How an email sparked the Bon Appetit ‘Reply to All’ scandal

Host PJ Vogt and senior reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni to step down from popular Gimlet Media podcast ‘Reply All,’ according to an internal email from CEO Lydia Polgreen, after a former Gimlet staff member accused the couple for creating a “toxic dynamic” in the company in a Twitter thread that went viral.

“Reflecting on my behavior, I find it humiliating,” Vogt said in a statement. tweeted Wednesday evening. “I am sorry for all those I disappointed.”

Earlier this month, “Reply All,” which explores stories about technology, debuted a miniseries called “The Test Kitchen,” presented by Pinnamaneni in place of regular Vogt hosts, Alex Goldman and the recent addition. Emmanuel Dzotsi. Using his in-depth reporting skills, the series reveals how Bon Appétit has become a toxic workplace for its employees of color, creating an environment marked by racial prejudice. This culture burst into the public eye last summer, when editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport resigned after a photo of him emerged. wearing a racist costume.

Amid the fallout, Business Insider published a talk in which current and former employees of color at the food magazine said they did not have the same professional opportunities as their white peers. The magazine offered a long apology this stated, in part, “we have continued to symbolize many BIPOC staff and contributors in our videos and on our pages.” In the months following the apology, the magazine’s popular video series lost three colored employees.

“The Test Kitchen” follows this very public scandal, dating back to the installation of Rapoport as editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit in 2010 and recounting the painful stories of the collaborators of color him and the magazine’s other, mostly white. , neglected editors.

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 was the author of the viral thread, told The Times he had delayed listening to “The Test Kitchen.” He was about to get married and hadn’t fully dealt with his experiences with Gimlet either.

But on February 6, the day after his wedding, Eddings received an email from Pinnamaneni. In the memo, which was reviewed by The Times, Pinnamaneni explains that it reports media companies groping diversity efforts and causing damage to employees of color for an episode of “The Test Kitchen” to be released the following week. . Pinnamaneni says she will also be talking about Gimlet and has spent time reflecting on her role in the business issues. She says if Eddings is open to it, she would like to call him and tell him what she plans to say. (The episode in question, the second in the series, premiered on February 12.)

“It was upsetting just because it really raised a lot of it,” said Eddings, in a conversation that took place before the announcements of changes to “Reply All”. “It’s been frankly about two years at this point since all of these things happened. [She] had a long time to contact me. To do it in this context was really dishonest.

“I probably wouldn’t have spoken to her anyway, but I would have expected her to hold my hand knowing that she owed me an apology,” he added. “And so when those things weren’t there, I was pretty upset.”

Eddings did not respond to Pinnamaneni’s email, but decided to listen to the series, in which he heard “stories that literally could have been days out of my life.” He estimated that those interviewed for “The Test Kitchen” presentation on Bon Appétit didn’t know enough about the workplace at Gimlet. “I wasn’t sure the sources knew everything that had happened before I shared,” he said. “I felt like I had a context that people didn’t have, and that if I was in their situation – which I was – I would want that context.

In Pinnamaneni’s description, at the end of Episode 2, she says that “Gimlet had her own version of these problems”, which ultimately resulted in an organizing campaign that she did not support, which resulted in started before Spotify. buy the company in 2019: “As far as I have talked about it, I have talked about how their fight was on my toes.

“It took me eight months of reporting on Bon Appétit to realize how wrong I was about it all,” she continues. “And if I’m being honest, I’m still dealing with the anger I feel towards myself. I would have liked to have made different choices, but I also think that ideally employees should not have to make these kinds of choices at all. Choices like this end up defining our job when the people in charge haven’t done theirs – because, after all, they are the ones who hold the real power.

Eddings said he wrote and rewrote the viral Feb. 16 Twitter thread in which he spoke about his experiences at Gimlet four times before finally posting it. (The thread has since received over 18,000 likes.) “The truth is [‘Reply All’] and more particularly PJ and Sruthi contributed to a toxic dynamic almost identical to Gimlet, ”he wrote. “It is damaging that the reporting and stories come from two people who have actively and AGGRESSIVELY worked against multiple efforts to diversify the staff and content of Gimlet.”

Brittany Luse, Eddings co-host, “The Nod,” echoed her reviews of “The Test Kitchen”: “A finer point I want to address as this thread is resurrected is that some of the people working on the Reply All Bon Appetit series (people with both soft and hard power) chose to be silent or to be accomplices while their colleagues from the POC and the Gimlet union struggled alongside them every day ”, she wrote on twitter.

Starlee Kine, who was behind the Gimlet “Mystery Show” podcast, tweeted, in part: “I’m telling you @Gimletmedia has been toxic for a long time. I’m glad others are speaking. I know it’s hard. Podcasting didn’t have to be like that. ” Gimlet the union tweeted in favor of Eddings and said the group continued to fight for “guaranteed pay increases, proposals around diversity and inclusion, intellectual property and derivative works, etc.”

Departures from Vogt and Pinnamaneni were announced Wednesday evening. Alex Goldman, Emmanuel Dzotsi and the rest of the “Reply All” 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 Times requests for comment.

In his statement, Vogt said he had not been an ally during the organizing effort at Gimlet. He said that although he was supportive now, “Back then I was a baby and a jerk about it in myriad ways. He said he “should have thought about what it meant to not be on the same side of a movement largely led by young producers of color in my business.” I do not have.”

Pinnamaneni wrote: “My conduct around diversity and union organizing efforts at Gimlet was misinformed, ignorant and hurtful. She said she “didn’t pay enough attention to people of color with less power in Gimlet and I should have used my power to support and uplift them more.”

Since posting his thread, Eddings told The Times that Wednesday afternoon no one in Gimlet’s management had contacted him. He has tips for those who work in the media and hope to avoid these issues – tips that could apply to other industries as well.

“If you’re in the workplace, watch out for power structures,” Eddings said. “If someone comes to you and talks to you and says, ‘You know I’m fighting, I’m wondering what to do about it, ‘ listen and offer them support. It would fix so much. Real empathy, compassion like that – there has to be more of it.

As for Gimlet, Eddings said, “I wish them the best for their future endeavors.”