Help! My manager is an algorithm!

KATY IS BACK! And we are proud to report that her new baby no longer looks like far-right French politician Éric Zemmour. Relief all around! 

It’s been a hectic time in Europe, but we’re happy to be covering it all—or, you know, a sizable sliver of it—starting with Latvia’s potential withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention and the European Parliament’s call for new regulation of algorithmic tech in the workplace. Algorithmic management has made its way into all sorts of industries; we dig into whether or not that’s a good thing and how new legislation might help to protect us all.

Then it’s off to Paris, where tens of thousands of shoppers have already flooded the aisles of the new brick-and-mortar Shein store and thousands of others have been protesting its very existence. That’s not only because of Shein’s environmentally toxic business model but because of the recent appearance of some despicable products on its website—which has led the French government to threaten to ban the fast-fashion giant. To break it all down, we rang up Paris-based fashion journalist Dana Thomas, author of the book Fashionopolis and host of the podcast The Green Dream.

---

Inspiration Station recommendations:

• The Rosalía album Lux

• The podcast series Where Is Jón?, a co-production of RTÉ in Ireland and RÚV in Iceland

---

Other resources for this episode:

• ‘“Cynical and completely reckless” Latvia has the highest femicide rate in Europe — including Russia. Its parliament just voted to exit a treaty protecting women from violence.’ - Meduza, November 4, 2025

• EU study: 37% of employees are monitored for working hours

• 1 in 4 workplaces make decisions with algorithms

• Case studies in algorithmic management

• Dana’s book Fashionopolis

• Dana’s newsletter, The Style Files

---

Producer

Morgan Childs

EDITORIAL SUPPORT

Katz Laszlo

Mixing and mastering

Wojciech Oleksiak

Music

Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month (many currencies are available).

You can also help new listeners find the show by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leaving us a review⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or giving us five stars on Spotify

We don't often have sponsors on this podcast but this week, we do: Patagonia. Three years ago, Patagonia named Earth as its only shareholder. But moving more profits to environmental causes hasn’t made them a perfect company—let alone a sustainable one. Out now is Patagonia's 2025 Work-in-Progress report: the raw truth about where they’re messing up, but also, the latest ways they’re rethinking business as usual. You can check out the report here.

This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news.