another corporate sellout ends in death: show about race

31 Jan 2017

last week, i got wind of yet another a crushing corporate sellout. well, actually the sellout happened a few months back but the sellout has now ended in the complete shutdown of the entity. i think this is people mean when they say they are “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

my favorite podcast, show about race is shutting down. their first season, produced independently, was amazing. after the first season, a bunch of changes happened. the show was acquired by panoply, they brought in a new host, and the list of one-off guests expanded significantly. and, as always happens, they started playing more ads.

in last week week’s episode, #1703: Women’s March, Women’s Show, around minute 51:00 anna announced that panoply was pulling the plug on the show. there would only be one more episode. i haven’t listened to it yet because i’m so upset. at first, it presented at anger, but (knowing how anger can mask other things) i think i’m just sad and feeling hopeless. it seems nothing good escapes the tentacles of capitalism.

my read on the situation is that the crew and panoply joined forces because it would be mutually beneficial. but i’m guessing when panoply discovered that the show wasn’t hitting some specific metric they have set up, they cut it.

so now instead of the show just running in dependently and not being a money maker, it’s just dead. i’m developing a real vendetta against people selling their awesome independent work to into the corporate world.

if i ever start a cool thing and you, someone who has read this blog post, see or hear of me trying to sell it off for money, call. me. out. please.

caveat: i’m projecting all of my anger towards the corporation in this particular situation. i realize that it’s possible that the original show hosts could also have been a part of this decision. it seems their careers are all advancing and they’re all busier than when they started the show. maybe the show itself had something to do with them blowing up. either way, they could have been a part of the decision to close it down as well. still pissed. =[

update: just found this ridiculous “apology” on showaboutrace.com.

Panoply has made the difficult decision to not move forward with the podcast “Our National Conversation About Conversations About Race.” We loved working with Baratunde, Raquel, Tanner, and Anna over the last two years, and are proud of their important contributions to the dialog about race in America. However, frequent scheduling issues made it difficult to produce the show that we all wanted to create. Though the cancelation was unrelated to the current political climate, we regret the timing. Ending it now is painful, but a growing company like ours must make hard decisions, and this was one of the hardest. Now more than ever, Panoply recognizes the urgent need for diverse voices and frank conversations, and we’re committed to covering the important topics of race and ethnicity in America. Please stay tuned!

the worst part: their logic is essentially that growing their company is more important than keeping diverse voices and frank conversations happening in the world. even while they recognize that the “topics of race and ethnicity in America” are important, they’re clearly less important than their company’s growth.

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