Gimlet Media’s popular “Reply All” podcast was paused and its series investigating allegations of racism in the food magazine Bon Appétit was shelved after former Gimlet employees complained that one of their hosts and a reporter contributed to a toxic culture in the workplace .
On Thursday, in a two-minute statement posted on the “Reply to all” feed and titled “A message from the ‘Reply to all’ team,” co-host Alex Goldman told listeners that the senior reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni and co-host PJ Vogt decided to leave the podcast. Last week, they were accused by former colleagues of speaking out against a union effort that many black officials considered necessary to increase diversity and create a more egalitarian workplace.
“Former colleagues of ours at Gimlet have publicly described several cases of disturbing behavior by both Sruthi and my former co-host PJ Vogt,” Goldman said in a statement released on Thursday. “These reports led our team to reconsider the work culture in ‘Reply All’, and they left us wondering if we could continue to convey the story without asking ourselves and what happened 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 flaw. “
On Twitter and in interviews last week, former Gimlet employees said they saw Vogt and Pinnamaneni’s involvement in the “Test Kitchen” series as hypocritical.
Eric Eddings, a former Gimlet employee who co-hosted the podcast “The Nod”, said he could not believe that Pinnamaneni was narrating a series on racism and workplace toxicity when she and Vogt were responsible for a ” almost identical ”Atmosphere in Gimlet.
Mr Vogt and Mrs Pinnamaneni publicly apologized after the charges arose. They did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Goldman said the remaining two episodes of “Test Kitchen”, which was supposed to be a four-part series, would not be released. He apologized to listeners for “our many failures”.
“We regret our colleagues and former colleagues that we have harmed,” he said. “We are sorry for you, our listeners. And, of course, we regret the people who spoke to us about the ‘Test Kitchen’, who shared their extremely personal stories with us. “
The two episodes of “Test Kitchen” that have already been published would remain online, Goldman said, with an additional warning. “Responding to everyone” would be paused, he said, as the program staff assessed what was wrong. “Once we fully understand, we also want to tell you, in the best possible way, what happened,” said Goldman.
A spokesman for Spotify, which acquired Gimlet Media in February 2019, said Vogt and Pinnamaneni would remain on Gimlet, even though they were outside the podcast. He did not give details about his new role.
Mr. Goldman and Mr. Vogt started “Reply All” in 2014, adapting it from their previous WNYC radio show, “TLDR” (very long; I haven’t read it). Episodes in recent years have taken listeners to phone scam circles in India and a journey to track down a music that a director heard on the radio when he was a teenager.
Eddings and other former Gimlet employees said that Vogt and Ms. Pinnamaneni were strongly opposed to union efforts, that black employees saw it as the only way to create an environment in which they could succeed, and that the duo rejected efforts to diversify the team. In one case, according to Eddings, Vogt sent derogatory text messages to a Gimlet employee who was involved in the union effort that left him in tears.
In the second episode of the series “Test Kitchen”, narrated by Pinnamaneni, Pinnamaneni said that Gimlet “had his own version” of the problems that Bon Appétit faced.
“The whites who ran the place hired people of color, promised changes that never seemed to materialize,” she said in the episode. When a group of employees tried to change the climate at Gimlet through union membership, she chose not to join the efforts, she said. “As I talked about it, I talked about how their fight was stepping on my feet.” She said she spent eight months reporting on Bon Appétit to see how wrong she was.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, Mr. Goldman said the announcement did not mean that “Reply to all” was ending.
“We are just finding out what’s next,” he wrote. “’Responding to everyone’ is not and never was just Alex and PJ. There is an incredibly talented group of people who do this show. ”