Spectacular Failures
5.0/5
Critic Rating
4.5/5
Listener Rating
Corporate crookedness. Family feuding. Hilariously half-baked decisions. Host Lauren Ober tackles some of the most spectacular business failures of all time, and what could have been done to avoid them. Some of these stories are shocking. Some are funny. Some are just downright sad. But each one will give you a totally new perspective on big business… and big failure. From American Public Media.
Critic Reviews
Score: 4.8
Arielle Nissenblatt • Bello Collective • Dec 2, 2020
"I’m a huge fan of any story that includes history, geography, and depressed upstate New York towns. Lauren Ober is a very talented orator — she throws listeners puns, thought questions, and so much more. Each sentence in this entire podcast seems to be carefully crafted to give listeners both knowledge and entertainment."
Score: 5
Frank Racioppi • Discover Pods • Apr 7, 2020
"Spectacular Failures doesn’t just abandon the familiar playbook for business podcasts – earnest, sober and pedantic – it unearths a quirky tone that seamlessly switches between being hilarious and whimsical. And that playful mood emanates from host Lauren Ober, who easily navigates the serious with the silly. Spectacular Failures deftly presents listeners with the ultimate business irony."
Score: 5
Air Mail Staff • Air Mail • Aug 17, 2019
"...an absorbing and addictive corrective to Guy Raz’s cheerleading interviews with successful entrepreneurs...With authority and a jocular manner, the host, Lauren Ober, examines the market forces..."
Score: 5
Fiona Sturges • Financial Times • Jul 27, 2019
"...thanks to Ober’s narration, which mixes historical context with witty commentary, it’s enormously entertaining. These are delicious tales of greed, mismanagement and recrimination, and I can’t get enough of them."
Listener Reviews
Score: 4.5
Imran A. • Jul 19, 2020
"Refreshed my memory on how huge Kodak was in the film picture world. A great example of how companies do not adjust for the time, especially if they invented it! I really enjoy the story telling of host Lauren Ober. She clear when she speaks and has her light hearted dad-jokes. I do want to visit Rochester, NY and Kodak's museums etc. "
Score: 4.5
Imran A. • Jul 19, 2020
"Another one from the Spectaular Failures pod that I can relate to. The pirvate equity, big box retailer, and even the classic jingle make the cut. God, I miss that jingle. Bankruptcy education abound. "
