Do you ever have a years-long hyperfixation with a company no one's heard about? Blender Bluid and Amy Do continue our millions-years-long season about private military contractors. This time, I'm telling them about the worst of the worst: Betsy DeVos' brother Erik Prince's rich kid lodge! Blackwater! Clean off your guns and meet me at the lodge - …

Been awhile, besties! Hello again! This is an episode that was ostensibly about Bechtel Corp (the construction company, not the lesbian cartoonist), but it got away from me and became an exploration into the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. An organized, peaceful method of resistance focused on boycotting business - what could go wrong? A L…

I PROMISE this is the last part to our exploration of KBR! This episode features a big thematic swing of including the best food review of all time throughout the episode. If you’re into gargantuan oil failures, extensive explanations of holes, politically correct GOOP, or droopy baked alaskas then this episode is for YOU! Again, we’ll move on from…

HI YALL! Forgive the delay; I am already on tour and didn't realize I wouldn't have wi-fi! This was uploaded as a labor of my hot spot's love. Here's the part 2 no one asked for! Let's perfect our Lois Griffin impression Whiplash-style, crack open a $247 soda, and order 50,000 pounds of nails to get ready to revisit the company I've been obsessed w…

Amy Do and Blender Bluid continue on our season-long journey into private military contracting! Avarice incarnate with a healthy heap of political parasitism, we're talking about the origins of KBR. Do you know how to build a nuclear power plant? No? Who gives a hoot! Let's try it anyway! Along the way we'll get 100,000 meals to throw out, Blender …

Dipping my toe into making things way too personal with this episode about a giant oil conglomerate! Who doesn't fucking love that? Amy Do and Blender Bluid are BACK, baby, to do just a tiny bit more set dressing on this season. We're talking about procurement; how did the companies in the upcoming season get their contracts in the first place? Tur…

HELLO AGAIN, BESTIES! Amy Do and Blender Bluid join me for a season-long exploration into private military contracting. This specific episode explores some legal precedents that allow military contractors to operate with effective immunity from the law. Picture I just said that but in a SUPER funny way. If a tree falls in the forest, can anybody he…

Hello besties! I'm just a girl with vocal nodes in a podcasting world!By Christian Borkey

Hey kids...who likes #Jesus?? Christian McCann is on the pod so I can finally answer questions he's been asking me for like a year now. Why is there a marketing campaign for Christianity, and who is paying for it? As it turns out, the answer is something that will matter for 10 billion more years. Join me to talk about the intracacies of tax law an…

Franklin Pierce impersonator Dylan Cohen drops by to gab about the grocery store that totally changed the game: Piggly Wiggly! I'm thrilled to have this season's rascal-centered episode, and I'm VERY excited to add a new weirdo from the early 1900s to the BBB collection. Grab your bibles, label your vegetables, and let's play some synchronous jazz …

Who wants to get drunk and talk about 1800s agriculture? MEEEEE apparently! Join myself and my sweet special friend J. T. Kost for an episode detailing the guano boom and bust of the 1800s: drunken reenactments of the Last Supper, yadda-yadda-ing our way through unprecendented imperial expansion, and plenty of descriptions of bird shit abound this …

Brazen antifeminist woman in STEM, Sarah, joins me to discuss the factory of girlfailures: Hewlett-Packard! Revolutionizing the world of personal-computers-you-kinda-know, this company has been run by a cavalcade of silly little clowns since at least 1999. This episode is packed top to bottom with shenanigans; spiders falling from the ceiling, bein…

Amy Do and Blender Bluid join me to unpack the lengthy, complicated story of Pat Tillman. For a typically facts-dense podcast about corporate wrongdoings, this episode is decidedly more opinionated -- this isn't a single business for which we can dig up public reports, lawsuits, etc. Rather, this episode dives into the general misuse of someone's m…

Dry mouthed Emma Day did me a huge favor coming onto this podcast last-minute for a WHIRLWIND episode about trash. If you love cathaters and sewage being dumped into your Hawai'ian vacation resort water, suing a district attorney out of spite for 7 years, or committing literal textbook financial fraud, you'll freaking LOVE this one! Don't you wish …

My friend who loves a shot and a beer, Karsten Runquist, joins me for this exploratory episode about the ins and outs of the United States' beloved decrepit children's toy retail store, Toys R Us! Let's get jiggy with some brankruptcy docey-do's, George HW Bush's infamous trip to Japan, giraffe sized coffins, and the lush world of private equity! T…

HIEEEEE!!!!! I'm back! My third-string comedian, first-string friend Kate joins me to talk about a company that has gotten away with evils that take place during every stage of a life cycle: Abbott Laboratories. If you like undercover FBI stings with costumes, vile descriptions of bacteria through the lens of art criticism, or selling your weight i…

If you're looking for a season finale where I nearly spit out my Diet Coke several times, this episode is for you. I'll be honest: I wrote a pretty solid script involving Hertz's century-long history with highlights including consistent overcharging, under-delivering on vehicles, becoming a meme stock, and commiting insurance fraud. However. Meg Ha…

Longtime friend, firsttime caller Jon Oppenheimer finally joins my podcast to continue my tradition of not being quite topical by analyzing a months-old news thing: Southwest Airlines! December 2022 was far from the company's only meltdown that caused nationwide disaster. But Jon asked me to make this episode because we all had questions after the …

All I can say is I knocked it out of the park with this one. I'm finally telling my sweet friend Cookie the story of my absolute FAVORITE scammer: Liz Carmichael. This one's got everything: libertarian science fiction, engineering mishaps, three wheeled cars, stock fraud, Unsolved Mysteries, and a woman so magnetic that she girlbossed millions of d…

My beloved friend Derry Queen joins me for a real fast-and-loose episode about RuPaul's Drag Race. This one was a very fun episode for me because it's less heavy on the research since Derry has a lot of personal experience relating to the show. The standard working conditions in reality TV are absolutely bonkers, and we talk about some of that hist…

Remember when Juul was a verb? The generecized word for vape? I REMEMBER! That business really came and went like a beautiful comet. Joining me to talk about the historic rise and fall of Juul is my dear friend Emma Day! The legal machinations behind regulating cigarettes is FASCINATING, and the status of cigarettes in the law affects the ways we m…

Blender Bluid and Amy Do are back on the podcast for a VERY absurd episode. We get into the down and dirty of the free market's response to the very USA-based problem of school-based gun violence. As far as the more grim episodes go, this is one that we tried to bring a lot of levity to (especially about 24 minutes in). First we take a look at the …

Swiss Miss Ali Fish(er) is on the pod to talk about one of the most prolific COVID testing scam sites in the country. What I didn't realize is how piecemeal our testing infrastructure was over the past 2 years, and this particular scam goes fucking nuts. How can two owners of an axe throwing range wind up as the 12th most federally funded COVID tes…

**REUPLOADED, IDK WHY THIS EPISODE IS GIVING ME SUCH A PAIN IN MY ASS So I just closed out ONE WHOLE YEAR of this podcast! The first episode was January 3, 2022. It's now Jan 2, 2023 (honestly, I thought this episode uploaded but it simply didn't LOL) Here is a self-indulgent, naval gazey episode with me and my roommates. My ex girlfriend and my ex…

The wickedly talented, remarkably hungover Christian McCann drops back into the pod to talk about his only personality trait: hockey. If you like insurance fraud, broadway plays, or describing labor stoppages using the imagery of an ancient greek myth turned modern broadway musical....you're soooo in luck! This one has three pretty clear acts. Act …

World's biggest fact-knower, KP, is back on the podcast to talk a little bit about the National Football League's greatest franchise, the Washington Commanders. Dan Snyder's circus of finding bold, brave, and inventive ways to hork as much money out of patrons as possible. Grab a beer for the urinal, cozy up with some expired airline peanuts, and b…

We're back! Iconic ex-roommate duo, Danaka and Nic, join me on the pod to go through the history of America's passtime. There's sure as hell a lot of shady business doings here! We'll talk about how labor relations for players have improved (and not!) over pro ball's 100+ year history. My major focus this episode was on Curt FLood, the guy who pave…

WE'VE GONE AND DONE IT! EIGHT HOURS LATER, THE MONSANTO SEASON IS COMPLETE! This episode goes over Bayer's disastrous acquisition of Monsanto, how the antitrust division of the US government is simply set up to fail, and we have a look back on all of the hee-hees and haw-haws of the Monsanto season. After sitting in that studio for hours on end wit…

Barehanded honeykeeping, moms-on-facebook, and deadly scientific coverups are all converging to form the final bell toll for Monsanto's mortal time. With all of the doom-and-gloom from past episodes, you're probably wondering how this company...doesn't...still exist, given its titanic political, scientific, and corporate influence. The answer is it…

What would you say the work-life balance is on the Death Star? This episode follows a path down the Monsanto communications rabbit hole. PRAD majors, get your forks! Come eat! Blender Bluid, Amy Do and I try to answer a key question throughout the episode: do the entry/mid-level Monsanto employees....know? Do they know the vibe? To answer that ques…

This one's a banger, no way around it. This one will give a detailed history of Monsanto's relationship with the FDA -- spoilers, it literally goes ALL the way back -- and how the FDA was complicit in the expediting of Bovine Growth Hormone. We also go on a very long tangent on if the father of food safety was a fellow homosexual (Because it's my p…

This is the birth of Modern Monsanto, and it takes quite a turn from the previous episodes. Instead of talking about the diseases and human suffering as a result of the products (like we've been doing at length), we're going to be looking at the sexy, muscular legal arm of Monsanto. Clarence Thomas comes back in this one! PokeMonsanto collection gr…

Hello again, y'all! This episode's all about the ENVIRONMENT and it is a real doozy. If you choose for some reason to start with this one, understand that we'd been in the studio for hours at this point. Blender Bluid, Amy Do and I were all simply transcending the mortal form. Anyways, in this riveting episode we talk about Times Beach Missouri, An…

All in all, this is a comedy podcast. But this is definitely one of the darkest episodes I've made. It's really important to me and it's heartbreaking...huge content warning for gruesome body horror. I'm really proud of this one, and despite it all, Amy and Blender Bluid managed to make this one real funny. This episode talks about Monsanto's role …

SEASON 3 LET'S GO! This episode is the first of 8 in a FULL MONSANTO SEASON!!! I'd recommend starting with this episode; it will provide a complete timeline of Monsanto's wacky history and will give us some surprise tools to help us in later episodes. Blender Bluid and Amy Do are the guests for the entire season and girl they are hysterical. This e…

Oops! I accidentally wrote an 8 part episode and decided to make it its own season! LOL! Season 3 is coming September 5. Listen to this teaser to find out what the topic will be and the new release schedule. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LISTENING TO THIS PODCAST! All of your kind words make me so happy! Keep telling your friends about it if you love it. I…

Dr. Alex Berr is on the pod to 1) brutally roast me several times and 2) help me think about the questions regarding the business of selling and distributing animals. The question that drives this episode is: Are animals products? We talk about the industry standards for both pet rats and lab rats when it comes to breeding, caretaking, and liabilit…

Aasia Lashay is BACK for what I'm calling a bonus episode, but is simply the length of a regular episode. They were in a Second City show years ago that wound up being the centerpiece of a reverse racism discrimination lawsuit. The complaint never went anywhere, so years later, she's on this pod to respond to the allegations! SLAY! FOOTNOTES: 1. St…

A woman with literally no water signs in her astrological chart through Pluto, Claire Rufin, joins me to throw away any chances I had at getting sponsored by BetterHelp! I'm working through a lot of my own understanding on the subjects in this episode, including how a CEO who is presumably worth millions of dollars would take to Reddit to address a…

Dan Carroll, who is one of the boys, joins me for probably the most fucked up episode I've made to date. Medical horror abound, this one is certainly dark. If you think illegally marketing a drug to be used off-label for disabled children is bad, it's literally not even scratching the surface of how bad the rest of it gets. Strap in for the longest…

Buffalo native and hater-by-trade, Christian McCann, has dropped by the podcast to give us a people's history of the most bizarre restaurant chain: Buffalo Wild Wings! It is kind of crazy how many things Buffalo Wild Wings has entered into our culture. Its origin story is COMPLETELY left field. We also talk about how busted the service industry is.…

TECH ERROR FIXED! Woman with BFA, Sarah, is back on the pod to talk about the musical that got cancelled to its death on Twitter: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812! This is my favorite musical ever written that unfortunately was, in fact, a busted business. Bad decisions all the way at the top. I'm not kidding, you should put this on a play…

Loyal Piggly Wiggly customer, Aasia Lashay, joins me for a deep dive (haha get it) into the scandalous world of packaged seafood products. You know it's bad when a whole ass CEO genuinely faces consequences for it. If you like scheming, gruesome workplace safety violations, backstabbing, and DOJ antitrust investigations, you better listen ASAP! You…

Late bloomer Ari Levin joins me for, I'm not kidding, probably the best episode I've made thus far. THEE Charles Ponzi's scheme has so many twists and turns. Charles Ponzi is a mama's boy, he's a pisces, he's 5'2. He's.....the man of my dreams. While many historians have actually pieced together a pretty cogent puzzle of the life Ponzi lived, none …

KP, who invented being funny, has returned AGAIN for an episode about the market’s solution to the pesky idea of consumers hating climate change: “climate certification.” This podcast is certified carbon neutral because I venmo’d someone in France to get an impossible whopper from Burger King. This episode is not doom and gloom, it’s full of scams …

My brother in christ, Matt McLean, joins for a jaunty-ass personal episode about society's preventative answer to the war on drugs: DARE! Cops certainly did not get this one right, despite receiving an insane amount of funding. Like bonkers. This loosey goosey episode was so fun to record, and if you like drugs, alcohol, and violence, this episode …

National Organizer at CODEPINK, Danaka, joins me for the girliest episode of Busted Business Bureau: the multibillion dollar weapons company, Lockheed Martin! If you pay taxes, I promise this episode is about you. For a company that's been around so long, you think they'd build less stuff that caught on fire or less stuff that made Vermonter childr…

Chicago improv's biggest hater KP returns to talk about men's rights (and men's wrongs). This men's rights lawyer has unleashed himself upon California to successfully sue people over ladies nights, lesbian gatherings, and Mother's Day baseball promotions. Why is Alfred Rava not a household name? This is literally all I talk about now. TUNE IN! Sou…

Rollercoaster hater Peter Bucci joins the season finale to talk about Six Flags’ insane journey to becoming the world’s largest regional theme park chain. This episode has everything: bankruptcy, a hostile takeover, many gruesome rollercoaster deaths. Also, who knew the politics of parking could be so interesting? Thanks for tuning in, and be sure …

Rising star Deanna Ortiz joins to talk about something we spend a stupid amount of tax dollars on in Chicago: ShotSpotter! It’s a national company, but the City of Chicago makes up nearly a quarter of its revenue. What are we spendin’ all that money on? This episode is sooo foolish, we talk about tech bros’ hubris, how good PR can change everything…