logo
episode-header-image
Aug 15
40m 3s

"Genius Still Unrecognised" - The Worst ...

Pushkin Industries
About this episode

William McGonagall's poems are something else. The jarring meter, the banal imagery, the awkward rhymes: they made him a laughing stock in 19th Century Scotland and are still derided to this day. How does someone get that bad at poetry? Or have we been misunderstanding McGonagall all along?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Aug 22
Paradise Poisoned: How Utopias Fall Apart
Dore Strauch and Friedrich Ritter make an unconventional couple, united by their contempt for shoes, root vegetables and, above all, society. In 1929 they leave Germany and begin anew on the deserted Galapagos island of Floreana. At first, it feels like a paradise, but soon crack ... Show More
41 m
Aug 8
Office Hell: The Demise of the Playful Workspace (Classic)
In the early 90s, cutting-edge advertising agency Chiat/Day announced a radical plan, aimed at giving the company a jolt of creative renewal. They would sweep away corner offices and cubicles and replace them with zany open spaces, as well as innovative portable computers and pho ... Show More
38m 40s
Aug 1
Number Fever: How Pepsi Nearly Went Pop (Classic)
Pepsi twice ended up in court after promotions went disastrously wrong. Other big companies have fallen into the same trap - promising customers rewards so generous that to fulfil the promise might mean corporate bankruptcy.Businesses and customers alike are sometimes blinded by ... Show More
35m 30s
Recommended Episodes
May 2024
Your Bad Customer Service was No Accident!
Today’s episode is all about our frustration with customer service… which by anyone’s standards is getting worse and worse! You experience it every time you encounter a phone tree, interact with a chatbot, or deal with increasingly longer hold times. The truly shocking fact, the ... Show More
35m 18s
Aug 2024
The Final Keystroke (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
One Monday morning in May of 2010, a classroom full of sixth graders sat at their desks waiting for their substitute teacher to arrive. But the morning bell rang, and the substitute never showed. A passing administrator noticed the substitute’s absence, and he hurried to the fron ... Show More
37m 42s
Sep 2024
On the Cheap: Buli's Toxic Workplace Story of Bad Management with Dodgy Practices
Buli, fresh out of college and living in the UK, joined the Kickstart scheme to find work. She was placed in a company where management cut corners, from skipping proper training to forging certificates, all while overworking their staff. Buli found herself burdened with an overw ... Show More
40m 28s
Jul 16
569: Advisor to Microsoft, Google, and Hilton Executives Reveals How Leaders Create High-Performance Cultures Without Sacrificing Employee Joy
In this conversation with Bree Groff, author of "Today Was Fun" and who has advised executives at Microsoft, Google, Target, and Hilton through periods of organizational change, shares specific observations about leadership blind spots in large corporations and offers practical f ... Show More
48m 31s
Mar 2025
When Layoffs Are a Thing of the Past
Even the most nimble and successful companies are sometimes forced to replace huge swaths of their workforce when business strategy changes. But layoffs come with costs: hiring and firing workers is expensive. Letting workers go can also damage an institution’s reputation and dem ... Show More
26m 36s
Oct 2024
Starbucks' Mistake Is Your Opportunity
On today’s show we are talking about a service business that used to be on top of its segment in the market.  The company we’re talking about is Starbucks. So it’s no surprise to me that today Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol announced a major drop in both earnings and revenue. They al ... Show More
4m 58s
Jul 8
At Booking.com, Innovation Means Constant Failure (Summer Repeat)
During a busy travel season, digital travel platform Booking.com tried a risky experiment that meant changing the site’s landing page. Then CEO Gillian Tans made the decision to lean into the company’s “test everything” culture—even if it meant failure. In this episode from 2019, ... Show More
26m 41s
Feb 2025
Corporate Hotline: Topless Zooming, Moldy Espresso, and Other Workplace Tales
As thousands of corporate warriors return to the office, we’re going back to working from home for a ‘Remoted’ edition of Corporate Hotline. Prepare for some seriously unhinged workplace stories. On this episode of Corporate Hotline, Ross and Natalie share listener submissions th ... Show More
43m 4s
Jan 2025
Hack Attack
This episode originally aired Mar 13, 2018. A mysterious computer crash pushes a thriving manufacturing company to the brink of collapse, jeopardizing the jobs of hundreds of employees. There is no apparent cause and no obvious clues. Forensic investigators must determine if the ... Show More
25m 21s
Jul 2024
COO Raina Moskowitz on why Etsy’s new site updates and policy changes were 'urgent and important’
On Tuesday, Etsy rolled out a variety of updates and launches and a reorganization of policies, in the name of preserving human creativity, according to the company. They were met with mixed reviews. Launched in 2005, the Etsy marketplace is best known for selling handmade produc ... Show More
38m 13s