In today’s episode, Bridget talks about her book, Little Bosses Everywhere, a deep dive into pyramid scheme companies. She starts with defining what a pyramid scheme is, and why multi-level marketing firms – to use their preferred terminology – are more like a Bernie Madoff-style Ponzi scheme than a traditional company selling products. Bridget covers how MLM firms exploit their employees financially, the psychological techniques they use to keep them engaged and invested, and the political and legal machinations that have allowed them to thrive over the decades.
Bridget Read is a features writer at New York magazine. Her subjects include the powerful and the powerless, scammers and their marks, and regular people in ridiculous circumstances. Her writing has also appeared in The Cut, Vogue, The New York Review of Books, Bookforum, n+1, The New Republic, and Vice.
Find out more about pyramid schemes at pyramidschemealert.org.
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