Jesse Thorn has been podcasting for so long it was called radio. Over time he turned his career into a business - Maximum Fun, a network of eclectic pop culture shows like Bullseye; My Brother, My Brother and Me; and Judge John Hodgman — and relied primarily on listener donations to fund it.
But, as Thorn tells Vox’s Peter Kafka, running a business was running him down, and he didn’t want to sell the company to a Spotify or Sirius.
So he found a unique solution: He turned Maximum Fun into a worker-owned co-op. That means Thorn still owns a piece of the company he built over two decades, but so do his former employees, who are now his co-workers. And he thinks other media companies can and should do this, too.
Featuring: Jesse Thorn (@JesseThorn), Founder of Maximum Fun
Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode
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Podcast pioneer Jesse Thorn built his own business. Now his employees own it. | Channels with Peter Kafka podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
