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The Big Flop

The Wing: #GirlBoss Goes Bust with Sarah Marshall and Franchesca Ramsey | 29

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6884 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the run-up to the 2016 US Presidential election, a new, glossy coworking enclave for women emerged to meet the moment. The Wing was supposed to be a model for feminist social clubs, built on activism, inclusion, and self-care. Instead, it became a glaring example of toxic girlboss culture and workplace discrimination, with employees mainly using the nursing rooms to cry.

Sarah Marshall (You're Wrong About) & Franchesca Ramsey (Black History For Real) join Misha to smash the glass ceiling (and dusty pink walls) of The Wing, and take a daring look inside its downfall.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

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0:05.3

Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

0:20.0

On the fifth floor of a building in Manhattan's trendy Soho district,

0:25.8

Audrey Gelman, a former PR strategist and under 30 big wig, holds court with like-minded female

0:33.8

power players in her 10,000 square foot clubhouse.

0:38.7

Dubbed the wing, Audrey's expansive hideaway is a lush gathering space,

0:44.7

neatly decorated with brassy surfaces, scholarly tones arranged by color,

0:50.3

and pink couches that are, for a lack of a better adjective, labial.

0:55.8

It's a feminist utopia.

0:58.6

Women are reading and typing everywhere,

1:01.7

and they're sipping drinks served by nervous but smiling baristas.

1:07.7

If you watch the barista's eyes,

1:10.5

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.

1:18.6

Employees nervously check their watches. Audrey excuses herself. She always has an important meeting to get to. Everyone pleasantly waves goodbye as she departs.

1:31.5

The door shuts behind Audrey. A pause. Then staff members snap into action, whipping out buckets to place around the floor.

1:41.0

There's another rainstorm coming this afternoon. Now's their chance to catch the water

1:46.0

from the cracked ceiling. The buckets are now a routine at the Soho space, which the staff

1:53.0

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.

2:04.6

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.

2:12.6

But, oh no, Audrey's meeting switched venues.

2:16.7

She's coming back.

2:17.9

Hide.

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