Final Thoughts on Executive Ethics

Welcome to the cororporate Gossip podcast, the business podcast for gossip lovers. You don't need to know anything about business to enjoy the cororporate gossip podcast, but you might learn something along the way. Today's episode, Soppy CEOs, giving, getting, and breaking the business. O favorite executive scandals to the corporate gossip podcast. I'm your host, CPA Sorn B backap Podsky. I'm here with my co host. Out of office reply guuy, Robby Slovik. Robbie, you've been with us for a full quarter now.. you believe it? Q two. Q. Well, it's good I guess you joined us in Q one It's now Q two, but you've been with us for threeths Yeah. full three months. Full three months, Yes I'm off my probationary period. That's right. And you know what that means? I'm rich. It's You're actually less rich than you are Oh no. It's actually time for your annual review. Oh no, already. Yeah. already And here at Corporate Gossip, I like to take all of my unresolved trauma and personal insecurities and project them onto others.ia leadership. Via professional feedback. So I hope you're ready to cry. Okay, let's do it. Okay There are three categories U Giggling exxceeds expectations. That's great. That's good news. Knowledge of Andanderpump deep cuts Nes improvement. Yeah, for sure And despite overwhelming evidence All allegations against you here at Boro House Creative have been dropped. Oh, this is fastic. hold on. let me call my lawyer. I can get them to stop billing hours Congrats, Robbie. You worked really hard. I saw you in the production room I coming on to keep my hands to myself is what you saw So congrats, Robbie. Sadly, on that last part, the same cannot be said for the people we're going to talk about in today's episode. We got a couple of horny business boys on our. Let's talk about and If you looked at these guys Linkedn pages, it would say that they were CEO of the Auga Factory. Oh boy In today's episode, rather than one company, we're just going to kind of cover one topic CEO cheating scandals. And these are stories that wouldn't necessarily fill an entire episode but are just too fun and juicy. to not talk about and frankly, we deserve a treat We all do. You too listeners We talking about how bad everything is all the time. We all deserve a trip to a cold play concert. Right. You get on the littleittle kiss camp together. And interestingly, when we haveve done episodes like this in the past, like we did The Ghost of Strikes in thisiss Past, which was all about labor organizing and dramatic strikes in history. And that tend to do pretty good. So I'm actually curious listeners, if you like this format, Let us know in the comments. I have carefully curated three sex scandals for us to talk about today because I think all three of them tell us something different And in each one, we're going have some discussion questions at the end for me and for you and for the listeners to weigh in on the comments. Are you ready for the first one I'm Ray. Okay. the first one is corporate gossip number one That each story is gonna to have a song to go with it. And I mean, we we have to start with Shaggy. Shaggy, It wasn't me. Yeah. This is a classic in this space. Okay, this story, you might have heard it before. It has been highly requested Nestleie is The Swiss company it's one hundred and fifty years old, if you've eaten Kick cat, Arow bars Haganas, Crunch Crunch bars, Nest quick, Nest te Any fancy water, you go to an Italian restaurant, and you get the aquapana. Sam Belerrino, if your're baby's E Gerber or your dog's I Pina, that's all Nestleie. And we could honestly do an entire episode on Nestleie's scandals. There's a literal entire Wikipedia page specifically dedicated to the scandals of Nestie. believe But more recently, the CEO of Nestle, and I looked this pronunciation up, and I watch a YouTube video. so here we go L Leeron Frace The hu G That's great. Did you just know that right off the doome? No, I don't even know globalize just What you call? I was just trying to dress up what you do. I don't know if it's right or wrong Robbie's a more worldly M fresh. That's the word I was looking for than I made headlines last year when he was ousted from the top job after having an affair with a coworker. and the details of the story are fucking crazy Um hereere's Laurent You can get an idea of who he is. I mean He's a nice looking normal normal looking dude for his age looks u. Nice and normal. Nice nice normal looking dude. And also I' say this, if this we're gonna to share this specific picture, very tasteful watch choice CEO's might go with an ostentatious like gold band or whatever. That looks to be a nice leather band, tasteful choice So it' it's a good point ing up and I think a very good observation because he notably runs this company in France.. And or sorry, it's a Swiss company, but it's a French Swiss company and he is a French CEO. In France and specifically, ostentatious CEO behavior is very much looked down upon. And notably, they probably stemming from the French Revolution The wage gap in terms of CEO to employee is a lot smaller than it is here. So he's not being paid the way CEOs are being paid. and that will come up spepecifically in the story So Last summer, Nestleie's HR department gets a tip through the employee hotline. This is, you know, one of those hotlines where you can snitch on your cooworkers A senior marketing executive alleged that Laurent was hooking up with another executive in a hotel in Zurich Okay. I of this is straight up That's gossip. You know, like that's What a fun phone line to be manning to just get these these fun little hints, these tips. If I ever get another corporate job, please let it be mananning one of those lines. Totally. So I would be I would work from home. obviously, I'd be on my bed, on my belly with my kicking up. And would you be like, do you have anything to report or would you be like, what's the juicy goos? Yeah I'd be like, spilled Diva So there's an investigation that took place internally and it was largely kept under wraps. But it later came out that the woman who called the tip line Actually Laurece quote Main mistress. Okay The very French, by the way, to have like an acceptable this is my primary mistress. Right. Yeah, who walked in on him hookking up with the other mistress, alsoso another they were all executives. the hotel room in Zurra. Pence Shaggy wasn't me, now you get it. Sounds like Laurentte was getting a little too fresh Luckily, both of these women, both of these women end up leaving the company, obviously both with a hefty severance package Now we should note that the CEO, Laurent was not fired because he cheated or hooked up with a coworker. He was fired because he lied about cheating and also because if you look at Nestle's stock price over the years, this is Nestlely compared to Unilever Danon, D, which is Danon is much worse than the rest of them. So they're kind of like looking for an excuse to sack this guy, right So the Nestleie Chairman after Laurent had Over and over I'm obviously saying Laurent because I can't say fresh or whatever. he had over and over denied and denied and denied, eventually they get access to his phone after the chairman he's waiting in his office one day and Laurent walks in and the chairman goes, giveim me your phone, liar Or however you would say that in France Yeah French Here's maybe what what it sounded like Don' want on telephone, Mountur Don emoir on telephone on't you? so sexy, what a sexy language. Yeah. And he was like, wait, you trying to fuck too When Laurent got his phone back, the first thing he did was post on the LinkedIn of the new CEO, spelling his name wrong right off the bat. And he kept his LinkedIn title, Laurent of CEO of Nestle for six months after he was fired Now, Lureon Who is sixty three? worked at Nestle for decades, like I think since nineteen eighty four. So what's that forty years. He knew the rules. In fact, he met his second wife there and started hooking up, well, obviously, he was still married to his first wife. Got it, yeah So What is this news play in Switzerland and France where this guy is from? Arthur Chaval Llier from La Pointe Magazine denounced what he called a quote medieval mindset and a return of Puritanism. He declared that firms that had rules requiring employees to declare office romances were displaying quote petty mindedness, rage and jealousy. Hell yeah, France So this is notable, right? Because for somebody to be fired for this type of behavior in France is unusual. Yeah In France, there's obviously famously strong worker protections. We talked about the fact that exorbitantly high CEO salaries are taboo. And if you hook up with your coworker, no one's going to stop you. Right. Like these are the rules that we have agreed to even if is like a subordinate yeah, relationship or whatever. Right There's a famous twenty nineteen case called the Xavier Acts Tribunal about an employee who was working for a railroad company, and while he was traveling for work, he had a heart attack while having sex with a quote, perfect stranger. And the company was legally required to pay the family compensation as if he died on the work job. on the job., right as if he died on the job And everyone was like, well, that doesn't really make any sense. He's obviously not like partaking in business activities It's not like he's traveling for work. He was traveling for work. I'm on his side. If he's traveling for work, he wouldn' would he have met that perfect stranger had he not been traveling for work? Well, that was the argument that they made in the French courts was if he died taking a shower or if he died eating a ham sandwich You would have compensated him. So this is no different than eating and sleeping. If you die on a work trip you should be compensated. So to say like the coldplay concert that you mentioned earlier wouldn't have been a thing in France. America is specifically very touchy. and I'll say America, I'm sure there are other countries. CEO and CMO were specifically touchy' the same About extramarital affairs, There is an incredible creator on TikTok and Instagram called Tell the Bees, his name is Josh Laura. He does these great stories. He really dives in specifically on American cheating culture. and there's a substack where I'll link and this is what he quotes America's roots in Protestantinism, Protestantinism, Potestantism Yeah, but I think there's more teas than that. And the cultural dominance of the WSp conflict diverse communication style mean that the status quo must be maintained at all times. Feathers must never be ruffled and no one should ever be upset It's like with Nestleie, you know We'll let you destroy our community's drinking water You can for sure, if you're boeing have two or three Pes go down, but you better not even think about a consensual motorboating with the CMO. Yeah, we are and just in general, we are like at our core, still a pretty puritanical society in a lot of ways and like, You know, obviously that plays into our culture You Kyle can call Amanda a dumb bitch on Summerhouse and all is forgiven when a semi cheating scandal emerges between Amanda and West. cheheating is a worse offense in America than like what seems like borderline verbal abuse, according to the internet And I wantna start this episode here because I think it's easy for us to sit here and be like, Boo, you cheated on your wife CEO, like goke pound sand And I understand like in real life personersal relationships are nuced and complicated. Like I love memoirs and TV shows that cover messy relationships. I've been close to people who cheated and like I can say, I get why you did that I'm not trying to downplay cheating, which can fully wreck families in like generations of families, but I'm just saying when it comes to this podcast topic, I can recognize that like as Americans, we tend to have a black and white thinking when it comes to monogamy However What is also true is that Cheating tends to be a pretty time consuming activity. It's very distracting, especially if you're cheating on somebody at work, and Also covering it up. Also cheating on somebody at work with somebody else at work. Yeah It's something that might take a lot of your brain power. And it might say distract you from creating shareholder value, for example. You know, I think one of the great things about social media, Twitter and stuff like that is that it's shown us just how much free time these CEOs have, you know? They've like for years they've kind of propagated the myth that like We are always busy always working twenty four seven grind grind grind. It's like It seems like you can do one hundred and forty posts a day. Like I don't know anyone who has the time to spend online the way you guys seem to have to spend online. That's true. And then once the scandal does get out How many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars is your company spending on PR, legal?? If there's a severance payment to the affair partner, Maybe you got to spin up a search committee for a new CEO if you do choose to get rid of them, and all the projects that were in the hopper now get put on pause, the financial implications to a company of a CEO's cheating scandal are not nothing. L if I were the SEC, I would make that a reporting requirement. Sure. Like I do think it has a financial implication. And I do think I also think that like with some of these bigger companies and these types of CEO's, they are prepared for that. They have a cost of doing the business of like, we have a slush fund for you know, NDA settlements affairs, these investigations. like I think they plan for this type of shitty behavior. They do and most of it does get covered up in the event that it doesn't It's because these CEOs, I mean, I think to that end are taught that they can just act with impunity Like Of course you're gonna cheat. I mean, if I don't cheat then why do we have these lawyers? Why do we have these PR people When you have CEOs that believe that they can behave in the case of Laurent, Face both professionally and personally with impunity, like that is very costly. And that is where I want to start because like that is the problem that I have with executive cheating scandals. Like if you want to cheat on your partner, if you are an independent contractor wants to cheat on your partner? I'm not going to hear you't judge. Yeah, that's tr. But don't make me the shareholder pay for it. Notably Laurent did not get a severance package, but like who knows over the years how much time he was spending, you know hooking up with and covering up affairs and not spending on Nestlely. Business dealing, right which is and food by like I think it's like so much of it is based in Europe and they have some like stricter regulations or whatever But overall, like Food is kind of a pretty dirty business as well as far as like the like additives they add and like the addictive qualities and getting stuff just right to like make people need to come back more often than they should And Nestle in particular has a lot of issues even beyond just hurting the consumer Pollution, human rights abuses, slave labor, child labor. Oh right because al mask matter in the San Pelegrino. Wait Yeah, there was a huge issue. I think it was it was San Pelgrino There was a big scandal in France where fecal bacteria was found in the Perier I the Cro's okay. I think so That's our first cheeting scan. Okay. Okaykay, a little moose bouche I could use a French term Uh Are you ready for the next scandal? Yes. The next piece of corporate gossip is the way came up in Vegas We're back in America And let me tell youa Outside of France, if you're gonna have an extramarital affair and not get fucking negged for it Paramount is your next best option This company is a piggy bank for cheating losers Former ninety six year old chairman Summerner Redster. I love S. I love him. Oh my God, that was one of my favorite episodes He had not one but two girlfriends who took turns changing his bed pans while they dialed in for him into shareholder meetings to create the appearance of life. Yeah. It was a real weekend of Bernie situation over there. He made Eu Hefner look like Sprry, you know L did. And he was a huge philanderer.. Sumner Redstone is no longer with us, but his ghost remains, and it seems to be possessing the penises of the company's remaining executives That's not a boner, Your Honor. It's the cohast of Smer Redstone One of those executives is a man named Jeff Shell He was ousted from the top job of not one but two companies. First NBC Universal and then Paramount within Two and a half years. Oh, that's amazing So let's start with Jeff's time as CEO of NBC Universal. He's fired in twenty twenty three after being accused of sexual harassment by CNBC, Anchor, Hadley Gamble. Now reing name by the way. Great name Especially for his life in particular. So now reporting from Variety says that they were actually in a relationship from all the way back in twenty twelve. Ch's married, by the way. Okay. But he allegedly is in a decades long on again off hand relationship with the CNBC reporter Um She then says that it wasn't a relationship, but instead a decades long campaign of sexual harassment and that he used his position of power to pressure her for sex. Shelle's Camp alleges that she only lodged her complaint after her contract was not renewed And some say this all might be Vladimir Putin's fault. Wait, what? This story is fucking crazy Back in twenty sixteen, Jeff Shechll is detained in Russia. Okay Okay has something to do with his role as member of the broadcasting Board of governors who oversees radio free America, which obviously the Kremlin feels is anti Russian propaganda He's pretty shaken up by it. and it's reported at the time as almost just like a footnote. Like it's like, hey, this guy was detained, but it was all figured out. He says it was actually a huge deal and he was only released when his sister is crazy, whoo was Dana Shell Smith, who was then U. S. Ambassador to Qatar for the Obama administration called to intervene and get him released. Okay, so now like who is this family? Like I know when you have a high level CEO and someone in a ambassadorship to like a particularly corrupt like nation as far as like funneling money to the US. You know, it's the Qataris who just gifted Trump a four hundred million dollars airplane that he just somehow accepted, which is insane. but like so this There's something up with this family right off the gate Not just a high level CEO, but a high level CEO of one of the major three broadcasters in America. Right Okay, so his sister calls, gets him released from Russian detainment That's gota be scary. I mean I listened to Chelsea's episode on the Brittany Who's that Brittney Griner. Griner. And that sounded fucking harrowing. Yeah. That's a nightmare. So it also sounds like this guy was detained like specifically for the purpose of intimidation totly ye Suffice it to say Jeff Shell does not like Vladimir Putin, okay F years later His girlfriend, Hadley Gambeble, sits down with Vladimir Putin for a televised interview that made headlines because it got weirdly sexual. Okay. Okay. Here are some stills from Hadley's interview with Vladimir Putin Okay, Okay Do you want to describe what you're seeing here? I'm seeing like a bit of a, you know, it look this's just a it's just a screenshot. What do I know? I'm seeing a bit of a flirty smile though, for sure. She seems a little Smitten Okay. Okay a little body language there. the foot is poking pretty you know. They're pretty far apart. This is probably like notot long after COVID times. so they're good, like six feet apart, but A leg is poking out in his direction. le in his direction. he's leaning in And the news at the moment, this is even Russian news 've narrowed in on this. and said that she was using her physical appearance Feminine wiles as a way to, what did she say? uh yeah, as a way to lure him makeake him comfortable. makeake him Yeah Here's a description, Hadley squeezed into a tight black dress, fluffed up her flowing hair, put on a pair of nude leg lengthening Louitton high heel pumps, quote, Her legs were covered in shimmering body oil as though it wast a work assignment. So she effectively dressed up for a bravo reunion to interview the We're criminal president of Russia Leg lengthening Luittons. Leg lengthening Lubittons. That's fun. Sources say that Jeff and Hadley's relationship ended right around the time. Yeah. And he put me in prison How Right You're flirting with him? Right. I mean, serious you wore your leg lengthening legons? He was pierced. He was pized. I think it'd be also funny if these events happened in reverse order. L first it started fking what it was There was a lot of pushback against Hadley, not only for this interview, which I think probably looked bad on NBC versus NBC, but also for her onset behavior. quote, people don't like working with her. She's the person the camera crews don't like to work with and that's a telltale sign. I don't know if you. I will say this. I've worked in I've spent a lot of time working in television various levels and At the John Stewart show that I worked out on Apple TV, there were a lot of people from Network newews who came along to the project and I learned from that experience that like I don't think there is a segment of show business more toxic than newsrooms. Really? Yes. Yes. It's like Whatever you think is happening in like, you know, sitcom writerss rooms and late night variety W writers' rooms, like It's nothing compared to what's going on in newewsroom Do you want to give an example? Noope, okay. How about thematically? It's just You know, I think you would be like, oh, the the the silly clowns who were like writing comedies and stuff are probably like line crossers, but like regarding like I don't know, like toxic office behavior, some like sexual harassment type stuff. R. Right It's coming from the news people. That's really interesting Um, I wonder why that is. I wonder what the what the root of that is. Do you think because they feel like they're incredibly important and they're doing like you know And they definitelyitical work. Yeah. I think there's something like high stress element of it I think there's also a boys club element of it. I mean, like certainly, you see this in journalism where it's like very much a boys' club a feeling of When you're in the know, it gives you the sense of power Yeah, that's interesting. Okay, so she's got this reputation and it's not until a few years later when her contract comes up that she files the complaint. Now, this is kind of U this is messy, right? Because like on the one hand, she's alleging sexual harassment from this guy. On the other hand, there's a lot of evidence that like Maybe that wasn't the case. Yeah So it's complicated. don I don't know. I mean, you can kind of like come to your own conclusion listeners on what you feel is the truth Either way She leaves CNBC. He obviously leaves NBCU. There are also allegations that people came out against him because during the Mu movement, despite his own reputation as being a quote well known dog, he took the opportunity as president of NBCU to fire many men. Okay. pererhaps that he to insulate himself tot want Yeah, or like to feel like, hey, I never really liked you. There's an allegation against you. You're gone. you're gone. You're gone, you're gone. And even though like he was the president and he was kind of the worst of them all. there was a lot of people that alleged that this was a way for people to take revenge on him A former Fox colleague that used to work with him Jeff Shell when he worked at Fox was unsurprised by the gamble news and said that Jeff Shell was always aggressively flirty with women. Quote, everyveryone knew about his reputation. The board wanted to get rid of him last summer and then this fell into their lab. So it's possible that they would have If you had been doing a good job at NBC, they probably would have swept this under the rug and paid off uh, Hadley, um But since they wanted to get rid of them, they just did. And this is also the thing about why you can't like If If you enter a romantic relationship with someone, even with the best of intentions, but like ultimately their contract renewal falls to you, there's no way to get out of that gly. You just cannot do it Totally which is just so funny. I mean, I think that kind of goes to the with impunity. Like I can have an illicit affair with a coworker and I can treat them like shit. Um, Okay, so now Jeff Shell is out of a job around twenty twenty three And you think the Larry David Ellison family gives a shit that you got moggged by Vladimir Putin? I don't think so. Get on in here, brother. M buddy. David Ellison made You like fucking your employees. We like fucking our employees. Seriously, Larry Ellison of all people is like I see you. I see you, brother. I am you. comeome on my sailboat So David Ellison makes Jeff Shell his right hand man, right? And this is you'll remember, David Ellison of Skydance is taking over Paramount. He is way out over his skis. He really has no idea what he's doing. and Jeff Shell is You know Despite his personal issues, a very well regarded television executive who knows a lot about media. know he knows yeah, he knows the business, despite being a dog by all accounts They make Jeff Shell president of Paramount Global in twenty twenty four and less than two years later, a high stakes professional gambler named RJ Cibriiani accuses him of spilling nonpublic insider information about the deals that Paramount is making that leads to his ouster. Now Robby, I want to show you a picture of RJ Ciprii. I do want to see what RJ Gibriiani looks like But also why like who is RJ Sibriani to like to whistle blow on this guy. Oh who Yeahah. big describe him? I mean, big kind of like private investigator vibes. It looks like a Valore blue baseball cap with some type of earpiece in, but he is black head to toe. like he looks like a fixer Total fixure. Yes, white hair. he's got big aviator sunglasses. So you and every picture he's in, he's got sunglasses on. So if you were to Google him, you would never truly see his face. You never know he looks like. You wouldn't know what he looks like So RJ Chipriani. he's described as a high stakes professional gambler, a federal informant and a self styled vigilante. I think vigilante is like the real word here. He's like kind of like a freelance Fixer slash I don't know, Rabbble rousser like he just really likes to get in the j in the in the in the gossip And it's not clear why or how Jeff Shell got involved with him. Right But over the years, he became close with this RJ Chiriani guy Tibriiani refers to himself as a quote, kamikaze, a lone wolf, a wild card, and a fucking cowboy. Yeah Tibriani. I think he's just one of these guys who kind of like hangs out at Ccko Marmont and like you know just gets involved in poker games with these guys, ingratiates himself with the like high powered media crew who like also style themselves as like Casino guys. He sounds like like a racenteur. like Yeah if you describe yourself as a fucking as a lone wolf and a cowboy, like you can probably tell some fun stories. He is constantly calling reporters to give tips. He says stuff like I'm a soldier of God and that Bradley Cooper wants to play him in a movie. He said that his wife has had offers by all these famous people, including Lilonardo, DiCaprio to sleep with her and she won't. And Shell, for his part, says that RJ. Chipriani is just trying to extort him because Chipriani had asked him to make a TV show called Star Sererenade, which would have been like an unscripted singing show that would honor Tibriani's late mother. This is what the people want. Okaykay. So I work in entertainment People are constantly asking for singing shows that would honor RJ Chibriani's mother. And And Jeff Shell said, Yeahah, yeah, yeah, man, totally. I'll do it. Sounds like a great idea. You know, my people talk to your people type of thing. and then ultimately left him on read. Yeah. And that's when Chiriani said, Well, fuck you, I'm going to whistleblow and tell Paramount that Jeff Shell told me information about a partnership that Paramount was going to have with UFC. Okay. It was non public information that he was thenable to trade on. to me like that's yeah, I guess that does like it is insider trading, but it's also like there is very intentional stuff and then there's just like I don't know, a CEO just being like a loose liipped guy with his like, you know, we're actually going to acquire UFC, you know what I'm saying? It's You're not supposed to do it and but it also seems like It's not the biggest deal, you know? It is. Yeah ye. It' is like Italy is like definitely a big deal, especially like if you're entrusted with so much I get what you mean, but like yeah, you could you could absolutely go to jail for that. Yeah. Like it's so it's just so maybe in the eighties Yeah, that was like very common and probably like in RJ Gib Briiani's heyayday. Yeah that was more, much more common. and I'm certain that it happens all the time. Yeah. But if you are It's confirmed that you've done that. You can at a minimum be fired which seems a little crazy in like, yes, in the world makes sense in the calcium high market. Yeah. It's' fucked up. Insider trading is like one of the core ways to make money now. Totally. Yeah, totally. I agree with you. When he says, when he's brought when reporters ask RJ Tribriani, is that extortion what you did basically saying that you're going to release the secret about Shell If he doesn't make your show that you want. he said, If that's extortion, I guess I'm an extortionist. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, I'm going to get try to I'm going to try to get people who fucking act badly to act correctly D'tate that I of I'm arche Spriani right now Um Either way, okay, It's very strange that Shell is so close with this guy RJ Tipriani Given the fact that it was Chipriani himself who tipped off the media that Hadley Gambeble had filed that original sexual harassment suit against Shell when he was at NBC. Oh. wasn't that crazy? But did he get that information from? he got it from Jeff Shell I'm not sure where he got the information from. Probably like other media contacts. I mean, clearly this guy's good at getting information out about B Now, Paramount said that Chipriani's claims that he was given insider information were baseless, but that also, quote, consistent with mister Shell's commitment to prioritizing Paramount's guidances success, he has elected to transition from his position as president and member of board of directors to focus on the lawsuit So he didn't give insider nonpublic information, but also he's stepping down. But he's stepping down to yeah H Just a great crop of movie names in this scandal by the way RJ Chipriani, Hadley Gambble, Jeff Shell. and alsos Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin of course I love when he. know this is a great story So here's my question to you, Robby Assuming that the affair between Jeff Shell and Hadley was consensual Does an affair in and of itself indicate Bad judgment Because clearly that's what Jeff Shell had. He has bad judgment with Hadley. He had bad judgment with RJ Sciriani. But I guess my question is like, shouldh I as a shareholder be concerned if a company that I'm invested in picks up a CEO who's been ousted from another company for having an inappropriate affair, even if they pick him up for like a discount. because he's like a damaged asset U shouldould I be concerned about that? Do you think that that Yeah And I guess this is a question also for the listeners, like what do you guys think? I think it depends on how you view money, you know, in that like you are you are going in knowing that like like what happened with Hadley Gamble, like there are going to be contract renewals and this guy is going to be in a bad position on them and like, are you okay with a slush fund for this guy's fuck? Yeah knowing that like some lawsuits are going to come up, but like If you think that's the cost of doing business for this guy. It doesn't sound like Jeff Shellis some like megast star CEO who's turning huge profits everywhere really. So like if if you feel if if you are If we're taking morality completely out of it, you feel like This person's value add will u more than cover the cost of their u fuckery will call it, then I guess sure, but it's it's not the call I would make. Yeah, yeah. I think should be taken into consideration. And I think the frustrating part probably for a lot of our listeners is if you are applying for a job, your background is fucking combed through Yeah with a fine tooth comb. and like you have to explain every single thing you've done before. If you're a mom, you have to explain any laps or dad, any laps in work history, then that could be used against you. But it's so strange that because there's a very insular and small group of CEOs to choose from, their backgrounds and their past ind disccussions seem to Not matter, right Well, yes, I agree with that, but we're also like living in a world where like Spencer Pratt just came second in the, you know, LA Mayoro primary Yeah, and it's like with like a, you know, whatever, one hundred fifty thousand votes to the first person getting one hundred seventy thousand. So it's like We're just kind of like Okay with villainy if someone is telling us what we want to hear, I guess or a percentage of the country is. Yeah It's a great point. I mean, yeah, I think Not to mention the Trump of it all shouldn't be, I mean, talk about the biggest philanderr of them all, R I think I want to show you a picture of Jeff Shell. Okay. Okay, this is the man This is the man. Oh no. Oh, what is what are his lips? Is that a real p? Like what what are his lips? Well, he's pouting Can I do you have a picture h with regular human lips, o? He looks exactly like Chris Parnell. This is here he is with Chris Pratt and Anna Ferris at the looks like Jurassic Park Premiere. Yeah. he's got hereere he is walking around so funny How qu the conference because he's got the gray there because up top, he's like, manan that J just for Men is just for Men he's doing a lot. There's a specific type of like just for men jet black hair that does not exist in nature U here he is with the rock. laaughing it up with the rock. Yeah, absolutely. yucking it up And here he is Oh God, you know, this one's hanging on his fucking office. this here he is with Steven Spielberg holding a Tyranosaurus Rex's mouth. But doesn't look like Chris Parnell I would say that's unkind to Chris Parnell. Chris Parnell looks better than this guy I noted that Paramount has a long history of being a piggy bank for losers. In the last four months that Shell was at Paramount The only one who out eararned him was David Ellison himself, who made sixty three million to his sixty one million sixty one million four months. These numbers make me fuck. Like having gone through the writer' strike and watching these guys, you know, like the Netflix guysy getting fifty and fifty one million respectively, whatever Bloomberg is getting David Zzlov's insane Oh my package seenty And then like as they plead poverty as far as like, we can't afford pay union wages. We can't afford to pay teamsters. We can't afford to pay SA. We just can't do it. We'll take our productions overseas. We'll use AI, whatever. It's like It the math isn a math and if you guys are taking home fifty million dollars a year For what? And they're not. that's the other thing is it's like if you're going to say that this guy is a complete superstar CEO who is has has brought more shareholder value than has ever been seen before. He's a fucking genius with media Like I said, if you want to consensually motorboat your CMO I could understand why you would make that decision. Yeah. But he's bad at his job. Yeah Then what is the point as a shareholder to explain to me this? Right. Other than this is a slush fund for losers. Yeah Okay, so so we have this question, right? Does bad behavior beget bad behavior? Should we consider CEO's past when it comes to his future. I have another story that I think might illuminate, and this is going to be our last story of the episode A right, you ready for a final story? Yep Corporatesip number three is G take the money around G take the money around around I love that the Marshall Tucker band who is? No it' Stve Miller Band. Steve Miller Band Okay, Robbie, you know that feeling when you got a huge ice cream cone What are your favorite flavors? What are your favorite flavors of ice cream? This is, you know what, I'm really glad you brought this aside up. My favorite flavor of ice cream. This is it doesn't exist everywhere, but where I grew up mostly in Tampa, Florida, it does. It One big Florida distributor mostly handles it. It's Smurf ice cream. It's a blue ice cream with white marshmallows in it. I cannot tell you what the flavor of the blue is. simply I can just say it's blue. can't tell It's supposed to be a smurf Like is it supposed to be like the body like the body of Christ, the body of? is Yes, It's trans. what's that word for But yes, it is like the body of s. I'm eating body of Papa Smurf Strain substantiation. Tin sububstantiation. Yes. Okay Okay, you know when you get that huge ice cream scone, it's a waffle cone, three scoops of smirk. Oh my God. ye now we're talking my language. And you're just about to go in for that first lick. And then it drops on the ground. Oh, ye. And then you step on a rake. Oh no. Yeah kns you in the face. This is a bad few minutes for me. That's basically what happened to Alex Melina Rlli, who is the former CEO of Johnson Controls, exxcept the ice cream cone is his marriage, and the rake is a massive poxy sche Oh yeah, you know what? suuper clear. suuper clear. Easy to understand analogy. I understand, I'm glad that I pull in a two minute aside on a bizarre ice cream flavor that only exists in the southeast. Perfect. Pfect podcasting all around This is my podcast and you know what? I don't get a performance review Unfortunately this is a dictatorship. Johnson Controls is the biggest public company in Wisconsin. So you probably haven't heard of it unless you're really into like HVAac or Eactly why I've heard of it. I'm a big HVac head The CEO Melina I'm gonna just call him Alex, sorry. Oh Alex. But I see where this is going. He didn't control his Johnson Yes! Roby Yes. Holy shit The CEO Alex starts hooking up with a management consultant So this is back in twenty fourteen, he starts hooking up with her and the guilt is just eating him alive because he is married at the time to his wife, Patsy Moin Nert Mullin and Min Malling Mallingry His wife, Patsy S She finds out about the affair and she emails this consultant. I couldn't find her name. I actually found a couple different names, but I didn't want to get it wrong, so we're just gonna call her the consultant Patsy emails her the following, I will destroy you, your family and your business just of as you have done to me. And after she sends that email, she fires a thirty eight caliber pistol at least four times in the couple's Wisconsin home I love Patsy. Patsy fucking rules. First out, Patsy's such a passive name. It's a Patsy person who takes the fall? Not this Patsy No This pat is going take some action. I will fucking destroy you And then you Sammy Sams B boom boom, boom, boom, boom in the house. come on. I love her. I mean, we definitely don't want to minimize domestic violence, but for the story it is pretty cle. Anyone get hurt Was anyone even home? We don't know if it was home. Nobody Nobbody got herurt. She hiden the email. She had send. fact Every time, this might be something that I pr everyvery time I finally hit send on an email, I've been waiting to write to shoot up. bullets in mouth. Here's what she did destroy. Window panes, a pac Man game and a China cabinet. That's not y Those reenwal by Anderson ain't sheap. At this point, the affair is now public, obviously, because she So yeah Yeah And he's the CEO of the biggest public company in Wisconsin. This is like fucking front page news and his wife It's the talk of the town in Milwaukee. And the worst part is He's docked a million dollars in pay as punishment Okay, that' just like I think he's making at that point fifteen million dollars. is not the big deal This was crazy. Okaykay. He went on CNBC. I couldn't find the interview isn't hosted there anymore, unfortunately, but I did find the transcript and And talking to Hadley Gamble. That would be crazy. No, I don't know who he was talking to, but He's talking about the aftermath of the affair and he says, quote, When something like that happens, the biggest impact to me is with our employees and my family. You don't want to go through something like that, But quite frankly, the thing that happened is that the employees have really rallied around me The community has rallied around me to get us through this situation and allow us to just continue to focus on the things that are important. A I mean, I love that statement. It's so perfect in that like there's no accountability taken anywhere. It's nothing to do with his actions or decisions. A thing happened T me T me. and thankfully all the employees love that I was having an affair with a business consultant. They're like really rallied around me. And the thing about employees always love business consultants because what they do is they come in from the outside and soak up money that could go to the employees for doing this job, but amazing. So this thing happened to me. It's very unfortunate. Thank God for my community and employees who love that I have. I mean, they set up a gofund me So that one million dollars that was docked has been returned to me. We getew China now year despite Um, cutting his pay, the company increased spending on Alex's personal security to one hundred and fifty one thousand from fifteen thousand way more than anyone else in his group but his white, you know, I know I know There still one hundred fifty thousand dollars on annual security seems like high U Don't feel too bad for him. in the following year, he got a raise twenty million dollars in twenty fifteen and he would need that money because That year, he was the victim of a fifty million dollars ponzi schemer. Oh, that's fun. Who he Also, after he found out he was a ponzi gamer, let him live in one of his investment properties for free. Wait, what? Yeah. Every one of these stories you go Yeah. So this Ponzi schemer Actually first, let me just show you a picture of Alex Molin Narnari. So he got scammed by this guy Alex Moinari got scammed by this Ponzi schemer named Joseph Zada. Let me show you a picture of Alex. Now he is what I like to call, unfortunately, a corporate cutie Oh yeah, look at that. This is the guy who was having an affair I get why the community and people rallied around him. you really want to root for this guy. You really do. He's really sweet. He seems like he would be the man who owned the ice cream shop where you'd got your smurf ice cream and he has one of those little hats. I would be scared to be the Ponzi scheme guy. L I bet Paty sent him a pretty fucking intense email when she found out they lost some money He's scary. You want to see a Ponzi scheme? I to see the Ponzi scheme Don't invest with that guy. That's a ponzi.cribe him. He is I mean, he blends into the environment. He's dressed like an undertaker and then he's got like these sunglasses that are like they're kind of like matrixy themed, but like this is not a trustworthy man from that picture at all. His name is Joseph Zada He defrauded not only that CEO, Alex, but also a six time Olympian and Russian hockey star. And he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He only served six because of COVID And both Alex and his stepson invested about two point five million dollars with Joseph'son. Okay Six time Olympian? Is that Sergey Fedorov? or Yeah, that sounds about right. Uh. Do you know him? That's a big, big time hockey star Sergey Fedorov. Yeah Oh, he's a guy He's a big guy He He swindled him out of forty three million dollars. forty three million do? Yeah So he ran a fifty million dollar ponzi scheme and he It was allty threel. It seems like he just stole forty three from him. And then the rest from the Json controls guy. Fr the Dersage Olympian and the Johnson Controls guy. Um So Alex was asked What was he doing with the money? okay What was he doing with the money? Quote, he was investing it, he said. In what? All I knew is it had something to do with oil, but that's all I knew This is a guy who runs a company with one hundred thirty thousand employees Multinational conglomerate. He just gave two and a half million dollars to a guy who said he had something to do with oil, But he did get returns early on and quote, I guess that's the way a Ponzi scheme starts But then he let the guy live. Okay, okay, okay, so here's more. So when Zada's scheme collapsed and the lawsuits and criminal charges were file against him Alex continued to provide Joseph Zada with money and housing, even though Alex contends he did not know him well Federal prosecutors said that Alex had paid Zada's legal fees bought a Michigan mansion for him to live in and even offered to pay to twenty million dollars in restitution for him. twenty million. Yeah. So this guy's blackmailing him. I mean, he's got something on him. there's no other There's a logical reason. That might be why us other people allege that Alex Moolin Nari might have been involved in it involved in the I don't know. mayaybe it's like what's like why's the If you're a CEO making twenty five' like scaming Sergei Federoff out of his life savings doesn't seem like I don't know, CEO scam peopleople all the time. They don't need money. It's more about Control, it's more about, I don't know Yeah Alex Mollionari told another executive to invest with Zada That executive transferred one hundred fifty thousand to him and he was told he would see a fifty percent return in a matter of weeks. I mean, why are these people also don't? I know these things that doesn't exist. It doesn't exist anywhay. No one can offer you those terms. If they do, they're lying. Why? How do you become like a successful executive without spotting something so obvious? I mean we just talked about this with the Madeoff episode, right? Like I think it's almost like you think that because I'm a successful executive I must be smarter than everybody else. and I actually have a feeling that this one isn't the scheme As smart as you think you are, I don't care if you're a fucking noel laureate. I don't care if you're an astonaut You couldould fall for a Pzi scheme. You could. Anybody could. Like don't I think it it's one of those things where it's like I learned from a cult member once who told me that If you believe that you would be susceptible to joining a cult, that is like the best protection against accidentally joining a cult. And I think the same thing is true with fraud. If you believe that you would be susceptible to falling for a fraud, it's the best protection against it. And the minute you think you're too smart for it, that's when you become vulnerable. I think I could fall for a fraud I donon't think I could fall for one as obvious as fifty percent returns. But you know what? any listeners out there? try to defud me. tryry to defraud me, see if you're successful. Make a Fin sta, offer me something out of this world, see if I bite. So Obviously this executive who fell for it, never received a return. but Alex Molionari sent him three unsolicited checks for fifty thousand dollars each over three years that he assumed was paying back for his for his. Oh he used did without saying this is the reason. he just said and here's fifty thousand dollars checks he gave him his money back without him asking Yeah So obviously, he knew it was a scam, right? Like if you thought that the why would he give him one hundred fifty thousand? Hey, Robbie, invest in this guy. You did and then I pay you back for your investment. That's super weird. I don't know. like all of that's just bizarre. That, along with him paying for this guy's expenses, made some people think Alex Molionari was int on it. Um, plus After Zada was convicted, the U. S. atttorney says Alex offered to provide ten million dollars to repay the victims of the Ponzi scheme I don't know if he was in look Typically with any like CEO, I'd like they were in on it. their're scumbanks But I just saw this picture of our man. He seems so nice. Maybe He was swindled and then he's like Iel so bad. I ft so bad that I steered other people into this thing I'm going to pay them back My Patsys you dare fucking money away which'll come back in a second. It is crazy how our bias towards like Mr. Rogers coded men is so strong. I actually recently saw a article that said that Bill Gates after this whole Epstein thing came out, his PR people tried to give him like a full makeover and Bill and Mr. Rogers was their like Pinterest board Yeah because and it's like it's not just the clothes. You have to have a certain energy about you and Google Alex Millionari because he has that energy. has that energy. I don't know how to describe it. It's not something that you can create. It's something that you just have innately. Right But I mean, it is like good on like smart play by Bill Gates' people because everything Zuckerberg has done like post Gow up. R justust does look worse because it's suddenly like you understand the intentionality behind it wheres when before he just looked like a weird right freak. you're like he's just doing weird freak stuff and now he like looks like he's in a boy band and you're like, fuck this guy. Yeah, the minute you see Mark Zuckerberg with a button down and then like a zip up sweater You w to fucking run far away ' you know he's done some terrible, terrible shit After all of this came out After Joseph Sad is convicted, okay? after the cheating scandal, all of that, Johnson controls still let Alex Molionari stay at the company The board hired outside counsel to examine the unusual relationship with a con artist and found that the quote association was personal in nature did not involve misuse of corporate assets or was a violation of company policies and did not appear to involve a violation of the law. Qote Alex Mollinari said he was confident that his job at Johnson Controls was secure I think that we all make mistakes in our life and I assume that that's allowed I mean, yeah, I don't know where the line is here, but like to do an investigation and be like, no, he's actually just super good friends with the con man who stole fifty million dollars is like from one of our executives's not That's not an acceptable place to land. likeike he didn't do anything illeg. like if everyone knows this guy' a con man and this guy's his friend, like putting them up and stuff, then maybe they're no longer trustworthy Not only did he get to keep a job, he got a raise. Yeah. forty seven million dollars in twenty sixteen, That's double his previous salary. seventy eight point three million dollars in twenty seventeen And that year he only worked eight months Whaty did you do the other for? He was fired after that. The wife is so funny, hereere's Patsy again with a fucking diva moment Qote, I don't want to see him lose his job because that affects me. The divorce settlement that they had called for her to receive half of his gross pay, which was about fifty three thousand dollars a month Okay So here's my kind of takeaway and final question here, which is this comes from a professor with Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, Nicholas Peierce, said, quote, Nobody's perfect, nobody's flawless, but with executives, especially chief executives, the lines are very, very blurry between personal and professional contact I'm not even I'm not totally sure what they're saying. Like what the lines are blurry professionalal personal conduct do in your not work life versus what you do at your work life? Your behavior outside of work. doesn't necessarily have any bearing on what happens inside the walls of Th I would make the exact opposite argument, which is like at the like the like kind of line level employee like probably true. L what you do out of work versus what you do in work isn't you can have a whole other different life outside of work because your ability to U for your morality to impact the overall movement of the company is nothing. You know? Like maybe you'd make some some shitty deals, you lie to some clients, whatever, you lie on a u performance review or whatever, it's like that's small time impact. but if you are the CEO and can steer an entire company and your I have one hundred thirty thousand people who ultimately bubble up to you and an or chart, like then I'm pretty concerned with your out of work ethics. Seriously. Yeah No, I completely agree with you. And I think it's that's why I is saying, like if I were in charge of the SEC, I would have a CEO background track and like objective data driven analysis of his personal life or her personal life outside of work as a fucking line item in the annual report. L I want to know. and like What's the purpose of this podcast? is like these things matter because I think the conclusion from this episode is like either one of two things that need to happen Either we need to hold CEOs to an incredibly high, moral, ethical u behavioral standard Yeahere. We need to pay them less. Yeah. One of those two things need to happen because we can't be paying them seventy eight million dollars and also letting them cheat on employees, sleep with sleep with consultants, get involved when with our people like RJ Tibriiani and Joseph Zada, like ye, one of the one or the other That's why I think kind of going back to the Nestle of it all and the France of it all, it's like, let's pay them a reasonable salary And if you want a couple you want to have a fair ha fair D't lie about it to the board. Right and please yeah. wear a tasteful watch. Yeah. I do I think there's like a a separate like and a bigger conversation to be had about just like, you know There is a type of of no one like accidents their way into becoming the president. no one really accidents their way into becoming a CEO. right? And so there is just a bigger conversation about what that type of drive and ambition interesteresting the type of person you are and why there's so many like, you know, sex scandals and like along with that like financial appetite and need for more more, more, more power, more money higher status, like that feeling seems to be in every part of their life. Yeah. So that's like whatever that is, but that's that's more sex. It's taking the thing in front of you. that Larry Ellison is a great like example of this. and it's like there's just something I don't want to say broken. It's just like it's a different wiring Mm that leads to Absolutely true. But the fucked up thing is I worked in organizational psychology, I took graduate level courses in organizational psychology and they don't talk about this at all. Yeah. Even though this is like, I think, a huge I think it's kind of and maybe it's just the kind of American puritanical culture where we just kind of sweep things under the rug. but like the fact that this is causing so, I mean, it wasn't difficult for me to find these examples of CEO's getting fired for cheating scandals just in the past like five years. How much shareholder value is destroyed because of this and we don't talk about it I don't know. I don't know what the answer is Um other than pay them less and bring them back down to reality where they feel like if I lose this job, I'm going have to pay a thousand dollars a month for health insurance and that actually is going to be meaningful to me because once you make it so that money doesn't matter, like they really don't care. Yeah. And they know that if I get fired I'm getting a golden paracho Also these are like all these examples, which are like recent and easy to find are like you know, you're kind of middle agge Middle aged dudes having a very traditional like, oh, there's a younger woman toally around. I'm an aber like, we're not even getting into like the weird like Peter Thal like my like blood boys fell off a balcony like I don't know what happened, but their dad I used took up with them another dead type of a thing. you know, like this is like this is all there' like the u leave it to Beaver of a fair. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's so standard. so and that's what I'm saying like, These guys aren't An different from any other forty, fifty, sixty year old man There'res not. Like All right, well, let us know what you guys thought of that episode. I know that was a little bit different than our standard, but I had a lot of fun doing it. I had a ton of fun doing research. And like I said, we deserved a little break. Speaking of break, over the next couple of weeks, you are going to be getting our favorite episodes from Patreon from beyond the paywall. There's a couple of really good ones that are coming your way, including our deep dive into the longevity influencers and our episode on Private equities influence in Youth sports, which was a highly requested topic. Yeah. both very funny, both some of my favorite patreons that we have done. And the reason we arere doing that is because I mean, I'm going on vacation I'm going to Paris. Yeah. I'm gonna to go meet up with fresh with Lure Fresh. Yeah And we're gonna to go climb the Aal toower together Yeah, I'm taking a little bit of a break and we will be back in July probably with new episodes. Robbie, what do you got planed? what's your June look like? I've got, you know, I'm going be taping a comedy special at the end of September. so I'm going to be on the road a lot. I've got a lot of shows. I will start to be plugging dates at the end of here, probably in a way that might you guys might find annoying, but if you live in a city, I'd love for you to come to a show. What kind of cities do you know? I don't think a lot in I'll kind of be a lot in New England. I'll be in Chicago, I'll be in I'll tell you I tell us I'll tell you the cities july tenth and eleventh, I will be in Long Island at the Brokerageer MagGuires. I'll be at Sid Fitters in Tampa, august fifteenth. I will be in Manchester, New Hampshire August twenty first, I'll be in Vermont, august twenty second. I'll be at Stanford, Connecticut, august twenty sixth. I'll be in Atlantic City, august twenty seventh. I will be at the punchline in Philadelphia on september third I'll be at Sooul Joels in Potsdam PA on september ninth and I will be taping a special here in New York City, september twenty sixth. Wow, Like I said, Robbie exceeds expectations when it comes to giggling And that has a corporate gossip stamp of real. thenen check those out and we'll put what do you have a website? I do a website. I'll yeah, we'll put all that stuff yeah. All right, so yeah, so if you are not subscribed to us on Patreon, you're gonna be getting those episodes in your feed in the next couple of weeks However, for those on our Patreon, you're not even going to notice a difference. We're still going to be in your feed every other week. because that because pay money and we're we respect that. like that. And so you're still going to get your every other week episode. And so if you can't afford to miss any single moment. if you're like, oh my God, my June really just took a turn for the worst because I'm not getting any new Robbie and Becca. Don't worry. For the low low price of five dollars a month, you get two extra bonus episodes every month from us For ten dollars a month, you can join the cororporate Gssip Book Club, where every quarter we discuss a new and exciting book that we all choose together. So if you want to join at the twenty five dollars level, you get all of those perks as we listed, and you also get a shout out on every Mainfeed episode, which I'm about to do right now in a random order, Anastasia B, Sarah Burtis Nora, Michael Anderson, Kelly Jade, Sarah Armstrong. Did I say, Sir, Gilbert You did not. Sarah Gilbert. Thank you all for supporting the Corporate Gaza podcast. If you're a new listener, we just appreciate you for spending another hour with us. and we will see you next week. Were in two weeks By bye This week's good news comes from Los Angeles, where small businesses have joined forces to create the coalition Save Northeast Los Angeles shops The coalition was started after the owner of Real Books, Jeremy and Debbie Kaplan were sent a thirty day notice that their monthly rent would be increasing from tw thousandelve hundred do to twenty eight hundred doars a month Cubls had eleven days to decide whether to accept the more than one hundred and thirty three percent price hike or leave For the Kapls, accepting the new lease wasn't even an option, and they would have to figure out how to move more than twenty thousand used books out of their storefront With the help of California's Senate Bill one one hundred three, they were able to extend their thirty day notice to ninety days, which granted them more time to search for a new place In their search, the Kapls quickly noticed that small businesses across LA were being priced out in similar ways Several storefronts lay vacant and were unaffordable for people like the Kaplins There are several reasons as to why a landlord might choose to leave a commercial property vacant Los Angeles cououncil member Isabel Herado suspects that the vacancies allow the landlord to mark the property as a loss and reduce their total income generated. Others suspect that the motive is to scrap the building and build apartments in its place But there are ways to tackle greedy landlords In San Francisco, Earon Peskin, formerly a member of San Francisco's Board of suupervisors, authored and passed a commercial vacancy tax ordinance that applly to street facing ground for properties that sit vacant for more than one hundred eighty two days a year Peskin said that the proposition helped massively in maintaining neighborhood commercial corridors and in post pandemic recovery. Back in LA, Jeremy Kaplan decided to take his struggles online, where he was quickly met with overwhelming support from his community who were interested in fighting back They decided to form the coalition, save Northeast Los Angeles shops, and although the coalition is relatively new, they have organized protests across the area fighting against landlords On Read Books last day, the store was packed with protesters out front and a steady stream of patrons throughout the store In front of the crowd, Jeremy Kaplan said Three months ago, when this all began, my initial action was to fight back because fighting is my default setting but I also felt fear of and significance of disappearing, as if everything we built in the last nineteen years often working seven days a week might soon be dismantled and forgotten. The support you've gifted us with these last few months has been a constant reminder that we're all in this together Fread Books is still searching for its new storefront, but in the meantime, if you're looking for ways to support the store or coalition, you can follow them on Instagram at SN E L A S for All They currently have a petition that you can sign to help the store fight back against the current owner of the building. And as of recording, they're at two thousand two hundred and eighty two signatures and only nine hundred eighteen signatures away from their goal And they also have a newsletter you can subscribe to and keep up to date on their initiatives. And from a policy standpoint, the current mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass said that she is uninterested in creating additional taxes and is instead focused on, quote, cutting red tape, expanding support for local businesses and advancing solutions that address the broader affordability crisis And if you live in LA and plan to vote in the upcoming mayoral election, which I suggest everyone does, it may be important to consider how candidates plan to actually deliver on their promises of affordability for the Corpic Gsa podcast, This has been Elizabeth Lu Hey, welcome to a special post podcast interview, a little special treat. Our good newews correspondent who you know and love, Elizabeth Lou is in the studio today. She's in New York City from The Ohio State University where she just finished her junior year. and Elizabeth and I today is the first day that we met. I'm so happy to have you. I'm so happy we got to go get coffee today in Brian Park, and I'm so happy you're down to not only record today's goodood newews segment in studio, but also just do a little interview with me today too Wait we can't hear you. Hi. It's really a lot. I literally w for this podcast. I said, You want to sit down at a podcast with me right now and this is so unnoyal This is not Normally how we do things, but I just could not waste the opportunity So Elizabeth, I just wanted to, you know, you've been working with us for about two seasons now. and just so you guys know The way this all got started is you emailed me, I think or DMed me. Yeah, I emailed you like Oh Instagram or something and then I was like, hey, I know this is a long shot, but I want a job if you're hiing. Yeah. And I just happened to need, you know, what was I think we had been doing like good news episodes and then There wasn't enough to do full episodes anymore, but I was like, I just can't leave people in a dark place at the end of every episode. So we need some light at the end of the tunnel and you have provided that with good news stories that you've either submitted for me to read or more recently because I think there's a podcast studio at Yeah, Ohio state you said, yeah, that you've been using to record yourself So I'm curious Be we actually haven't talked about this before. Like every week Elizabeth gives me like a rundown of some good news stories, which is just a delight for me to read. How do you find them and what are you looking for when when you ook for a good news story to put on the podcast. Yeah. I mostly go through like the big newspapers, like LA Times, New York Times, Boston Globe San Francisco Chronicle, I think, in like Seattle Times And I'll go through their business sections in their local sections and try to look for anything that's like remotely positive. And so then I'll read through those. And then a lot of the times a lot of it is very negative. So if I can't find anything there, I kind of just like look around and I'm like, union wins, I'll just Google that.ight. Or I'll Google like something I'm interested in L I wanted to do an episode on healthcare. So I'll look up like what's going on in the healthcare sector U and it's kind of just like a lot of bopping around uill I find things, but I will say recently it's gotten kind of hard. Oh really? Yeah. I feel like When Trump was inaugurated, I think there was a lot more to choose from, but then like as time has gone on, I feel like every year, or not every year, every week There's like less and less That's actually really good data. You the only people out there who's searching for the stuff and can notice it.. It's tough, right? Because I think a lot of these good news stories, I mean, one of the reasons I want to put them on the podcast is because they don't get much play. It unless you're like, look at this monkey who's friends with a koala. Like that's good news that people love, but you know A lot of these stories, editors and journalists, they don't have time to cover these Yeah And I do think that There is so much community organizing going on in a lot of major cities and smaller cities and I feel like there's not that many people who are covering it or paying attention to it, maybe because their actions aren't directly felt or not immediately like noticeable, but I do think it's important to highlight the work that everyone does in their community. Yeah, absolutely. Do you have a favorite story that you've done for us? I think about that one you did about the ice cream shop in Columbus. That was one of my favorites. Oh, the Gaders. Yeah. I think My favorite is probably like right after the Iice Fides doing the story about the Columbus like small Buses coalition that created a mutual aid group because like that was something that had seen on Instagram like my mutuals posting about. And so it wass really cool to be able to like talk about that on the broader scale. And then like also highlight a lot of small businesses that like I go to on the regular. Yeah. It's really cool to like see the impact in my community and be able to share that. That's awesome Before I'm gonna to ask one final question to you Elizabeth, but I just want to let you know this will be the last you'll be hearing from her at least until the fall semester because you got a lot going on this summer, right? You're busy. Yeah, so I'm interning at CBS News and I'm going be a media research intern. so I'll be learning about media Sure. We'll'll be learning about media and also working under Paramount, which will be very interesting. So yeah, so we'll hear more from Elizabeth at the end of her internship in the fall and you will hear from her again. In the meantime, if people want to fill your backlog with good news stories. They either you know can be in the news, they can be in outlets that she had mentioned or anywhere else, or they can just be good news that you've heard about. on Instagram, on TikTok, as long as it's like verified and yourre suret. it's not like AI. this guy walked on water. you know Um Then send it to her, where can they find you U You can email me at Elizabeth Lou five twenty six at gmail dot comot Okay, great. Well, hey, Elizabeth, I'm so happy I got to meet you in person. It's been so great working with you over the past couple years and I'm excited to keep going and you know you continue to be the light that we need. We got so many comments of people being like, I really need to Elizabeth today. I was struggling at the end U So yeah, so I'm so happy you're here and excited to keep the journey going Be guys