BEEF Podcast: Where Business Wars Meets Pop Culture

A war is an all-out assault on a real or perceived enemy. Wars are so traumatic that a written and signed treaty is necessary to end hostilities. What's a beef? No, not the substance that is allegedly between the buns in fast food. The use of the word "beef" as a noun meaning complaint was first recorded in the 1880s. However, we use it nowadays to talk about having a big problem with someone. 

Now, there's a podcast about business rivalries called Beef. It began in February 2023 and is just launching season two this week.

What makes podcasting so distinct from other media is its elasticity. Too often, TV copycats success, radio is trapped in either formulaic sports talk, political hate speech, or music. However, podcasting can take a successful concept like business rivalries and the Wondery podcast Business Wars, and excavate more depth and different angles.

Beef is billed as, "A podcast that serves up the juiciest rivalries you’ve never heard of."
Beef is an original-scripted non-fiction storytelling podcast where
"Business Wars meets pop culture."

On the show, award-winning host Bridget Todd tells the stories of legends in their fields and how they tried to stomp out their competition, only to find that their enemies become the driving force behind their success, ultimately changing the world as we know it.

How good is Beef? I know you want to know: Where's The Beef? (Gen Z, please refer to the mid-80s Wendy's commercial)

Beef is a 100 percent USDA grade A podcast. The concept of connecting business rivalries with pop culture has birthed some of the best episodes in season one. 

My favorite is the Playboy versus Penthouse episode. The show delves into the essence of Playboy's Hugh Hefner and Penthouse's Bob Guccione. The show excels as a hybrid -- one part narrative by host Bridget Todd and one part interviews by Todd.

In the show, one guest reveals, "Bob Guccione really loved women, while Hugh Hefner hated them." 

The show zigs and zags through cultural shifts until sworn enemies Hefner and Guccione join forces to battle censorship and attacks on the First Amendment. 

My other favorite show is the very first episode, about the sisterly battle between advice columnists Dear Abby and Ann Landers. I think the most creative episode concerned Captain Morgan and the Spanish Empire. 

From the standpoint of understanding the creative process, the episode called The Writer's Room Roundtable is a feast of insights into how the writers of the show developed and wrote the stories for the show.

Every good show needs a host to spotlight the content and the treatment. Beef is fortunate to have Bridget Todd. 

Her critically acclaimed podcast, There Are No Girls on the Internet,
explores how marginalized people show up online in response to the
lack of inclusion in conversations around the internet. The hit podcast
earned “Best Technology Podcast” at the iHeart Radio Podcast Awards
and a Shorty Award for “Best Podcast Miniseries.”

As Director of Communication for the national gender-justice advocacy organization Ultraviolet, Bridget Todd regularly meets with leadership from platforms like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok to advocate for and develop policy recommendations to make digital experiences safer and more inclusive.

Todd’s writing has been featured in the Atlantic, Newsweek, the Nation, and The Daily Show. Bridget Todd is a frequently cited expert, trainer, and speaker on combating disinformation and extremism online, advocating for social media platform accountability, creating safer digital experiences for women and other marginalized people, and celebrating and amplifying marginalized people’s contributions to tech and the internet.

Todd is perfect as the host on the podcast, in which balance is all-important. Beef requires both the grittiness of an investigative business reporter and the ability to extract humor, irony, and sarcasm from the show. Bridget Todd can do both with style, wit, and pan-seared, dry-rubbed mockery. As Todd unfolds these rivalries, you get the sense that these "beefs" are a large serving of pettiness with a side of vanity and brutishness for dessert.

Check out Beef. The podcast is another example of how blending genres (business + pop culture) can offer listeners a banquet of business cautionary tales and a pop culture brew of humor, wit, and wisdom.