With all that is happening in Hollywood, I can’t help but think of how Maureen Ryan’s book Burn it Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood is more relevant than ever. And as the book suggests, perhaps we should burn it down.
Vanity Fair journalist Maureen Ryan was a guest on the Problematic Fave podcast in 2023, and we had an incredible conversation about her book and we unapologetically unpacked the abuse, bias, corruption, and exploitation that is alive and well in the entertainment and media industry.
From Lost to Saturday Night Live to Sleepy Hollow, Hollywood spaces are bubbling over with toxicity and based on what’s happening in 2025, it’s as if every time the industry takes a step forward, it takes three steps back. Through interviews with prominent folks in the industry like Evan Rachel Wood, Harold Perrineau, Damon Lindelof, and Orlando Jones, we learn through personal stories that Hollywood ain’t as golden as we thought. It’s more… rusty.
Ryan is the epitome of what a journalist should be: searching for and uncovering truths without fear as she exploires the lack of accountability the industry often has and how complaining about abuse can risk careers. The book shows how the industry loves to coddle “difficult geniuses” and debunks the myth that Hollywood is a meritocracy.
But the book is not all Hollywood doom and gloom. Ryan uses the book as an opportunity to point the industry into a better direction, encouraging grassroots activism, reforms, cultural resets, and better reporting to combat the toxicity flowing through the veins of Hollywood and to help bring a modicum of dignity back to film and TV.
Purchase Burn it Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood at BookShop.org.
