Hello and welcome to episode 3 of Diversity Hire.
This week’s episode was a weeks-long odyssey. We talk with writer and editor Maya Binyam (Triple Canopy, The New Inquiry) about the social media game of calling out racists, the cursed Harper’s letter, ghosting, mutual aid, and why the book publishing world is just as fucked as corporate media. But we also follow Arjun as he moves out of his apartment, and he and Kevin talk about the mood of not just the media but their personal lives too.
Maya’s career timeline (9:49)
Watching The Woke Olympics (The Awl, 2016) (19:55)
Our current media reckoning’s relation to #MeToo (28:49)
Working at the hostile prestige institutions of FSG & The Paris Review (34:16)
How media corporations publish pieces by non-white people (38:24)
Bail Bloc (The New Inquiry, 2017) (46:45)
Letter of Recommendation: Ghosting (New York Times Magazine, 2017) (52:30)
Working with non-white editors (58:38)
Cancel culture’s nonexistence (1:01:49)
Harper’s letter (1:04:04)
Arjun’s Feelings Don’t Care About Facts Corner (1:12:55)
The Diversity Tribunal (1:15:55)
Also, Kevin uses his Michael Barbaro voice to read the Harper’s “Wah Please Don’t Cancel Us Our Brains Are So Big” letter (0:47), and Arjun gives Maya and Kevin a tour of his new place (45:16).
Maya (and Kevin and Arjun) would like for you to donate to her mutual aid network, Community Care NYC. The network receives requests for $40 worth groceries, and people like Arjun take those requests, bike to Key Food, buy the groceries, and drop them off at the requester’s home. It’s a very easy and straightforward way to provide necessities to New Yorkers. Your donation ensures that those without means do not go hungry in this city.
This is your brain *picture of your brain*. This is your brain on Diversity Hire *it’s the same picture of your brain, but this time it’s wearing that Come Tees Bernie shirt*. Any questions? If so, email us at diversityhirepod@gmail.com. We’ll read your questions in an upcoming Q&A episode. Also, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. You can use your review to share anonymous experiences of working in corporate media, and we will read those on the pod as well.
Thanks,
Arjun & Kevin
Episode 3: The Woke Olympics with Maya Binyam