The Murdochs: Schmucksession

enJune 10, 2023

Corporate Gossip

About this Episode

Bonus Episode!!

It's like Jaws if everyone in Jaws worked for Jaws! It's the true story of Rupert Murdoch's main hustle (News Corp) and his side hustle (emotionally and financially manipulating his children). We trace Rupert's (aka RuMu) rise from under the thumb of his father, the original Murdoch Megalomaniac, to become an Australian media mogul. Then, he journeys to the UK and the US, leaving a stinky trail of editorial corruption wherever he goes. Strapped on his back are three of his grown children, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James, who are pulling and poking at one another as they battle for daddy's treasure: the top spot of the Murdoch Empire!

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Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike

Recent Episodes from Corporate Gossip

Season 3 Finale & Chobani's Anti-CEO

SEASON 4 COMING Q2 2024!

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.

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

Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike

Support the pod by buying us a coffee

Check out our reading list

Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

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 misconduct

18:00 - 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

enDecember 08, 2023

Nissan & Carlos Ghosn: D*ck in a Box

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

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Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

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?

enDecember 01, 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried & FTX: Fraud on top of sh*t mountain

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

Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

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?

enNovember 03, 2023

PG&E: Go girl give us nothing!

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

Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

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

enOctober 27, 2023

McKinsey: This is why we can't have nice things

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

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Check out our reading list

Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

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)

enOctober 20, 2023

Koch: Toxic Kings (Part 2)

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

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Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

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

enOctober 13, 2023

Koch: Toxic Kings (Part 1)

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

Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

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

enOctober 06, 2023

David Zaslav's Flop Era

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

Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

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*

enSeptember 29, 2023

Ted Turner: Captain Outrageous

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

Hosts: Becca Platsky (Becca@nitetoast.com) Adam Platsky (Adam@nitetoast.com)

Produced by: Michael Albanese @bigmanmike

Cover art:

Creative director @laurensubers
Photographer @danielcanophoto @instajasp
Props / Wardobe @__julesrose__ @mellerycellery
Makeup / Hair @mardeaubeauty

Timestamps:

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.

enSeptember 22, 2023