PODCAST · business
Busted Business Bureau
by Christian Borkey
A painstakingly researched comedy podcast about businesses’ scams, scandals, and shenanigans. Written and hosted by Christian Borkey
Episodes
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McDonaldLand
Were I to have a Patreon feed, this is where I would put that. But I don't. So fuck it. McDonaldLand. Come check out this hallucinatory marketing franchise with its own fan wiki, and its copyright infringing origins! W Check out Cherry Wood in her ongoing competition BFF at Splash Chicago on...
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Grand Upright Music v Warner Bros Records
I sing on this podcast about 3 times and you all have to be nice about it. Ariana Miles and Christian McCann - two of Chicago's best and brightest pianos players - join me to discuss the hilarious world of trying to copyright a vibe. Why do we have to pay exorbitant fees for samples? Can you own…
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The Bayou Hedge Fund Group
Terrible Portraits artist and longtime cherished friend Jacob Ryan Reno comes to make Hedge Fund Management ENTERTAINING AS ALL HELL! If you don't know this story, I highly encourage you to go in blind like Jacob did, because I fear I totally gagged him at the main climax of the story. We dive…
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The Minneapolis Aquatennial Coverup
You ever bestie so hard you and your homegirl's boyfriend wind up at drinks and podcasting? My dear friend Archie joins me in studio to talk about a geographically relevant piece of history for him: The Minneapolis Aquatennial! This is a pretty violent and bloody episode - I mean, what else were...
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Shen Yun
Minister of Toilet Management Mark Geary joins me for a romp into the world of non-profit arts organizations! He is the founder of The Lincoln Lodge, which is where I record my podcast and is also my place of full time employment. Do two standup comedy philistines have any right to judge Shen…
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Chicago Parking Meters LLC
Weiner's Circle crusader Danaka joins me on the most Chicago-ey episode ever recorded in BBB history! Do you feel unbridled rage at the sight of another person taking YOUR parking spot? Are YOU still looking for parking in the loop at this moment? Does the show Seinfeld resonate a little too much...
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The Unholy Beef Between Deel and Rippling
Drama alert! Time to become a gossip channel! Two HR tech firms are beefing, diva! In a very rare Busted Business Bureau about a current topic, I invited my dear cherished lovely friend Alex to come gab about classic corporate espionage gone awry. This easy, breezy beautiful episode was sponsored...
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Cracker Barrel Restaurant
Pull over to a gas station and grab the most decadent meal before listening to this freak show of an episode of Busted Business Bureau! For the first time in podcast history, the guests are able to steamroll me for more than 7 sentences overall. As the hosts of a comedy podcast about the…
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The Villages Retirement Community in Florida
Fighting off the urge to green out guest EMMA DAY is back on the podcast for some geriatric fun! Join us as we talk about the developer behind The Villages senior living community in America's gorgeous right ventricle, Florida. Home to some of Florida's key rightwing voting bloc, The Villages has...
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Ford F-150s
Adam Conover - unmedicated and toes out - joins me on my epic return to podcasting in this episode about the Ford Motor Company! This chaotic traipse through Ford's history takes us all over the globe (and by that, I mean to the Amazon Rainforest over and over again!) From bumbling sex pest...
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Blackwater
Do you ever have a years-long hyperfixation with a company no one's heard about? Blender Bluid and Amy Do continue our millions-years-long season about private military contractors. This time, I'm telling them about the worst of the worst: Betsy DeVos' brother Erik Prince's rich kid lodge!...
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The BDS Interlude
Been awhile, besties! Hello again! This is an episode that was ostensibly about Bechtel Corp (the construction company, not the lesbian cartoonist), but it got away from me and became an exploration into the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. An organized, peaceful method of resistance...
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Kellogg Brown and Root 3: Return of the King (Extended Edition) Two Disk Set
I PROMISE this is the last part to our exploration of KBR! This episode features a big thematic swing of including the best food review of all time throughout the episode. If you’re into gargantuan oil failures, extensive explanations of holes, politically correct GOOP, or droopy baked alaskas…
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Kellogg, Brown and Root 2: Electric Boogaloo
HI YALL! Forgive the delay; I am already on tour and didn't realize I wouldn't have wi-fi! This was uploaded as a labor of my hot spot's love. Here's the part 2 no one asked for! Let's perfect our Lois Griffin impression Whiplash-style, crack open a $247 soda, and order 50,000 pounds of nails to...
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Kellogg, Brown and Root
Amy Do and Blender Bluid continue on our season-long journey into private military contracting! Avarice incarnate with a healthy heap of political parasitism, we're talking about the origins of KBR. Do you know how to build a nuclear power plant? No? Who gives a hoot! Let's try it anyway! Along…
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Halliburton
Dipping my toe into making things way too personal with this episode about a giant oil conglomerate! Who doesn't fucking love that? Amy Do and Blender Bluid are BACK, baby, to do just a tiny bit more set dressing on this season. We're talking about procurement; how did the companies in the…
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Private Military Contracting: A Laymen's Legal Analysis
HELLO AGAIN, BESTIES! Amy Do and Blender Bluid join me for a season-long exploration into private military contracting. This specific episode explores some legal precedents that allow military contractors to operate with effective immunity from the law. Picture I just said that but in a SUPER…
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BBB Season 6 Update!
Hello besties! I'm just a girl with vocal nodes in a podcasting world!
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He Gets Us
Hey kids...who likes #Jesus?? Christian McCann is on the pod so I can finally answer questions he's been asking me for like a year now. Why is there a marketing campaign for Christianity, and who is paying for it? As it turns out, the answer is something that will matter for 10 billion more…
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Piggly Wiggly
Franklin Pierce impersonator Dylan Cohen drops by to gab about the grocery store that totally changed the game: Piggly Wiggly! I'm thrilled to have this season's rascal-centered episode, and I'm VERY excited to add a new weirdo from the early 1900s to the BBB collection. Grab your bibles, label...
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The Imperial and Economic Consequences of Bird Shit
Who wants to get drunk and talk about 1800s agriculture? MEEEEE apparently! Join myself and my sweet special friend J. T. Kost for an episode detailing the guano boom and bust of the 1800s: drunken reenactments of the Last Supper, yadda-yadda-ing our way through unprecendented imperial expansion,...
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Hewlett-Packard (HP)
Brazen antifeminist woman in STEM, Sarah, joins me to discuss the factory of girlfailures: Hewlett-Packard! Revolutionizing the world of personal-computers-you-kinda-know, this company has been run by a cavalcade of silly little clowns since at least 1999. This episode is packed top to bottom…
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The Legacy of Pat Tillman
Amy Do and Blender Bluid join me to unpack the lengthy, complicated story of Pat Tillman. For a typically facts-dense podcast about corporate wrongdoings, this episode is decidedly more opinionated -- this isn't a single business for which we can dig up public reports, lawsuits, etc. Rather, this...
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Waste Management, INC
Dry mouthed Emma Day did me a huge favor coming onto this podcast last-minute for a WHIRLWIND episode about trash. If you love cathaters and sewage being dumped into your Hawai'ian vacation resort water, suing a district attorney out of spite for 7 years, or committing literal textbook financial...
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Toys "R" Us
My friend who loves a shot and a beer, Karsten Runquist, joins me for this exploratory episode about the ins and outs of the United States' beloved decrepit children's toy retail store, Toys R Us! Let's get jiggy with some brankruptcy docey-do's, George HW Bush's infamous trip to Japan, giraffe...
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Abbott Laboratories
HIEEEEE!!!!! I'm back! My third-string comedian, first-string friend Kate joins me to talk about a company that has gotten away with evils that take place during every stage of a life cycle: Abbott Laboratories. If you like undercover FBI stings with costumes, vile descriptions of bacteria…
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Hertz
If you're looking for a season finale where I nearly spit out my Diet Coke several times, this episode is for you. I'll be honest: I wrote a pretty solid script involving Hertz's century-long history with highlights including consistent overcharging, under-delivering on vehicles, becoming a meme...
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Southwest Airlines
Longtime friend, firsttime caller Jon Oppenheimer finally joins my podcast to continue my tradition of not being quite topical by analyzing a months-old news thing: Southwest Airlines! December 2022 was far from the company's only meltdown that caused nationwide disaster. But Jon asked me to make...
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Liz Carmichael: Scammer, Girlboss, Little Rascal
All I can say is I knocked it out of the park with this one. I'm finally telling my sweet friend Cookie the story of my absolute FAVORITE scammer: Liz Carmichael. This one's got everything: libertarian science fiction, engineering mishaps, three wheeled cars, stock fraud, Unsolved Mysteries, and…
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RuPaul's Drag Race
My beloved friend Derry Queen joins me for a real fast-and-loose episode about RuPaul's Drag Race. This one was a very fun episode for me because it's less heavy on the research since Derry has a lot of personal experience relating to the show. The standard working conditions in reality TV are...
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Juul
Remember when Juul was a verb? The generecized word for vape? I REMEMBER! That business really came and went like a beautiful comet. Joining me to talk about the historic rise and fall of Juul is my dear friend Emma Day! The legal machinations behind regulating cigarettes is FASCINATING, and the...
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The Industry of School Shooting Safety
Blender Bluid and Amy Do are back on the podcast for a VERY absurd episode. We get into the down and dirty of the free market's response to the very USA-based problem of school-based gun violence. As far as the more grim episodes go, this is one that we tried to bring a lot of levity to…
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The Center for COVID Control
Swiss Miss Ali Fish(er) is on the pod to talk about one of the most prolific COVID testing scam sites in the country. What I didn't realize is how piecemeal our testing infrastructure was over the past 2 years, and this particular scam goes fucking nuts. How can two owners of an axe throwing…
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BBB 2022: A Year in Review
**REUPLOADED, IDK WHY THIS EPISODE IS GIVING ME SUCH A PAIN IN MY ASS So I just closed out ONE WHOLE YEAR of this podcast! The first episode was January 3, 2022. It's now Jan 2, 2023 (honestly, I thought this episode uploaded but it simply didn't LOL) Here is a self-indulgent, naval gazey episode...
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The NHL: A Greek Tragedy in Three Acts
The wickedly talented, remarkably hungover Christian McCann drops back into the pod to talk about his only personality trait: hockey. If you like insurance fraud, broadway plays, or describing labor stoppages using the imagery of an ancient greek myth turned modern broadway musical....you're…
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The NFL (mostly the Washington Commanders)
World's biggest fact-knower, KP, is back on the podcast to talk a little bit about the National Football League's greatest franchise, the Washington Commanders. Dan Snyder's circus of finding bold, brave, and inventive ways to hork as much money out of patrons as possible. Grab a beer for the...
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The MLB
We're back! Iconic ex-roommate duo, Danaka and Nic, join me on the pod to go through the history of America's passtime. There's sure as hell a lot of shady business doings here! We'll talk about how labor relations for players have improved (and not!) over pro ball's 100+ year history. My major...
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Monsanto 8: The Acquisition. The Antitrust Jubilee. The Awards.
WE'VE GONE AND DONE IT! EIGHT HOURS LATER, THE MONSANTO SEASON IS COMPLETE! This episode goes over Bayer's disastrous acquisition of Monsanto, how the antitrust division of the US government is simply set up to fail, and we have a look back on all of the hee-hees and haw-haws of the Monsanto...
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Monsanto 7: The Good Fight
Barehanded honeykeeping, moms-on-facebook, and deadly scientific coverups are all converging to form the final bell toll for Monsanto's mortal time. With all of the doom-and-gloom from past episodes, you're probably wondering how this company...doesn't...still exist, given its titanic political,...
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Monsanto 6: PR and Philanthropy
What would you say the work-life balance is on the Death Star? This episode follows a path down the Monsanto communications rabbit hole. PRAD majors, get your forks! Come eat! Blender Bluid, Amy Do and I try to answer a key question throughout the episode: do the entry/mid-level Monsanto...
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Monsanto 5: Bovine Growth Hormone
This one's a banger, no way around it. This one will give a detailed history of Monsanto's relationship with the FDA -- spoilers, it literally goes ALL the way back -- and how the FDA was complicit in the expediting of Bovine Growth Hormone. We also go on a very long tangent on if the father of...
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Monsanto 4: The Roundup Episode
This is the birth of Modern Monsanto, and it takes quite a turn from the previous episodes. Instead of talking about the diseases and human suffering as a result of the products (like we've been doing at length), we're going to be looking at the sexy, muscular legal arm of Monsanto. Clarence…
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Monsanto 3: Superfund Sites and Slag
Hello again, y'all! This episode's all about the ENVIRONMENT and it is a real doozy. If you choose for some reason to start with this one, understand that we'd been in the studio for hours at this point. Blender Bluid, Amy Do and I were all simply transcending the mortal form. Anyways, in this...
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Monsanto 2: The US Army, Vietnam, and Agent Orange
All in all, this is a comedy podcast. But this is definitely one of the darkest episodes I've made. It's really important to me and it's heartbreaking...huge content warning for gruesome body horror. I'm really proud of this one, and despite it all, Amy and Blender Bluid managed to make this one...
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Monsanto
SEASON 3 LET'S GO! This episode is the first of 8 in a FULL MONSANTO SEASON!!! I'd recommend starting with this episode; it will provide a complete timeline of Monsanto's wacky history and will give us some surprise tools to help us in later episodes. Blender Bluid and Amy Do are the guests for…
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Season 3 Update!!!
Oops! I accidentally wrote an 8 part episode and decided to make it its own season! LOL! Season 3 is coming September 5. Listen to this teaser to find out what the topic will be and the new release schedule. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LISTENING TO THIS PODCAST! All of your kind words make me so happy!...
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An Episode About Rats
Dr. Alex Berr is on the pod to 1) brutally roast me several times and 2) help me think about the questions regarding the business of selling and distributing animals. The question that drives this episode is: Are animals products? We talk about the industry standards for both pet rats and lab…
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BONUS: Second City's "A Red Line Runs Through It"
Aasia Lashay is BACK for what I'm calling a bonus episode, but is simply the length of a regular episode. They were in a Second City show years ago that wound up being the centerpiece of a reverse racism discrimination lawsuit. The complaint never went anywhere, so years later, she's on this pod…
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BetterHelp
A woman with literally no water signs in her astrological chart through Pluto, Claire Rufin, joins me to throw away any chances I had at getting sponsored by BetterHelp! I'm working through a lot of my own understanding on the subjects in this episode, including how a CEO who is presumably worth...
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Johnson & Johnson's Risperdal: For the Boys!
Dan Carroll, who is one of the boys, joins me for probably the most fucked up episode I've made to date. Medical horror abound, this one is certainly dark. If you think illegally marketing a drug to be used off-label for disabled children is bad, it's literally not even scratching the surface of...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A painstakingly researched comedy podcast about businesses’ scams, scandals, and shenanigans. Written and hosted by Christian Borkey
HOSTED BY
Christian Borkey
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Busted Business Bureau have?
Busted Business Bureau currently has 67 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Busted Business Bureau about?
A painstakingly researched comedy podcast about businesses’ scams, scandals, and shenanigans. Written and hosted by Christian Borkey
How often does Busted Business Bureau release new episodes?
Busted Business Bureau has 67 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Busted Business Bureau?
You can listen to Busted Business Bureau on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Busted Business Bureau?
Busted Business Bureau is created and hosted by Christian Borkey.
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