Plotz departs Business Insider to start podcast company

David Plotz, editor at large at Business Insider, where he writes the Insider Today newsletter with Henry Blodget, is leaving the company to start his own podcast company.

He also hosts the Slate Political Gabfest, the popular weekly podcast.

From 2014 to 2020, Plotz was CEO of Atlas Obscura, the media and experiences company devoted to celebrating and visiting the world’s most wondrous places. While he was there, Atlas Obscura expanded from 2 to 60 employees, grew traffic 15-fold, published two best-selling books, and launched a trips and events partnership with Airbnb.

Plotz was editor-in-chief of Slate from 2008 to 2014. While he was editor, Slate tripled its traffic, achieved profitability, won two National Magazine Awards (one for General Excellence) and was nominated for 14 National Magazine Awards.

Earlier in his career, Plotz was also deputy editor, Washington Editor, and staff writer for Slate. He also worked as a senior editor and staff writer for the Washington City Paper, and has written for the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Rolling Stone, GQ, the New Republic, and the Washington Post, among other publications.

He is the author of two books, The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank and the bestseller Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible.