The Takeaway discusses allegations of harassment and bullying against ex-host John Hockenberry

On Friday, Dec. 1, New York Magazine reported that several women — including former producers, co-hosts and interns — say they experienced sexual harassment, sexual assault and bullying by former Takeaway host John Hockenberry.

The Takeaway is a co-production of WNYC and PRI, which owns this website.

The journalist who broke the story, Suki Kim, shared her personal experiences and what she learned in her reporting in an interview Monday morning. Her personal experiences date back to 2014, when she began communicating with Hockenberry to discuss her work, though the experiences of other women she spoke to go far beyond that.

Among Kim’s findings:

• Work correspondence from Hockenberry to his colleagues and even to some sources was “too intimate.”
• Several women producers left The Takeaway after run-ins with Hockenberry, which included being kissed without their permission.

Rebecca Carroll, a special projects producer for WNYC, says she, too, was harassed by Hockenberry. She described a meeting, early in her time at WNYC, when Hockenberry made racially inappropriate statements.

Some other things Carroll said:

• Hockenberry allegedly told Carroll, who is African American, in her first staff meeting that “if it feels like a slave plantation mentality here, that’s because it is.”  
• Carroll said that “An environment that allows for sexual harassment also allows for racial denigration and racism.”

Click here for full statements from NYPR and PRI management, and click the player above to listen to the entire conversation with Suki Kim and Rebecca Carroll. This story was prepared without the approval or review of PRI’s organizational management.