What Works

Tara McMullin
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What Works

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.

  1. 12/12/2024

    EP 484: The Freedom to Buy

    So, health insurance is in the news. And so is Americans' feelings about it. I got to wondering how we ended up with this terrible health insurance system in the United States. I uncovered a fascinating story about the marketing campaign that sunk Truman's national health insurance program in the 1940s. I also discovered some interesting parallels to popular marketing messages among today's influencers, gurus, and marketers. Today's episode is a little trip through history that will hopefully put some of our current issues in perspective. Footnotes: Gallup's survey data on healthcare"The Lie Factory" by Jill Lepore, in The New YorkerInterview with Leone Baxter in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting"Campaigns, Inc." via the California State Archives"The deprofessionalization of medicine. Causes, effects, and responses." by RR Reed and D Evans"Professional Identity Misformation and Burnout: A Call for Graduate Medical Education to Reject “Provider” by Deborah Ehrlich and Joseph Gravel"White Privilege and Professionalization: A Decolonial and Critical Feminist Perspective on Professional Nursing" by Natalie Stake-Doucet"Why Doesn’t the United States Have National Health Insurance? The Role of the American Medical Association" by Marcella Alsan and Yousra Neberai"Oli London & the Right Wing Grift" by Matt BernsteinFind an essay version of this episode at whatworks.fyi! ★ Support this podcast ★

    28 min

  2. 05/12/2024

    EP 483: Avoiding Acquiescence Bias

    A problem, question, or challenge is often more than meets the eye. But we're biased to accept how an issue is initially framed. We acquiesce to the original terms. That's called acquiescence bias. When we don't counteract our acquiescence bias, we miss opportunities to get to the root cause or think creatively about a challenge. Today, I share 3 ways to resist acquiescence bias as you consider your next moves, goals, or plans. Footnotes: "In Your Spare Time" from No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin (read it or listen on Spotify)"Don't call it a Substack." by Anil DashMore on why podcast metrics were so screwy this yearA skeet thread on the difference in referral traffic from Bluesky and X (00:00) - What is spare time? (05:45) - Acquiescence Bias (07:30) - An Example: Should I start a Substack? (09:59) - Buy why? (12:30) - Who benefits? (15:07) - Remove the guise of objectivity (19:29) - Go forth and reframe! ★ Support this podcast ★

    21 min

  3. 21/11/2024

    EP 482: Seeing Software

    Do you see your software?Do you see how it influences how you run meetings, brainstorm ideas, fulfill your responsibilities, and communicate with others? Do you see how its text boxes, radio buttons, tabs, search results, and menus train you to think? Do you see it, or do you just use it? Footnotes: "The impossible dream of good workplace software" on Decoder "Practico-inertia" by Rob Horning ★ Support this podcast ★

    18 min

  4. 25/10/2024

    EP 481: Preservation in the Post-Information Age with Sari Azout

    Stop me if you've heard this before: we're overloaded and overwhelmed by information. There's more content than you could ever hope to consume. More scientific theories, philosophical concepts, and art forms than you could ever hope to engage with. Enter personal knowledge management (PKM). It's a modern term for an ancient practice—how one collects, preserves, and utilizes knowledge worth remembering. In this episode, I speak with Sari Azout, the founder of Sublime, an app for personal knowledge management (but that description truly doesn't do it justice). We talk about the philosophy behind the product and how that plays out in the product's design. Plus, I dive into how Sari's PKM philosophy is part of a long lineage of practices people have used to remember what's worth preserving. Footnotes: Check out Sublime or get started right away with an invite!Too Much to Know by Ann BlairMore about Sarah Mackenzie & Read-Aloud Revival"The Glassbox and the Commonplace" by Steven JohnsonMore on John Locke's commonplace book index systemWhat do you want to preserve?More on Corita Kent at the Corita Art CenterEvery new episode is published in essay form at WhatWorks.FYI! (00:00) - How I keep track of ideas and information (02:56) - Meet Sari Azout, founder of Sublime (04:30) - Information age versus post-information age (06:55) - Information overload is an ancient problem (08:05) - Commonplace books (11:20) - Commonplace books contain a central tension (12:12) - We shape our tools and then they shape us (16:24) - Where the cool stuff is really happening (17:40) - John Locke's commonplace system (19:52) - A tool for creativity rather than productivity (23:33) - Single-player mode versus multiplayer mode (27:05) - The promise of preservation ★ Support this podcast ★

    30 min

  5. 17/10/2024

    EP 480: Exceedingly Complex Systems

    In management cybernetics, there are 3 types of systems: simple, complex, and exceedingly complex. The systems we pay the most attention tend to be, you guessed it, exceedingly complex. In this episode, I explore what that means for how we do our work and run our businesses—and what happens when we forget that people are exceedingly complex systems, too. Footnotes: Cyberboss by Craig GentThinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella MeadowsEmergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown"Practicing the Future: 3 Ideas for Rethinking Change" at What Works     Every episode is published in essay form at What Works and delivered in my newsletter—check it out and subscribe! ★ Support this podcast ★

    21 min

  6. 10/10/2024

    EP 479: A Theory of Resourcefulness

    You've probably heard of a scarcity mindset. Maybe you've even been accused of having one! In this short, I explore the false binary of scarcity and abundance mindsets to propose a third way: resourcefulness. Footnotes: "Thought-terminating cliché" on WikipediaAdam Tooze on The Ezra Klein ShowInformation on the US tax gap"Breaking boundaries to creatively generate value" in The Journal of Business VenturingBraiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall KimmererThis is a significant revision of a piece originally published in 2021Essay versions of every episode are published at whatworks.fyi! ★ Support this podcast ★

    18 min

  7. 26/09/2024

    EP 478: Data Never Speak For Themselves

    We're constantly bombarded by data. And it's easy to think that with the right clues, we could answer the ultimate questions of life, the universe, and everything. But data aren't facts. They're not a secret code. Data are media—they mediate our interactions with the world around us. To make them useful and meaningful, we need a critical framework for working with data as media. That's what I've got for you today—a deep dive on how predictability, relevance, and actionability can help us see data for what they are and for what they're not. Footnotes: Anytime I talk about data and how it mediates our lives and work, I'm referencing the work of philosopher C. Thi Nguyen and his concept of value capture. I've written about his theory previously hereI also make use of Byung-Chul Han's The Crisis of Narration, specifically his critique of a 2008 Wired essay by Chris Anderson about the end of theoryGet written versions of all new episodes at whatworks.fyi—where you can also become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month and help support the work I do at What Works. (00:00) - A hypothetical (02:32) - Led astry by ubiquitous metrics (03:36) - Data aren't reality (05:37) - A critical framework for data (06:08) - What is predictable? (13:36) - What is relevant? (18:32) - What is actionable? (21:40) - Data literacy ★ Support this podcast ★

    24 min

  8. 20/09/2024

    EP 477: Here's a tip

    Today's episode is about tips. As in gratuity. Wait, wait, wait! Where are you going? I know, you probably don't receive tips for your work. Maybe you don't live in the US, and you're thinking, 'What is this American BS about tips?' Well, when I first heard about Trump's (and then Harris's) proposal to eliminate federal taxes of tipped income, my brain went a hundred different places: how many people would it impact, how much savings are we talking about, what will this do to the proliferation of tipped work, and how much could this accelerate re-proletarianization?! You probably weren't expecting that last one.  Here's the thing: tipping is a class issue. Which means it's also a social justice issue. And it's also an issue that intersects with frustrations with the way all of us work. To find out how, you've got to trust me—and listen. Footnotes: Information on the federal tipped minimum wage'Tip baiting' Instacart drivers via CNN"The Economic Logic Behind the 'No Tax on Tips' Policy" by Jadrian WootenTipping: An American Social History of Gratuities by Kerry Segrave"'It's the Legacy of Slavery': Here's the Troubling History Behind Tipping Practices in the U.S." via Time"Tipping is a racist relic and a modern tool of economic oppression in the South" via the Economic Policy Institute"Errand Runners of Digital Platform Capitalism" by İsa Demir"Defending Hierarchy: The Conservative Impulse" by Matthew McManusThe Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord"The problem is proletarianization, not capitalism" by Solange Manche (about Bernard Steigler)Capitalism is Dead: Is This Something Worse? by McKenzie Wark"The Practical Utopian's Guide to the Coming Collapse" by David GraeberFind essay versions of every new episode at whatworks.fyi! ★ Support this podcast ★

    28 min
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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.

Información

  • Creador
    Tara McMullin
  • Años de actividad
    2015 - 2024
  • Episodios
    392
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © 2025 What Works
  • Mostrar sitio web
    What Works

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