Greetings from F52 HQ

Join us at Food52's Nobody Cares Speaker Series

RSVP for our next event, October 29, with Erika Ayers Badan, Rennae Stubbs, and Hector Peñate.

by:
October 17, 2024
Photo by Kelly Kenneally

You've read about our new CEO, Erika Ayers Badan (formerly the CEO of Barstool Sports) and her new book, Nobody Cares About Your Career. But in case you haven't heard: We’ve launched a series of talks about blazing your own trail at work called the Nobody Cares Speaker Series.

Each month, Erika invites a singular talent (or two) to our Brooklyn HQ and puts them in the hot seat. Our next event on October 29th features two guests—professional tennis coach, six-time Grand Slam champ, and current ESPN commentator Rennae Stubbs and "the internet's most positive" performance coach Hector Peñate.

RSVP here for the October event, which will be filled with great conversations, delicious drinks and snacks. And be sure to pop in your career Qs when you RSVP—Erika, Rennae, and Hector will be answering a few at the end of the evening.

Get in touch if you'd like to collaborate with us!

Photo by Ty Mecham

How to get to Food52

To get to our HQ, located in Dock 72 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, you can take the NYC Ferry (it stops right in front of the building), Uber/Lyft, or the subway. Can't wait to see you here!

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

Food52 (we cook 52 weeks a year, get it?) is a food and home brand, here to help you eat thoughtfully and live joyfully.

1 Comment

Jillkn September 12, 2024
Nobody cares? Well I care about Erika Ayers Badan’s eight-year career as enabler in chief to Barstool founder David Portnoy, whose history of virulent and vicious misogyny —https://www.mediamatters.org/barstool-sports/barstool-sports-cesspool-misogyny-and-bigotry — has been well documented: https://iris.virginia.edu/5-things-you-should-know-about-barstool-sports-if-you-care-about-being-good-person. He built Barstool by encouraging and
promoting degrading comments, jokes and attitudes about women— https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-barstool-sports-culture-of-online-hate-they-treat-sexual-harassment-and-cyberbullying-as-a-game —
and enlists his fans to harass his critics. https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2021/11/08/media-barstool-sports-portnoy-insider/

A thoughtful piece about Barstool from a student at Northern Arizona State (most universities have an affiliated Barstool University Instagram account) — is worth a read, too. It’s titled “Don’t Overlook the Problematic Nature of Barstool Sports.” Among other things, the reporter questions how encouraging and normalizing sexist language and attitudes among young men can affect the workplace. Perhaps you should have a lunch and learn about that. https://www.jackcentral.org/opinion/don-t-overlook-the-problematic-nature-of-barstool-sports/article_13216598-6550-11ee-9a45-57e51a6bfb65.html

As far as I know, Ayers Baydan has never disavowed or even criticized any of Portnoy’s behavior. Boys will be boys, I guess. In fact, what appears to be her one public comment about him, in a video she posted as she was leaving Barstool, was, “I feel so good about Dave.” I guess because he was good for her career. (And anyway, no one cares about your career, right?)

I get it. She helped build the Barstool brand, and she was very good at it. Which is exactly the point. Naming Ayars Badan as the new CEO of Food 52 was a cynical and disappointing choice. Plus she just seems like a mean piece of work. Here’s an anecdote from Portnoy himself about how tough she is, in a profile of her in Vanity Fair:

“Like when she got shit on Twitter for wearing a shirt during an interview that read “Feminine,” which a commenter thought read “Feminist” and took great offense to, given Barstool’s point of view. Ayers Badan responded to that critique: “It’s cashmere, bitch.” A poster of the phrase hangs above her desk.”

Wonder if she brought that poster to the Food 52 office.
Drinks with Erika? No thanks.