Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams audiobook review – the insider story that Meta tried to stifle
Sarah Wynn-Williams narrates her memoir recounting her tenure as a senior executive at Facebook with a blend of dark humour and astonishment at the corporate culture she experienced.
Wynn-Williams’s memoir, which chronicles her seven years at Facebook, begins unexpectedly with a shark attack. At 13 years old, while swimming in the sea in New Zealand, she was bitten on the torso by a shark and shaken violently. Surviving this near-fatal incident sparked in her a determination to improve the world.
In 2011, Wynn-Williams joined Facebook’s public policy team, drawn by the platform’s potential as a global forum. However, she encountered senior staff who wielded power without apparent concern for ethical issues such as privacy, hate speech, and misinformation. According to Wynn-Williams, these executives resisted political oversight and prioritized rapid growth regardless of consequences, a portrayal Meta has labeled as outdated and inaccurate. She also describes a work environment where employees enjoyed numerous perks but were expected to be constantly available, recounting how she responded to emails even while in labour.
Careless People, which was shortlisted for a nonfiction award last year, is narrated by Wynn-Williams herself. Her delivery combines dark humour with disbelief at the extraordinary situations she faced. The audiobook includes an introduction by Naomi Alderman, author of The Power, who reveals that Meta attempted to prevent her from promoting the book upon release by invoking a contractual clause. Alderman comments wryly:
“there are people in the world … on whom the normal ideas about values and ethics do not seem to weigh. But like novelists, we can only guess that this is what’s going on. If only we had someone brave enough to tell us what she saw.”
The audiobook is available through Macmillan and runs for 13 hours and 26 minutes.
Further listening
The Illegals
Shaun Walker, Profile Audio, 14hr 19min
Walker narrates the extraordinary true story of Russian sleeper agents living undercover in the US two decades after the Cold War’s end, whose true identities remained secret from friends and neighbours. The audiobook is read by Paul Thornley.
Atmosphere
Taylor Jenkins Reid, Cornerstone Digital, 9hr 57min
Narrated by Kristen DiMercurio and Julia Whelan, this romantic thriller is set against the backdrop of Houston’s 1980s space program, where two female NASA employees find love and face danger among the stars.
