Work as identity, burnout as lifestyle
April 22, 2019
1 hr 22 min
214
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Episode 214 · April 22, 2019
Work as identity, burnout as lifestyle
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Gray Area Episodes Around April 22, 2019
Episode 213 of 775 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
Work as identity, burnout as lifestyle
Summary
In the past few months, two essays on America’s changing relationship to work caught my eye. The first was Anne Helen Petersen’s viral BuzzFeed piece defining, and describing, “millennial burnout.” The second was Derek Thompson’s Atlantic article on “workism.”
The two pieces speak to each other in interesting ways, and to some questions I’ve been reflecting on as my own relationship to work changes. So I asked the authors to join me for a conversation about what happens when work becomes an identity, capitalism becomes a religion, and productivity becomes the way we measure human value. The conversation exceeded even the high hopes I had for it. Enjoy this one.
Book recommendations:
Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennialsby Malcolm Harris
White: Essays on Race and Cultureby Richard Dyer
The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914by Philipp Blom
A Visit from the Goon Squadby Jennifer Egan
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