PJ Vogt, host of the popular Reply All podcast, said goodbye Wednesday after complaints from former colleagues that he and a senior reporter had contributed to a toxic work environment and opposed union efforts.
Mr. Vogt and senior reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni each apologized in statements on Twitter.
The allegations at Gimlet Media, which produces Reply All, came after the podcast released its second installment in a series of reports of discrimination in the popular food magazine Bon Appétit video series. Following the Minneapolis Police Department’s murder of George Floyd last year, US newsrooms and media outlets, including the New York Times, have grappled with allegations that they did not adequately address inequalities among their ranks.
Eric Eddings, a former Gimlet employee who co-hosted the podcast “The Nod”, tweeted on Tuesday that “Reply All” and in particular Mr. Vogt and Ms. Pinnamaneni “contributed to an almost identical toxic dynamic at Gimlet” described them in their series on Bon Appétit.
“The BA staff’s stories deserve to be told, but to me it is detrimental that the coverage and storytelling are from two people who have actively and AGGRESSIVELY worked against multiple efforts to diversify Gimlet’s staff and content” , he wrote. “It was so inspiring to hear the words of people who, like me, have suffered from people who have caused this suffering to me and others.”
Mr Vogt, 35, said on Twitter that he “failed profoundly as an ally” when workers unionized and that he apologized to everyone he disappointed. “I should have thought about what it means not to be on the same side of a movement that is largely led by young paintmakers in my company,” he said.
“Today they have my support, but I can lend them,” he wrote. “I was a baby and an idiot in many ways.” He said he asked permission to step back from the show and took time to “think and listen”.
Ms. Pinnamaneni said her behavior regarding diversity and union organization efforts was “poorly informed, ignorant and hurtful”. She said on Twitter: “I didn’t pay enough attention to the colored people in Gimlet and I should have used my strength to support and promote them.”
Mr. Vogt and another presenter, Alex Goldman, started the podcast in 2014 and adapted it from their previous WNYC radio show “TLDR” (too long; not read). In the past few years, “Reply All” episodes have taken listeners to phone scam rings in India, to a maximum security prison in Illinois, and on a trip to track down a guitar song a director heard on the radio as a teenager.
Spotify, which owns Gimlet Media, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Gimlet Media also did not respond to a request for comment.
Her former colleague Mr. Eddings said he heard Mr. Vogt “vilified other colleagues” and “saw personally harassing messages from PJ to union organizers”. Mr. Vogt is not receptive to complaints that employees with color feel that they have no opportunities for advancement, he said.
He also said that he had asked Mr Vogt several times to contribute to diversity efforts, such as joining a diversity group or staff meetings, to show the issue was important to high-profile people, but Mr Vogt was not. He said that people of color on the podcast saw union formation as a way to create an environment in which they could thrive, but that Mr Vogt and Mrs Pinnamaneni were trying to raise support against them.
Brittany Luse, a former Gimlet employee who co-hosted “The Nod” with Mr. Eddings, spoke in support of his statements. “It’s impossible to explain how dark those times were,” she wrote on Twitter, referring to efforts to unite at Gimlet. “Your recoil thickened the air.”
Reggie Ugwu contributed to the coverage.
