I listened to this in one straight shot - totally entertaining and also interesting about the history and culture of Vice in its context. The host is great at bringing out the contradictions in Slava’s story without being overly dramatic. I hope she hosts more podcasts in future.

I’m glad I didn’t read the reviews until after I listened because I thought this was REALLY good. As to some of the negative comments, yes, the main character is delusional and a complete liar but that doesn’t mean Kasia believes him and even points that out on a regular basis. Yes, Vice was a complete train wreck in it’s early days and Kasia once applied there but I don’t see the bias in the story and I think it was in integral part of what happened. The story was entertaining and well presented and interviews were done very well. Overall, I enjoyed this as much as some of my favorites.

Came to this podcast from Thunder Bay, and have to say I really enjoyed this. It was well edited and narrated, entertaining, and a good story about an idiot who thankfully got 9 years.

This is really interesting and utilizes interviews show great variance in point of view. Our main subject clearly sees himself in a different light as his victims see him. I really understand the need to put Vice’s culture in the forefront however, they podcast veers off topic in order to take some shots at Gavin McGinnis. Like him or not, I don’t see how drug trafficking recruiter inside of the company, acting off contacts developed in the industry, has to do with McGinnis’ history of trolling the universe.

Kasia does a great job of discovering the root of the story and then presenting the critical elements in an entertaining manner. The best form of spoken journalism. Can’t wait to hear more from Kasia!!

Vice can’t go more then 5 minutes without mentioning white privilege or some other anti white propaganda

Interesting story, but the podcaster has a constant tone of judgement - it’s clearly not unbiased reporting. There’s something ironic about the fact that she’s reporting on a story about the journalistic integrity, when she isn’t able to hide the chip on her shoulder she still has from being rejected from a job at Vice in the past.

should be called Hit Piece as in a VICE hit piece.

Interesting enough story, but I’m much more interested in stories about this Gavin guy and the early days of Vice. The Slava story should have been one episode of a series deep diving into the crazy world of Vice.

Someone much smarter than me should deconstruct this within a media class. Between Slava going on about how Vice Atlanta has “a bunch of black kids pointing guns at the screen” and he doesn’t, Slava jumping in a polluted waterway and being picked up by police and not arrested, his entitlement...and the hyper visible undercurrent of his parasitism piggybacking off the the “actually cool” (mostly Black, mostly poor) by mirroring what he believes are their values (as regurgitated by Vice). Wild as hell. I’m only 20 minutes in and this stuff could at least cover an entire seminar.

Pretty good listen. After having just finished episode 4, I’m starting to suspect that this story could’ve been condensed into less episodes. The main reason I’m only giving 3 stars is that I think the host is drawing parallels and making assumptions that are not logical regarding Vice’s reaction to the scandal and even playing into the claim that Vice promoted a drug friendly culture. Two themes seem to be true: 1, The guy selfishly put peoples’ lives at risk, seems to be a liar, and didn’t appear to be well liked or respected even apart from this scandal. 2, Vice seems to get away with underpaying employees because of their fun/sexy/cool reputation, and they seem to have a questionable culture. The two themes aren’t necessarily correlated.

As the main source? Just more rewarding of pathological liars. Can’t listen anymore.

I’m sure Vice isn’t faultless but Slava made these decisions.... his failure to own the consequences is pathetic

Worth your time. Good listen, good podcast

It’s really good! A little too stylized for me, like one tick above some of the WNYC stuff but the context is so good it works.

Can’t wait to see how this incredible story unfolds

High quality reporting and amazing that they “got the get” with Slava

Very good listen. So far, so good. Eager to hear where it will go.

I really wanted to love this, but I could not even make it through the first episode. The host has a ton of potential, but the constant sarcastic jabs to the subject, though warranted in my opinion, completely erased any objectivism and tainted her role as journalist to the point where I had to turn it off. It was super cringe-y :(