About this episode
<a href="https://tix.to/pm-book-tour"target="_blank" >Live event info and tickets here.</a> <br/><br/>If your company got bought by a private equity firm, how would you feel? Maybe a little nervous? You might find yourself wondering if there will be layoffs.<br/><br/>And you’d be right to worry about that. Research shows that while private equity ownership can boost a company’s productivity, it does generally result in job cuts. <br/><br/>But one private equity executive is trying to do things a different way – giving workers equity, little cuts of ownership in their own companies. To see if doing so can improve outcomes overall. <br/><br/>On today’s show, private equity is not widely beloved for its societal costs – job losses, product degradation, worsening inequality. And this one guy at this one firm can’t solve all of his industry’s ills. But for the past 15 years, he’s been running a large-scale, real-world experiment to see if giving workers ownership can fit into the big bad world of PE. And maybe lead to more … equity. <br/><br/>Recommended Listening/Reading:<br/><br/><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/02/21/147223073/the-tuesday-podcast-what-do-private-equity-firms-actually-do"target="_blank" >What Do Private Equity Firms Actually Do?</a><br><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/07/30/1256429500/the-risk-of-private-equity-in-your-401k"target="_blank" >The risk of private equity in your 401(k)</a><br><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2025/09/09/g-s1-87699/private-equity-corporate-landlords"target="_blank" >Here's what happens when private equity buys homes in your neighborhood</a> (newsletter)<br><a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/22/861378110/j-screwed"target="_blank" >JScrewed</a> <br/><br/><a href="https://www.planetmoneybook.com/"target="_blank" ><em>Find the Planet Money book</em></a><em>. / </em><a href="https://n.pr/3HlREPz"target="_blank" ><em>Subscribe to Planet Money+</em></a><br/><br/><em>Listen free: </em><a href="http://n.pr/PM-digital"target="_blank" ><em>Apple Podcasts</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://n.pr/3gTkQlR"target="_blank" ><em>Spotify</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://n.pr/3Bkb17W"target="_blank" ><em>the NPR app</em></a><em> or anywhere you get podcasts.</em><br/><br/><a href="https://n.pr/3h92GwS"target="_blank" ><em>Facebook</em></a><em> / </em><a href="https://n.pr/3FqLuws"target="_blank" ><em>Instagram</em></a><em> / </em><a href="https://n.pr/3sGZdrq"target="_blank" ><em>TikTok</em></a><em> / Our weekly </em><a href="https://n.pr/3zrFvUB"target="_blank" ><em>Newsletter</em></a><em>.</em><br/><br/><em>This episode was hosted by Mary Childs and Wailin Wong. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang with an assist from Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, engineered by Cena Loffredo with help from Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is </em>Planet Money’s<em> executive producer. </em><br/><br/><em>Music: Universal Production Music - "Make Me Want You," "Baby I Surrender," and "Bye Bye Bye"</em><br/><br/>See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>