Hit internet culture podcast Reply All is “placing the show on pause” in the wake of allegations of a toxic workplace environment.
On the podcast today, co-host Alex Goldman shared that Reply All would be immediately discontinuing its ongoing series on the structural racism and toxic work culture at food mag Bon Appétit, following the resignations of reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni and co-host PJ Vogt.
The series on Bon Appétit, titled The Test Kitchen, was expected to run for four episodes, unpacking the discrimination against POC at the beleaguered food brand and drawing out how the issue affects the larger media industry.
But, he said, former colleagues from podcasting company Gimlet Media had come out over the last week with “multiple instances of troubling behaviour from both Sruthi and my long-time co-host PJ Vogt”, forcing the Reply All team to grapple with their own systemic workplace issues à la Bon Appétit.
As per the New York Times, these former colleagues accused Pinnamaneni and Vogt of working against efforts to unionise Gimlet Media, and thus create a more diverse and equal workplace.
The Nod co-host Eric Eddings explained on Twitter last week that Pinnamaneni and Vogt “contributed to a near identical toxic dynamic at Gimlet” to the one detailed in The Test Kitchen.
He wrote that they had “actively and AGGRESSIVELY worked against multiple efforts to diversify Gimlet’s staff and content”.
The BA staffers’ stories deserve to be told, but to me it’s damaging to have that reporting and storytelling come from two people who have actively and AGGRESSIVELY worked against multiple efforts to diversify Gimlet’s staff & content. A bit of background.
— Eric Eddings (@eeddings) February 16, 2021
“[I]t was so triggering to hear the words of people who have suffered like me from people who caused that suffering to me and others,” he wrote.
Goldman continued on the podcast: “These accounts prompted a reckoning on our team about the work culture at Reply All and they left us asking whether we could continue airing this story without interrogating ourselves and what has unfolded at Gimlet.”
“We now understand that we should never have published the series as reported and the fact that we did was a systemic editorial failure.”
Good morning. A note on the Test Kitchen series https://t.co/bgMsp0US6E
— Reply All (@replyall) February 25, 2021
Goldman concluded the podcast by apologising for the podcast’s failures to colleagues and former colleagues, listeners, and to the people who shared their stories for The Test Kitchen.
He confirmed that the two published episodes of the series would remain online, but with an added disclaimer, as they do not want to “bury [their] failure”.
“We plan to find a way to get to the bottom of what went wrong here, both with the series and with our show. And once we fully understand it ourselves, we also want to tell you as best we can what happened. As we contend with everything, we’re placing the show on pause.”
Goldman expanded on the subject on Twitter overnight. “This isn’t a situation where there are two finished episodes sitting unreleased. They are incomplete and the reporter and editor have left the show. We also want to be respectful of the subjects of the story.”
https://twitter.com/AGoldmund/status/1364924230404571138?s=20
He added: “[T]his isn’t the end of reply all. We’re just figuring out what’s next.”
https://twitter.com/AGoldmund/status/1364924232237543428?s=20
In the second episode of The Test Kitchen, Pinnamaneni referenced structural issues at Gimlet which she described as “its own version” of the problem at Bon Appétit.
“The white people who ran the place hired people of colour, promised them change that never quite seemed to materialise,” she said.
She chose not to join efforts to unionise Gimlet Media, she added, and only realised after eight months of working on the story about Bon Appétit that she had erred on that point. “To the extent I talked about it, I talked about the way their fight was stepping on my toes.”
Last week, Pinnamaneni released a statement on Twitter, apologising to her current and former co-workers at Gimlet and to the POC who shared their stories of workplace discrimination for The Test Kitchen.
“[Y]our trauma is real and deserves to be untethered from my personal shortcomings,” she wrote.
“My conduct around the diversity and union organization efforts at Gimlet was ill-informed, ignorant, and hurtful. I did not pay enough attention to the people of color with less power at Gimlet and I should have used my power to support and elevate them further.”
https://twitter.com/sruthiri/status/1362254842270519296
PJ Vogt also released his own statement on Twitter last week, saying he too failed to support efforts to unionise the podcast network and revealing that he had resigned.
“[A]t the time, I was a baby and a jerk about it in myriad ways. Reflecting on my behaviour I find it humiliating.
“I should have reflected on what it meant to not be on the same side of a movement largely led by young producers of color at my company. I did not. Those mistakes belong to me.
“I am going to take some time to think and to listen. And then I am going to try to figure out who I can help in podcasting and how, if they want that help. I’m not done working, but I don’t think anyone needs me taking up space right now.”
https://twitter.com/PJVogt/status/1362233699220258818
A spokesperson for Spotify, Gimlet’s parent company, told the New York Times that both Pinnamaneni and Vogt would remain at Gimlet, albeit not at Reply All, but did not offer information about their new roles.
