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

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ 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

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the Big Flop early and ad-free.
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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