Scamfluencers - Listen Now: The Big Flop

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

The Wing was supposed to be a model for feminist social clubs, built on activism, inclusion, and self-care. But instead, The Wing became a glaring example of toxic girlboss culture and workplace discrimination. On each episode of Wondery’s podcast The Big Flop, comedians join host Misha Brown to chronicle one of the biggest pop-culture fails of all time and try to answer the age-old question: who thought THIS was a good idea?This is just a preview of The Big Flop. Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, or at wondery.fm/the-big-flop.For more deep dive and daily business content listen to Wondery – the destination for business podcasts. With shows like How I Built This, Business Wars, The Best One Yet, Business Movers and many more, Wondery Means Business.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the run up to the 2016 presidential election, entrepreneur Audrey Gellman seemed poised to lead a revolution. Her glossy co-working enclave, The Wing, was supposed to be a model for feminist social clubs built on activism, inclusion and self-care. But instead, The Wing became a glaring example of toxic girl boss culture and workplace discrimination. On each episode of Wendry's podcast, The Big Flop, comedians join host Misha Brown to chronicle one of the biggest pop culture fails of all time and try to answer the age old question, who thought this was a good idea? Recently, The Big Flop looked at the wing, a feminist social club that launched a few weeks

before the 2016 election. It was supposed to ride a wave of girl power, giving women a space to come together, but instead evolved into an extremely toxic work environment and the biggest flop of the Girlboss era. You're about to hear a preview of the big flop. While you're listening, follow the big flop on the Wendree app or wherever you get your podcasts. [♪ music playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes playing, chimes On the fifth floor of a building in Manhattan's trendy SoHo district, Audrey Gellman, a former

PR strategist and under-30 big wig, holds court with like-minded female power players in her 10,000-squ clubhouse. Dubbed The Wing, Audrey's expansive hideaway is a lush gathering space, neatly decorated with brassy surfaces, scholarly tones arranged by color, and pink couches that are, for lack of a better adjective, labial. It's a feminist utopia. Women are reading and typing everywhere. And they're sipping drinks served by nervous, but smiling, baristas. If you watch the barista's eyes, you'll see they're all looking right up at the ceiling where water droplets are starting to gather, threatening to fall on the boss. Employees nervously check their watches. Audrey excuses herself. She always has an important meeting to get to. Everyone

pleasantly waves goodbye as she departs. The door shuts behind Audrey. A pause. Then staff members snap into action, whipping out buckets to place around the floor. There's another rainstorm coming this afternoon. Now's their chance to catch the water from the cracked ceiling. The buckets are now a routine at the Soho space, which the staff refer to as the Rainforest Cafe. By now, the workplace has gotten too toxic to bother your boss about a little thing like water damage. Unless you want to be the next one crying in the break room.

The employees go back to their regular duties and wait out the storm. But oh no, Audrey's meeting switched venues. She's coming back. Hide! No, not you. The buckets! We believe that women deserve a space like this. They're super high rent. They're not getting breaks from their landlords, so they're covering a huge rent nut. Their corporate employees recently staged a digital walkout, which led to the resignation

of CEO Audrey Gellman. From Wondery and At Will Media, this is The Big Flop, where we chronicle the greatest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time. I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar and your wingman at Don't Cross a Gay Man. And today we're talking about The Wing, a women's only co-working space that girlbossed itself right out of business. For more deep dive and daily business content, listen to Wondery, the destination for business podcasts with shows like How I Built This, Business Wars, The Best One Yet, Business

Movers and many more. Wondery means business.