The Barstool Case Study

What might Barstool Sports—a company thoroughly emblematic of the feverish nature of our modern, digital world—teach us about ethics? More than you might expect.

Here’s what you can expect in this episode of Thinking Is Cool:

• A nuanced conversation about ethics, morals, and the ways late-stage capitalism has encouraged us to apply them to corporate entities
• Lots of dunking on Barstool’s idiot in chief Dave Portnoy...plus some shoutouts to the people working at Barstool who are actually not dumb or bad or dangerous
• Commentary on the inherent privilege of casting moral judgement against a potential employer
• A look at what really goes down in my DMs

There’s a lot to unpack with this one, and I don’t think the conversation around good vs. bad, ethical vs. unethical, or moral vs. immoral will ever really be over. So do me a favor. Go have a conversation with someone about Barstool and the role of ethics in the corporate world. You won’t regret it.

This week’s guests are some of my most trusted friends, Twitter mutuals, and highly intelligent peers. 

• Dan Attia. Dan is the head of research for noted internet guy Scott Galloway. If you’ve ever heard Scott speak, you’ve likely heard at least a few thoughts and ideas that started in Dan’s mind.
• Josh Ogundu. Josh works in product at TikTok and has some of the best insights on modern work I’ve ever seen on Twitter.
• Alayna Treene. Alayna is a Congressional reporter for Axios and co-author of the Axios Sneak Peek newsletter. We also interned together at Bloomberg in the summer of 2016.

Season 1 of Thinking Is Cool is brought to you by HMBradley, our exclusive launch sponsor. Deposit accounts are provided by Hatch Bank, Member FDIC. Credit cards are issued by Hatch Bank under a license with MasterCard. This is a paid endorsement.

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