What Works Tara McMullin

This is the final installment in Strange New Work, a series that uses speculative fiction to explore radical work futures.
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 more about Tania Luna

Lead Together by Tania Luna

The Power Paradox by Dacher Keltner

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
"The Lathe of Heaven" BBC film adaptation
"Mary Parker Follett—Creativity and Democracy" by Gary M. Nelson in Human Service Organizations

"There Is a Better Way to Use Power at Work. This Forgotten Business Guru Has the Secrets" by Matthew Barzun in Time Magazine

"Content Decision Making" via Sociocracy For All

Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
"A Band of Brothers, a Stream of Sisters" by Ursula K. Le Guin



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This is the penultimate episode of Strange New Work, a special series from What Works that explores the future of work through the lens of speculative fiction.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 lots of moderation is done by real people all over the world.
In this episode, I take a close look at the skill of moderation, its role in our evolving tech futures, and the politics that complicate this essential work.
Footnotes:

"Welcome to hell, Elon" by Nilay Patel on The Verge

"Why Elon's Twitter is in the Sh*tter with Nilay Patel" on Offline with Jon Favreau


Fall; Or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson

Work Without the Worker by Phil Jones
"Content Moderation is Terrible by Design" featuring Sarah T. Roberts on Harvard Business Review

"Moderating Social Media" on the agenda on YouTube
"How Microwork is the Solution to War" by Ben Irwin on Preemptive Love
"Reddit faces content quality concerns after its Great Mod Purge" by Scharon Harding

Rosie Sherry on tips for content moderation
"Neal Stephenson Explains His Vision for the Digital Afterlife" on PC Mag
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I've got something short, sweet, and really special for you today. Sean, my husband, my go-to extrovert shield, and the co-founder of YellowHouse.Media has a new project that is pretty cool, if I do say so myself.
It's a hotline! Or rather, it's a weekly call-in prerecorded pep talk. It's sort of like a podcast, but you have to call a phone number to hear it. Trust me, this is a very Sean thing to do.
Each week, he shares a fresh pep talk along with a poem, some tunes, and other audio goodies. You just select from the phone tree which you'd like to hear. Plus, you can even leave him a message yourself! 
You can hear this week's edition by listening to this quick episode. Or, dial 1-406-200-8460 to get the full experience. You can also learn more about Sean and grab the number from his website: seandmcmullin.com.
Without further ado, here's this week's dial-in affirmation for daily living!


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This is the 6th installment of Strange New Work, a special series that uses speculative fiction to explore radically different work futures.
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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This is the 5th installment of Strange New Work, a special series that explores how speculative fiction can help us imagine radically different work futures.
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 how housework might evolve in a completely different direction.
How we restructure housework—domestic and reproductive labor—is key to rethinking how we approach the future of all kinds of work. How we live impacts how we work. And how we work impacts how we live. And this episode is going there.
Footnotes:

Frances Gabe's Self-Cleaning House

After Work by Helen Hester and Nick Srincek

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

Embassytown by China Miéville

Too Like The Lightning by Ada Palmer
"What Communes and Other Radical Experiments in Living Together Reveal" on The Ezra Klein Show


Everyday Utopia by Kristen Ghodsee

The Perennials by Mauro Guillén
"The demographics of multigenerational households" via Pew Research

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot) by Becky Chambers

A Spectre, Haunting by China Miéville

Can't Even by Anne Helen Petersen
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This is the 4th installment in Strange New Work, a special series from What Works that explores how speculative fiction can help us imagine new ways of working.
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 never notice it. Speculative fiction can help us see harm for what it is, recognize the damage done by colonizers, and imagine forms of resistance. 
In today's episode, I dive into the harms of imperialism, how supremacy culture forms the basis of professionalism, how Indigenous futurism gives us a way to "imagine otherwise," and what coach and author Charlie Gilkey recommends for creating a culture of belonging at work through team habits.
Footnotes:

"Remote work gave them a reprieve. They don't want to go back" by Samantha Masunaga for LA Times


The Imperial Radch Trilogy by Ann Leckie
Ann Leckie on Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

"Unsettled" in Buffalo is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel
"Indigenous futurism" on WeRNative.org
"From growing medicine to space rockets: What is Indigenous futurism?" on CBC's Unreserved, featuring guest Grace Dillon

Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction edited by Grace Dillon
"White Supremacy Culture" by Tema Okun

Team Habits by Charlie Gilkey

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Solarpunk Magazine
Love What Works? Become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month. Your subscription helps make my work sustainable and gets you access to twice-monthly This is Not Advice episodes, quarterly workshops, and more. Click here to learn more and preview the premium benefits!


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