The Doomscroll Diaries

We're back after our short break to get Mae married (finally!) and we've got a hot one. We're talking Sam Bankman Fried (aka SBF) and his polycule of Effective Altruist friends at FTX and Alameda Research that just went bankrupt, stole a ton of money and may be crashing crypto.  If you haven't heard about this story then listen now to understand the darker-than-usual depression from your cryp...

The girls talk the man of the hour, Elon Musk. The rocket man has finally completed his purchase of Twitter and it has been SPICY. We talk about his grand entrance to Twitter HQ with a kitchen sink in tow, losing all Twitter’s advertisers, his flirty tweets with AOC and of course the $8 subscription. Get this guy a reality tv show already! Like and Subscribe on most platforms (not Twitter) @risque...

The wedding industry: Mae is finally getting married, so in honor of her marriage (and Laura celebrating her shutting the F up about it already) the gals are covering the wedding industry. Turns out saying "I Do" is a whole $61B industry. Laura and Mae talk biggest celeb weddings, and epic bridezilla and groomzilla (men can be nuts too) moments found online. Follow us @risquebusinessnews @mae_plan...

Spirit Halloween and other drugs: a hodgepodge of stories from the week! Mae and Laura cover Spirit Halloween and the spooky business model where they throw a bunch of clown costumes into a bankrupt business warehouse. Other topics include: The head of lettuce that stayed fresh longer than the British prime minister (we also think Mae’s had yeast infections longer). The most horrifying image you’d...

A recap of chaotic events: Mae and Laura cover Sean Penn and his next-level obnoxious Hollywood move of meeting with El Chapo *insert eye roll*, real housewife and mogul Bethenny Frankel suing smaller TikTok creators and TikTok as a whole (!), and some recent drama with PayPal’s terms and conditions. A lot happening in this one! Next week we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming. As always...

The girls are back again with part 2 of the story of the Sinaloa cartel and how they cleaned up their finances with the help of the world's biggest bank, HSBC. This week the story focuses on the Mexican government's attempt to get one of the world's largest companies to simply stop funding terrorists. Feels like a simple ask but you'd be surprised!  We also spend literally the first 28 minute...

The girls are back from Mae's bachelorette in Mexico City so it felt only right to discuss one of the scariest businesses in the world... The Cartel. This story focuses on HSBC, a legit bank that also happened to enable the Sinaloa cartel to be REALLY good at their job (drug trafficking and murder). In part 1 we talk about El Chapo's history, how HSBC could really not be bothered to worry about an...

The worlds greatest mogul: Kim Kardashian of course! Laura and Mae discuss the question we've all wondered - how did Kim Kardashian get so rich? We review her various business ventures from the failed KardashianKard to the absolute dominance of SKIMS. Then of course the nice check she got from an "acting" role with Ray J. This lady is the master of her craft! We also discuss the Beyond Meat CEO bi...

This week we discuss outdoor apparel company, Patagonia, and its founder Yvon Chouinard aka one of the world's only good businessmen. You may have seen him pop up in the news for giving away the (massive) company to a newly established non-profit dedicated to fighting climate change. Yvon may be one of the only billionaires who looked at his bank account and said "this is embarrassing" and actuall...

Best and worst of Shark Tank Part 1: Mae and Laura grieve the queen (sort of) and get into the good, bad, and the ugly of ABC's Shark Tank pitches. We’re talking most embarrassing pitches, the sharks themselves dropping the ball, lawsuits, and prosthetic tongues for people looking to lick their cat. Listen, things get weird. This will be an ongoing series on the pod so get your popcorn. Follow us...

Against the spirit of Labor Day Laura and Mae review the *messy* history of Labor Day. Lots of kids working in mines and hot girl walks around Manhattan! We talk about President Grover Cleveland lucking into using the federal holiday as a "pro-worker" move while undermining a violent strike in Chicago. Fun! We also discuss canceled AI rapper FN Meka (yes you read that right), the mystery person wh...

Be careful who you (make a) wish for! Mae and Laura take you through the world of arguably the worst people on earth, nonprofit charitable scammers. This episode will have you saying along with us “where is the IRS?!?!” How they get away with laundering money through their own for-profits and a WILD tale of a veterans charity scammer/ political influencer on the run. Most of this is Florida, obvs....

In this week's episode, we discuss the story of Domm Holland, the CEO behind the once hot one-click checkout startup. From conning Qantas airlines for a cool $1 million to getting run out of Australia by angry tow truck drivers, this guy has had quite a flashy life. Domm shows that even if your company makes no revenue you can still raise $120M in funding and ghost the Chainsmokers. It's a hot one...

The girls keep the party going with the next chapter on the man of the hour, Elon Musk. With the latest updates on his Twitter takeover and his family's intense hatred for birth control (looking at you Errol Musk), Elon makes Jerry Springer look like Sesame Street. We then go back in time to review Elon's many lawsuits while building SpaceX and Tesla. From his fights with automaker Fisker to his m...

Mae and Laura dive into part two of the Hilton Hotel dynasty. Family beefs, will changes, a bad boy brother you've never heard of, Paris's DJ career, and ... of course ... Mae still finds a way to talk about the latest Real Housewives drama. It's all here in this episode, jam-packed with multi-billion dollar family infighting. Enjoy!

The gals get to know the Hiltons. Paris isn't the only heiress. Get to know the succession-style hellscape that is the Hilton squad pre-simple life. This is the origin story of the iconic Hilton Hotel family! In this two-parter we cover the early days of the Hilton dynasty. Follow us for more content @risquebusinessnews @laurasogar @maeplanert

Laura & Mae discuss the history of the WWE and its *spicy* former CEO Vince McMahon. From lawsuits over steroids to fighting his government official wife in the ring. This story is RAW and culminates in his dramatic smackdown from his CEO position. Like, subscribe, enjoy!

Mae and Laura pick up where they left off last week with part two (!) of this Airbnb saga. The gals discuss their personal experiences with Airbnb, a very awkward forced breakfast encounter, Laura being stranded when attending a work conference, and more horror stories in the company's early days. They also talk about how the zeitgeist feels about the company and what the future holds for it. Stra...

Mae and Laura go off the rails today in the first half of the saga of Airbnb. Well, "half" is giving this episode a lot of credit ... it's mostly wild tangents. The girls explore the company's bumpy ride to profitability and baby's first scandals along the way. A more streamlined (we promise) Part 2 is out next week. Write in if you have an insane Airbnb story you want us to read on air!

This week Laura and Mae take it back to when Elon Musk took a bold stance (against) work-from-home, ran a boomer all-hands at Twitter, and had some family drama leak. We also go through PART SIX (!) of our hero's journey and discuss the years where Elon was one of the poorest people in the USA. It's a hot one!

Mae and Laura discuss the epic rise and fall of NYC's favorite vegan, Sarma Melngailis. A tale that proves even smart, successful babetastic perfect 10's can be manipulated by a certified f*ckboi if it means their dog is promised immortality. As owners of the best cats in the world, I can't say we don't get it. Strap in! This week we get weiiiiirddddd.

In this weeks episode, Laura Sogar and Mae Planert take a look at the Royal English family after their combined return from England. We talk about the Queen's hologram ceremony, and after catching up we dive into the heart of the matter. How does the Queen and her family make money? We take a look at a few affairs involving high up members of the family such as the infamous Princess Diana that bec...

In this weeks episode, Laura Sogar and Mae Planert welcome on guest Lauren Des Leroux to talk about her horrifying fraud experience with Uber where her information was stolen and cards were maxed out by scammers. Uber still refuses to clear her name so we explore the ins and outs of Uber, their diamond feature, and customer service. Then we explore the founder of Uber, Travis Kalanick and his back...

In this weeks episode, Mae Planert and Laura Sogar take a look at the Canadian Cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga run by Jerry Cotton. When it started to tank investors like the Tragic "Tong Zou" who lost upwards of 400k trying to save it, only for a mysterious set of circumstances led to a widespread search for the missing CEO and money. Is there a happy ending for Tong Zou? What happened to Jerry...

In this weeks episode, Laura Sogar and Mae Planert dive into Kwon Do-hyung aka Do Kwon. Do Kwon is the CEO of Terraform Labs, an unlicensed company behind the Terra blockchain, which features the stablecoin TerraUSD and network token Terra. We take a look at some of the sketchy moves and people's lives that were destroyed as a result. Bonus episodes every week: ▶▶ https://www.patreon.com/risquebus...