What Works | Small Business Podcast

Over the next few weeks, I've got something a wee bit different for you! This is the very first edition of Cold Pitch, an experimental media project from YellowHouse.Media. Cold Pitch explores media, curiosity, and identity through a variety of forms and methods. In this first edition, Sean McMullin (my husband & partner at YellowHouse.Media) and I talk about, well, cold pitches. A cold pitch, simply put, is a request to a stranger to do something for you. Podcasters deal with cold pitches every single day. Most are terrible. Not only are they irrelevant and poorly executed—they most often start with an outright lie.I have feelings. Clearly.In this conversation, we talk about the social "meat space" basis of a cold pitch, the psychology of email, what you might learn from the autistic folks in your life about honest & direct communication and more.If you dig it, follow along with Cold Pitch at coldpitch.substack.comAnd you can find a written version of this edition, along with links to references, here: https://coldpitch.substack.com/p/an-inbox-full-of-lies Learn more about YellowHouse.Media, our audio production agency Find out more about Sean McMullin Support What Works ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the final installment in Strange New Work, a series that uses speculative fiction to explore radical work futures.Power. Some fear it. Others hoard it. Some with power speak softly. Others carry a big stick. Power is charisma, or coercion, or violence. Power is name recognition, or money, or computer code.Regardless of your definition or perceptions of it, power plays a critical role in how we work.Today, we explore power—what we can do with it, how we can grow it, and, critically, how we can share it—because power in the future of work will look very different than it does today.Footnotes: Find out more about Tania Luna Lead Together by Tania Luna The Power Paradox by Dacher Keltner The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin "The Lathe of Heaven" BBC film adaptation "Mary Parker Follett—Creativity and Democracy" by Gary M. Nelson in Human Service Organizations "There Is a Better Way to Use Power at Work. This Forgotten Business Guru Has the Secrets" by Matthew Barzun in Time Magazine "Content Decision Making" via Sociocracy For All Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin "A Band of Brothers, a Stream of Sisters" by Ursula K. Le Guin ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the penultimate episode of Strange New Work, a special series from What Works that explores the future of work through the lens of speculative fiction.What's the most undervalued skill of the 21st-century economy? Moderation.I very well might be forgetting something. But with more of our lives and work showing up online every day, the way our feeds, data, and connections are moderated is critical to our daily lives. Moderation can be many things—it's how platforms are designed, how content is incentivized or de-incentivized, and how communication between people is mediated. Some moderation is done structurally, some is done with code, but lots of moderation is done by real people all over the world.In this episode, I take a close look at the skill of moderation, its role in our evolving tech futures, and the politics that complicate this essential work.Footnotes: "Welcome to hell, Elon" by Nilay Patel on The Verge "Why Elon's Twitter is in the Sh*tter with Nilay Patel" on Offline with Jon Favreau Fall; Or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson Work Without the Worker by Phil Jones "Content Moderation is Terrible by Design" featuring Sarah T. Roberts on Harvard Business Review "Moderating Social Media" on the agenda on YouTube "How Microwork is the Solution to War" by Ben Irwin on Preemptive Love "Reddit faces content quality concerns after its Great Mod Purge" by Scharon Harding Rosie Sherry on tips for content moderation "Neal Stephenson Explains His Vision for the Digital Afterlife" on PC Mag Love What Works? Become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month. Your subscription helps make my work sustainable and gets you access to twice-monthly This is Not Advice episodes, quarterly workshops, and more. Click here to learn more and preview the premium benefits! ★ Support this podcast ★

I've got something short, sweet, and really special for you today. Sean, my husband, my go-to extrovert shield, and the co-founder of YellowHouse.Media has a new project that is pretty cool, if I do say so myself. It's a hotline! Or rather, it's a weekly call-in prerecorded pep talk. It's sort of like a podcast, but you have to call a phone number to hear it. Trust me, this is a very Sean thing to do.Each week, he shares a fresh pep talk along with a poem, some tunes, and other audio goodies. You just select from the phone tree which you'd like to hear. Plus, you can even leave him a message yourself!  You can hear this week's edition by listening to this quick episode. Or, dial 1-406-200-8460 to get the full experience. You can also learn more about Sean and grab the number from his website: seandmcmullin.com.Without further ado, here's this week's dial-in affirmation for daily living! ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the 6th installment of Strange New Work, a special series that uses speculative fiction to explore radically different work futures.Find the work you were born to do. Do what you were meant to do. Discover the work that makes you feel alive.We've all heard these messages. Crack open any career, self-help, or personal development book on your shelf, and you're sure to find a similar message. It seems pretty convenient that our "purpose" in life is work, doesn't it? In this episode, I unpack the "made for work" message, take it to its logical sci-fi ends, and draw on a key idea in the sociology of work to consider how we might shape the next 40 years into something more humane.Footnotes: "If you 'don't dream of labor,' should organize for socialism" by Caitlyn Clark for Jacobin Embassytown by China Miéville Translation State by Ann Leckie The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz The New Spirit of Capitalism by Eve Chiapello & Luc Boltanski Love What Works? Become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month. Your subscription helps make my work sustainable and gets you access to twice-monthly This is Not Advice episodes, quarterly workshops, and more. Click here to learn more and preview the premium benefits! ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the 5th installment of Strange New Work, a special series that explores how speculative fiction can help us imagine radically different work futures.Think the future of housework looks like Rosey the Robot from The Jetsons? Or maybe just a fleet of Roombas keeping every inch of a house free of dust or dirt? Think again. Housework is ready for a much, much bigger disruption. Of course, housework is rarely portrayed in pop culture space cowboy science fiction. And when it is, it's all about the high-tech solutions to trivial issues like making dinner or scrubbing dishes. But many quieter (and more constructive) speculative stories do consider how housework might evolve in a completely different direction.How we restructure housework—domestic and reproductive labor—is key to rethinking how we approach the future of all kinds of work. How we live impacts how we work. And how we work impacts how we live. And this episode is going there.Footnotes: Frances Gabe's Self-Cleaning House After Work by Helen Hester and Nick Srincek A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers Embassytown by China Miéville Too Like The Lightning by Ada Palmer "What Communes and Other Radical Experiments in Living Together Reveal" on The Ezra Klein Show Everyday Utopia by Kristen Ghodsee The Perennials by Mauro Guillén "The demographics of multigenerational households" via Pew Research Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot) by Becky Chambers A Spectre, Haunting by China Miéville Can't Even by Anne Helen Petersen Love What Works? Become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month. Your subscription helps make my work sustainable and gets you access to twice-monthly This is Not Advice episodes, quarterly workshops, and more. Click here to learn more and preview the premium benefits! ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the 4th installment in Strange New Work, a special series from What Works that explores how speculative fiction can help us imagine new ways of working.Social and professional norms aren't natural or innate. They're political. Those in power exert their preferences on those who aren't, and throughout history, have exerted social, cultural, and physical violence to either force subjugated people to assimilate or drive them out of society altogether.Speculative fiction is rife with tales of imperial conquest and colonization. And it's helpful for identifying the kinds of control and domination that we deal with daily, even though many of us never notice it. Speculative fiction can help us see harm for what it is, recognize the damage done by colonizers, and imagine forms of resistance. In today's episode, I dive into the harms of imperialism, how supremacy culture forms the basis of professionalism, how Indigenous futurism gives us a way to "imagine otherwise," and what coach and author Charlie Gilkey recommends for creating a culture of belonging at work through team habits.Footnotes: "Remote work gave them a reprieve. They don't want to go back" by Samantha Masunaga for LA Times The Imperial Radch Trilogy by Ann Leckie Ann Leckie on Geek's Guide to the Galaxy "Unsettled" in Buffalo is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel "Indigenous futurism" on WeRNative.org "From growing medicine to space rockets: What is Indigenous futurism?" on CBC's Unreserved, featuring guest Grace Dillon Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction edited by Grace Dillon "White Supremacy Culture" by Tema Okun Team Habits by Charlie Gilkey The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Solarpunk Magazine Love What Works? Become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month. Your subscription helps make my work sustainable and gets you access to twice-monthly This is Not Advice episodes, quarterly workshops, and more. Click here to learn more and preview the premium benefits! ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the third installment in Strange New Work, a series that explores how speculative fiction can help us imagine the future of work. Today's work happens in tiny slivers of time. And we try to optimize each minute or hour for all its worth. But remarkable work? Well, that takes time. And lots of it. The kinds of work that are central to our evolving economy—care work, maintenance work, creative work—require more time rather than more optimization. In this episode, I consider how viewing work through the long-term lens can help us reimagine projects and systems in a way that's more just, equitable, and beneficial for all involved.Footnotes: Find out more about Jordan Maney  Follow Jordan on Substack and Instagram Find out more about Joanna L. Cea Grab a copy of Beloved Economies The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz "How to Build a Planet" on Our Opinions Are Correct "The Seven Practices" from Beloved Economies The Parable of the Sower & The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler "A Few Rules for Predicting the Future" by Octavia Butler Love What Works? Become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month. Your subscription helps make my work sustainable and gets you access to twice-monthly This is Not Advice episodes, quarterly workshops, and more. Click here to learn more and preview the premium benefits! ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the 11th edition of This is Not Advice, a "not advice" column for premium subscribers of What Works. In this episode and essay, I tackle the assumed quid pro quo that's at the heart of content marketing. It's that quid pro quo that causes us to see the ideas, information, and stories we share online as a favor that demands something in return—follows, subscriptions, and sales. When we say, "I'm tired of sharing all this stuff for free and not seeing sales in return," we're hinting at the quid pro quo beneath the surface.Enjoy this excerpt from the larger piece or, to hear the whole thing, go to whatworks.fyi and upgrade your subscription for just $7 per month!View the original post here. ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the second episode in my new series, "Strange New Work." Artist and writer Morgan Harper Nichols is a world-builder. She says, "Worldbuilding, for me, [is] a form of expansive hope—a necessary imagination for being alive." What is world-building? It's the process of creating secondary, fictional worlds. There's world-building in all sorts of fiction—but especially science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy.And world-building as a practice—a necessary imagination—can be a tool for mapping a better work environment, too.Footnotes: Find out more about Morgan Harper Nichols on Substack, her website, and Instagram. Read the piece that inspired this conversation. The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson N.K. Jemisin on world-building on Wired and LitHub To Write Love On Her Arms "What is capitalist realism?" by Tara McMullin, featuring Iggy Perillo Every episode of What Works is also shared as an essay at whatworks.fyi—become a free subscriber to get weekly posts delivered to your inbox or upgrade to a premium subscription for access to bonus content and quarterly workshops for just $7 per month!All of the books I mention in this series are in the Strange New Work Bookshop list. ★ Support this podcast ★

The future of work doesn't have to be an extension of today's reality.This is the first installment in Strange New Work, a new series from What Works about imagining radically different ways of working and doing business.In this episode, I take a closer look at speculative fiction and its role in the collective imaginary. Is science fiction all space operas and apocalyptic battles? Not hardly. Science fiction isn't really about the future. It's a commentary on and reimagining of the present.Footnotes: All of the books I mention in this series can be found here. No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara The Jewel-Hinged Jaw by Samuel Delaney "The Epistemic Value of Speculative Fiction" by Johan de Smedt and Helen de Cruz "Sci-Fi Idea Bank" by Packy McCormick Ursula K. Le Guin in conversation with The Nation on YouTube Vauhini Vara on Amanpour and Company on YouTube "The Measure of a Man" Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 2, Episode 9) Each installment in Strange New Work is published in essay form at WhatWorks.FYILove What Works? Support the show and my work by becoming a premium subscriber for just $7 per month. Learn more! ★ Support this podcast ★

Join Tara McMullin for a journey into the far future of work, and consider how we can create more humane, inclusive, and supportive work environment. The first episode of Strange New Work drops September 14! You can find Strange New Work wherever you listen to podcasts—and each new episode will drop in the What Works feed, too!Support the show at: whatworks.fyi Strange New Work is brought to you by What Works with Tara McMullin and YellowHouse.Media. ★ Support this podcast ★

Today's episode is a sneak peek of Work In Practice, my new 12-week training program for guides of all kinds. This program offers a toolkit for identifying the beliefs and stories that make a more sustainable relationship with work possible. If you're a coach, consultant, manager, or trainer who works with people rethinking how they work, this is for you.***"Anyone can succeed if they work hard and apply themselves!" That's the voice of meritocracy. Unfortunately, that sweet, encouraging voice can easily turn to "If anyone can succeed if they work hard and apply themselves, why aren't you working harder?!" Meritocracy sounds great when you're on the side of opportunity. However, personal setbacks and systemic oppression can easily turn meritocracy into the voice of failure.Footnotes: Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard in Slate's Juris Prudence and on 5-4 Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom "Leaving the Cult of Never Enough with Manisha Thakor" on What Works "What is Capitalism Realism?" on What Works The Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Markovits "'The Meritocracy Trap,' Explained" by Roge Karma Psychopolitics by Byung-Chul Han Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form and delivered in my newsletter: whatworks.fyiWork with me: I'm teaching a 12-week training program for coaches, managers, consultants, and guides of all kinds starting in September. The program is called Work In Practice, and it's a deep dive into the social, political, and economic systems that impact what we believe about work.Love What Works? Support the show and help me reach more people with assumption-busting ideas about work, business, and culture by becoming a Premium Subscriber. For just $7 per month, you get access to bonus episodes, full-length interviews, and quarterly workshops ★ Support this podcast ★

There are rules you know about—and rules you don't. Some rules are written down—and other rules are "just the way things are." And there are rules that make things clear to everyone—and rules that exclude through their lack of clarity.Charlie Gilkey is on a mission to bring those unclear rules and unspoken agreements out in the open and improve the way we work in the process. His new book, Team Habits: How Small Changes Lead to Extraordinary Results, is both a treatise on better work and a detailed manual for achieving it. In this episode, I talk with Charlie about how what seems obvious often isn't—and how that negatively impacts our work environments. We also talk about how to start changing things for the better.This episode is one part of my longer conversation with Charlie! You'll hear more from him in my upcoming series, Strange New Work. Coming in September!Footnotes: Team Habits by Charlie Gilkey Get the Better Team Habits newsletter on Substack More about Charlie and the team at Productive Flourishing The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker "White Supremacy Culture Characteristics" by Tema Okun Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form and delivered in my newsletter: whatworks.fyiWork with me: I'm teaching a 12-week training program for coaches, managers, consultants, and guides of all kinds starting in September. The program is called Work In Practice, and it's a deep dive into the social, political, and economic systems that impact what we believe about work.Love What Works? Support the show and help me reach more people with assumption-busting ideas about work, business, and culture by becoming a Premium Subscriber. For just $7 per month, you get access to bonus episodes, full-length interviews, and quarterly workshops—including August 24's Breaking the Self-Sabotage Cycle. ★ Support this podcast ★

Play, learn, work, retire—those are the four stages of what Mauro Guillén calls the sequential mode of life. In his new book, The Perennials: The Megatrends Creating a Postgenerational Society, he proposes a new story for moving through life. It's a story that actually reflects the facts on the ground—rather than our grandparents' idea of what life was supposed to look like. In this episode, I talk with Guillén about his research and his vision for how life, learning, and work could be different. Footnotes: The Perennials: The Megatrends Creating a Postgenerational Society by Mauro Guillén Find out more about Mauro Guillén Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form and delivered in my newsletter: whatworks.fyiWork with me: I'm teaching a 12-week training program for coaches, managers, consultants, and guides of all kinds starting in September. The program is called Work In Practice, and it's a deep dive into the social, political, and economic systems that impact what we believe about work.Love What Works? Support the show and help me reach more people with assumption-busting ideas about work, business, and culture by becoming a Premium Subscriber. For just $7 per month, you get access to bonus episodes, full-length interviews, and quarterly workshops—including August 24's Breaking the Self-Sabotage Cycle. Upgrade your subscription today! ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the 8th edition of This is Not Advice, my "not-advice" column for premium subscribers of What Works. Today, I'm talking about our over-reliance on metrics and how easily we're seduced by reductive data. When does a metric turn into an incentive for bad behavior? And why are we so happy to accept the feeling of clarity and certainty without actually understanding what's going on?Click here to upgrade your subscription and get the full episode! Or learn more about becoming a Premium Subscriber. ★ Support this podcast ★

Making work for the public seems to come with a slew of fuzzy social expectations. What do we owe our readers, listeners, viewers, and followers? What more is expected beyond the post, episode, or video? How do you navigate the tension between care and boundaries? When I came across a LinkedIn post that Randi Buckley made, I felt a wave of relief. Her answer to those questions? Nothing. We owe nothing more than we've already given. In this episode, I share wisdom from Randi, additional wisdom from Jordan Maney, and a lot of the inner workings of my own mind.Footnotes: The LinkedIn post that started it all Find out more about Randi Buckley Find out more about Jordan Maney No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin Le Guin's first blog post NEW: I'm teaching a 12-week training program for coaches, managers, consultants, and guides of all kinds starting in September. The program is called Work In Practice, and it's a deep dive into the social, political, and economic systems that impact what we believe about work.Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form and delivered in my newsletter: whatworks.fyiLove What Works? Support the show and help me reach more people with assumption-busting ideas about work, business, and culture by becoming a Premium Subscriber. For just $7 per month, you get access to bonus episodes, full-length interviews, and quarterly workshops—including August 24's Breaking the Self-Sabotage Cycle. Upgrade your subscription today! ★ Support this podcast ★

The media give us wildly exaggerated images of wealth and consumption. And even if we recognize that a tv show or an Instagram account is more fantasy than reality, those images impact what we believe we should be earning and buying. MoneyZen author Manisha Thakor calls the result Counterfeit Financial Culture and argues that it's one of the reasons we end up feeling like we're never quite enough.In this episode, Manisha details Counterfeit Financial Culture, and I offer the mimetic theory of desire as additional context for understanding the situation.Footnotes: Find out more about Manisha Thakor MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your Enough by Manisha Thakor Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and the New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han Capitalism and Desire by Todd McGowan NEW: I'm teaching a 12-week training program for coaches, managers, consultants, and guides of all kinds starting in September. The program is called Work In Practice, and it's a deep dive into the social, political, and economic systems that impact what we believe about work.Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form and delivered in my newsletter: whatworks.fyiLove What Works? Support the show and help me reach more people with assumption-busting ideas about work, business, and culture by becoming a Premium Subscriber. For just $7 per month, you get access to bonus episodes, full-length interviews, and quarterly workshops—including August 24's Breaking the Self-Sabotage Cycle. Upgrade your subscription today! ★ Support this podcast ★

At age 50, Manisha Thakor realized that she'd sacrificed her life at the altar of work. How did that happen? And what was she to do about it? Manisha's new book tackles how to unwind a toxic relationship with work and money.Footnotes: MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your Enough by Manisha Thakor Find out more about Manisha Thakor Alienation by Rahel Jaeggi Capitalism and Desire by Todd McGowan What Works by Tara McMullin NEW: I'm teaching a 12-week training program for coaches, managers, consultants, and guides of all kinds starting in September. The program is called Work In Practice, and it's a deep dive into the social, political, and economic systems that impact what we believe about work.Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form and delivered in my newsletter: whatworks.fyiLove What Works? Support the show and help me reach more people with assumption-busting ideas about work, business, and culture by becoming a Premium Subscriber. For just $7 per month, you get access to bonus episodes, full-length interviews, and quarterly workshops—including August 24's Breaking the Self-Sabotage Cycle. Upgrade your subscription today! ★ Support this podcast ★

This is an excerpt from the 7th edition of This is Not Advice—a not-advice column exclusively for premium subscribers. In this episode, I take a closer look at flexibility. When is it a feature? When is it a bug? When does flexibility create more opportunities for learning or value? And when does it devolve into chaos?To hear the whole episode, become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month. You'll get twice monthly This is Not Advice episodes, plus (mostly) full-length interviews with the people I feature on the show, and more! Go to whatworks.fyi/subscribe ★ Support this podcast ★

This episode originally ran on May 25, 2022. It's been lightly remixed for today's release!“Rugged individualism” is the very language we speak in America. It shapes the way we approach work, family, and society. And rugged individualism has a direct impact on the decisions we make about our businesses and careers. In this short episode, I unpack where rugged individualism comes from and highlight a different way forward.Footnotes: Rugged Individualism Monologue by Terry Smith  "The Myth of Rugged Individualism” by Robert Reich “We'd Like To Thank You, Herbert Hoover” from Annie Individualism and Economic Order by Friedrich Hayek Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit “The Philosophers: Loneliness & Totalitarianism” on Vox Conversations Every What Works episode is also published in essay form in my newsletter. Subscribe FREE or become a premium subscriber for bonus content for just $7/month. Go to: whatworks.fyi  ★ Support this podcast ★

So much of our modern discourse around productivity, empowerment, entrepreneurship, and personal growth includes messages about our bodies. These messages might not be explicit, but the messages are there—and our brains pick them up loud and clear.Similarly, we might not realize that we're sharing messages that insert themselves into how others perceive their own bodies—but many of us are. It's impossible to talk about self-discipline, accountability, or efficiency without those concepts leaving their marks on our flesh.This episode covers a tiny sliver of all the ways that the medium of self-help acts on our bodies. But my hope is that it will encourage you to think critically about the messages you receive about your body and the messages you share that might impact others' bodies.You'll hear from independent beauty culture journalist Jessica DeFino, body confidence influencer Tiffany Ima, and Flaunt Your Fire founder India Jackson.This episode contains frank talk about bodies, weight, beauty, dieting, and related topics. I know that these subjects can trigger harmful thoughts and behaviors for me if I'm not careful. So please, take care while listening to this episode.This episode originally aired on October 18, 2022. It's been slightly updated for this rebroadcast.Footnotes: Subscribe to Jessica DeFino's newsletter about beauty culture and the beauty industry. Follow Tiffany Ima on Instagram. Listen to the Flaunt Your Fire podcast and learn more about India Jackson. Erica Courdae on reconsidering your normal, as well as “Normal is a Life with Michelle Kuei” on the Pause on the Play podcast. “Body acceptance stops at the skin. Why?” by Jessica DeFino “The Skin as an Antidote to Consumerism” by Jessica DeFino “How White Supremacy and Capitalism Influence Beauty Culture” by Jessica DeFino in TeenVogue What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon “Postscript on Societies of Control” by Gilles Deleuze Self-Help, INC by Micki McGee “Rachel Hollis Part 1: Hashtag Relatable” on Maintenance Phase “The Trouble with Calories” on Maintenance Phase “Bodybuilding vs Powerlifting vs Weightlifting” on Shape Confidence Culture by Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill Let's Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World by Danielle Friedman 3 Books for Remembering “You Have a Body”: On disability, on chronic illness, and on our bodies in society You can find essay versions of every What Works episode at whatworks.fyi - where you can become a premium subscriber, support my work, and get bonus content for just $7 per month. Upgrade today! ★ Support this podcast ★

This is an episode of "This is Not Advice," a bonus podcast I do for premium subscribers of What Works. Instead of just a teaser this week, I wanted to share the whole episode with you. If you'd like to receive future episodes, go to whatworks.fyi/subscribe and become a premium subscriber for just $7/month.For this edition of This is Not Advice, I wanted to piggyback on the conversation I had with Jay Acunzo about social media generally and Threads specifically. Part of the conversation that didn't make it into the main piece involved the ratio of how much creating versus consuming we do online. On this, Jay and I have very different philosophies. I don't think he's "doing it wrong," but I did want to tease out the factors that influence whether we [can] spend more time creating or consuming online—and how that impacts the work we do.It's an episode about craft, gender, genius, and moving beyond the creating versus consuming dichotomy.Click here to read the full piece and get links to everything I cited in the piece! ★ Support this podcast ★

This is an episode about Meta's new app, Threads. It's also about Substack and Substack's new-ish feature, Notes. But really, it's an episode about what we're looking for from the category we call "social media" and how we think about achieving those ends. And perhaps what it's really, really about is how we go looking for and creating meaning in the digital sphere.Jay Acunzo, a writer, podcaster, and public speaker who thinks a lot about online content, was one of the 100+ million people to give Threads a try over the last week. I was not. So I wanted to see how he was approaching the platform, why he joined in the first place, and maybe, just maybe, how he's thinking about making meaning online.Footnotes: Find out more about Jay Acunzo, his podcast, and his newsletter Substack Notes "Threads is a mecca of Millennial brain rot" by Kate Lindsay on Embedded "Meta unspools Threads" by Casey Newton on Platformer "To quit or not quit social media: opportunity cost can help you decide" on What Works John Austin's How to Do Things With Words Performativity in the theory of Judith Butler "Queer Failure" by Kate Tyson Find written versions of every What Works episode at whatworks.fyiLove What Works? Consider becoming a premium subscriber for just $7/month. Not only do you help support my work, but you also get access to bonus episodes and other goodies. ★ Support this podcast ★

"It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism," say Frederic Jameson and Slavoj Žižek.Capitalist liberal democracy is construed as the "end of history"—the culmination of millennia of civilizational progress, the inevitable outcome of a long march toward justice and freedom. But is it? And if it's not the best system for our economic and political needs, what is the alternative?It's almost impossible to imagine. But, despite what Margaret Thatcher said, there is an alternative—many, in fact. We just haven't dreamed them up yet.This is the argument of Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism, a great little book that wrestles with big questions and ends on a surprisingly hopeful note. In this episode, I'll share some reflections on our identities as consumers and the nature of capitalist realism. Then, you'll hear the latest episode of the Books Applied Podcast with Iggy Perillo. Iggy and I discussed the book for her podcast and I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with you, too!Footnotes: Iggy Perillo and WSL Leadership Books Applied Podcast Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher "Media Frames UPS Strike as Harming You, the Consumer and Protagonist of Reality" by Adam Johnson in The Column As always, you can find my opening essay, plus a condensed transcript of my conversation with Iggy, at whatworks.fyiLove What Works? You can support my research and writing by becoming a premium subscriber on Substack for just $7/month. Thanks in advance! Join me for a workshop on how to pitch yourself to podcasts! I'll walk you through how to find shows to pitch, what to include in your pitch, how to prepare, and how to ace your interview. The 90-minute workshop is Wednesday, July 12 at 12:30pm ET/9:30am PT. Find out more at yellowhouse.media/workshops ★ Support this podcast ★

Welcome to the 5th edition of This is Not Advice, a non-advice column for premium subscribers of What Works. If you're already a premium subscriber, thank you! If you're not, I still think you're great—and you can read a solid chunk of this column for free. Or, subscribe to get access to full-length columns and podcast episodes.Or, read this excerpt here.Next week, I'm teaching a workshop on how to pitch yourself to appear on podcasts for YellowHouse.Media. I'll show you how to find shows to pitch, how to think like a producer, and how to prepare for your interview. Click here to learn more & register. ★ Support this podcast ★

"Failure" got a glow-up sometime in the last 20 years. Instead of something to be feared, gurus tell us to embrace failure. That failure is a waypoint on the path to success. But this shift in our relationship with failure has only further inscribed the winner-loser binary that causes so much of our anxiety about the future.What if "failure" wasn't part of the "success" formula? What if we looked beyond conventional notions of failure and success to question whether those ideas even matter at all? Whether they serve us at all?Today on the podcast, Kate Tyson (Strathmann) is queering failure. She's questioning what it means to build a business or a project without the normative notions of success and failure. And how calling those norms into question allows us to imagine new and different ways to do business—or any kind of venture."Queer Failure" is an excerpt from [Im]Possible Business by Kate Tyson.Footnotes: [Im]Possible Business by Kate Tyson Follow Kate's writing on Substack The Queer Art of Failure by Jack Halberstam Fox Market and Bar in Montpelier, Vermont "Don't Bail Out the Restaurant Industry" by Tunde Wey Saidiya Hartman Étaín Underthings Runway's Entrepreneur Universal Basic Income program Wanderwell Bookkeeping and Consulting "Queer Theory" by Nancy Harding in Key Concepts in Critical Management Studies ★ Support this podcast ★

Buckle up—today's episode was inspired by something that got me really worked up this week: "I think home-baking is one of the stupidest things anyone can engage in," says Rick Easton of Jersey City's Bread and Salt. This episode is about shoulds and supposed-tos, baking at home, and the ways we devalue certain kinds of labor. Whether or not home-baking is your thing, you'll recognize the way value is narrowly defined by culture and, I think, gain new language for the worthiness of work that doesn't fit the capitalist mode.Footnotes: "Leave the Baking to the Professionals" by Hannah Goldfield, New Yorker Bread, and How to Eat It by Rick Easton and Melissa McCart "On Bread" via From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy "What could 'food is political' mean?" via From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy King Arthur Baking: Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Loaf Breadhead by Greg Wade History of Low-Carb Diets on Wikipedia "I love bread!" Weight Watchers commercial "Home Cooking can be a Feminist Act" by Nigella Lawson "Men More Likely Than Women to be Seen as Brilliant" via NYU "When Male Chefs Fear the Specter of 'Women's Work'" by Meghan McCarron, Eater "The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" by Audre Lorde, YouTube "The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" by Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider Essay versions of every episode of What Works are published at whatworks.fyi — subscribe FREE to have them delivered straight to you. Or become a paid subscriber for just $7 per month and get access to bonus content, discounts on workshops, and more! Go to whatworks.fyi to learn more. ★ Support this podcast ★

"Outsiders" shoulder a disproportionate burden when it comes to fitting in. Can we demand more from the "insiders?"This is a preview of the 4th installment of This is Not Advice, a not-advice column for paid subscribers of What Works. If you're not a paid, enjoy the first half of this essay (audio or written) or upgrade your subscription to access the whole thing. For just $7 per month, you get access to bonus content and help me make this show!For a written version of this episode, go to: www.whatworks.fyi ★ Support this podcast ★

What gets labeled as "authentic" is often quite predictable. It's a market-compatible expression of what was once something unique or personal. Authenticity is a vibe—and a valuable one at that."Predictably unique" is how David A. Banks defines authenticity in his book, The City Authentic. Authenticity, or what's "predictably unique," describes how culture, place, and style are packaged to become recognizable—and, therefore, consumable—to a general audience.And while Banks's interest is in the politics of urban planning, his analysis spoke to a question I've pondered for almost as long as I've been a Very Online Person: Why does authenticity often feel so fake?How can a form of expression feel legitimately authentic one day and discernibly contrived or derivative the next? Is it the expression or my perception of it that changes? Why does "authentic" become an aesthetic, a legible set of features that denotes the "real?" And why does formulaic authenticity convey such social capital (or at least promise to)?I tackle these questions and more in this episode!Footnotes: The City Authentic by David A. Banks "'She Looks Like an Instagram:' How Empowerment Became a Brand" by Tara McMullin "The Strange Logic of Value in the Attention Economy" by Tara McMullin The Jargon of Authenticity by Theodor Adorno "Personal Branding and the Crafting of Self" by Tara McMullin The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media by Emily Hund How to be Authentic by Skye Cleary Every episode of What Works is also published as an essay. Go to read.explorewhatworks.com or subscribe to get them automatically delivered to you! You can also chip in $7 per month to support my work and to get access to bonus content. ★ Support this podcast ★

On June 8, Skye Pillsbury opened the latest edition of her newsletter, The Squeeze, with the header RIP Gimlet. She continued:I'm heartbroken over the news that Spotify has laid off another 200 podcast employees, though I'm not shocked.— Skye Pillsbury, The SqueezeI devoured Alex Blumberg's Startup when it first came out, which was about a year before I started podcasting. Then, I inhaled Reply All when it launched, and despite its later troubles, was genuinely moved by its final episode. I lapped up Blumberg's earnest interviews with entrepreneurs on Without Fail. I even had the privilege of interviewing Blumberg during a course I taught at CreativeLive.I followed Gimlet's acquisition by Spotify with interest (and a healthy dose of skepticism). The bumpy ride that they've had since then was utterly predictable. Though, like Pillsbury, I find the news that Gimlet is no more—at least in any recognizable sense—quite upsetting.This short dispatch is about podcasting and the podcast industry—but really, it's about why we shouldn't judge success—or run companies—using the logic of Wall Street.Footnotes: "RIP Gimlet" in The Squeeze by Skye Pillsbury "Spotify to Layoff 200 Employees in Podcast Strategy Shift" by Amanda Holpuch, New York Times Startup by Alex Blumberg & Gimlet Media (Excerpts from Season 1, Episodes 1, 2, and 4) Reply All by Alex Goldman, Emmanuel Dsotzi, PJ Vogt, and Gimlet Media  Without Fail by Alex Blumberg & Gimlet Media "Podcast Companies, Once Walking on Air, Feel the Strain of Gravity" by Reggie Ugwu, New York Times "A U.F.O. Podcast Zooms Past the Competition" by Reggie Ugwu, New York Times "Crooked Media Hires Vice's Lucinda Treat as First CEO, Gets Funding From George Soros' Investment Firm" by Todd Spangler, Variety "'You Paid WHAT?!' Or, How Echo Chambers Distort Prices and the Way We Think" by Tara McMullin Love What Works?Become a paid subscriber and get twice-monthly bonus episodes, the chance to write in with questions, and more for just $7/month. Upgrade your subscription at: taramcmullin.substack.com/subscribeOr, share the show with a friend! You'll help out What Works and start a great conversation!Every episode is also published in essay form at: taramcmullin.substack.com ★ Support this podcast ★

I'm about to write the most journalistic thing I've ever written: I received a tip.I wish I could say it was an “anonymous tip” because that sounds even more journalistic. But it wasn't anonymous, though I won't say who it was. Anyhow, my source told me about a small business owner—someone who sells online courses and does quite well—paying an outrageous sum for a fairly standard service.This, of course, was not an isolated incident. I didn't really need a tip. I know all about this kind of thing. Wildly inflated prices grace all manner of products and services within the creator economy, coaching industry, and "online business" space in general.‘What's going on?' my source wanted to know. ‘How do people get caught paying so far above market rate? And why do people charge prices so out of whack with the market?' I totally paraphrased all that. Here's what my source really asked about: "the gaslighting inflationary online pricing bubble."In this episode, I endeavor to get to the bottom of the Gaslighting Inflationary Pricing Bubble Online—GIPBO. I discover that it's not so much an economic problem (although that's part of the story). It's an epistemological one.Footnotes: "Hostile Epistemology" by C. Thi Nguyen "Neoclassical Economics" on Investopedia "The Epistemic Seduction of Markets" by Lisa Herzog in The Raven "Escape the Echo Chamber" by C. Thi Nguyen "The Art of Rent" by David Harvey Love What Works? Share the show or newsletter with a friend who would appreciate a critical look at work, business, and leadership in the 21st century. And please consider supporting the work I do by becoming a paid subscriber. This episode alone took over 30 hours to research, write, edit, and produce. You can contribute (and get access to some sweet bonuses!) for just $7/month. Click here to contribute! ★ Support this podcast ★

Welcome to the 3rd edition of This is Not Advice, my advice column that's not an advice column for paid subscribers of What Works. This week, I am tackling a question that came up during last week's workshop on media ecosystems (link to replay below!) and that my husband Sean asked me just this morning. It also came up a number of times during a workshop on audio essays that I taught earlier this year.So I'm going to assume this is something that a lot of folks struggle with—myself included on a regular basis.Here's the gist:I've accumulated lots of thoughts that I want to turn into a cohesive project—maybe a book, a podcast series, an online course, even a single essay. How do I even begin working on something like that?This episode is an excerpt from my full column! To upgrade your subscription and read or listen to the full episode, click here! ★ Support this podcast ★

Today's episode is all about trust and responsibility—and how those qualities impact the cost of doing business and the work that's required for any company to be successful. And specifically, it's about something I'm calling the Trust-Profit Paradox. Simply put, you can't build trust and optimize for profit at the same time. After losing my ish listening to The Verge's Nilay Patel stump Airbnb's Brian Chesky with a question about AI-generated images on the Decoder podcast, I started to think about the responsibility that companies like Airbnb have (or, rather, avoid). From there, my research took me to some truly unexpected places—like into mainstream management theory. Footnotes: "The Pope Francis Puffer Photo Was Real In Our Hearts" by Eileen Cartter on GQ "'I can't make products just for 41-year-old tech founders': Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is taking it back to basics" on Decoder with Nilay Patel (audio & transcript available) "The Delusion of Profit" by Peter Drucker in Wall Street Journal "Cost of Capital" on the Harvard Business School blog "If you're getting ripped off, it's not surprising" featuring Niko Matouschek at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern "The Age of Customer Capitalism" by Roger Martin in Harvard Business Review "'Is Substack Notes a Twitter clone?': We asked CEO Chris Best" on Decoder with Nilay Patel Join me for a workshop called "Tending Your Media Ecosystem" on Wednesday, May 31st at 1:30pm ET/10:30am PT—exclusively for paid subscribers to What Works. Get started for just $7/month! ★ Support this podcast ★

What are we really talking about when we talk about our hopes and fears about AI?It's us. We're the problem.Actually, we're not the problem—we're more like the solution. But that's less mimetic.Sure, this is yet another pod hitting your feed with a take on AI. I'll assure you, though: this episode isn't really AI. There's no fear-mongering or cute suggestions for prompts. It's a bit of a meditation on the very human parts of our relationship with technology. And it's probably one of the most hopeful pieces I've put together in a few years!  ***Anyhow, today's episode is the second edition of This is Not Advice, a "not advice" column for paying subscribers of What Works. This is the final public edition, so if you'd like to keep getting a dose of "not advice" from me every other week, plus submit your own topics and questions, and support independent analysis of the future of work, business, and leadership, go taramcmullin.substack.com/subscribe and chip in just $7/month.I'm also hosting a workshop on May 31 for paying subscribers called Tending Your Media Ecosystem. I'll share how what I read, watch, and listen to becomes what I write, produce, and post. Footnotes: Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Deja Q" Grammarly's new AI Assistant "Did clickbait kill BuzzFeed and the digital media era?" on Offline with Jon Favreau "Readers Aren't Flocking to Chatbot Novels Just Yet" in Counter Craft by Lincoln Michel "Contrepreneurs: The Mikkelsen Twins" on Folding Ideas with Dan Olson "Dingus of the Week: Pivoting to Robots" in Men Yell at Me by Lyz Lenz Every new episode is also published in essay form! Click here to read. ★ Support this podcast ★

There's a sort of inside joke in the online business space of coaches, creators, and service providers. Or maybe, at this point, it's an "outside joke?"Q: What's the surest way to make more money as a creator or small business owner?A: Teach other people how to make money as a creator or small business owner.Hilarious, right? Anyhow, this isn't some weird quirk of extremely online people. It's something huge companies do, too. Douglas Rushkoff calls it "going meta." You can see it in the stock market, in automakers, and—yes—at Meta. In this quick Dispatch, I take a look at how "going meta" changes work, both for self-employed and traditionally employed folks. And, I consider how we might do things differently.Footnotes: Survival of the Richest, by Douglas Rushkoff Team Human, by Douglas Rushkoff "What a Meta For?" by Douglas Rushkoff on Medium Kyla Scanlon's tweet "How Ford Makes Money" on Investopedia ★ Support this podcast ★

“This cancerous economic principle means that executives and venture capitalists have abandoned the concept of value within a business. Through decades of corporate greed, production has become almost entirely separated from capital, meaning that executives (and higher-ups) are no longer able to understand the nature of the businesses they are growing.”— Ed Zitron, “Absentee Capitalism”This might sound weird—but most companies today aren't in the business it appears they're in. Netflix isn't really in the content business. Facebook isn't in the social media business. Etsy isn't in the handmade marketplace business. Instead, companies are in the growth business. And this impacts all of us, tying how we work not to the production of valuable products and services but to the potential for capital growth. Even for independent workers and small businesses, the capital growth game sets the rules and obstacles for the game we play.Today's episode is about gaming the system—how the game we play dictates the decisions we make and the actions we perform. After all, you have to know what game you're playing to know how to win. And you also need to decide whether that's the game you want to play.Footnotes: Games: The Art of Agency by C. Thi Nguyen “Bent but Not Broken: The History of the Rules” via NFL Operations CBS Sports: “Results of 2023 Rule Change Proposals” MSNBC: “BuzzFeed News to shut down” “Absentee Capitalism” by Ed Zitron "Amazon's Trickle-Down Monopoly" by Moira Weigel “The Valuable Business of Maintenance Work” by Tara McMullin What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting by Tara McMullin Support independent research and analysis about the future of work and business by becoming a paid subscriber of What Works! For just $7 per month, you help make my work possible. Click here to pledge your support! ★ Support this podcast ★

Today's quick episode is a sample of something I'm creating for paid subscribers to What Works. I'm calling it my “This is Not Advice” column. Or, TINA for short. Not to be confused with TINA a la “there is no alternative”—if you know, you know.Paid subscribers not only receive this subscriber-directed content, but they also have the chance to, well, direct the content! When you're a paid subscriber, you can write in with a question, topic, or observation that you'd like my take on—some added context here and some sideways observations there. If you like today's episode and want to get more of it, go to read.explorewhatworks.com and become a paid subscriber for just $7/month! ***Today's Question:What else can I do to grow my [audience, platform, brand, list, etc.]?To me, this isn't only a question for independent workers and small business owners—although it's especially salient for that group. It's also a question that points to a bigger trend in work in general. And that trend is the way all workers are now encouraged to be entrepreneurs of themselves. This is evident in the portfolio career model, the lessons about personal branding, and what Micki McGee has called the ‘belabored self,' that is, constant work on perfecting oneself to fit the market.This question has become quite fraught over the last 9 months or so. When I would have once been able to begrudgingly prescribe a series of actions on various social media platforms or construct a content strategy designed to attract new readers/listeners/viewers, the media landscape has become, to borrow Cory Doctorow's term, enshittified. Thanks to enshittification, none of the legacy platforms are viable candidates for a concerted strategy. And splitting one's effort across multiple platforms is just watering down already ineffective action.Listen to hear my answer! Or find the written version at read.explorewhatworks.comFootnotes: Become a paid subscriber to What Works for just $7 per month! "The Enshittification of TikTok" by Cory Doctorow on Wired Micki McGee on the "belabored self" "How Audience-Building is Not the Same as Finding Clients" by Tara McMullin Psychopolitics by Byung-Chul Han Liquid Love by Zygmunt Bauman "Why Creating Remarkable Work Matters" by Tara McMullin "Revisiting Remarkable Content to Explore Digital Ecology" by Tara McMullin ★ Support this podcast ★

What does a bad movie from 1992, loss aversion, Steinbeck, pizza, farm animals, and the founder of a software company have in common? Well, you'll find them all in this episode.This episode will take you places. I don't want to spoil it. So suffice it to say, this episode is all about questioning why we act the way we do when it comes to how we scale up (and scale down) our dreams. Footnotes: Learn more about Nathalie Lussier and AccessAlly Far and Away (1992 film) Oklahoma land rush of 1893 “A primer on the 30s” by John Steinbeck More about loss aversion 2002 pizza study Psychopolitics by Byung-Chul Han Check out Nathalie & Robin's farm on YouTube What Works by Tara McMullin Support the research, journalism, and analysis that goes into What Works by becoming a paid subscriber for just $7 per month. You'll get access to bonus content and help me continue to do this work (instead of, ya know, selling you stuff).  ★ Support this podcast ★

I am on board when it comes to technological progress. I look forward to updating my devices (although I don't do it as frequently as I used to). New apps and features excite me. I'm pretty quick to adapt to change. I am not a Luddite. Or so I thought. “The word Luddite still means an old-fashioned type who is anti-progress,” writes Jeanette Winterson in her book 12 Bytes. “But the Luddites of the early 19th century were not against progress; they were against exploitation.” Reading these lines was the first time what the Luddite movement actually stood for really sank in. Where I had once seen atavism and fear, I now saw labor politics I could get behind.When I picked up Gavin Mueller's Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Were Right About Why You Hate Your Job, I did so to learn more about the radical roots of Luddism and how the movement could inform my own thinking on the future of work. I also picked it up amidst the current fervor over AI and debates about whether the robots were finally coming for writers' jobs. In this episode, I share my favorite ideas from Mueller's book and apply them to commonplace tools like project management apps (ClickUp, Asana, etc.) and social media scheduling apps. I think you'll have a different perspective on tech once you've listened!Footnotes: Breaking Things At Work by Gavin Mueller 12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson Gavin Mueller on the Chris Voss show (YouTube) "AI and Automation are destroying jobs, not work" via Quartz (YouTube) "Dear YouTube, creators keep burning out. Here's the fix." via Channel Makers (YouTube) "Creator burnout is real. 6 ways to recover" via Sidewalker Daily (YouTube) My 2021 TEDx talk on remarkable work "Kids at Work, Games as Labor, Content as Product, and Surplus Elite" by me on Substack "The Game is Rigged: Rethinking the Creator Economy" by me on Substack "Intelligence Superabundance" by Packy McCormick on Not Boring "Moss introduces Jen to the internet" from The IT Crowd (YouTube) "You have to start talking" via GaryVee Video Experience (YouTube) ★ Support this podcast ★

It seems like every company today claims to be "on a mission" to change the world or improve our lives. They bill themselves as social movements more than profit-driven enterprises. It sounds nice. But how does it really function in the lives of workers? Do these missions meaningfully improve our communities?In this episode, I briefly explore the history of the corporate mission statement and then dive into a critique of the bestselling leadership book, Start with Why. You'll hear why the Start with Why ideology is so appealing, how it sets us up for disappointment, and whether it's actually an effective brand and marketing strategy. Plus, I leave off with an alternative take that flips this ideology on its head. Footnotes: Walmart's Statement of Purpose Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, and Practices by Peter Drucker The New Spirit of Capitalism by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello Start with Why by Simon Sinek “Start with Why” TEDx talk by Simon Sinek The Problem with Work by Kathi Weeks Want more of What Works? Subscribe FREE to the What Works newsletter at read.explorewhatworks.comOr, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more. ★ Support this podcast ★

At least in my corner of social media, there are a lot of folks asking what makes a business ethical. Or, perhaps more accurately, there are a lot of folks answering that question. And there are probably even more folks worried that there's something unethical about the way they run their businesses. They're afraid they haven't checked all the ethical business boxes. When Brooke Monaghan emailed me to ask whether I wanted to have a messy conversation about some of the messaging around ethical, equitable, or trauma-informed businesses, I jumped on the opportunity. You see, while this is certainly not true of all messaging on these topics, much of it unintentionally replicates problematic systems and social relations. Capitalism always appropriates that which tries to resist it.This episode explores a few different ways to think about the messages you've probably run into as you think about working or doing business differently. It's not about calling anyone out or shaming anyone. It's a look under the hood at some of the unexpected forces at play.Footnotes: Find out more about Brooke Monaghan. “Does social media leave you angry?” on NPR Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher A Spectre, Haunting by China Miéville “White Women/Black Women” by Phyllis Palmer Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell Utilitarian ethics Deontological ethics I release every episode in essay form on Thursdays. Get them delivered straight to your inbox, or read the archive at read.explorewhatworks.com.Want to support the ad-free independent analysis I do at What Works? Become a paying subscriber at read.explorewhatworks.com. For just $7 per month, you not only get access to all of my free content, but bonus podcast episodes, the “This is Not Advice” Column, and sneak peeks at works in progress. Go to read.explorewhatworks.com to subscribe. Want more of What Works? Subscribe FREE to the What Works newsletter at read.explorewhatworks.comOr, upgrade to a paid subscription for just $7/month and get bonus podcast episodes, the "This is Not Advice" Column, and more. ★ Support this podcast ★

This Earth Month... buy more stuff?!We're about to be bombarded with messaging about corporate climate initiatives. We'll have the chance to buy merch to "support" the planet. And we'll be incentivized to spend more so that a small portion can be donated to organizations fighting climate change.As you might expect, it's all marketing. Earth Month and Earth Day seem to have become another excuse for a sale.But we miss a key issue in our fight for change if we stop at the "greedy corporation" critique. In this short dispatch, I compare Panasonic's #CreateTodayEnrichTomorrow campaign to Parks Project's mission to do good, and I advocate for a systems-level critique that can penetrate do-good messaging to get to the heart of the problem.Footnotes: Panasonic's ad: Green Impact (with Michael Phelps) Panasonic CES 2022 Top Things to See The Entrepreneurs Helping Save U.S. National Parks via Forbes Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher ★ Support this podcast ★

"All parasites have value, Sibling Dex. Not to their hosts, perhaps, but you could say the same about a predator and a prey animal. They all give back—not to the individual but to the ecosystem at large." — Mosscap, in A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky ChambersFor the next few months, I'm focusing on some big projects and taking my foot off the gas of the podcast a bit. But since writing is how I think, my big projects spin off shorter pieces as I work through ideas. I'll share some of these shorter pieces here on the podcast and in the What Works newsletter as "dispatches" from my projects.Today's dispatch explores our feelings about those who don't work—and how those feelings can create obstacles to more sustainable choices about how we do work.Footnotes: Monk & Robot novellas by Becky Chambers Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker's Notebook by James Boggs The Immunity to Change process via MindTools ★ Support this podcast ★

I've called myself a recovering overachiever. I'm recovering not from the drive to excel but from the anxiety inherent to wondering if anything I achieve will ever be enough. And folks, it's a struggle. The philosophy Byung-Chul Han describes this anxiety as central to contemporary society. He dubs our modern age the “Achievement Society” and argues that our plethora of potential projects and opportunities work to maximize our productivity. After all, what better way to inspire people to greater efficiency than by inspiring them to tackle #AllTheThings?This week, I talk with the host of The Anxious Achiever and author of the forthcoming book of the same name, Morra Aarons-Mele. We both the anxiety that the drive to achieve can create and how mental health conditions of all kinds impact the way we work.Footnotes: Pre-order The Anxious Achiever by Morra Aarons-Mele Listen to The Anxious Achiever podcast on your favorite app Find out more about Morra Aarons-Mele The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault “High-Functioning Anxiety - Life Fright of the Shy Loud” presented by Jordan Raskopoulos at TEDxSydney ★ Support this podcast ★

We all have deep human needs—for belonging, for autonomy, for creative expression, for safety and security. But modern life can make it a real challenge to get those needs met in meaningful ways. Instead, we're offered products with flashy marketing messages. Kitchen gadgets, social media platforms, clothing, personal care products, and many others offer to help us live our best lives. Financial and educational products promise a greater sense of security and autonomy. But do these commodities really satisfy our needs? Or do they merely stave off the hunger a little longer?In this final episode of The Economics Of, I explore how various economic concepts can help us understand why we buy the things we do, how our consumption relates to larger economics forces, and how our relationships are influenced by it all. I also talk with Mara Glatzel, the author of Needy, about how to better understand our own needs and create the conditions through which we can get those needs met.Footnotes: Get your copy of Needy by Mara Glatzel Learn more about Mara Glatzel “Varieties of the Rat Race: Conspicuous Consumption in the US & Germany” by Till Van Treeck, via the Institute for New Economic Thinking “Trickle-Down Consumption” by Marianne Bertrand and Adair Morse in The Review of Economics and Statistics “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” by Karl Marx Adam Smith's America by Glory M. Liu Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman “Alienation” on Overthink with David Pena-Guzman and Ellie Anderson More on Thorstein Veblen via Investopedia Everything, All the Time, Everywhere by Stuart Jeffries Liquid Love by Zygmunt Bauman New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get them delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weeklyIf you'd like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that's led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and rebuilding a structure for work-life that works. ★ Support this podcast ★

What makes an idea valuable? What turns it into a product that can be bought, sold, or rented? Ideas turn into capital assets thanks to our system of intellectual property rights. But understanding IP isn't simply a matter of learning what a trademark or patent is, and then learning how to leverage it to create wealth. To truly understand intellectual property, we need to under property—what it is and why it exists—first.In this episode, I explore the origins of our conception of private property, why we've coded intellectual property rights into law, and how one business owner—Jenny Blake—licenses her IP to companies to generate (relatively) passive income. Footnotes: Jenny Blake's Free Time Jenny Blake's Pivot Method Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow “Coding Land and Ideas | The Laws of Capitalism” featuring Katharina Pistor via the Institute for New Economic Thinking “Enclosure” on Wikipedia “Legal Evil” featuring Katharina Pistor via the Institute for New Economic Thinking “How to Unf★ck Intellectual Property” featuring Dean Baker via the Institute for New Economic Thinking Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy and Who Pays for It? by Brett Christophers Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get them delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weeklyIf you'd like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that's led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and rebuilding a structure for work-life that works. ★ Support this podcast ★

This is Part 2 of The Economics of Getting (and Paying) Attention. If you haven't listened to Part 1, I highly recommend starting there!In today's episode, I explore the “right to publicity” and the value of celebrity as an economic condition. From there, we get into how audience-building businesses gain efficiency by vertically integrating media, ads, and offers and how micro-media creators often leverage monopoly power to charge exorbitant prices.Footnotes: “New wellness price point just dropped” Conspiratuality Instagram post The World After Capital by Albert Wenger (available free) “The Audience Commodity and its Work” by Dallas Smythe “From Celebrity to Influencer” by Alison Hearn and Stephanie Schoenhoff Good Mythical Morning on YouTube Sporked “How Audience-Building is Different from Finding Clients” by Tara McMullin Vertical integration New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get them delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weeklyIf you'd like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that's led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and then rebuilding a structure for work-life that works. ★ Support this podcast ★

How comfortable are you with your own voice? How likely are you to say what's on your mind?Samara Bay, the author of the brand-new book Permission to Speak, is on a mission to change what power sounds like. I found Samara because one of my favorite podcasters was on Samara's show. I then binged her back catalog and started recommending her show to everyone I worked with. One of those folks then turned around and told Samara I had shouted her out! We've been fangirling together ever since. I first had Samara on the podcast during the Self-Help, LLC series (Episode 397: Bad Usage). But her book has just hit the shelves so I took that as an excuse to schedule another chat and bring it to you as a bonus "mini" episode. Enjoy!Footnotes: Buy Permission to Speak at Bookshop.org (or wherever you buy books!) Find out more about Samara Follow Samara on Instagram YellowHouse.Media ★ Support this podcast ★

Attention is a scarce (and precious) resource. A gargantuan number of media outlets, advertisers, influencers, and brands vie for our attention every day. In turn, many of us (including me) are out there trying to attract attention, too. At the same time, the changing nature of the attention market (as well as larger macroeconomic shifts) creates some real weirdness.This is the first episode of a two-part deep dive into the economics of paying attention, getting attention, and audiences as a commodity. In this episode, we'll question how an influencer can charge $100k per year for coaching, examine how attention scarcity impacts the market, and explore the “principal product of the mass media.” This episode is for you if you ever spend time on social media, consume any kind of traditional media, buy things, or hope people will buy things for you. We'll get into the weeds—but all for the purpose of getting very, very practical.Footnotes: “New wellness price point just dropped” Conspiratuality Instagram post “Paying Attention: The Attention Economy” via the Berkley Economic Review The World After Capital by Albert Wenger (available free) “Georg Franck's ‘The Economy of Attention': Mental capitalism and the struggle for attention” by Robert van Krieken “The Economy of Attention” by Georg Franck, translated by Silvia Plaza “The Audience Commodity and its Work” by Dallas Smythe Dallas Smythe 1979 lecture via SFU Communications “The Economics of Working Together with Kate Strathmann” on What Works “Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Economy and Critical Theory” by Christian Fuchs New episodes are published in essay form every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get the delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, by subscribing to What Works Weekly: explorewhatworks.com/weeklyIf you'd like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that's led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and then rebuilding a structure for work-life that works. ★ Support this podcast ★

Toward the end of last week's episode, Kate Strathmann talked about the importance of understanding the "tiny economy" of your business. Digging into cashflow is a perfect way to do just that. When we start thinking about how money flows 3 dimensionally, we start to see new opportunities for investment, growth, and exercising our values.This episode originally aired in September 2021. Turns out, I needed an extra week to put together the economics of attention, and this piece followed up my conversation with Kate beautifully. I'll be back next week with an all-new episode!Footnotes: Cashflow Is A Feminist Issue (essay version) SBA report on credit market experiences among new business owners Report on the gender gap in business financing (CBS News) The Valuable Business of Maintenance Work Your Biggest Small Business Opportunity is Doing Less Decolonization is for Everyone: TEDx talk by Nikki Sanchez Written versions of each new episode are available at explorewhatworks.com every Thursday. Or, sign up for What Works Weekly—free—and get them delivered to your inbox automatically!If you'd like to learn more about how we can approach life and work differently, check out my book, What Works. I explore the history and cultural context that's led us to this success-obsessed, productivity-oriented moment. Then I guide you through deconstructing those messages and then rebuilding a structure for work-life that works. ★ Support this podcast ★