Catherine Raynes: Careless People and My Name is Emilia del Valle

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams  
 
From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite. 
 
Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to “lean in.” 
 
Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us. 

 

My Name is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende  

In San Francisco 1866, an Irish nun, left pregnant and abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia Del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman. 
 
To pursue her passion for writing, she is willing to defy societal norms. At the age of sixteen, she begins to publish pulp fiction under a man’s pen name. When these fictional worlds can't contain her sense of adventure any longer, she turns to journalism, convincing an editor at the San Francisco Examiner to hire her. There she is paired with another talented reporter, Eric Whelan. 
 
As she proves herself, her restlessness returns, until an opportunity arises to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. She seizes it, along with Eric, and while there, begins to uncover the truth about her father and the country that represents her roots. But as the war escalates, Emilia finds herself in danger and at a crossroads, questioning both her identity and her destiny. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
B nineteen to twelve. Sarah Wynn Williams, the New Zealand
former executive of Facebook, made headlines worldwide when her book
Careless People was published, but of course she was banned
because of legal action from doing any publicity around the book.
Now our book reviewer Kathy Raines has read Careless People.
When she's with us now killder Catherine Morning Jack, So

(00:32):
tell us about it.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
So, look, it's really interesting, as you say, Sarah and Clark.
She's a former meta Facebook employee, and she talks very
much in the beginning of her book, actually she's attacked
by a shark. It actually kind of explains a lot
about her as a person in the way she was
right was raised. And she really describes herself as an idealist,
and that's kind of worth having in the back of
your mind when you're reading this book, because she's this

(00:56):
theory of trying to change Facebook from the inside. And
so she spent from twenty eleven to twenty seventeen essentially
working in global policy for Facebook, and she gives readers
a very behind the scenes look at what it was
like working for Meta and people like Mark Zuckerberg and
Cheryl Sandberg and Joel Kaplan, and she talks very very

(01:17):
much about how toxic that workplace environment is. And then
she looks at Facebook's global dealings and their desire to
have an app available in every country and the process
that entailed them to grow that, and she naively, I think,
thought that Facebook was doing it for good in the
world and the power of connectivity. And she talks much

(01:38):
more she gets through the book about how Facebook really
lost its way and grows corrupt and careless about its
impact on people, particularly marginalized people across the world. And
I do think a little bit about how Sarah's kind
of responsibility in this, and you know, this was a
job that she really wanted, and she really wanted to
help shape the policy and the company into something good.
And I think that really comes back to sort of
how she sees herself as an idealist. And it's fascinating

(02:03):
reading and you know how so many people in the
world now are just careless out for themselves, and you know,
that battle of egos and greed and desire for more power,
and so I think she probably reflects what a lot
of ex employees have spoken about some and veiled references
a lot of people anonymously, and she's chosen ready to
come out and write about that experience and how social

(02:24):
media has completely changed in the place that we're in
with social media now, and how it affects our lives
and the impact that it has on you know, people
my age, but also you know, you look at how
the impact it has on kids that have really grown
up with us. So I think she she writes a
really interesting, you know, kind of thought process behind this,
and I think it's kind of an interesting point to

(02:45):
throw in the mix when you're looking at social media.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah right, okay, cool. I can't wait to read that.
That's Careless People by Cerah and Williams. You've also read
My Name Is Amelia del Vaillier by Isabelle Ayinde.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
So this is set in Chile in the eighteen eighties
and Amelia Develle doesn't have the most or specially start
really in life. Her wealthy ch Chilean fa A band
her mother, Wally Walsh, before she's even born. But Molly
remarries and Amelia ready regards her stepfather as her real
father in a sense, and it's his encouragement and with

(03:18):
her desire to write, and she starts out writing these
dime novels which are published under the name of Brandon Price,
and it's him that kind of really sets that light
of writing in her. And then eventually, when she grows up,
she persuades a mister Chamberlain, it the examiner in San Francisco,
to take her on as a journalist, and she's offered
the chance to go to Chile in eighteen ninety one

(03:39):
when civil war is brewing, and you get this real
first person narrative, and it gives the real feeling of
a memoir, and you meet the people she meets along
the way, and the acquaintances and interesting characters, and the
story of a journalist, and the descriptions of the place
like San Francisco and New York and Santiago almost feel
like you're right there. And the description of the events
and the people in the political secure situation, and the

(04:02):
fact that as a journalist in eighteen eighties that's almost
unheard of. This read this sture of this very strong
woman deeply connected with her family and culture, and it
has a wonderful sense of time and place, and the
translation from its original Spanish is superb and if you
love Isabella Lende then you will absolutely want to read.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
This fantastic Okay, that's my name is Amelia del Vaille.
And Careless People by Sarah and Williams is Catherine's first book.
Both of those would of course be on the website.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
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