Podcast
What Works
Hosted by Tara McMullin · EN
Work is central to the human experience. It helps us shape our identities, care for those we love, and contribute to our communities. Work can be a source of power and a catalyst for change. Unfortunately, that's not how most of us experience work—even those who work for themselves. Our labor and creative spirit are used to enrich others and maintain the status quo. It's time for an intervention. What Works is a show about rethinking work, business, and leadership for the 21st-century economy. Host Tara McMullin covers money, management, culture, media, philosophy, and more to figure out what's working (and what's not) today. Tara offers a distinctly interdisciplinary approach to deep-dive analysis of how we work and how work shapes us.
27episodes
Episodes
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Rethinking Social Media
1w ago00:15:18Tap to summarize"No matter how hard you post or what sites you do it in it’s never going to be 2019 again." — Amanda Mull on BlueskyI'm thinking about getting back on social media. Weird, I know. But (1) I have a distribution problem, and (2) it's not what it used to be... which is bad, but maybe also good for me? Today, I'm putting my thoughts into words and relying on a new essay by communications scholar danah boyd to make sense of why getting back on platforms feels vaguely appealing.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this post."Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media" by danah boyd in Social Media + Society ★ Support this podcast ★
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Just Because You Can: The Eggbeater Effect Revisited
2w ago00:23:06Tap to summarizeEight months before ChatGPT launched to the world, I wrote about "the eggbeater effect," or the tendency for labor-saving tools to create new labor. Four years later, I'm revisiting that idea. Remember: just because you can doesn't mean you should.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode."The Stepford Wives" on You're Wrong AboutMore Work for Mother by Ruth Schwartz Cowan"The Illusion of AI Productivity Gains" by Philippa Hardman"AI Doesn't Reduce Work—It Itensifies It" by Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye in Harvard Business Review"AI's big productivity boost? It's happening from the sofa" at Stanford Institution for Economic Policy Research"Seeing Software" by Tara McMullin on What Works"The Eggbeater Effect" by Tara McMullin on What Works (original)"How the Push for Efficiency Changes Us" by Tara McMullin on What Works (work intensification)MIT State of AI in Business 2026"Beyond Productivity: Measuring the Real Value of AI" from Workday (00:00) - Making Things Fancy (01:19) - The Eggbeater Effect (06:01) - More Work for Mother (16:09) - Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should (19:43) - How to Decide When Doing More is the Right Decision ★ Support this podcast ★
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Apples, Oranges, and Iceberg Metrics
Apr 3000:41:11Tap to summarizeYou can always rely on me to channel my righteous indignation at shoddy data analysis into a lengthy podcast episode. Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode."How Short-Form Clips Took Over the Internet" on Galaxy Brain with Charlie Warzel"The Clip Economy" by Ed Elson on the Simply Put newsletter"What happens when the short-form video bubble bursts?" by Ryan Broderick on Garbage Day"Sorry (Not Sorry) Self-Promotion Doesn't Work" by Tara McMullin on What Works"The Case for Zero-Click Content in a Zero-Trust Ecosystem" by Amanda Natividad for SparkToroThe Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul HanThinking in Systems by Donella MeadowsTeam Human by Douglas Rushkoff ★ Support this podcast ★
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Oh Joy! On Facing Down Burnout
Apr 900:43:09Tap to summarizeAnother episode featuring HBO's The Pitt? You know it. This time: finding your course of action in the space between personal challenges and systemic and structural failings.Footnotes:Read the essay version here."Rethinking Busyness" on What WorksHBO's The Pitt"Changes in Burnout and Satisfaction With Work–Life Integration in Physicians and the General US Working Population Between 2011 and 2023"AMA STEPS ForwardA Spectre, Haunting by China Miéville ★ Support this podcast ★
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The Wages of Hierarchy
Mar 2001:06:29Tap to summarizeOn March 11, the 5-time World’s Best Restaurant, Noma, began a 3-month Los Angeles residency. The vanguard establishment of New Nordic Cuisine, was finally available to Americans without an international flight. All-inclusive bookings—sold out well ahead of opening day—went for $1500 per person.Diners, arriving in luxury vehicles with tinted windows, anticipated the hyper-local, painstakingly presented menu designed by Noma’s celebrated chef René Redzepi. But first, they had to make it past the protesters. They held signs that said, “Noma broke me,” “Prestige is not a paycheck,” and “No Michelin stars for violence.”The allegations of psychological and physical abuse by Noma’s Redzepi weren’t exactly news. They came to light in drips and drabs over the last decade or so. What’s more, the hostile and often violent environment of commercial kitchens at all levels of service has become fodder for TV and film. But Noma LA provided an event to organize around, a point of focus for demanding attention, action, and restitution.There are a bunch of reasons I wanted to dive into this story on What Works. First, this is a labor story. It’s about what’s acceptable and what’s not when it comes to how we work and why we work. Second, and closer to my literal home, it’s a topic that my husband Sean is super passionate about, having spent the bulk of his working years in restaurants before I rudely relocated him to central Pennsylvania.Last Thursday, I texted him a link to one of many stories about Noma by New York Times food writer Julia Moskin, and said, “We need to do an episode.” So here we are.Sean and I talked through his own experience in restaurants, his long-time interest in the Noma project, what we understand of the past abuse at Noma, the response from Redzepi, and how this all ties in with the constructions of work-life we all experience.Spoiler: it’s a story about hierarchy and making sure everyone is in the “right” place.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode.Read Julia Moskin's reporting at the New York Times (all gift links):On the abuse allegationsOn industry responsesOn René Redzepi's decision to leaveThe Manifesto for the New Nordic Kitchen"Noma Abuse" website created by One Fair Wage"What Noma did next" by Kieran Morris in The Guardian (2020)Making It by Ellen Meiser"Culture of the Kitchen" by René Redzepi in Lucky Peach (2015)"Essays on Marx's Theory of Value" by I. I. RubinEmergent Strategy by adrienne maree brownThe Story of Capital by David Harvey (00:00) - Most Expensive Meal (05:56) - A Brief History of Noma (10:40) - Work-Life in the Kitchen (15:47) - The Brigade System (23:08) - Abuse Allegations Against Rene Redzepi (48:54) - Unpaid Labor ★ Support this podcast ★
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Technicians, Visionaries, and the Myth of Going Solo
Mar 1200:25:41Tap to summarizeTo the uninitiated, "being your own boss" sounds pretty nice. Of course, the moment you go into business for yourself, you realize the wide variety of skills it requires—skills that you yourself do not possess. Skills that you don't want to and have no intention of learning. Being your own boss means balancing a host of functions within one corporate (that is, "body") system. You can address the variety of those functions in a number of ways: learn, hire, minimize, or fight like hell and hope the problem goes away on its own. Today, I'm exploring how we think about who a small business owner or independent worker is, what mental models have informed that identity, and how that identity plays into economic reality as work in the knowledge and creative sectors becomes increasingly hard to come by.First, we'll talk about a pair of influential books. Then, I'll take a look at recent layoffs at The Washington Post. And finally, I'll propose a different way to think about what "going solo" actually means and how it can help identify the trade-offs on offer. After the main episode, I've got a brief coda about some highly relevant Grammarly drama.P.S. Making Sense starts soon! Join me for a 8-week live workshop series that helps you turn your audience's "Wait, what?!" moments into clear and compelling content. Get all the information & register here!Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode.Get Tara's new guide Blank Slate, a workbook for rethinking your business assumptions.The E-Myth Revisited by Michael GerberRocket Fuel by Gino Wickman and Michael C. Winters"Washington Post lays off one-third of its newsroom" via NBC News"Washington Post cuts one third of its staff" via CNN"Grammarly is using our identities without permission" by Stevie Bonifield on The Verge"Grammarly will continue using authors' identities unless they opt out" by Sean Hollister on The Verge[ UPDATE ] There have been two developments in the Grammarly story. First, it wasn’t user error (thank goodness). Superhuman did, in fact, disable the feature on Wednesday, March 11. Second, journalist Julia Angwin filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all those whose identities were used improperly. Superhuman’s CEO issued a statement that did include an apology. (00:00) - Company of Multiple Personalities (02:38) - Part 1: The Myth of Solo Entrepreneurship (08:21) - Part 2: There's Always the Creator Economy (There Isn't) (16:25) - Part 3: Business Beyond Money-Making (20:21) - A Code ★ Support this podcast ★
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This Process is a Mess
Mar 500:29:11Tap to summarizeI live for people explaining how they approach analysis and critique. I desperately want to know how other people think about things so I can learn to think in new ways. I want a compelling intellectual or journalistic project, but I also want to know how it was conceived and executed.I hope you enjoy hearing that kind of behind-the-scenes, too, because that's exactly what this episode is. It's a case study that I shared with the last cohort of Making Sense, my 8-week program for turning "Wait, what?!" moments into compelling content, explaining how an article I published last year came together. You'll hear just how messy the process (and why working through it is worth it).Footnotes:Read the article version of this episode.Check out Mia Sato's article about dupes for The Verge and her TikTok video explaining how she approached the topic."Drafting Towards the Status Quo" on What Works“Wait, What?!” on What WorksLearn more about Making Sense! ★ Support this podcast ★
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How I Learn a New Skill
Feb 1900:24:04Tap to summarizeSo a couple of weeks ago, I downloaded Final Cut Pro and committed to learning how to use it. Despite logging hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in other video editing software, this is a big challenge. I took some time to reflect on how I make sense of learning a new skill like this—because learning new skills is an essential component of navigating the 21st-century economy.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode here.The Adult Learner by Malcolm Knowles"Apple Creator Studio is launching to take on Adobe" on The VergeRegistration for Making Sense, an 8-week workshop series on turning "Wait, what?!" moments into compelling content, is open for registration. Program starts March 24. Learn more: whatworks.fyi/makingsense ★ Support this podcast ★
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Wait... what?!
Feb 1200:09:58Tap to summarizeYou’re going along, minding your own business, and then it hits you: “Wait, what?!” Your expectation or assumption bumps against the facts. Things aren’t the way you thought they were. It’s not always a life-altering surprise. It might be something tiny—just enough of a shock to make you rethink what you thought you knew.Today, how we resolve those “Wait, what?!” moments.I’m kicking off my 8-week workshop series, Making Sense, on March 24. This program walks you through the sensemaking process and takes you step by step through applying it to a media-making project. By the end of the 8 weeks, you’ll have made significant progress on your project and have an effective process you can use over and over again to create more compelling content.Registration for Making Sense is now open. To learn more and enroll go to: whatworks.fyi/making-sense ★ Support this podcast ★
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Rethinking Higher Ed for the 21st-Century Economy with Lauren Lassabe Shepherd
Feb 500:54:29Tap to summarizeIt's no secret that one of my, let's say, special interests is higher education. The reasons for this are at least threefold. First, I have a kid heading off to college next year. Second, I have past regrets and future fantasies about the academy. And third, the world of work and the realm of education overlap in myriad ways.Work and education have always had a close relationship. Access to education influences access to different types of work. New forms of work influence how we organize and deliver education.I've been talking about doing an episode or a series on the intersection of higher ed and work for... years now. Today, finally, I have an initial installment in what I hope is an ongoing, if nonsequential, look at how these two pillars of modern life influence each other.Joining me to share both her professional insight and her personal journey is Dr. Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, a historian of education and the host of the American Campus Podcast.Footnotes:Read an edited transcript of this conversation.Learn more about Lauren Lassabe Shepherd.Resistance from the Right by Lauren Lassabe ShepherdThe Old is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born by Nancy Fraser"Adjunct professors deserve professional development" by Anna Conway and Thomas Tobin at Insight Higher Ed"An Army of Temps: AFT Adjunct Faculty Quality of Work/Life Report" "The Secret Lives of Adjunct Professors" by Gila Berryman at ElleJustice Lewis Power Jr. and the Powell Memo on WikipediaMore about futurist Bryan AlexanderMore about Indigenous studies scholar Sandy GrandeCheck out the American Campus Podcast:Mentioned in the Episode:"The peak and decline of US higher ed with Bryan Alexander""How to get a job at Harvard in 1860 with prabhdeep kehal"A few personal favorites:"Christianity, manhood, and college football with Hunter M. Hampton""The college bookstore racket with Katya Schwenk""The history of federal student loans with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer" (00:00) - Rethinking Higher Ed for the 21st-Century Economy with Lauren Lassabe Shepherd (00:03) - Cold Open (00:42) - Intro (53:31) - Outro ★ Support this podcast ★
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