The Closer: Deals Change the World

Deals change the world, and season 3 of The Closer brings you the inside story of those deals, as told by the people who know how it all went down. Each episode features the story of one deal, as host Aimee Keane talks to guests who bring insight into how and why the deal was done, and its broader impact.

There’s a new season of The Closer coming soon — but before it does, we have a special episode to share from our friends over at The Negotiators podcast.

Last season, we talked to Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer who represented the US Women's National Team in their equal pay lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation. He said one of the main obstacles was bad leadership. Until it changed.

Today, Cindy Parlow Cohn is president of the federation.After taking up the leadership role, she worked across from Kessler in grueling negotiations to make gender parity a reality for the women's and men's national teams.

She spoke with our friends at The Negotiators, which is a podcast collaboration between Doha debates and Foreign Policy.

For more episodes, search for The Negotiators wherever you listen to podcasts.

Season 3 of The Closer is coming very soon — but before it does, we want to hear from you!

We want to know what you want to hear this season, and why? It can be a specific deal, or it can be something broad, like a takeover by an underdog, or a question, like: what’s the strangest thing a CEO has said at a closing dinner? You give us a prompt or a challenge and we’ll see if we can find that story for you.

Send us a voice memo now to [email protected] and we just might include it in the show!

www.thecloser.fm

Vince McMahon took over his father’s regional wrestling business in the 1980s, and made it into an international media and entertainment juggernaut valued at billions of dollars. This is the story of how McMahon cleverly bulldozed competitors, acquired rivals and capitalized on the public’s hatred of his tactics, as told by writer Abraham Josephine Riesman.

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The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, has quietly built a deal-making machine that's gobbling up apartments in desirable and gentrifying neighborhoods. A real estate broker working at the center of these deals takes us inside the machine as we explore the trends driving this big bet on scarce, expensive housing.

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In early 2020, the home-sharing platform was poised to make a splashy debut on the public markets later that year. But within just a few weeks, coronavirus brought travel - and Airbnb business - to a halt. Journalist Liz Hoffman takes us inside the financing that saved the Silicon Valley darling and became one of the defining Wall Street deals of the pandemic.

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When private equity-backed PetSmart bought Chewy.com for more than $3bn in 2017, people thought the retailer was doomed. Within just a few years, though, it was one of the most successful private equity turnarounds in history thanks to an executive who stuck to his guns. Reporter Miriam Gottfried takes us inside the transformation.

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We take you inside the final days of Toys R Us with Lauren Hirsch, the reporter who first revealed the iconic company’s impending bankruptcy, and explain what drove the company out of business.

Want more from The Closer? Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts to unlock new episodes before everyone else, as well ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content. Plus, if you subscribe in the next two weeks, get 20% off the annual subscription price. Sign up on The Closer show page in the Apple Podcasts app.

The US Women's National Soccer Team is among the most decorated teams in the game but, until recently, was paid a fraction of what the men took home. When the players decided to take up the fight for equal pay, they turned to sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who built a career out of representing some of the most high-profile athletes in labor disputes with professional leagues. He takes us inside the team’s strategy and reveals how they got the deal done.

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From Project Brazen and PRX, this is season 2 of The Closer, coming June 12, 2023.

The Closer returns this summer with six dramatic new stories of groundbreaking deals. An epic fight from soccer's biggest stars, a private equity redemption story, the end of a toy empire, and so much more.

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