Mike Daisey Character Analysis in So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed

Mike Daisey is a theatrical monologist who was publicly shamed on the radio and the internet after his successful one-man show about worker abuses at Apple factories in China was revealed to contain information that Daisey had fabricated and embellished to make his story more compelling. Daisey, who’d experienced suicidal thoughts at earlier points in his life, was driven into a deep depression and a near-suicidal state following his public shaming, which began on-air during an appearance on an NPR program. But instead of giving into despair, the gregarious Daisey decided to reframe the narrative around his shaming and focus on the fact that while parts of his story of his trip to China were embellished, others were based in truth—and that his intentions of shining a light on a major corporation’s abuses were still as pure as they had ever been.

Mike Daisey Character Timeline in So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed

The timeline below shows where the character Mike Daisey appears in So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...there were people who were incapable of feeling pain. He’d come across the name Mike Daisey, and he was determined to meet the man behind the name: a man who’d survived... (full context)

Ronson met Mike Daisey at a restaurant in Brooklyn. Daisey was telling Ronson that no one wanted a true... (full context)

Daisey’s transgression was similar to Jonah Lehrer’s: he had been caught lying about a trip to... (full context)

Cycles of Shame, Trauma, and Violence Theme Icon

At their meeting, Daisey began opening up to Ronson about a devastation from his youth. When he was 21... (full context)

In 2010, Daisey’s one-man show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs—the story of his trip to... (full context)

The Shanghai correspondent for another radio show began doing some digging on Daisey’s story—many of his details didn’t line up. He tracked down Daisey’s translator, who revealed that... (full context)

Daisey admitted to Ronson during his meeting that, following his public shaming, he’d turned again to... (full context)

Shame, Freedom of Speech, and Public Discourse Theme Icon

...domain, up on the internet for all to see. While in New York to interview Daisey, Ronson met with Sacco once again. Sacco had traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a... (full context)