Rest with Alex Pang

Cooking at elite restaurants is one of the most creatively and physically demanding jobs in the world. You're constantly experimenting with new combinations of foods, looking for unusual and imaginative juxtapositions; reinventing ways of preparing familiar dishes; even developing new cooking methods (hello sous vide!). They have to turn creative breakthroughs into viable products: they must take something that took weeks to develop, and turn it into a dish that can be prepared by chefs on the line, night after night. Their work is open-ended: the quest for new dishes and ingredients and ways of cooking never stops.  Cooking also demands perfection, minute after minute, day after day. It’s physically and mentally exhausting; you’re working in a high-stress atmosphere. The industry gives a lot of power to chefs who are visionaries, and some of them use that freedom to be imaginative, inquisitive, curious, and perfectionist; others just turn difficult, demanding, and even abusive. It’s also a field that has more than its share of burnout, substance abuse, and other problems. So it’s been fascinating to discover that some of the best restaurants in the world have recently started implementing 4-day weeks, hiring more staff to give cooks and staff more time off, and limiting working hours. In this episode, I draw on talks given by Maaemo chef Esben Holmoe Bang and Faviken chef Magnus Nilsson at the 2017 Food on the Edge conference in Galway, the explore this trend. It's a fascinating part of the story of shortening working hours, and a real inspiration. Somehow I missed the pun “putting the REST in ‘restaurant’.” Oh well, the moment has passed. Discussed in this Episode: Quotes from Esben Holmoe Bang come from his 2017 talk at Food on the Edge (YouTube). Bang is the head chef at Maaemo, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Oslo, Norway. Quotes from Magnus Nilsson come from his 2017 talk at Food on the Edge (YouTube). Nilsson is head chef at Fäviken, a Michelin-starred restaurant in central Sweden. Ben Shewry talks about sustainability and cooking with Irish chef and TV presenter Darina Allen (YouTube). Shewry is head chef at Attica, one of Australia's best restaurants. He also talks about moving to a four-day week in this article; he announced it in this Instagram post. Rene Redzepi served forest ant pesto in this 2018 talk show appearance (YouTube).

And we're back! I'm afraid I was off for a couple weeks in England, doing some research and other interviews, then had lots of other things that demanded my attention when I got back. So my apologies for the hiatus. I know there are so few podcasts in the world, it's a hardship to be without an episode. But the wait is worth it. Here, I talk with Lasse Rheingans, the head of Rheingans Digital Enabler, about moving his company to a 5-hour workday. It's a fascinating conversation, and it's good to get a bit of European perspective on the subject of shorter hours. My hope is to get back on a weekly schedule, as I have a ton of other interviews waiting to be shared. Mentioned in this podcast: Lasse's company, Rheingans Digital Enabler My book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less This Business Insider piece gives a sense of the media coverage about the company

Since we're in the middle of summer break, I thought it would be fitting to take a break from the shorter hours interviews, and talk about something that's on everyone's mind: vacations. Many of us have a conflicted relationships with vacations. We expect a lot from them, we spend a lot on them, but we don't always get everything we want from them. When we go somewhere new, our default mode is to pack the days full of activities (this is doubly true if you have children), then we come home feeling like we need a vacation to recover from our vacation. If we want vacations that are restorative, that recharge us and restore our energy, is there a better way? In this episode I talk with Jessica de Bloom about the science of vacations. De Bloom is one of a number of academics who have been studying the psychology of restorative activities. I originally discovered her work when I was writing Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, and so it was a pleasure to talk to her in person about her work. De Bloom's work has some counterintuitive conclusions about vacations and breaks, and if you like getting away but feel like you're not getting what you need out of your time away, this episode is for you. Mentioned in this episode: Jessica de Bloom's profile on Research Gate and Academia.edu The Kauai Humane Society and its awesome field trip program that lets you borrow dogs for the day And as always, my book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less

In this episode I talk to Spencer Kimball, cofounder of Cockroach Labs, a startup that's reinventing how databases work. It's kind of technical, but fortunately Spencer does a great job of explaining what they're doing. He also does an excellent job of explaining Cockroach Labs' "Free Fridays," and how they've designed their work week to give everyone one day a week to work on their own projects, even as they build a product designed to compete against products made by giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle. I also talk to Clive Thompson about why 20% time is a significant perk for software developers, and more gnerally, the place that free time plays in the professional and intellectual lives of programmers. Mentioned in this episode: Cockroach Labs Spencer Kimball's short piece about Free Fridays Clive Thompson, who I follow on Twitter, and so should you. Clive is finishing a book about how software engineers think; his previous book, Smarter Than You Think, is as smart as you'd expect (you can read a New Yorker interview with Clive about that book) If you want to read more about Google’s 20% time, I recommend this Business Insider article Jocelyn Glei writes about the importance of breaks here; I also recommend her excellent podcast, Hurry Slowly (which had me as a guest) Here is the article on the role of reflection in individual learning Finally, of course, is my book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less

In this episode, I talk to Annie Tevelin, the founder of Los Angeles-based cosmetics company SkinOwl. Annie founded SkinOwl after studying cosmetics chemistry at UCLA; before that, she had a career in Hollywood as a makeup artist with Lancôme. SkinOwl is sold online, and is sold on five continents-- not bad for a small company that operates on a 4-day week and a 6-hour day. Annie talks about her background, how SkinOwl provides great customer service and feedback while giving people Mondays off, and how to fill six thousand bottles of Geranium Beauty Drops. Mentioned in this podcast: Annie's company SkinOwl SkinOwl on Facebook SkinOwl on Instagram: @SkinOwl The paperback edition of my book, Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less The cooking world's term "mise en place," explained in this YouTube video, and this one Have feedback? Ideas for future episodes? Leave a comment and let me know!

My first episode presents a conversation with Stephan Aarstol, a southern California entrepreneur, founder of the stand-up paddleboard and beach lifestyle company Tower Paddleboards, and author of The Five-Hour Workday. Stephan talks about how he decided to move his company to a five-hour workday; what challenges you face when you shorten the workday; and what benefits come from it. Lots of people who've implemented shorter working hours at their company mention Stephan's work as an inspiration, so it made sense to start with his story. And my kids love stand-up paddleboards (I'm more of a kayaker), so saying I know the guy who helped popularize them was an effort to curry favor with them. It didn't work, but still it was a fascinating conversation. Mentioned in this episode: The paperback edition of my book, Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less Stephan's company, Tower Paddleboards Stephan book, The Five Hour Workday, which you can buy direct from Tower (of course), or on Amazon

Following the publication of the paperback edition of my book REST: WHY YOU GET MORE DONE WHEN YOU WORK LESS, I'm starting a new podcast about work, rest and the future. It will discuss the themes I cover in my books REST and THE DISTRACTION ADDICTION, and give listeners a preview of my new project on the future of work. In this preview, I present excerpts from interviews with leaders who are shortening the work day at their companies, and seeing productivity and profitability go up as a result.