Failed “Finance Bros” Find Success with HBO’s “Industry”
3/1/202616 min
David Remnick sits down with Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, the creators of a show he loves, “Industry,” which is currently airing its fourth season. The show is centered on the financial and personal dramas of junior employees at a fictional London investment bank. Down and Kay are old friends who both did unsuccessful stints in banking. “Before we could formulate our own identities, we allowed the institution to make them for us,” Down tells Remnick. But, having left finance for television, he says, “I still feel like I want to make money. . . . I’m never content with my career. The reason our show feels like it’s constantly changing and vibrating with electricity is because me and Konrad are, in terms of our careers. And, you know, we want to be successful. We were finance bros in the first instance.”
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:01
[upbeat music] This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
David Remnick· Host0:10
[upbeat music] This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. For my money, forgive the pun, one of the best things on television is a show about making money, making as much of it as possible. Industry, on HBO, is a financial drama centered on a group of junior employees at a fictional investment bank in London. Industry is currently finishing its fourth season, and the show was created by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, two old Oxford friends, both of whom did stints in the financial world. In fact, they say if they'd been any good at finance, they probably wouldn't have created a TV show about it in the first place. Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I, I have to say, I'm a huge fan of this show. Konrad, t-tell me how this show came about. You both worked in finance. You knew each other from, from university.
Konrad Kay· Guest1:09
Yeah. I mean, we, we were spat out pretty unceremoniously by the financial industry. My boss, when he fired me, said I was the worst ever salesman that w- graced the doors of Morgan Stanley. Um- [laughs] What, what were you selling? Uh, U.S. equities, but selling is a very- You were selling ... strong version of [laughs] of what I was doing. I think you're supposed to make about 40 out-outgoing calls a day. I made about four a year. [laughs] Um, so the metrics didn't really stack up,