Made for Work

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Strange New Work

Tara McMullin

9 episodes

7 months ago

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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Made for Work

Strange New Work

27 minutes

2 years ago

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 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

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