We just talked live with business and climate reporter David Gelles, who’s written about capitalism and CEOs in a complimentary and critical way and has a new book out today, titled Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away. In it, he tells us how Patagonia’s CEO actually did give it all away — not just cashing out and donating some of his money, but transferring ownership of the company to a non-profit legally committed to contributing all of its profits to environmental causes, in perpetuity. We talked about:
How most CEOs would rather be like Chouinard, even though they work and act within a system that produces and rewards the kind of sociopathic leadership pioneered by GE’s Jack Welch
Whether business leaders acting virtuously on their own can solve any problems, or are they just providing cover for a broken system?
How business journalism has — or hasn’t — been able to tell the real story of American capitalism, warts and all, and how reporters can do a better job
Just click on the video player above to watch the entire conversation.
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Join us for more Live conversation this week!
Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 10, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll speak with civil rights and human rights attorney and Knight First Amendment Institute director Jameel Jaffer about fighting back against the Trump administration in court.
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