23-07-2025
The Dream
Credit - In 2018, the first season of The Dream investigated multilevel marketing (MLM) companies like Amway, LuLaRoe, and Mary Kay, which have been accused of operating similarly topyramid schemes. While these companies deny those claims and often tout their multimillionaire highest earners, studies show that 99% of people roped into an MLM lose money. Host Jane Marie, a Peabody- and Emmy-award winning journalist who cut her teeth producing at This American Life before co-founding her own production company Little Everywhere, travels back to her hometown in Michigan to investigate how these companies entice women and stay-at-home moms in particular who need flexible hours and extra cash. Marie breaks down the typical playbook, which involves recruiters deploying the language of female empowerment and touting the benefits of the gig economy to enlist friends and family members into selling makeup or Tupperware, often at parties. Many of Marie's friends and family members get swept up in these companies, and Marie is able to balance irritability and empathy when approaching her coverage of these companies that ensnare millions.
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