Chances are high that you’ve heard about the way that “private equity” has acquired, hollowed out, and bankrupted some service, product, or company you depend on. For years, I understood the work of private equity only in the vaguest terms — that it was bad, and that it f*cked stuff up. I had to learn a lot more when I was writing Can’t Even, because private equity acquisitions are one of many reasons work has become a burnout factory for so many. But I didn’t fully understand the breadth and the depth of private equity’s impact on our current economy until reading Megan Greenwell’s Bad Company — which she started writing after resigning from her position of editor-in-chief of Deadspin after private equity acquired the site and began excavating and eliminating the very core of what it made it work.
In today’s episode, Megan joins me to answer your questions about how private equity actually works, how it affects industries, what companies it’s historically targeted and who it’s targeting now (hello, dental and vet care!) This episode will make you feel like you understand a structuring reality of our culture better — and will also help you understand why so many experiences and services just feel shittier. It’s a hellscape of an episode but a deeply enlightening one!
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