Reply – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

The popular Gimlet Media podcast, Reply All, was paused and its series, which addressed racism allegations by food magazine Bon Appétit, was discontinued after former Gimlet employees complained that one of its hosts and a reporter himself was becoming a toxic work culture had contributed.

On Thursday, co-host Alex Goldman announced to the audience in a two-minute statement posted on the Reply All feed entitled “A Message from the Staff From“ Reply All ”” that senior reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni and Co -host PJ Vogt had decided to leave the podcast. Last week, former colleagues accused them of opposing union efforts that many black workers believed necessary to increase diversity and create an equal workplace.

“Former colleagues of ours at Gimlet have publicly described several cases of worrying behavior from both Sruthi and my longtime co-host PJ Vogt,” Goldman said in the statement released Thursday. “These reports prompted our team to settle the work culture at ‘Reply All’ and ask us whether we could continue broadcasting the story without asking ourselves and what was going on at Gimlet. We now understand that we should never have released the series as reported, and the fact that we did was a systematic editorial error. “

On Twitter and in interviews last week, former Gimlet employees said they viewed Mr. Vogt and Ms. Pinnamaneni’s involvement in the “Test Kitchen” series as hypocritical.

Eric Eddings, a former Gimlet employee who co-hosted The Nod podcast, said he couldn’t believe Ms. Pinnamaneni was telling a series about racism and toxicity in the workplace when she and Mr. Vogt asked for a “nearly identical” atmosphere at Gimlet was responsible.

Mr Vogt and Mrs Pinnamaneni publicly apologized after the allegations surfaced. They didn’t respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Mr. Goldman said the remaining two episodes of “Test Kitchen,” which were supposed to be a four-part series, would not be released. He apologized to the audience for “our many mistakes”.

“We apologize to our colleagues and our former colleagues who we hurt,” he said. “We are sorry for you, our listeners. And of course we apologize to the people who spoke to us for the ‘test kitchen’ and told us their extremely personal stories. “

The two previously published episodes of “Test Kitchen” would stay online, Goldman said with an additional disclaimer. “Reply to All” would be interrupted, he said, as the show staff assessed what had gone wrong. “Once we fully understand it ourselves, we want to tell you as best we can what happened,” said Goldman.

A spokesman for Spotify, which acquired Gimlet Media in February 2019, said Mr. Vogt and Ms. Pinnamaneni would stay with Gimlet despite not being on the podcast. He didn’t give any details about her new roles.

Mr. Goldman and Mr. Vogt started with “Reply All” in 2014 and adapted it from their previous WNYC radio show “TLDR” (too long; not read). Episodes in recent years have taken listeners to phone scam rings in India and on a journey to track down a Song that a director heard on the radio as a teenager.

Mr Eddings and other former Gimlet employees said that Mr Vogt and Ms. Pinnamaneni were firmly opposed to union efforts, which were seen by black workers as the only way to create an environment in which they could thrive and that the two were theirs Efforts declined to diversify the staff. In one case, according to Mr. Eddings, Mr. Vogt sent derogatory text messages to a Gimlet employee who was involved in the union effort that left the employee in tears.

On the second installment in the Test Kitchen series that Ms. Pinnamaneni recounts, Ms. Pinnamaneni said that Gimlet had “its own version” of the problems Bon Appétit was facing.

“The white people who ran the place hired people of color and promised them changes that never seemed to fully materialize,” she said later. When a group of employees tried to change the atmosphere in Gimlet through union formation, they chose not to join the effort, she said. “As I’ve talked about it, I’ve talked about the way your fight got on my toes.” She said it took her eight months to report on Bon Appétit to realize how wrong she was.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Mr Goldman said the announcement did not end “Reply All”.

“We’re just finding out what’s next,” he wrote. “‘Answer All’ wasn’t and is not just Alex and PJ. There’s an insanely talented group of people doing this show.”

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.