Popular Reviews of WeCrashed

It's a pretty shallow dive (in that it doesn't go very deep into analysis, as another commenter has said) into the founding and failure of the WeWork brand. There's an element of schadenfreude about it, as it is a story of maximum hubris, and while I think the production could have been more stark and the style more authentic, it was entertaining, which I think as the intent.

I binge-listened this series. First of all, I like the fact that there are podcasts that have a limited amount of episodes. Story told, done! Here the story is told, mostly I feel, by just going over the timeline of the company. What kept me wondering after this series is 'How could this all happen in plain sight?'. Journalists, investors, banks, celebrities, tv-shows, lawmakers, auditors, ... what are the processes that makes it non of the mentioned rang the alarmbel any sooner? This should be a follow-up of this series!

Oof. Where to start with this one. 1. It's over produced. There's constant cheesy music and for some reason there are sound effects. For instance, they talk about drinking and we get to hear the sound of liquid being poured into glasses. And that's just one example. It's kind of omni-present, so be prepared to be distracted. 2. The narrator. He sounds super judgy and sarcastic. So there may not be any editorial in his words but it's sure there in his tone. Which, I get it, Adam Neumann is not a great guy but maybe just let the facts speak for themselves. 3. There's no analysis. No exploration as to why a company like WeWork was able to do what they did. No study of the culture of entrepreneur worship that led to this. No mention of how companies like this have been over-valued. 4. This may be the most damning part for me - they openly stole content from another podcast for episode two with no mention of where they got it and no attribution to the person who conducted the interview. That's unforgivable. Especially for a company like Wondery who could easily pay the original interviewer for their work. I get it, Wondery is the Dateline of podcasts; just churning out one lazy, slightly exploitative show after another. But we don't have to listen.

A good podcast and a solid retelling of the WeWork story, with good sound design. It could perhaps have dug a little deeper into where the money came from and why its backers were so keen to pour cash into it, but still well worth a listen.

Super interesting insight into the world and creator of WeWork. If you care about how that went down at all, a must listen.

I’m going to cheat this one time and leave the official description of this podcast for you to consume as its the perfect summation of what this show is all about. If you’re into hearing about nonsense, corporate fuckery on a scale rarely seen, you should listen to this show. The founders of WeWork thought they were on the brink of making history. The company was valued at $47 billion dollars, it was ready for a huge IPO, and its charismatic CEO Adam Neumann thought they were going to change the world. Adam had a prophet-like vision for WeWork that he sold to some of the world’s savviest investors — but did his vision ever match the company’s reality?

Fantastic story, told even better