MADNESS OF WEALTH: 3/4: Go Woke, Go Broke: The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America by Charles Gasparino (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Go-Woke-Broke-Radicalization-Corporate/dp/1546007415/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
How did a bunch of rich dudes who run corporate America become the tools of left-wing radicals? Intimidated by activists on the left, virtually every major corporation in America has embraced woke politics. For years, these businesses could get away with progressive virtual signaling without worrying about alienating customers. Then the anti-woke counter-offensive movement arrived. As high-profile, disastrous backlashes at companies like Anheuser-Busch, Disney, Target and other companies reveal, companies who cave to the demands of left-wing social justice activists are being punished like never before. Customers are fighting back and taking their money elsewhere.
In Go Woke, Go Broke, New York Times bestselling author and veteran financial journalist Charles Gasparino calls out the nonsense and takes readers inside the radicalization of corporate America, based on numerous insider interviews and exclusive reporting. The story is wilder than you can imagine. Gasparino introduces readers to America’s most woke corporate leaders, tracing the origins of ESG and "stakeholder investing.” He takes readers along on for a rollicking ride through corporate America as he shines a light, unlike anyone else, on Fortune 500 companies that have suffered for caving to the silly and irresponsible demands of social justice activists and left-wing interests.
A respected financial reporter who has covered finance for more than 30 years, Gasparino is deeply sourced and has dug into countless episodes involving Wall Street greed, corporate hubris, and government overreach in enterprise. This explosive, untold story and in-depth examination of the seminal players, institutions, and forces of the markets shows that, for the sake of global stability, we must immediately pry the clenched fists of radical activists off the levers of the economy.
1915 PHILADELPHIA MINT
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchel. This is CBSI on the world visiting with Charles Gasparino, the TV star Charles |
| 0:11.8 | Gasparino on Fox breaking news, Fox business breaking news all the time about corporate America here in |
| 0:17.4 | 2024. How did we get here? Why are some companies still entangled with what we now |
| 0:24.4 | regard is woke capitalism? Is woke capitalism coming back? Is the presidential race going to clear |
| 0:29.9 | the air? We don't know. But we can look at examples because everything's in the example. |
| 0:35.9 | We're going to go to the Walt Disney Company, a place in |
| 0:39.4 | Florida where I took my children happily in the 1990s. It was a joy. The last time we went there was |
| 0:45.7 | the beginning of the 21st century. They're all grown up now, and we have wonderful memories and |
| 0:51.7 | pictures everywhere. And then, Charlie, this is a crime to take Walt |
| 0:57.0 | Disney and turn it into a political act. Was it Bob Eiger who started this and then Bob Cheapik |
| 1:04.3 | inherited it and then Bob Eicher took it back? I can't figure out where it began at Disney |
| 1:11.0 | because clearly it wasn't there when I was there in the 90s. |
| 1:14.8 | It was a jungle cruise |
| 1:16.6 | in the 1990s. You know, they shot |
| 1:19.0 | at rhinoceruses. There were people in the jungle. |
| 1:22.3 | They're all gone. They're all gone. |
| 1:25.2 | Yeah, I mean, |
| 1:26.5 | so the Disney that you experienced, which was this sort of brainchild of Michael Eisner, |
| 1:35.4 | who wasn't quite a, he's not like a raging conservative, by the way, John. |
| 1:39.9 | I mean, he's, he's, you know, Democrat, you know, but he was a business guy. |
| 1:44.5 | And, you know, his whole theory of Disney was a sort of entertainment conglomerant that was along the lines of GE. |
| 1:52.1 | And he kind of ran it that way. |
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