Reply All: The Test Kitchen Revisited
April 29, 2021 10:04 AM - Subscribe
The Reply All team takes a look at the Test Kitchen, and what those mistakes mean for the show.
Wish they would have held off on this until they had a new episode with whatever format they end up choosing. I'm more than willing to give the new version a try, but this meta-podcast stuff is trying my patience.
posted by skewed at 6:44 AM on April 30, 2021
posted by skewed at 6:44 AM on April 30, 2021
I can understand that sentiment, skewed. But, as someone who doesn't really follow any gimlet shows any longer, it's not clear I'd have ever heard about it. I only noticed it was in my feed because of this post.
That the series was so unfinished wasn't obvious to me from previous discussions and explains why they killed the rest of it. I appreciated that discussion.
I was also a bit surprised by the references to the people at the magazine feeling taken advantage of. I don't need to know the details, but that part wasn't obvious in a cursory glance at previous stories. I thought the parts I heard were better than most such journalism, whether or not the people presenting it were free of hypocrisy. You can be a shitty boss and also report well on other shitty bosses. Maybe that's taking away radio jobs that could otherwise go to less powerful people. But, it's better than nobody talking about such things, which is the default.
posted by eotvos at 10:00 AM on April 30, 2021
That the series was so unfinished wasn't obvious to me from previous discussions and explains why they killed the rest of it. I appreciated that discussion.
I was also a bit surprised by the references to the people at the magazine feeling taken advantage of. I don't need to know the details, but that part wasn't obvious in a cursory glance at previous stories. I thought the parts I heard were better than most such journalism, whether or not the people presenting it were free of hypocrisy. You can be a shitty boss and also report well on other shitty bosses. Maybe that's taking away radio jobs that could otherwise go to less powerful people. But, it's better than nobody talking about such things, which is the default.
posted by eotvos at 10:00 AM on April 30, 2021
I'm not sure, but I think the feeling taken advantage of is from the subjects giving their time, taking the risk of talking badly about their (former) employers, and so much of that just evaporating because of Gimlet's mistakes.
posted by skewed at 10:35 AM on April 30, 2021
posted by skewed at 10:35 AM on April 30, 2021
I'm really upset, on behalf of all the Bon Appetit people who were interviewed and now have had to watch this horrible implosion.
"We should've asked ourselves ahead of time whether this was a story for us to tell" is good introspection to have, sure. But just finding that moral doesn't do anything to make right the wrong that was done to their interviewees. I'm sure at least some of them participated with the hope that having their story told would feel like closure. Being interviewed, and having that interview crafted into a narrative that respects your viewpoint and acknowledges the harms you have experienced... That matters. And now, instead of getting anything close to that experience, the interviewees are just left with yet another open wound.
I get that finding a good way to move forward with the story would be super challenging. But I think it's a challenge they're obligated to take on, at this point. They made mistakes, and this is the cost. And, right now, they're letting the cost be felt far too much by their interviewees who've been left in the lurch.
posted by meese at 11:17 AM on April 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
"We should've asked ourselves ahead of time whether this was a story for us to tell" is good introspection to have, sure. But just finding that moral doesn't do anything to make right the wrong that was done to their interviewees. I'm sure at least some of them participated with the hope that having their story told would feel like closure. Being interviewed, and having that interview crafted into a narrative that respects your viewpoint and acknowledges the harms you have experienced... That matters. And now, instead of getting anything close to that experience, the interviewees are just left with yet another open wound.
I get that finding a good way to move forward with the story would be super challenging. But I think it's a challenge they're obligated to take on, at this point. They made mistakes, and this is the cost. And, right now, they're letting the cost be felt far too much by their interviewees who've been left in the lurch.
posted by meese at 11:17 AM on April 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
bq: The Basecamp Rework podcast ep I was thinking of is here. However, I had read the transcript prior to listening and assumed Jason Fried and DHH were the hosts, which is not the case. So my snarky comment doesn’t quite hold the same way.
posted by hijinx at 8:33 AM on May 2, 2021
posted by hijinx at 8:33 AM on May 2, 2021
Thanks, skewed and meess. Somehow I had understood that the Bon Appetit people were upset about things that happened before this became public. I suspect I was entirely wrong about that. (I was doing other things while listening.) And, to be clear, I'm not at all saying it would have been a good idea to let the two hosts carry on as if nothing had happened, or even to complete the program in some other way. I was just surprised by my mistaken impression that the interviewees were also unhappy with the released parts of the story evaluated on their own without knowing anything else about the hosts.
posted by eotvos at 8:45 PM on May 2, 2021
posted by eotvos at 8:45 PM on May 2, 2021
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posted by hijinx at 10:57 AM on April 29, 2021 [1 favorite]