Presenter PJ Vogt and senior reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni will step aside from the popular Gimlet Media podcast “Respond to everyone”, according to an internal email from director Lydia Polgreen, after a former Gimlet employee accused the pair of creating a “toxic dynamic” in the company on a Twitter topic that went viral.
“Reflecting on my behavior, I find that humiliating,” said Vogt in a statement tweeted Wednesday night. “I’m sorry to everyone that I disappointed.”
Earlier this month, “Reply All”, which explores technology stories, launched a miniseries called “The Test Kitchen”, presented by Pinnamaneni instead of the usual presenters Vogt, Alex Goldman and the recent addition Emmanuel Dzotsi. Using your profound reporting skills, the series reveals how Bon Appétit became a toxic workplace for his black employees, creating an environment marked by racial prejudice. That culture appeared in the public eye last summer, when editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport resigned after a photo of him appeared wearing a racist costume.
Amid the consequences, Business Insider published an exhibition where current and former black food magazine employees said they did not have the same professional opportunities as their white colleagues. The magazine issued a long apology which stated, in part, “we continue to symbolize many BIPOC employees and collaborators in our videos and on our pages”. In the months following the apology, the magazine’s popular video series lost three color employees.
“The Test Kitchen” is framed as a continuation of this public scandal, tracing its roots back to the installation of Rapoport as the main editor of Bon Appétit in 2010 and reporting the painful stories of the colored employees that he and others in the magazine, mainly white, forgotten publishers.
Adam Rapoport, at a 2018 event in Las Vegas, resigned as chief editor of Bon Appétit last June.
(Ethan Miller / Getty Images for Vegas Uncork’d)
But Gimlet employees had their own stories to tell.
Eric Eddings, who hosted the Gimlet Media podcast “The Nod” with Brittany Luse until October 2020 and authored the viral topic, told The Times that he was postponing hearing “The Test Kitchen”. He was about to get married and had not fully processed his experiences at Gimlet either.
But on February 6, the day after tying the knot, Eddings received an email from Pinnamaneni. In the note, which was revised by The Times, Pinnamaneni explains that he is reporting on media companies that hinder diversity efforts and cause damage to employees of color for an episode of “The Test Kitchen” that will be released the following week. Pinnamaneni says he will also talk about Gimlet and that he spent time thinking about his part in the company’s problems. She says that if Eddings is open to this, she would like to call him and tell him what he wants to say. (The episode in question, the second in the series, premiered on February 12)
“It was disturbing just because it really brought out a lot,” said Eddings, in a conversation that occurred before the announcements about changes to “Respond to everyone.” “Frankly, it’s been about two years since all these things happened. [She] had a lot of time to contact me. To do so in this context seemed very untrue.
“I probably wouldn’t have spoken to her in any way, but I expected her to get in touch knowing that she owed me an apology,” he added. “And then, when those things weren’t there, I was really upset.”
Eddings did not respond to Pinnamaneni’s e-mail, but decided to listen to the series, in which he heard “stories that literally could have passed days of my life”. He felt that those interviewed for the “The Test Kitchen” exhibition at Bon Appétit didn’t know enough about the workplace in Gimlet. “I didn’t feel confident that the sources knew everything that happened before they shared,” he said. “It felt like I had a context that people didn’t have, and that if I was in their situation – what I was in – I would want that context.”
In Pinnamaneni’s description, at the end of Episode 2, she says that “Gimlet had its own version of these problems”, which ended up resulting in a union movement that she did not support, which started before Spotify buying the company in 2019: “As I talked about it, I talked about the way their fight was stepping on my feet.
“It took me eight months of reporting on Bon Appétit to see how wrong I was about all of this,” she continues. “And to be honest, I’m still processing my anger at myself. I wish I had made different choices, but I also think that ideally employees shouldn’t have to make that kind of choice. Choices like this end up defining our work when those responsible do not do it – because, after all, they are the ones who have real power. ”
Eddings said he wrote and rewrote the viral topic of Twitter on February 16, in which he talked about his experiences on Gimlet four times before finally posting it. (THE wire since then, it has received more than 18,000 likes.) “The truth is [‘Reply All’] and specifically PJ and Sruthi contributed to an almost identical toxic dynamic in Gimlet, ”he wrote. “It is harmful to have this account and narrative coming from two people who worked actively and AGGRESSIVELY against multiple efforts to diversify the team and the content of the Gimlet.”
Eddings’ “The Nod” co-host, Brittany Luse, echoed her criticisms of “The Test Kitchen”: “One more delicate point that I want to address while this topic is resurrected is that some of the people working on the Reply All Bon series Appetit (people with both soft and hard power) chose to be silent or complicit while their fellow POC and pro-union Gimlet fought alongside them every day, ” she wrote on twitter.
Starlee Kine, who was behind Gimlet’s “Mystery Show” podcast, tweeted, in part: “I’ve been telling you for a long time that @Gimletmedia is toxic. I am happy that others are talking. I know it’s hard. Podcasting didn’t have to be that way. ”Gimlet’s union tweeted in support of Eddings and said that the group continued to fight for “guaranteed salary increases, proposals around diversity and inclusion, IP and derivative works and more”.
Vogt and Pinnamaneni’s matches were announced on Wednesday night. Alex Goldman, Emmanuel Dzotsi and the rest of the “Respond to Everyone” team will continue on the podcast. The team will meet with Polgreen to discuss the future of “The Test Kitchen” in the coming days, according to an internal email from Polgreen. Vogt, Goldman, Pinnamaneni and Gimlet did not respond to requests for comment from The Times.
In his statement, Vogt said he failed to be an ally during the unionization effort at Gimlet. He said that while he supported it now, “at the time, I was a baby and an idiot in countless ways.” He said that “I should have reflected on what it meant to not be on the same side of a movement led largely by young color producers in my company. I do not.”
Pinnamaneni wrote: “My conduct in relation to the diversity and efforts of the trade union organization in Gimlet was ill-informed, ignorant and harmful.” She said that “I was not paying enough attention to people of color with less power in Gimlet and I should have used my power to support and elevate them even more.”
Since publishing his topic, Eddings told The Times that, until Wednesday afternoon, no one in the Gimlet administration had contacted him. He gives advice to those working in the media and hopes to avoid these problems – advice that can also apply to other sectors.
“If you’re in the workplace, pay attention to the power structures,” said Eddings. “If someone comes up to you, talks to you and says, ‘You know, I’m struggling, I’m wondering what to do about it, ‘ listen and offer support. That would solve a lot. Real empathy, compassion like that – there needs to be more of that. “
As for Gimlet, Eddings said, “I wish them the best in their future endeavors.”