How to Lose Your [Corporate] Reputation in 10 Days

When a lawyer and a communications professional walk into a bar… Or in this case, a studio – a crisis and reputation management podcast is born.

Stacy Bratcher, Chief Legal Officer and host of the Legal Department podcast, and I have been deep in the trenches together battling existential crises that threatened organizational reputations and legal liabilities. We’ve stayed friends and today, our casual conversations often turn into armchair analyses of the crises and scandals du jour.

You may be thinking… “Another podcast, how is there anything left to talk about?” And I hear you. However, as avid podcast listeners, we couldn’t find anything that marries scandals and crises of the moment with “how-to” advice for surviving these situations.

Enter Reputation Nation

Reputation Nation is a new podcast we’re hosting for leaders who know that crises don’t arrive neatly labeled “legal” or “PR,” but they often impact reputations, operations, employees, investors, and your bottom line simultaneously. Reputation Nation exists to give decision‑makers a clear, disciplined way to think about high‑stakes moments so the right people can make the right moves before the moment makes them.

Why now

Headlines move faster than fact patterns, and cultural headwinds can turn a regulatory inquiry into a brand crisis – or a courtroom win into a narrative loss overnight. Communications, legal, regulatory, and reputation are intrinsically intertwined. When perception leads reality, our alignment across communications, legal, and other key functions is no longer optional; it’s the operating system.

What we’re doing

Each episode of Reputation Nation pulls apart a live or landmark case to show how positioning, legal filings, messaging, cultural, and policy dynamics interact in real time. We translate disorder into decisions: what to say, what to file, who to brief, when to hold and when to move – so leaders leave with a plan, not just an opinion.

What listeners will get

• Expert analysis. Insider readouts on high‑profile, high‑stakes crises – how they start, how they spread and how they’re won.

• Strategic takeaways. Actionable playbooks to safeguard reputation while protecting options in court, with regulators and in the market.

• Legal perspective. How choices in communications affect privilege, discovery, and risk – and how the legal record can anchor the narrative.

• Creative crisis management. Practical ways to preempt, pressure‑test, and protect the enterprise when the facts are fluid.

Who it’s for

• C‑suites and boards are responsible for stability, value, and trust.

• Corporate communications and public affairs leaders who need to move fast and safely.

• Lawyers: litigators, general counsel, and internal risk teams balancing courtroom strategy with the court of opinion.

• Consultants and curious armchair analysts who want a rigorous, contrarian lens on the biggest scandals and business fights.

Why us

Stacy Bratcher brings the in‑house lens, balancing business objectives with legal constraints and risk considerations, and shows how to turn “no” into “yes, and” when time is short. I’m bringing the crisis and reputation discipline, message clarity, stakeholder sequencing, and how to earn the benefit of the doubt when the room is hot. Together, we bridge the gap that too often sinks good strategies, the space between what’s legally sound, politically viable, operationally realistic, and publicly credible.

Our promise

We’ll be clear, practical, and probably contrarian. We’ll show how organizations earn (and burn) reputation in a world where perception is more than nine‑tenths of the law. And we’ll leave every episode with concrete steps leaders can use the moment the headphones come off.

Check out Reputation Nation wherever you listen to podcasts for our first series on 23andMe.

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