Strange New Work

Lots of people are talking about the future of work today: remote work, artificial intelligence, white-collar unions, robots, 4-day workweeks... But those things are either here already or will be soon. What about the far future of work? What alien advancements await the office of the future? This podcast wants to boldly go where no other future-of-work podcast has gone. Host Tara McMullin (What Works) brings this limited series about how speculative fiction can help us imagine strange new ways of working and understanding ourselves. We'll explore questions about how we can transform work to be more humane and inclusive. We'll imagine new ways of working together, managing the economy, and providing for others.

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Episodes

The Will to Share Power with Tania Luna

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 mor...

Nov 02, 2023•33 min•Ep. 9

The Most Undervalued Skill of the 21st-Century Economy

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 lot...

Oct 26, 2023•35 min•Ep. 8

Made for Work

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 mig...

Oct 19, 2023•28 min•Ep. 7

Disrupting Housework (Without Robots or Replicators)

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...

Oct 12, 2023•34 min•Ep. 6

You Will Be Assimilated with Charlie Gilkey

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 neve...

Oct 05, 2023•32 min•Ep. 5

The Time to Change with Jordan Maney and Joanna L. Cea

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 invol...

Sep 28, 2023•35 min•Ep. 4

World-Building a More Sustainable Work Environment with Morgan Harper Nichols

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 mor...

Sep 21, 2023•29 min•Ep. 3

Imagining a Radically Different World of Work

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. F...

Sep 14, 2023•28 min•Ep. 2

Introducing Strange New Work from What Works

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! Support the show at: whatworks.fyi Strange New Work is brought to you by What Works with Tara McMullin and YellowHouse.Media.

Sep 07, 2023•3 min•Ep. 1

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