Cannonball with Wesley Morris

Episode: "New Foundation" (November 15, 2022)

Host: Wesley Morris (New York Times)

Episode Overview

In "New Foundation," Wesley Morris and co-host Jay Wortham dive deep into the seismic shifts in American work culture prompted by the pandemic, reflecting both personally and culturally on the meaning, value, and future of work. Using anecdotes, pop culture references, and thoughtful critique, they unpack how new work paradigms—remote work, shifting labor practices, and mass reevaluations of purpose—offer both opportunities for deeper human connection and challenges to our ideas of dignity and community.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Histories in Work

• Jay Wortham recounts working at a sports bar in high school, describing how the camaraderie and diversity of colleagues opened up their worldview.
  • Quote: "I loved the camaraderie of it, and it really shaped my psyche around the importance of being open to new types of people..." (03:14)
• Both hosts reflect on how these early, communal work experiences shaped their views on diversity, tolerance, and connection.

2. The Pandemic & the "Return to Office"

• The pandemic surfaced a major societal and labor shift few could have predicted.
  • Wesley: "As many as… 40% of the American workforce had a job number they could do from home." (05:30)
  • Jay: "For the other 60%, there was clarity perhaps about what it meant to be someone who could not work from home..." (05:58)
• The mandate to "return to the office" glosses over widespread personal changes, lessons learned, and new opportunities for defining work.

3. Work, Popular Culture, and the American Sitcom

• Wesley explains how American TV and sitcoms have long romanticized the workplace:
  • "I got this idea of loving work in some ways from the American sitcom because there was never a hardship. It was very easy to just go to work and be surrounded by your work family." (08:06)
• Both note that sitcoms rarely depict the actual struggles of labor—unionization, overwork, or exploitation—and instead focus on a harmonious, idealized version of office camaraderie.
• Jay: "Leaning too much into the romance of work hides the reality of the ways in which work can become… all-encompassing in our lives..." (11:42)

4. Work as Identity and Purpose

• Both reflect on the deep connections between work, identity, and historical legacy:
  • Jay, referencing Bell Hooks and Black women's labor: "Amid all these dominations, it is still possible to find work that you love and find work that gives you purpose no matter what it is. Work can make life sweet." (13:18)
  • Wesley: "I am just as you are—the great, great, great something grandchild of people who did that work and were never paid what they were worth." (14:11)

5. The Impact of Remote Work & Accessibility

• Hosts emphasize how pandemic-required accessibility surfaced barriers and needs previously experienced mainly by disabled communities:
  • "For the first time, the world… had to think about barriers that disabled people have to think about every day." – Jay (16:31)
  • Concerns are raised about losing these accessibility gains amid pushes for "normalcy."

6. The Great Resignation & Re-evaluating Work

• The pandemic triggered introspection and resistance to toxic work culture:
  • Jay: "I've had a spiritual awakening—I do not have to do this job. I will not tolerate these microaggressions or macroaggressions." (17:25)
• TikTok and Gen Z’s approach to labor are celebrated for critiquing traditional work narratives and exposing futility in exploitative roles.
  • Memorable TikTok moment: "No, no, no, I'm going to just write my job description in my email because you keep telling me to do things outside of it." (18:04–18:11)

7. Severance—the TV Metaphor

• The show "Severance" is discussed as a dystopian metaphor for how work and life are artificially split in contemporary culture:
  • "They become a person with a work life and a person with a home life... The person with the work life doesn't know anything about the person with the home life." – Wesley (21:20)
• The severing of work and self mirrors how the modern workforce is encouraged to compartmentalize in ways both liberating and dehumanizing.

8. The Roots of American Work Culture

• Jay and Wesley contextualize America’s relationship with work as fundamentally tied to exploitation, referencing the genocide of Indigenous people and enslavement of Africans:
  • "A country that was founded on the toxicity of work." – Wesley (24:14)
• The current questioning of work is rooted, they argue, in an ongoing legacy of labor exploitation.

9. New Normals and Hopeful Transformations

• Recognition that hybrid work models and increased labor organizing (union drives, strikes across industries) are positive changes:
  • Wesley: "I am a four-days-a-week person. That feels normal now… that's the new normal." (25:18)
  • Jay: "We saw thousands of graduate students at Columbia asking for better pay… You can just look at how many people are organizing unions." (27:17)

10. The Limits and Possibilities of Collective Work

• The hosts express desire for a humane, purposeful approach to work for all, while acknowledging the deep-seated social and cultural barriers.
  • "If pop culture… can be a vehicle for learning how to hold each other's needs, abilities, life experiences with more care and expansive compassion, I'm so here for it." – Jay (31:07)
  • "The implications of us not all being at work together are going to not be great for the country… even the little bit of tolerance… came through some combination of workplace culture and popular culture." – Wesley (30:55)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You got to meet people you never would have met otherwise and make some kind of connection… It makes it hard to be categorical in your hate." — Wesley (03:40)
• "Leaning too much into the romance of work hides the reality…" — Jay (11:42)
• "Amid all these dominations, it is still possible to find work that you love… Work can make life sweet." — Jay, quoting Bell Hooks (13:18)
• "I am a four-days-a-week person. That feels normal now." — Wesley (25:18)
• "A country that was founded on the toxicity of work." — Wesley (24:14)
• "If pop culture… can be a vehicle for learning how to hold each other's needs, abilities, life experiences with more care and expansive compassion, I'm so here for it." — Jay (31:07)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Jay's sports bar experience & work as expanding horizons: 00:58–03:40
• Pandemic as labor shift—remote vs. in-person work: 05:16–06:26
• Sitcoms and the 'romance of work': 06:26–11:13
• Cultural and racial legacies in conceptions of work: 13:18–14:49
• Accessibility and disability justice in new work models: 16:30–17:23
• The rise of the Great Resignation & TikTok labor satire: 17:23–19:36
• Severance and compartmentalization of work/self: 21:23–24:14
• Labor organizing & hybrid work as 'new normal': 25:18–27:17
• Reflection on collective work and care: 30:26–32:16

Tone and Style

Conversational, reflective, and incisive—balancing passionate personal storytelling with cultural criticism and a call for greater compassion and systemic change. Both hosts blend humor and philosophical inquiry, using pop culture and real-world examples to make complex social shifts relatable and urgent.

Summary

"New Foundation" is a profound meditation on the transformed landscape of American work culture. Through candid reflections and sharp cultural analysis, Jay Wortham and Wesley Morris contend with the pandemic’s upheavals, the persistent legacies of racial and economic exploitation, and the enduring possibilities for solidarity, meaning, and change in how and why we work. The episode is an invitation to bring the lessons of disruption forward—ensuring dignity, access, and purpose remain central as we define what work will mean in the years ahead.