and...

  
• 03.22.2019

  Alex Talks to an HR Maverick

  In 1998, Patty McCord joined a new company called Netflix. Her title was chief talent officer. And over the next ten years as Netflix grew (and grew), she and CEO Reed Hastings built a new kind of workplace. They threw...

  
• 03.15.2019

  Alex Talks to a Wall Street Outcast

  During the dot-com bubble, Henry Blodget was making millions of dollars as a top analyst on Wall Street. But when that bubble burst, his fortunes changed. He became the public face of a corruption investigation that ended with the SEC...

  
• 03.07.2019

  Business Wars & The Rap Game’s Biggest Battle

  Business Wars brings you the unauthorized, real story of what drives these companies and their leaders, inventors, investors and executives to new heights — or to ruin. Now playing: Death Row Records vs. Bad Boy Records. Subscribe and listen at...

  
• 03.01.2019

  Alex Talks to a Turnaround Specialist

  For many businesses, it’s all about looking forward. New trends, new brands, new verticals. But Sharon Price John sees a different path: one that involves looking to the past. She has made a career of reinvigorating forgotten and failing brands,...

  
• 02.22.2019

  Alex Talks to the Family Behind A Radio Revolution

  Before 1970, the most popular radio stations in the U.S were run by white people. But that all changed when Percy Sutton helped to form Inner City Broadcasting with the mission of putting black programming in the hands of black...

  
• 02.15.2019

  Alex Talks to Sam Esmail

  Gimlet has a new show called Without Fail where Alex talks to all kinds of people — including entrepreneurs and business people — about their successes and their failures and what they’ve learned from both. We think these conversations are ones...

  
• 12.28.2018

  Success Academy 7: The High School

  Eva Moskowitz calls Success Academy's high school the startup within the startup. And, as at any startup, there’s been a lot of chaos in its first few years. Magic five--it’s no longer working. The kids are questioning authority. Teachers are...

  
• 12.21.2018

  Success Academy 6: The Fights

  Over the years, Success Academy has faced many existential threats. Eva has had to battle the most powerful man in New York City to fight for space for her schools. She has also had to defend her organization when a...

  
• 12.14.2018

  Success Academy 5: Expectations

  It’s no mystery that Success Academy has high expectations — not just for its teachers, but also for its parents and students. Having a high bar is the key to Success’ amazing results. But the charter network’s expectations can make...

  
• 12.07.2018

  Success Academy 4: Growth

  Success Academy has grown quickly — in just 12 years, the network has gone from one school in Harlem to 47 schools across New York City. In order to do this, Success has had to hire many inexperienced teachers, and...

  
• 11.30.2018

  Success Academy 3: The Test

  Success Academy’s state test results are truly remarkable — their students score in the top one percent in New York State, often beating out kids from the wealthiest districts. And the network's reputation is built on these results — it’s...

  
• 11.17.2018

  Success Academy 2: The Founder

  Eva Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Academy, the highest performing and most controversial charter school network in New York City, and the subject of this season of StartUp. To understand Success, you have to understand Eva. So on...

  
• 11.09.2018

  Success Academy 1: The Problem

  The Story: Eva Moskowitz wants to fix a really big problem. There are over a million kids in New York City’s public schools. Most can’t read or do math at grade level. Many won’t graduate on time. And it’s largely...

  
• 11.02.2018

  Making a TV Series 4: The Stars of Homecoming

  Alex Blumberg sits down with the stars of the Homecoming  TV show-- Julia Roberts and Stephan James, and director Sam Esmail-- to talk about how they came to the project and what it was like to film it. This is the...

  
• 11.02.2018

  Making a TV Series 3: The Bird That Launched 1000 Ships

  Being in charge of a big-budget TV production means having to make decisions. It's a new kind of power for Micah and Eli, and one that's sometimes uncomfortable to exercise. The words they write have real-world, three-dimensional—and sometimes winged—consequences. This is...

  
• 10.26.2018

  Making a TV Series 2: Santa's Hollywood Workshop

  Micah and Eli get to work, writing the scripts for the Homecoming TV show. But taking something meant only for the ear, and turning it into something for the eye... proves to be deceptively challenging. Plus, Alex visits the set...

  
• 10.19.2018

  Making a TV Series 1: A Complete Moonshot

  Two years ago, Gimlet released its first fiction podcast: Homecoming. Now, this November, a television series based on the hit podcast and starring Julia Roberts is launching.  Alex Blumberg was behind the scenes as Homecoming went from podcast to TV...

  
• 09.28.2018

  Twitch 2: Gaming The System

  The Story: At the end of the last episode, co-founders Justin, Emmett, Michael, and Kyle had a big problem on their hands. Streaming Justin's life 24/7—the very idea their company was founded on—turned out to be kind of boring. Pretty soon...

  
• 09.21.2018

  Twitch 1: Almost Famous

  The Story: A group of friends moves across the country to launch an unlikely website that they think could replace television. The media loves them. They just need to figure out how to get their users to feel the same...