‘Megacorp’ dives into the world’s mega-rich corporations, and first up is Amazon
If you’ve been on the hunt for some straightforward, directly-to-the-point reporting on the biggest players in the capitalistic game, well, welcome to “Megacorp.” Journalist and documentary filmmaker Jake Hanrahan is diving into the mega rich corporations of the world, exposing how they run, how they treat their employees, and where all of that money really goes.
With this podcast premiering in November of 2021, it’s still in its first season. Only a handful of episodes have been released so far. Episodes are just half an hour long, but each one dives deep into the controversies around the world’s richest corporations (and the people who run them).
First up, it couldn’t be any other company than Amazon. Starting from the ground up, literally, Hanrahan works his way to the top of Amazon, checking on what Jeff Bezos has been up to in recent times (hint: rockets). His first episodes start in the warehouses of Amazon, where he speaks to employees who work excruciatingly long shifts with monitored food and bathroom breaks. Not only that, Amazon has been known for its union busting attempts, with some of its tactics being entirely illegal.
Recently, Podsauce sat down for an interview with Hanrahan, the creator and host of iHeart’s “Megacorp.” They discussed the inspiration and creation of the show, as well as why Hanrahan chose Amazon as his first subject. Amazon was one of the few companies to actually grow during the pandemic, while more and more reports of unsafe and inhumane working conditions came out of the warehouses. For example, in December, multiple workers in a warehouse in Illinois were killed after they were not allowed to evacuate for an oncoming tornado, which eventually made direct contact with the building.
What’s been particularly significant about “Megacorp” is Hanrahan’s ability to cut through all the noise and address the controversies we’ve seen in the news around Amazon in detail. Even with no outside knowledge of the working conditions at Amazon or the many scandals it has faced, Hanrahan makes sure you have all the information to understand the point he is trying to make.
Whether or not you like the company or use its services, Amazon is not without great faults. It’s avoided paying billions of dollars in taxes in both the United States and Europe, albeit not illegally. The loopholes it uses to avoid income and profit taxes are written into laws, which makes their lack of federal payments even more infuriating.
“Megacorp” dives into Amazon’s digital assistants and whether or not they are being used a surveillance tools, looks into Amazon’s interesting deals with global intelligence agencies like the CIA and MI6, and Jeff Bezos turn to space. Hear more from this investigative podcast with new episodes dropping on Thursdays.
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