Episode 18 - Chekhov's Pie with Clio Chang

Diversity Hire

Hello and welcome to Episode 18 of Diversity Hire.

Today we talked to Clio Chang about how we balance loving the work of reporting and the undeniable shittiness of the media world/life generally, why unionizing is not just great for your workplace but also your social life, how our generation’s work lives have been shaped by layoffs and how she became an expert in the unemployment beat, and much more. Kevin and Arjun also talked about Chris Christie’s Cameogate, fellow Substacker Glenn Greenwald, Thomas Chatterton Williams trying to get a haircut in Paris, and other media blowhards in the news this week.

Thanks for listening!

* Kevin and Arjun talk about shitty media men (0:00)

* Kevin’s pie is introduced (7:56)

* Clio talk about her home office (8:13)

* Clio leads us though her career timeline (10:23)

* What gravitated Clio to join the media after working at a think tank (13:22)

* How Clio become an “unemployment beat” writer (14:35)

* Navigating and documenting the unemployment bureaucracy maze (re: “My 98 Days in Unemployment Purgatory,” TNR, 2020) (15:53)

* How labor organizing fits into the future of the media (re: “The Generation Shaped By Layoffs,” Gen, 2020) (17:58)

* Arjun’s funny question: what’s the point of doing this anymore? (re: “How to Save Journalism,” TNR, 2020) (22:23)

* We miss offices (25:54)

* Are labor organizing spaces the new media hangouts? (27:18)

* Arjun’s other funny question: what do you make of the push for diversity hires? (28:17)

* On Leon Wieseltier (re: “Leon Wieseltier Was Always Hiding in Plain Sight,” Splinter, 2017) (30:58)

* The media ecosystem that props up bad men in media (re: “The Familiar Defiance of Wesley Yang,” Jezebel, 2019) (34:49)

* Kevin leaves to take out his pie and Arjun and Clio goss about him (39:09)

* How Clio was radicalized by Lucy Liu (re: “When Lucy Liu Used a Riding Crop to Seize the Means of Production,” Gen, 2020) (40:19)

* On writing about Asian America (re: “Whose Side Are Asian-Americans On?,” TNR, 2018) (44:26)

* Clio’s process when picking topics to write about (47:50)

* Clio talks about working with non-white editors (49:54)

* Arjun’s Feelings Don’t Care About Facts Corner (53:03)

* The Diversity Tribunal (1:01:51)

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