Does climate change freak you out? Want to know what we, collectively, can do about it? Us too. How to Save a Planet is a podcast that asks the big questions: what do we need to do to solve the climate crisis, and how do we get it done?

We’re sharing the first episode of Motherhacker. It’s a fiction podcast about a mother who gets involved in an identity theft ring in order to support her family. The series stars Carrie Coon, Pedro Pascal, Alan Cumming, Lucas Hedges, Tavi Gevinson and Alex Goldman.

Normally, being the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, means paying attention to everyday issues, from garbage pickups to municipal budgets. But in the early morning hours of August 4, 2019, a gunman opened fire at a downtown bar in the city, and Nan Whaley’s role as mayor immediately shifted. She found herself thrust into the national spotlight as all eyes turned to Dayton. And it wasn't long before she was f...

When Desmond Meade got out of prison after serving time for a nonviolent felony, he was homeless and wrestling with addiction. A decade later, he started a campaign that very few people thought was winnable: amending the Florida constitution to restore voting rights to people with felony convictions. His unusual path to success on this politicized issue? Avoid politics, and appeal to principles.

Jonathan Vaughters was a member of the famed USPS pro cycling team when his teammate Lance Armstrong won the first of a record-breaking seven straight Tours de France. While fans were awed and inspired by the victories, Jonathan knew there was something else fueling those wins: performance enhancing drugs — something the entire team was using, including himself. The deception weighed heavy on his c...

Ever since he was young, Shane McAnally knew he wanted to be a country music star. But as a gay man, he didn’t fit the Nashville mold, and so he hid his true identity for years as he struggled to break through. Little did he know that coming out would prove the key to his success. 

Aline Brosh McKenna got her big break as the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada. But even after successful box office hits and many years in Hollywood, she found herself having to compromise her vision over and over again. So she took matters into her own hands.

Janice Bryant Howroyd’s company started in the front of a rug shop with just a phone, a fax machine, and a lot of hustle. 40 years later, that company is a huge multinational serving some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies in the world. It earns over a billion dollars in revenue, making Janice the first African-American woman to start and run a billion dollar business. But her journey to CEO wasn...

Comedian Nick Kroll became a star by playing a cast of over-the-top characters like Bobby Bottleservice and Gil Faizon. But for years he was careful to keep his own story out of his comedy. Now, with his hit show Big Mouth, Nick is taking on his most challenging material yet: his adolescence.

This week, we’re sharing the first episode of Esther Perel’s new show How’s Work? In it, the couples therapist behind the beloved show Where Should We Begin? sits down with coworkers, cofounders and colleagues, and brings her inimitable perspective to workplace relationships and conflicts.

In November 1995, Ira Glass quietly launched the first episode of This American Life. The rest, as they say, is history. Today his show is a colossal success and Ira Glass is a household name. But in the intervening two decades, Ira has left an indelible mark on the industry by helping to shape hundreds of podcasts as well as hundreds of podcasters — including Alex. On this episode, Alex sits down ...

Nina Jacobson is a force in Hollywood. She’s behind some of the biggest movies of the last 20 years: The Sixth Sense, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hunger Games, and most recently Crazy Rich Asians. She’s had a lot of success. But also some pretty big failures: a public firing, some box office flops. Nina walks Alex through her failure resume and talks about what it takes ...

Dapper Dan made a name for himself as one of Harlem’s premier fashion designers in the 1980s, creating unique leather designs covered in counterfeit logos from brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton. But when the fashion houses found out, they shut him down. So how, 20 years later, did Dapper Dan make it to the top of the world that put him out of business? 

As acquisition talks with Spotify continue, Alex and Matt face their hopes and fears about what might lie ahead.

Just days before Thanksgiving, Alex and Matt board a red-eye to Stockholm for a conversation that could change everything.

It's the spring of 2018, four years after Alex and Matt launched Gimlet, and things are not going well. Audiences are flat, ad sales are flagging, and the company is burning through cash at an alarming rate. And with all of those pressures, Alex and Matt have started to fight.

Five years ago, StartUp began chronicling the life of a fledgling Brooklyn-based podcasting company called Gimlet Media. This year, the streaming giant Spotify bought that company. In the final season of StartUp, what it's really like to sell a business.

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Alex Blumberg sits down with the stars of the Homecoming  TV show-- Julia Roberts and Stephan James, and director Sam Esmail-- to talk about how they came to the project and what it was like to film it.

Being in charge of a big-budget TV production means having to make decisions. It's a new kind of power for Micah and Eli, and one that's sometimes uncomfortable to exercise. The words they write have real-world, three-dimensional-- and sometimes winged-- consequences.

Micah and Eli get to work, writing the scripts for the Homecoming TV show. But taking something meant only for the ear, and turning it into something for the eye... proves to be deceptively challenging. Plus, Alex visits the set of the show, to meet the small army of people actually building the visual world of Homecoming.

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The Season Welcome to the first episode of Season 3! This season, we’re doing something new. Instead of following one company over many episodes, we’ll be telling the stories of a bunch of different companies. This season, you’ll meet entrepreneurs from different parts of the world, in all sorts of businesses. We’ll follow prisoners, tailors, smugglers, and tech geeks. And these founders all have s...

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For the last six months at StartUp, we have been following a group of pastors and their families who’ve shown us what it’s really like to start a church in modern America. It’s a movement of people trying to disrupt one of the oldest, most bureaucratic institutions in history: The Christian church. Here’s a sneak peek.

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Season 7 of StartUp is almost here! On April 27th, we’re taking you into the world of venture capital with Silicon Valley’s  most unlikely power broker: Arlan Hamilton. 

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The StoryIn honor of the release of the TV show Alex, Inc., we’re binge dropping episodes of StartUp—the podcast that started it all—along with brand-new after shows. These are the best episodes about Gimlet, as chosen by our listeners. The fourth is: We Made a Mistake.

The StoryIn honor of the release of the TV show Alex, Inc., we’re binge dropping episodes of StartUp—the podcast that started it all—along with brand-new after shows. These are the best episodes about Gimlet, as chosen by our listeners. The third is: How to Name Your Company.

The StoryIn honor of the release of the TV show Alex, Inc., we’re binge dropping episodes of StartUp—the podcast that started it all—along with brand-new after shows. These are the best episodes about Gimlet, as chosen by our listeners. The second is: How to Divide an Imaginary Pie.

The StoryIn honor of the release of the TV show Alex, Inc., we’re binge dropping episodes of StartUp—the podcast that started it all—along with brand-new after shows. These are the best episodes about Gimlet, as chosen by our listeners. The first is: How Not to Pitch a Billionaire.

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The Story Every day this week we’re following StartupBus, a hackathon on wheels, where a bunch of strangers come together to launch companies in one week, all while on a bus. If you haven’t heard Monday’s episode, start there. It’s Thursday, day four on StartupBus. The bus has finally arrived in New Orleans, where teams from all six buses will go up against one another and pitch for a spot in the f...

The Story Every day this week we’re following StartupBus, a hackathon on wheels, where a bunch of strangers come together to launch companies in one week, all while on a bus. If you haven’t heard Monday’s episode, start there. It’s Wednesday, day three on StartupBus. Teams have just 24 hours left to refine their pitches before the competition begins. And reporter Eric Mennel sits down with some of ...

The Story Every day this week we’re following StartupBus, a hackathon on wheels, where a bunch of strangers come together to launch companies in one week, all while on a bus. If you haven’t heard Monday’s episode, start there. It’s Tuesday, day two on StartupBus. Now that teams have settled on ideas for their companies, it’s time to start building. But when tension runs high, one company considers ...

The Story This summer, 20 strangers got on a bus headed from New York to New Orleans. For five days, they had one goal: to build and launch companies while on the bus. We’ll be telling this story as it unfolded — with one new episode, every day, over the next five days. Today’s episode: Monday. Day One. The Facts David Herman and Ian Scott mixed the episode. Mark Phillips wrote and performed our or...

This past summer, 20 strangers got on a charter bus headed from New York to New Orleans. For three days they had one goal: Build and launch companies from inside the bus. And then? Compete against each other. Reporter Eric Mennel documented it all. And next week, it drops as a five-day, in-real-time miniseries.

The Story When a group of college kids in Florida set out to change the music industry, they did not anticipate how disruptive they would be. Their mission was a noble one: bring an end to online piracy by offering cheap, convenient, and legal access to music. Their execution, however, was less than thorough. And when you’re dealing with protective music labels, forgetting to dot an “i” or cross a ...

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The Story In 2004, the U.S. government held a race unlike anything that had come before it. It was called the DARPA Grand Challenge, and it followed a 150-mile route through the rugged Mojave Desert. The participants were cars, trucks, ATVs, and one motorcycle. The catch? Each vehicle was required to drive itself—no remote control, no human intervention. Dozens of engineers and robot enthusiasts wo...

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The Story Earlier this year we asked listeners to call us with questions for Gimlet Founder Alex Blumberg. Alex answered a bunch of them in an episode last season. But one caller’s question was so big, it needed its own episode. Skyler Gronholz had decided to make a podcast about starting up his life again after several years in prison. But he was anxious about making something bad, and wanted Alex...

The Story China is on a mission to upgrade its international reputation. The government doesn’t want people to see the country as just the world’s factory for socks and toys and cell phones. It wants people around the globe to think China is cool. And it’s tried a bunch of different things to do that, including building a global pop star. But can China change its image through the power of pop musi...

The Story Lisa Chow and Alex Blumberg sit down together to talk about the future of StartUp. And, we introduce you to Gimlet Media's newest podcast, The Nod. Co-hosted by Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings, The Nod celebrates and explores the multitudes of Black culture and Black life. For more information, visit gimletmedia.com/thenod. 

The Story Jasen Yang gave up the security of a high-paying Wall Street job to launch his company, Polly Portfolio. It’s been three years since then, and Jasen still isn’t taking a salary. It’s put a lot of strain on his family, and made it difficult for Jasen and his wife, Lynn, to make important decisions about their future. So we brought in executive coach Jerry Colonna, who helped Jasen find the...

The Story Gary Kremen owned one of the most valuable domain names in the history of the internet. And then one day, he lost it in the most unusual way. For years, Gary fought to win back his domain, sex dot com. The legal battle transformed the way the courts treat virtual property. But in the end, was his lengthy and expensive crusade worth it? 

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StartUp returns September 1st with a brand new season. Here's a preview of what's coming up in Season 6.

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The Story This week on StartUp we’re listening in as executive coach Jerry Colonna sits down with Diana Lovett, the founder of a socially responsible chocolate company called Cissé Cocoa. In the episode, they tackle something that many founders struggle with—how to balance entrepreneurship and parenthood. The FactsMark Phillips wrote and performed our theme song. Build Buildings wrote and performed...

The Story After a turbulent start and the firing of its founder, Friendster looked like it was back on track. It was still the biggest social network around and its board—which was packed with some of the biggest names in venture capital—quickly assembled a star-studded executive team. So, why couldn’t all that talent deliver on the company’s promise? Why aren’t we all logging onto Friendster today...

The Story In 2003, Jonathan Abrams was sitting atop one of the hottest new companies in Silicon Valley. He and his website were at the forefront of an industry that would eventually be worth more than $400 billion. So, what went wrong? Ask Alex Got a question for Alex Blumberg? Leave us a message at 812-641-1231, and your question could end up on the show. The Facts Andrew Dunn and Ian Scott mixed ...

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The Story While Dov Charney was running American Apparel, he didn’t shy away from unconventionality. And for many entrepreneurs, breaking convention is an essential part of growing an innovative company. But pushing boundaries is one thing. Completely ignoring them is another. In this episode, we explore the nebulous lines between Charney’s professional and personal relationships. We ask the women ...

The Story In this episode, we trace American Apparel’s rise from the early wholesale days in South Carolina to the booming retail behemoth it eventually became. Along the way, we speak with some of the people closest to former CEO Dov Charney, in order to figure out how his past informs the present. We also begin to explore how sexuality came to define the American Apparel brand, and how Dov’s unor...

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The Story This week, Alex receives feedback about his job performance from his co-workers, friends, and family. Some of it is good, some less so. But there is something else that comes up during the review process that shocks him. We explore what happens when you unpack your emotional baggage—or someone unpacks it for you—and you realize the unexpected effect that it has been having on your team. I...

The Story Growth. It can be exciting, it can be motivating, and it can be really stressful. In this week’s episode, we take a look at the tensions that Gimlet’s growth spurt is creating. We speak with the team producing one of our upcoming shows to see what it’s really like to build a podcast from the ground up. Each of them is being asked to step up to the plate in a way that they never have befor...

The Story StartUp is back! And we’re kicking Season 4 off with an update on what’s happening here at Gimlet Media. Since the start of the year, Gimlet has more than doubled in size. And while growth is often the goal for a startup, it also costs a lot of money. In this episode, Alex and his team ask themselves some very scary questions: How are they going to pay for all this growth? And what will h...

Season 4 of StartUp is almost here. Here's a sneak peek of the fourth season, which kicks off with some episodes about the company that makes this podcast: Gimlet Media.

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The Story Edgar Diaz has dedicated his life to dairy. He sees an incredible beauty in milk and the things that can come from it: soft cheese, rich dulce de leche, and creamy yogurt. He knows that to produce a really good yogurt, the conditions are just as important as the ingredients. You can use the freshest milk, but if your temperature is off or the timing inexact you risk ruining the whole batc...

The Story Coss Marte went from running a multi-million dollar drug operation to sitting in solitary confinement. And it’s here, alone in his cell, where he gets the idea for his next business: a fitness company inspired by his time behind bars. But Coss quickly learns that building a legal business comes with its own set of challenges—one being that pitching your company on stage to a bunch of inve...

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The Story When a group of college kids in Florida set out to change the music industry, they did not anticipate quite how disruptive they would be. Their mission was a noble one: bring an end to online piracy by offering cheap, convenient, and legal access to music. Their execution, however, was less than thorough. And when you're dealing with protective music labels, forgetting to dot an "i" or cr...

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The Season Welcome to the first episode of Season 3! This season, we’re doing something new. Instead of following one company over many episodes, we’ll be telling the stories of a bunch of different companies. This season, you’ll meet entrepreneurs from different parts of the world, in all sorts of businesses. We’ll follow prisoners, tailors, smugglers, and tech geeks. And these founders all have s...

A sneak peek of the third season of StartUp—where we talk about endings and almost endings. Season three premieres on Thursday, April 14.

As we wrap up this mini-season, Lisa Chow comes back from maternity leave and notices some big changes at Gimlet. And these changes... they aren't all for the better. Lisa talks to Gimlet employees about concerns over power, accountability, and control - things that crop up when you go from startup, to regular company. And she takes those concerns to the bosses. Music for the episode from the band ...

If you were to walk into Gimlet HQ, there are a few things you’d probably notice right off the bat. First, it’s crowded - like a grungy dorm room. Second, the lighting… it’s not great. Not many windows. Third, it’s white. Really white. 24 of Gimlet’s 27 employees are white. In this episode, we look at diversity (or lack thereof) at Gimlet. And we try to figure out what diversity should mean for the...

Gimlet is growing fast. We have four shows on the air, and several others in pre-production. If we want to grow faster, though, we could use some more cash. Matt and Alex head back into the world of venture capital, deciding whether or not to raise another round of financing, this time, much bigger.

Gimlet is starting a new line of business, and it’s a complicated one: Branded content. Branded content is a piece of media (a video, a story, a podcast, etc.) paid for by a company that then has editorial control over the product. Lots of companies have been asking Gimlet to make podcasts for them. But, as we see in this episode, there are some very real anxieties about how to do this right. 

Gimlet is making a big, expensive bet. The kind of bet that could make or break the company. And it’s a bet that comes down to one factor: What is Gimlet’s competitive advantage? As the company launches its fourth new show, “Surprisingly Awesome,” we take a deep dive in to how the show was made. From the kernel of an idea to the final product. And, along the way, we look at what we believe is Gimle...

The Story We return to the offices of Gimlet for the start of a new mini-season. It's been a year since the company launched and things are changing... fast. In this episode, Alex and his wife, Nazanin, wrestle with a huge decision that has implications for both the company and their family.

The Story In this special bonus episode of StartUp, we’re giving you an update on what’s going on at Gimlet. An advertisement on the Gimlet podcast 

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The Story The Dating Ring founders enter the turbulent world of fundraising and it’s nothing like they imagine. They get an offer on demo day, but one that forces them to make a difficult decision. The following weeks are full of exhilarating success, crushing rejection, and tough questions -- including ones they have to ask themselves. Emma writes about a bad experience with an investor. A new gos...

The Story Dating Ring’s founders apply to the very competitive, very prestigious startup school 

The Story Hey, we're back! This season, Alex is joined by co-Host Lisa Chow, to follow an entirely new company. The business is Dating Ring, a dating company that combines technology with old-fashioned matchmaking. The founders are women in their 20s, outsiders in the male-dominated world of Silicon Valley. And over the 10 episodes, we'll take you inside that world. Some of the challenges they face...

The Story We have big news. After months of documenting the company, we're bringing this chapter in Gimlet Media's story to a close. Episode 14 begins with an important conversation between Alex and Nazanin about the business and their family. Alex also checks in with another person who has seen the company from the beginning, Silicon Valley legend Chris Sacca. It’s been seven months since Alex mad...

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The Story Over the last few months, we've been busy raising capital, hiring employees, launching shows, building a studio, and getting this business off the ground. But a few weeks ago, pretty much overnight, everything changed. During the holidays, while Alex was out of town, the workload became overwhelming, and Gimlet learned its first lessons about startup burnout. But it wouldn't be a StartUp ...

The Story In this episode, Alex gets some surprising news from dozens of StartUp listeners. Curious, he decides to call them up, and these conversations raise questions about podcast listeners and what it takes to build an audience. Later in the show, Alex talks with a businessman from Salt Lake City, who describes what it's like to sell a product you don't believe in. In this episode, we also aske...

The Story It's been three months since StartUp launched, and there have been a lot of changes. Gimlet Media has 8 employees, a growing audience, 3 shows in production, and more on the way. In Episode 10, Alex and Matt do something they haven't had a chance to do yet, dive into the numbers. They review Gimlet's monthly costs and revenues, and they're surprised by what they find. Nazanin and Alex tal...

The Story Hours after launching its new show 

The Story It's been an exciting last few weeks for Gimlet Media. After raising the rest of the round with help from listeners, Alex and Matt embark on a new adventure: convincing 2 radio hosts to leave their stable jobs and join a scrappy startup. In this very special episode of StartUp, Alex previews the inaugural episode of 

Update: Gimlet Media is Now Fully Funded This episode announces a crowd-funding opportunity with Gimlet Media. We were bowled over by listener interest, and Gimlet Media is now fully funded. We are no longer accepting new reservations. For those of you who were not able to invest, we understand. Neither of us is an accredited investor, and if we hadn’t founded this company we couldn’t invest either...

The Story Episode 6 centers on one key question: what is the value of the company? As Alex and Matt begin showing their terms sheet to potential investors, they realize answering that question is anything but straightforward. The story takes several turns. Alex and Matt receive commitments from some investors but others say the valuation cap is too high. An unlikely person decides to invest in Giml...

The Story Alex and Matt confront an issue that has been haunting the company up to this point. They need a company name. But finding one they both like proves to be a challenge. After agreeing on a few contenders, Alex and Matt quickly find themselves stumbling across other hurdles, including stiff resistance from an unlikely source. Eventually, they call in the professionals to get some advice. Al...

The Story Alex meets up with an investor he talked with early in the pitching process.  This time he’s ready with an updated deck, financial models, and Matt Lieber, his business partner. The pitch goes well, but it's still missing one crucial element. Alex tells a story about reading 

The Story Alex decides that he can't build the company by himself. There's too much emotional turmoil, and too much work to get done.  As one of the 

The Story Alex prepares to go back out to California for a redo. He practices his pitch with his wife and his friend Josh. He adds impressive sounding audience numbers, because, as a friend tells him, no one wants to hear a story about Odysseus going to the corner store. He meets Chris Sacca's partner, 

The Story Alex explains how he got the idea to document the starting of his own company. He talks with his wife about what shoes to wear to his first investor pitch. And he meets