“There is a saying about something being the ‘tent pole show,’” a former Gimlet employee said. Hosts of the popular shows, like “Reply All,” held particular sway. Gimlet, like Bon Appétit, operated on a star system. We do all understand that we’re just describing Gimlet, right?’” Mputubwele, echoing other Black former Gimlet employees interviewed for this story, was galled by what he felt was insufficient self-reflection in “The Test Kitchen.” Mputubwele, who now works for “The New Yorker Radio Hour.” “It’s like they thought that they could do diversity without actually doing the work that diversity requires.” “You promised to develop me, that’s why you said you brought me here,” said Mr. His superiors said he had shown insufficient growth, a critique he felt was disingenuous. Blumberg, promising “New shows new worlds new voices.” Mputubwele took his education into his own hands and reported an international, character-driven story for an episode of a podcast about the World Cup called “We Came to Win.” In the spring of 2018, the episode was featured in a Gimlet promotional video, narrated by Mr. He was a producer at Gimlet from 2016 to 2018, during which time he was shuffled between three managers who he said had little time to train him. Mputubwele, in an interview, said he later felt exploited. Blumberg’s hiring of Ngofeen Mputubwele, who came to podcasting from a career in corporate law, was touted in an episode that season as an example of the company’s commitment to diversity. An episode from December 2015 revealed that of Gimlet’s 27 employees, 24 were white. Rapoport faced at Bon Appétit, including a lack of diversity, equity and inclusion. In its first season, he grappled with many of the same issues Mr. Blumberg in 2014, the year the company was founded. ![]() Gimlet had already told its own story in its popular first podcast, “StartUp,” created and originally hosted by Mr. Pinnamaneni, who came to the United States from India as a teenager, was interested in exploring curry as a lens into the complicated concept of appropriation in food. “The Test Kitchen” started as a story about curry.Īlison Roman, a cookbook author (and former columnist for The New York Times), was facing criticism for her popular turmeric-infused chickpea stew recipe, which hadn’t initially acknowledged the influence of South Asian curry dishes. Now, former employees of Gimlet and subjects of the podcast said they regard “The Test Kitchen” as a wasted opportunity to share a sweeping, detailed portrait of racism in the American workplace. This all stems from choices made by Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber.” Eddings said in a recent interview, “but we are in this situation because of a failure of leadership. and Sruthi to be held accountable for their actions,” Mr. Vogt shoulder the blame for a situation that was, many people said, ultimately created by Gimlet’s founders, Alex Blumberg, a former producer for “This American Life” and the co-creator of “Planet Money,” and Matthew Lieber, a former radio producer and management consultant. Pinnamaneni’s final piece for “Reply All.” Now, she and Mr. But online, many railed against “The Test Kitchen.”ĭays later, “Reply All” canceled the series, declining to run the two remaining episodes. Eddings, who was a host of “The Nod,” a Gimlet podcast about Black culture, wrote in his thread that his intention was not to get people to stop listening to the show. “Many POC’s felt that it was their last chance at creating an environment within Gimlet where they could succeed,” he wrote of the union efforts. Vogt had contributed to a “toxic dynamic” at Gimlet Media, the podcast’s parent company, themselves.īoth, he said, had been critical of unionization efforts at Gimlet, now owned by Spotify. In a Twitter thread a few days after the release of that second episode, Eric Eddings, a former colleague of the podcast’s creators, accused the project of hypocrisy. Ford said she told them: “Should ‘Reply All’ talk in depth about race and media and workplace relations and white supremacy in employer and employees? ‘Yes, please talk about it all!’ They have such a big audience and engaged listeners.” Ford, an outside journalist who was hired to review episode two with the podcast creators. “They were talking to each other and asking, ‘Should we be the ones to tell this story?’” said Ashley C. This possibility was even something they had worried about. Vogt, her editor on the project, triggered a reckoning of their own. While seeking to illuminate what had gone wrong at one media company, Sruthi Pinnamaneni, the host of “The Test Kitchen,” and P.J. ![]() It turned out Bon Appétit’s history would be a little too instructive.
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