1
00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:05,640
Speaker 1: I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon

2
00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:10,719
Speaker 1: customer because you guys paid progress. You guys paid probs.

3
00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:16,360
Speaker 1: This is Megacore, an investigative podcast exposing some of the

4
00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:22,840
Speaker 1: world's most unethical corporations. This series is about Amazon. I'm

5
00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:30,120
Speaker 1: Jake Hanrahan, journalists and documentary filmmaker. Megacorp is produced by

6
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:39,120
Speaker 1: H eleven for Cool Zone Media. Today we're going to

7
00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:43,600
Speaker 1: be looking into Jeff Bezos is Blue Origin. Now this

8
00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:45,800
Speaker 1: is going to sound a bit weird, but when I

9
00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:50,200
Speaker 1: think of the Blue Origin project, I'm always reminded of

10
00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:55,680
Speaker 1: this scene from the video game Command and Conquer Red Alert,

11
00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:00,319
Speaker 1: I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been did

12
00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:08,920
Speaker 1: by capitalism. Space. Not even Command and Conquer, a war

13
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:13,760
Speaker 1: game set in an alternate reality, could predict that megacorporations

14
00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:18,440
Speaker 1: would start to commercialize space. But here we are two

15
00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:22,800
Speaker 1: and Bezos, the richest man on Earth, is sending other

16
00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,480
Speaker 1: rich people into space. Will sort of into space. Blue

17
00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:29,800
Speaker 1: Origin doesn't actually quite get there, but we'll go into

18
00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:32,680
Speaker 1: that later in the episode. Now, if you don't know

19
00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:37,480
Speaker 1: what Blue Origin is, let's start at the beginning. Preparing

20
00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:41,600
Speaker 1: for a rocket towered mile per hour excursion to the

21
00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:45,120
Speaker 1: edge of space. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will take his

22
00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:49,000
Speaker 1: astral journey on the New Shepherd, a reusable rocket developed

23
00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:56,800
Speaker 1: by his company Blue Origet start to one, New Shepherd

24
00:01:56,880 --> 00:01:59,840
Speaker 1: was designed to shuttle up to six paying customers more

25
00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:02,920
Speaker 1: than sixty two miles above the worth surfaced for a

26
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:06,960
Speaker 1: few moments of waitlessness and panoramic views burning the fires

27
00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:11,480
Speaker 1: their astronaut wings. So Blue Origin is Jeff Bezos is

28
00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:16,240
Speaker 1: private space flight company, Bezos, of course being the founder

29
00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:20,640
Speaker 1: of Amazon. Despite only really getting media attention in the

30
00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:24,000
Speaker 1: last year or so due to its several rocket launches,

31
00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:29,160
Speaker 1: Blue Origin was actually incorporated on the eighth of September

32
00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,640
Speaker 1: in the year two thousand. Bezos clearly had this idea

33
00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,120
Speaker 1: in his head for a long time before he made

34
00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:39,240
Speaker 1: it a reality. Blue Origin has several different facets to it,

35
00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:41,760
Speaker 1: but the main aim of the company is to make

36
00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:46,000
Speaker 1: it easier and cheaper for people to visit space, not

37
00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:51,240
Speaker 1: just astronauts or scientists or NASA, anybody who can afford it.

38
00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:55,679
Speaker 1: On their website, Blue Origins say they are quote committed

39
00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:58,440
Speaker 1: to building a road to space so our children can

40
00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:02,120
Speaker 1: build the future. End quote. It sounds a bit ominous

41
00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:04,520
Speaker 1: to me. To be honest, it's weird considering we're talking

42
00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:08,600
Speaker 1: about potentially colonizing space here. I'd say there's plenty to

43
00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,800
Speaker 1: be fixed on Earth before we think about that. But anyway,

44
00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:16,080
Speaker 1: so Blue Origin goes on to say, quote Blue Origin

45
00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,920
Speaker 1: was founded by Jeff Bezos with the vision of enabling

46
00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:23,240
Speaker 1: a future where millions of people are living and working

47
00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:27,160
Speaker 1: in space for the benefit of Earth. In order to

48
00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:30,960
Speaker 1: preserve Earth, Blue Origin believes that humanity will need to

49
00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:36,640
Speaker 1: expand explore, find new energy and material resources, and move

50
00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:41,520
Speaker 1: industries that stress Earth into space. Blue is working on

51
00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,800
Speaker 1: this today by developing partially and fully reusable launch vehicles

52
00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,120
Speaker 1: that are safe, low cost, and serve the needs of

53
00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:55,360
Speaker 1: all civil, commercial, and defense customers. Blue Origin has been

54
00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:59,360
Speaker 1: flight testing the new Shepherd rocket and it's redundant safety

55
00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:05,240
Speaker 1: systems since The program has had eighteen successful consecutive missions,

56
00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:09,640
Speaker 1: including three successful escape tests, showing the crew escape system

57
00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,320
Speaker 1: can activate safely in any phase of flight. End quote.

58
00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:17,000
Speaker 1: Now this might not be relevant, but as a side

59
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:19,560
Speaker 1: note here, as I was researching all of this, it

60
00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:24,040
Speaker 1: struck me that the Blue Origin website feels quite amateur

61
00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:28,839
Speaker 1: considering the gravity of what they're doing. For example, it's

62
00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:33,440
Speaker 1: quite badly written with extremely long sentences. Their copyright is

63
00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:35,880
Speaker 1: out of day on the foot of the page. Some

64
00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:38,440
Speaker 1: of the photos used are out of focus or people

65
00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:41,400
Speaker 1: are called mid blink, and the logo isn't even at

66
00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:43,760
Speaker 1: the top of the site. I don't know, I'm an

67
00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:46,680
Speaker 1: absolute knock case for stuff like that, but I couldn't

68
00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:48,920
Speaker 1: go into space with them off the back of their

69
00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:54,120
Speaker 1: website anyway. That's Blue Origin. You might remember when Bezos

70
00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:57,640
Speaker 1: first went into sort of space on one of the

71
00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:03,240
Speaker 1: New Shepherd rockets on the the eight of July. After

72
00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:06,400
Speaker 1: landing back on the ground, he came out with this

73
00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:13,240
Speaker 1: now infamous speech, I want to thank every Amazon employee

74
00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:16,960
Speaker 1: and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all

75
00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:22,400
Speaker 1: this so seriously, for every Amazon customer out there and

76
00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:24,760
Speaker 1: every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my

77
00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:31,760
Speaker 1: heart very much. It's very appreciated. At the time, when

78
00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:35,640
Speaker 1: Bezos came out with this at the press conference, surrounded

79
00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:38,400
Speaker 1: by other rich people who had just gone to sub

80
00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:42,560
Speaker 1: orbital space with him, Amazon was in the news for

81
00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:47,920
Speaker 1: surprise mistreatment of workers and union busting. As you can

82
00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:50,880
Speaker 1: imagine Bezos turning around and saying thanks for your custom

83
00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:53,479
Speaker 1: it's allowed me to fly off into space was not

84
00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:56,479
Speaker 1: really well received by the Amazon workers and anyone that

85
00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:00,719
Speaker 1: has an issue with Amazon workers being mistreated. Anyway. Blue

86
00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:04,920
Speaker 1: Origin stresses that to keep costs down, their rockets are

87
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:10,320
Speaker 1: all about reusability, they say quote. Both New Shepherd and

88
00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:13,839
Speaker 1: New Glen, one of their other shuttles, have been designed

89
00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:18,000
Speaker 1: with reusability in mind from the beginning. Their vertical takeoff

90
00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:22,919
Speaker 1: vertical landing architecture enables us to reuse the first stage

91
00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:27,480
Speaker 1: of our launch vehicles twenty five times with minimal refurbishment,

92
00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:32,119
Speaker 1: resulting in twenty five times less waste because we don't

93
00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:36,719
Speaker 1: throw the hardware away. Both vehicles have throttle herble liquid

94
00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:42,640
Speaker 1: fueled engines, allowing for precision landing back on the landing platform.

95
00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:46,680
Speaker 1: This allows for higher asset utilization for all our vehicles,

96
00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:51,800
Speaker 1: which decreases the costs and increases availability for all our customers.

97
00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:55,599
Speaker 1: End quote. Doesn't seem that the person who wrote that

98
00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:59,840
Speaker 1: has ever heard of punctuation um and again on a side, No,

99
00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,239
Speaker 1: that wasn't quite verbatim, as I had to correct spelling

100
00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:08,120
Speaker 1: mistakes and glaringly obvious syntax typos from a Blue Origins

101
00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:12,200
Speaker 1: official website. But anyway, so, as I just said, Bezos

102
00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:16,880
Speaker 1: is Blue Origin is saying twenty five times less hardware waste.

103
00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:22,720
Speaker 1: But what about the environmental impact. According to the twenty

104
00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:27,840
Speaker 1: twenty two World Inequality Report, one space flight emits more

105
00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,800
Speaker 1: carbon dioxide the most of the world's population creates in

106
00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:36,160
Speaker 1: their entire lifetime. To me, knowing that, it seems a

107
00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:39,720
Speaker 1: bit ironic for Blue Origin to be talking about paving

108
00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:43,000
Speaker 1: the way to a brighter future for our kids when

109
00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:47,000
Speaker 1: they're very emmo of regular commercial space flights will destroy

110
00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:50,040
Speaker 1: the Earth's environment quicker. Now. It's not about do you

111
00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:52,280
Speaker 1: believe in climate change or anything like that. This is

112
00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:56,080
Speaker 1: just a fact of what is happening now. Whilst Blue

113
00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:59,360
Speaker 1: Origin says it wants to make commercial space travel cheap,

114
00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:02,320
Speaker 1: they don't mean the same kind of cheap as the

115
00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:06,080
Speaker 1: way most people understand it cheap to me, for example,

116
00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:10,120
Speaker 1: is say thirty pence for a point of milk. My

117
00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:12,840
Speaker 1: point is the people who will be taking these space

118
00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:18,800
Speaker 1: flights will almost definitely already be very rich for them.

119
00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:21,720
Speaker 1: Sure it might be cheap, but for your average man

120
00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:24,760
Speaker 1: and woman on the street, Blue Origins space trips will

121
00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:31,200
Speaker 1: be completely and utterly unobtainable forever. So in theory, whilst

122
00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:35,120
Speaker 1: these rich people are flying around like the Jetsons claiming

123
00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:38,880
Speaker 1: to be advancing society for us every day man and

124
00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:42,640
Speaker 1: woman are getting blasted in the long run with unprecedented

125
00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:48,079
Speaker 1: levels of carbon dioxide build up in the atmosphere. Now,

126
00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:51,960
Speaker 1: why does carbon dioxide matter, Well, if there's too much

127
00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:55,320
Speaker 1: carbon dioxide, the Earth gets too hot. If the Earth

128
00:08:55,360 --> 00:08:59,520
Speaker 1: gets too hot, we're all fucked. Basically, the oceans will

129
00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:03,080
Speaker 1: go top sick, food will become scarce, crops won't grow,

130
00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:08,920
Speaker 1: and brutal climate wars will undoubtedly erupt. Carbon dioxide levels

131
00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:11,880
Speaker 1: have been steadily rising on Earth for the past one

132
00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:16,960
Speaker 1: years now, hitting levels that scientists say have been unprecedented

133
00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:20,720
Speaker 1: for hundreds of thousands of years. So we already reckon

134
00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:24,000
Speaker 1: the shop due to excessive pollution where the carbon dioxide

135
00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:27,920
Speaker 1: level has come from. Now, the rich commercial space people

136
00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:31,200
Speaker 1: want to save us by dumping out a load more

137
00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:35,600
Speaker 1: carbon dioxide via space shuttles, will never be able to

138
00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,320
Speaker 1: afford to riding. Doesn't sound like a great deal to me.

139
00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:43,679
Speaker 1: Here's something from the World Inequality Report that I just

140
00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:46,880
Speaker 1: mentioned that really sums up all of this. In a

141
00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:52,560
Speaker 1: more technical manner. Quote. Perhaps the most conspicuous illustration of

142
00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:57,800
Speaker 1: extreme pollution associated with wealth inequality in recent years is

143
00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:02,600
Speaker 1: the development of space travel and eleven minutes flight emitst

144
00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:06,520
Speaker 1: no fewer than seventy five tons of carbon per passenger.

145
00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:11,480
Speaker 1: About one billion individuals emits less than one ton per

146
00:10:11,559 --> 00:10:16,600
Speaker 1: person per year over their lifetime. This group of one

147
00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:21,480
Speaker 1: billion individuals does not omit more than seventy five tons

148
00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:26,839
Speaker 1: of carbon per person. Ends quote. Now, they didn't say

149
00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:31,000
Speaker 1: which commercial space company they're referring to here, but bear

150
00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:34,440
Speaker 1: in mind that Bezos is Blue origin flight in July

151
00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:40,120
Speaker 1: was about eleven minutes long, and this article mentions and

152
00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:52,480
Speaker 1: eleven minutes space flight. Well, this isn't just speculation either.

153
00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:57,080
Speaker 1: In the U S government themselves released the report acknowledging

154
00:10:57,120 --> 00:11:01,000
Speaker 1: that climate change will hit low income community tease the hardest.

155
00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:05,520
Speaker 1: The report, known as the fourth National Climate Assessment, was

156
00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:08,880
Speaker 1: created by a team of more than three hundred experts

157
00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:12,680
Speaker 1: from the US government and the private sector. Their aim

158
00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:17,080
Speaker 1: was to analyze the impact of climate change on America.

159
00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:22,200
Speaker 1: As reported by journalist Carmen Chappelle, the government reports states

160
00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:29,920
Speaker 1: that low income populations quotes typically have less access to information, resources, institutions,

161
00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:33,040
Speaker 1: and other factors to prepare for and avoid the health

162
00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:37,280
Speaker 1: risks of climate change. People with a lower income usually

163
00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:41,040
Speaker 1: live in neighborhoods with the greatest exposure to climate and

164
00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:45,920
Speaker 1: extreme whether events end quote so again, the people who

165
00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:49,240
Speaker 1: will be hit the hardest should the world eventually crumble

166
00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,840
Speaker 1: under the weight of too much carbon monoxide will be

167
00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:56,320
Speaker 1: those with less money, likely the sort of people who

168
00:11:56,400 --> 00:11:59,480
Speaker 1: end up working in an Amazon warehouse. All of this

169
00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:02,040
Speaker 1: is core le just to get to the outer limits

170
00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:06,280
Speaker 1: of our atmosphere. That would obviously be a very cool experience.

171
00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:08,120
Speaker 1: It looks really cool when you see the videos of

172
00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:11,199
Speaker 1: Blue Origin. It's a lot of damage to the environment

173
00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:15,040
Speaker 1: to not actually get out into space proper. These flights

174
00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:17,920
Speaker 1: are sub orbital, they go to the edge of space,

175
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:22,480
Speaker 1: but not Neil Armstrong or buzz Older in space right now.

176
00:12:22,559 --> 00:12:26,480
Speaker 1: It's just a very rich person's fairground ride dressed up

177
00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:30,520
Speaker 1: as the future of civilization. I wanted to talk about

178
00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:34,080
Speaker 1: the dangers it poses to the environment, not to be preachy,

179
00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:36,679
Speaker 1: but to show that when Blue Origin is talking about

180
00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:40,000
Speaker 1: building a future for our kids, they're either not taken

181
00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:43,680
Speaker 1: into account how badly this could affect people from lower

182
00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:48,400
Speaker 1: socio economic backgrounds, or they just don't care. You can

183
00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:52,720
Speaker 1: decide which when it is yourself. The carbon monoxide dumping

184
00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:56,840
Speaker 1: is not the only issue related to Blue Origin. As

185
00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:00,360
Speaker 1: is with every tentacle of the beast that is Amazon,

186
00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:04,720
Speaker 1: there is always a scandal of foot. Blue Origin is

187
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:10,240
Speaker 1: no different. Serious allegations of past safety practices and the

188
00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:13,760
Speaker 1: workplace culture at Blue Origin. That's a space company founded

189
00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:17,679
Speaker 1: by billionaire Jeff Bezos. Ally Abrahams is one of a

190
00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:21,280
Speaker 1: group of current informer Blue Origin employees who have issued

191
00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:24,400
Speaker 1: a public letter exposing what they describe as a toxic

192
00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:28,840
Speaker 1: atmosphere at the Amazon founders commercial space company. She believes

193
00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:32,640
Speaker 1: the company's sacrifice safety because Bezos wanted to win the

194
00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:37,920
Speaker 1: space race last year. In September, one group of former

195
00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:42,160
Speaker 1: and current Blue Origin employees signed an open letter about

196
00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:45,959
Speaker 1: the company, a legend that Bezos had created an unsafe

197
00:13:46,040 --> 00:13:49,559
Speaker 1: working environment in a bid to win the billionaire commercial

198
00:13:49,679 --> 00:13:54,240
Speaker 1: space race. Twenty one people signed the letter, and they're

199
00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:59,240
Speaker 1: warning that the Blue Origin rockets could be unsafe. One

200
00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:02,079
Speaker 1: of the Blue Orig engineers who signed the open letter

201
00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:06,160
Speaker 1: went as far as to say, quote Blue Origin has

202
00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:10,360
Speaker 1: been lucky that nothing has happened so far. End quote.

203
00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:14,839
Speaker 1: The open letter goes on to say, quote today Blue

204
00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:18,800
Speaker 1: Origin is selling seats on rockets, stating safety is their

205
00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:22,440
Speaker 1: top mission, despite the fact that very few regulations are

206
00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:26,880
Speaker 1: in place to ensure that this is truly the case. Internally,

207
00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:30,760
Speaker 1: many of us did not see leadership invest in prioritizing

208
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:36,000
Speaker 1: sound systems engineering practices. Systems engineering products were created for

209
00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,880
Speaker 1: New Shepherd after it was built and flying, rather than

210
00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:44,920
Speaker 1: in the design phase. This impacted verification efforts end quote.

211
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:49,920
Speaker 1: The letter also claims that Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith

212
00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:54,120
Speaker 1: personally made sure that an authoritarian environment was built at

213
00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:58,400
Speaker 1: Blue Origin to try and stifle any issues employees working

214
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:03,600
Speaker 1: there might have. As we know from previous episodes of Megacorp,

215
00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:08,680
Speaker 1: this is a tried and tested tactic at Amazon in

216
00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:12,840
Speaker 1: the case of Bezos is Blue Origin. Smith's alleged behavior

217
00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:17,280
Speaker 1: main lead to serious safety issues. From the letter, quote

218
00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:23,120
Speaker 1: professional dissent at Blue Origin is actively stifled. Smith personally

219
00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:25,040
Speaker 1: told one of us to not make it easy for

220
00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:29,200
Speaker 1: employees to ask questions at company town Halls, one of

221
00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:33,960
Speaker 1: the only available forums for live open discussion. Smith also

222
00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,280
Speaker 1: asked his CEO for a list of employees who were

223
00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:42,360
Speaker 1: troublemakers or agitators. The list was then distributed to senior

224
00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:46,280
Speaker 1: leaders so they could have a talk with the agitators

225
00:15:46,280 --> 00:15:50,560
Speaker 1: in their groups. Critics inside the company have been forced

226
00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:54,560
Speaker 1: out for speaking up and offering payment in exchange for

227
00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:59,400
Speaker 1: signing even more restrictive nondisclosure agreements, including some of the

228
00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:04,120
Speaker 1: engineers who ensure the very safety of the rockets. Smith's

229
00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:08,120
Speaker 1: in a circle of loyalists, makes unilateral decisions, often without

230
00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:12,400
Speaker 1: the buying of engineers, other experts, or senior leaders across

231
00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:18,160
Speaker 1: various departments. End quote. So, according to these twenty one

232
00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:21,960
Speaker 1: current and former Blue Origin employees who wrote this s

233
00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,520
Speaker 1: A slash open letter, the place is run with a

234
00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:30,520
Speaker 1: STARSI like attitude where profit and speed is more important

235
00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:34,760
Speaker 1: than safety and well being. Where we heard that before,

236
00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:38,680
Speaker 1: It's like as above in space with Blue Origin, so

237
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:50,520
Speaker 1: below in the Amazon warehouse. Let's hear what Blue Origin

238
00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:54,640
Speaker 1: whistleblower Alexandra Abrahams had to say about her time at

239
00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:57,800
Speaker 1: Blue Origin. When I first joined Blue Origin, I felt

240
00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:02,160
Speaker 1: like I was in star Trek, and I think I

241
00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:04,520
Speaker 1: came to tears once when I was saying how grateful

242
00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:06,600
Speaker 1: I was to be a part of this journey. The

243
00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:15,080
Speaker 1: culture was one of collaboration, innovation, excitement, enthusiasm, nerdiness, which

244
00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:19,640
Speaker 1: I just loved. But that did not stay the same

245
00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:22,679
Speaker 1: for very long. She worked there as the head of

246
00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:29,680
Speaker 1: internal communications from Seen to before she was fired, she says,

247
00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:32,920
Speaker 1: because her managers claimed to have lost trust in her.

248
00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:36,240
Speaker 1: I spend my days telling employees how we're saving humanity

249
00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:40,480
Speaker 1: in the planet, and on the other end and having

250
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:44,480
Speaker 1: the woolf holed over my eyes about taking rights away

251
00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:47,520
Speaker 1: from our employees. It was great that Blue Origin was

252
00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:52,879
Speaker 1: smooth and steady and slow until Jeff started becoming impatient

253
00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:57,639
Speaker 1: and Ellen and Branson were getting ahead, and then we

254
00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:01,359
Speaker 1: started to feel this increasing pressure and in patients that

255
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:05,119
Speaker 1: would definitely filter down from leadership. When she's referring to

256
00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:08,159
Speaker 1: Musk and Branson there, she's referring, of course, to Elon

257
00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:12,600
Speaker 1: Musk and Richard Branson. Elon Musk owns space X, He's

258
00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:16,840
Speaker 1: also been sending commercial rockets up into space, and Richard

259
00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:21,000
Speaker 1: Branson has a similar thing with a virgin commercial space

260
00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:25,960
Speaker 1: shuttle thing. According to Alexandra Abraham's the pressure to beat

261
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:29,080
Speaker 1: those law led to an environment of fear in the workplace.

262
00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:35,560
Speaker 1: You cannot create a culture of safety and a culture

263
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:40,520
Speaker 1: of fear at the same time. They are incompatible. Oftentimes,

264
00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:43,560
Speaker 1: when I would try to reconcile what I was hearing

265
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:46,760
Speaker 1: from the engineers who are close to the vehicle versus

266
00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:50,000
Speaker 1: leadership about risk and safety, I would often go to

267
00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:52,320
Speaker 1: leadership and say, Okay, how am I supposed to think

268
00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:55,920
Speaker 1: about this? And often the response would be, oh, well,

269
00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:59,000
Speaker 1: that person in particular just doesn't have a high enough

270
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,040
Speaker 1: risk tolerance. Just doesn't have a high enough risk tolerance.

271
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,200
Speaker 1: That wasn't bad enough. There are several allegations of sexism

272
00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:11,040
Speaker 1: and harassment at Blue Origin. Women in Blue Origin were

273
00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:15,720
Speaker 1: absolutely treated differently than men. Their ideas were not valued

274
00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:21,720
Speaker 1: as much, they were not listened to. So on the surface,

275
00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:25,600
Speaker 1: Blue Origin sounds like our gateway to a sci fire

276
00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,120
Speaker 1: type future. The human race will jump on a Jeff

277
00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:33,080
Speaker 1: Bezos space shuttle and go to work on different planets

278
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:38,120
Speaker 1: to sort of save everyone else on Earth. In reality, though,

279
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:41,680
Speaker 1: the sheer amount of carbon dioxide each trip dumped into

280
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:46,440
Speaker 1: the atmosphere could potentially rapidly increase the levels of pollution

281
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:50,960
Speaker 1: and global warming here on Earth. Not only that from

282
00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:54,760
Speaker 1: what we've just heard there was some very serious allegations

283
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:59,800
Speaker 1: of safety concerns at Blue Origin. Actual engineers have s

284
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,840
Speaker 1: and the open letter saying things like this quote. In

285
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:10,159
Speaker 1: company leaders demonstrated increasing impatience with new Shepherd schedule of

286
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:14,600
Speaker 1: a few flights per year. Their goal, routinely communicated to

287
00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:18,920
Speaker 1: operations and maintenance staff, was to scale to more than

288
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,520
Speaker 1: forty Some of us felt that with the resources and

289
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:27,320
Speaker 1: staff available, leadership's race to launch at such a breakneck

290
00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:34,480
Speaker 1: speed was seriously compromising flight safety. End quote. Now after

291
00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,960
Speaker 1: hearing that, bear in mind that apparently thirteen of the

292
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:42,560
Speaker 1: twenty one people who signed this open letter are engineers

293
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:46,359
Speaker 1: that work or have worked at various different levels in

294
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:50,399
Speaker 1: Blue Origin. This isn't just somebody pulling this out of

295
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:54,560
Speaker 1: thin air. These people know what they're doing. As if

296
00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:57,800
Speaker 1: the safety allegations weren't bad enough, there's this to top

297
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:03,080
Speaker 1: it off. Allegations that a quotes former executive frequently treated

298
00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:07,120
Speaker 1: women in a condescending and the meaning manner, calling them

299
00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:11,760
Speaker 1: baby girl, baby doll, or sweetheart, and inquiring about their

300
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:16,000
Speaker 1: dating lives. His inappropriate behavior was so well known that

301
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:18,920
Speaker 1: some women at the company took to warning new female

302
00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:22,119
Speaker 1: hires to stay away from him all while he was

303
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:26,119
Speaker 1: in charge of recruiting employees. It appeared that he was

304
00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:31,280
Speaker 1: protected by his close personal relationship with Bezos. It took

305
00:21:31,359 --> 00:21:35,960
Speaker 1: him physically groping female subordinate for him to finally be

306
00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:40,960
Speaker 1: let go end quote. Like with other things under the

307
00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:44,679
Speaker 1: umbrella of Amazon, it sounds to me like top to bottom,

308
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,080
Speaker 1: there are very serious problems at Blue Origin. The thing

309
00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:51,560
Speaker 1: that really spooked me the most, though, was something said

310
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:56,360
Speaker 1: by one of the engineers internally. CBS News obtained this.

311
00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:59,760
Speaker 1: It's a Blue Origin internal memo written by one of

312
00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:05,280
Speaker 1: their engineers. In In it, the engineer wrote, quote, our

313
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:10,720
Speaker 1: path is not a sufficiently safe path. End quote, Blue

314
00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:19,359
Speaker 1: Origin not a sufficiently safe path. On the next episode

315
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:23,159
Speaker 1: of Megacorp, will be looking at a specific set of

316
00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:27,640
Speaker 1: individual scandals at Amazon that don't really fit into their

317
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:32,480
Speaker 1: own box. They concern Amazon warehouse workers, drivers, and the

318
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:40,200
Speaker 1: choice of security guards that Amazon have once hired. Megacorp

319
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:44,520
Speaker 1: is made by my production company H eleven for Cool

320
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:50,000
Speaker 1: Zone Media. It's written, researched, and produced by myself, Jake Hanrahan.

321
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:55,880
Speaker 1: It was also produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music is by

322
00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:00,280
Speaker 1: some Black Graphics by Adam Doyle and sound Engine earring

323
00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: by splicing block. If you want to get in touch,

324
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:09,080
Speaker 1: follow me on social media at Jake Underscore Handrahan. That's

325
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:12,320
Speaker 1: h a n A h a n