Tony Hsieh has long been painted as a tortured visionary — most recently in the posthumous biography by two Wall Street Journal reporters dramatically titled “Happy at Any Cost: The Revolutionary Vision and Fatal Quest of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.” But longtime Las Vegas locals have observed the last decade of transformations along Fremont East (funded by Tony’s company Downtown Project) with mixed emotions.

Lifelong resident and writer Nicholas Russell recently penned an essay in the Baffler about the problem with mythologizing Tony Hsieh — he and host Dayvid Figler bust some Downtown Project myths, examine Tony’s legacy downtown, and break down just why it was so easy for Tony Hsieh to set up shop in Las Vegas.

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What Tony Hsieh Got Wrong About Downtown