What Works
467 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 months ago - ★★★★★ - 171 ratingsIt's easy to lose your way in the 21st-century economy. The world of work and business is changing so rapidly that you might start focusing more on how to keep up than how to live a meaningful life. What Works is a podcast for entrepreneurs, independent workers, and employees who don't want to lose themselves to the whims of late-stage capitalism. 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 the discourse around business, work, and personal growth.
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Episodes
EP 451: An Inbox Full of Lies
November 30, 2023 14:48 - 30 minutes - 28 MBOver the next few weeks, I've got something a wee bit different for you! This is the very first edition of Cold Pitch, an experimental media project from YellowHouse.Media. Cold Pitch explores media, curiosity, and identity through a variety of forms and methods. In this first edition, Sean McMullin (my husband & partner at YellowHouse.Media) and I talk about, well, cold pitches. A cold pitch, simply put, is a request to a stranger to do something for you. Podcasters deal with col...
EP 450: The Will to Share Power with Tania Luna
November 02, 2023 13:20 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBThis 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...
EP 449: The Most Undervalued Skill of the 21st-Century Economy
October 26, 2023 19:16 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBThis 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 de...
BONUS: A Quick Pep Talk
October 23, 2023 15:08 - 4 minutes - 4.13 MBI'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 ...
EP 448: Made for Work
October 19, 2023 08:00 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBThis 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 ...
EP 447: Disrupting Housework (Without Robots or Replicators)
October 12, 2023 08:00 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBThis 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 ...
EP 446: You Will Be Assimilated with Charlie Gilkey
October 05, 2023 08:00 - 32 minutes - 29.6 MBThis 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 ...
EP 445: The Time to Change with Jordan Maney & Joanna Cea
September 28, 2023 08:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBThis is the third installment in Strange New Work, a series that explores how speculative fiction can help us imagine the future of work. 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 ...
This Is Not Advice: Quid Pro No Thank You
September 27, 2023 18:25 - 10 minutes - 9.47 MBThis is the 11th edition of This is Not Advice, a "not advice" column for premium subscribers of What Works. In this episode and essay, I tackle the assumed quid pro quo that's at the heart of content marketing. It's that quid pro quo that causes us to see the ideas, information, and stories we share online as a favor that demands something in return—follows, subscriptions, and sales. When we say, "I'm tired of sharing all this stuff for free and not seeing sales in return," we're...
EP 444: World-Building a More Sustainable Work Environment with Morgan Harper Nichols
September 21, 2023 08:00 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBThis is the second episode in my new series, "Strange New Work." 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—c...
EP 443: Imagining a Radically Different World of Work
September 14, 2023 08:00 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBThe 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...
Strange New Work Starts September 14!
September 08, 2023 18:54 - 2 minutes - 2.57 MBJoin 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! You can find Strange New Work wherever you listen to podcasts—and each new episode will drop in the What Works feed, too! Support the show at: whatworks.fyi Strange New Work is brought to you by What Works with Tara McMullin and YellowHouse.Media. ★ Support this podcast ★ ...
EP 442: When The Voice In Your Head Whispers... Meritocracy
September 07, 2023 08:00 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBToday’s episode is a sneak peek of Work In Practice, my new 12-week training program for guides of all kinds. This program offers a toolkit for identifying the beliefs and stories that make a more sustainable relationship with work possible. If you’re a coach, consultant, manager, or trainer who works with people rethinking how they work, this is for you. *** "Anyone can succeed if they work hard and apply themselves!" That's the voice of meritocracy. Unfortunately, that sweet, ...
EP 441: Rules, Habits, and Opening Doors with Charlie Gilkey
August 24, 2023 08:00 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBThere are rules you know about—and rules you don't. Some rules are written down—and other rules are "just the way things are." And there are rules that make things clear to everyone—and rules that exclude through their lack of clarity. Charlie Gilkey is on a mission to bring those unclear rules and unspoken agreements out in the open and improve the way we work in the process. His new book, Team Habits: How Small Changes Lead to Extraordinary Results, is both a treatise on better w...
EP 440: Adopting the Perennial Mindset for Work & Beyond with Mauro Guillén
August 17, 2023 08:00 - 24 minutes - 22.8 MBPlay, learn, work, retire—those are the four stages of what Mauro Guillén calls the sequential mode of life. In his new book, The Perennials: The Megatrends Creating a Postgenerational Society, he proposes a new story for moving through life. It's a story that actually reflects the facts on the ground—rather than our grandparents' idea of what life was supposed to look like. In this episode, I talk with Guillén about his research and his vision for how life, learning, and work cou...
This is Not Advice: Metrics, Incentives, and the Seduction of Clarity
August 14, 2023 15:53 - 9 minutes - 8.65 MBThis is the 8th edition of This is Not Advice, my "not-advice" column for premium subscribers of What Works. Today, I'm talking about our over-reliance on metrics and how easily we're seduced by reductive data. When does a metric turn into an incentive for bad behavior? And why are we so happy to accept the feeling of clarity and certainty without actually understanding what's going on? Click here to upgrade your subscription and get the full episode! Or learn more about becoming a...
EP 439: Expectations, Boundaries, and Making Work in Public with Randi Buckley
August 10, 2023 07:56 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBMaking work for the public seems to come with a slew of fuzzy social expectations. What do we owe our readers, listeners, viewers, and followers? What more is expected beyond the post, episode, or video? How do you navigate the tension between care and boundaries? When I came across a LinkedIn post that Randi Buckley made, I felt a wave of relief. Her answer to those questions? Nothing. We owe nothing more than we've already given. In this episode, I share wisdom from Randi, addit...
EP 438: Counterfeit Financial Culture with Manisha Thakor
August 07, 2023 13:20 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBThe media give us wildly exaggerated images of wealth and consumption. And even if we recognize that a tv show or an Instagram account is more fantasy than reality, those images impact what we believe we should be earning and buying. MoneyZen author Manisha Thakor calls the result Counterfeit Financial Culture and argues that it's one of the reasons we end up feeling like we're never quite enough. In this episode, Manisha details Counterfeit Financial Culture, and I offer the mimet...
EP 437: Leaving the Cult of Never Enough with Manisha Thakor
August 03, 2023 08:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MBAt age 50, Manisha Thakor realized that she'd sacrificed her life at the altar of work. How did that happen? And what was she to do about it? Manisha's new book tackles how to unwind a toxic relationship with work and money. Footnotes: MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your Enough by Manisha Thakor Find out more about Manisha Thakor Alienation by Rahel Jaeggi Capitalism and Desire by Todd McGowan What Works by Tara McMullin NEW: I’m teaching a 12-week training program for coach...
This is Not Advice: How Flexibility is Used and Abused
July 31, 2023 15:59 - 9 minutes - 9.15 MBThis is an excerpt from the 7th edition of This is Not Advice—a not-advice column exclusively for premium subscribers. In this episode, I take a closer look at flexibility. When is it a feature? When is it a bug? When does flexibility create more opportunities for learning or value? And when does it devolve into chaos? To hear the whole episode, become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month. You'll get twice monthly This is Not Advice episodes, plus (mostly) full-length intervi...
EP 436: The Myth of Rugged Individualism—and Hope for Something More (Remix)
July 27, 2023 08:00 - 12 minutes - 11.8 MBThis episode originally ran on May 25, 2022. It's been lightly remixed for today's release! “Rugged individualism” is the very language we speak in America. It shapes the way we approach work, family, and society. And rugged individualism has a direct impact on the decisions we make about our businesses and careers. In this short episode, I unpack where rugged individualism comes from and highlight a different way forward. Footnotes: Rugged Individualism Monologue by Terry Smith ...
EP 435: Self-Control, Surveillance, and the Body at Work (Classic)
July 20, 2023 08:00 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBSo much of our modern discourse around productivity, empowerment, entrepreneurship, and personal growth includes messages about our bodies. These messages might not be explicit, but the messages are there—and our brains pick them up loud and clear. Similarly, we might not realize that we’re sharing messages that insert themselves into how others perceive their own bodies—but many of us are. It’s impossible to talk about self-discipline, accountability, or efficiency without those c...
This is Not Advice: Beyond Creating Versus Consuming
July 17, 2023 15:30 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBThis is an episode of "This is Not Advice," a bonus podcast I do for premium subscribers of What Works. Instead of just a teaser this week, I wanted to share the whole episode with you. If you'd like to receive future episodes, go to whatworks.fyi/subscribe and become a premium subscriber for just $7/month. For this edition of This is Not Advice, I wanted to piggyback on the conversation I had with Jay Acunzo about social media generally and Threads specifically. Part of the conver...
EP 434: What do we really want from social media? with Jay Acunzo
July 13, 2023 08:00 - 28 minutes - 26.5 MBThis is an episode about Meta's new app, Threads. It's also about Substack and Substack's new-ish feature, Notes. But really, it's an episode about what we're looking for from the category we call "social media" and how we think about achieving those ends. And perhaps what it's really, really about is how we go looking for and creating meaning in the digital sphere. Jay Acunzo, a writer, podcaster, and public speaker who thinks a lot about online content, was one of the 100+ millio...
EP 433: What is Capitalist Realism? with Iggy Perillo
July 06, 2023 08:00 - 58 minutes - 54 MB"It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism," say Frederic Jameson and Slavoj Žižek. Capitalist liberal democracy is construed as the "end of history"—the culmination of millennia of civilizational progress, the inevitable outcome of a long march toward justice and freedom. But is it? And if it's not the best system for our economic and political needs, what is the alternative? It's almost impossible to imagine. But, despite what Margaret Thatcher said,...
This is Not Advice: Accessibility Beyond the Checklist
July 03, 2023 14:05 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBWelcome to the 5th edition of This is Not Advice, a non-advice column for premium subscribers of What Works. If you’re already a premium subscriber, thank you! If you’re not, I still think you’re great—and you can read a solid chunk of this column for free. Or, subscribe to get access to full-length columns and podcast episodes. Or, read this excerpt here. Next week, I’m teaching a workshop on how to pitch yourself to appear on podcasts for YellowHouse.Media. I’ll show you how to ...
EP 432: Queer Failure with Kate Tyson
June 29, 2023 08:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MB"Failure" got a glow-up sometime in the last 20 years. Instead of something to be feared, gurus tell us to embrace failure. That failure is a waypoint on the path to success. But this shift in our relationship with failure has only further inscribed the winner-loser binary that causes so much of our anxiety about the future. What if "failure" wasn't part of the "success" formula? What if we looked beyond conventional notions of failure and success to question whether those ideas ev...
EP 431: The Shoulds and Supposed-tos of Baking
June 22, 2023 10:47 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBBuckle up—today's episode was inspired by something that got me really worked up this week: "I think home-baking is one of the stupidest things anyone can engage in," says Rick Easton of Jersey City's Bread and Salt. This episode is about shoulds and supposed-tos, baking at home, and the ways we devalue certain kinds of labor. Whether or not home-baking is your thing, you'll recognize the way value is narrowly defined by culture and, I think, gain new language for the worthiness o...
This is Not Advice: Who is Responsible for Adapting?
June 20, 2023 11:15 - 6 minutes - 5.54 MB"Outsiders" shoulder a disproportionate burden when it comes to fitting in. Can we demand more from the "insiders?" This is a preview of the 4th installment of This is Not Advice, a not-advice column for paid subscribers of What Works. If you’re not a paid, enjoy the first half of this essay (audio or written) or upgrade your subscription to access the whole thing. For just $7 per month, you get access to bonus content and help me make this show! For a written version of this epis...
EP 430: Why Does Authenticity So Often Feel Fake?
June 15, 2023 08:00 - 24 minutes - 22.3 MBWhat gets labeled as "authentic" is often quite predictable. It's a market-compatible expression of what was once something unique or personal. Authenticity is a vibe—and a valuable one at that. "Predictably unique" is how David A. Banks defines authenticity in his book, The City Authentic. Authenticity, or what's "predictably unique," describes how culture, place, and style are packaged to become recognizable—and, therefore, consumable—to a general audience. And while Banks's int...
EP 429: Maybe bigger isn't better?
June 12, 2023 10:00 - 15 minutes - 13.8 MBOn June 8, Skye Pillsbury opened the latest edition of her newsletter, The Squeeze, with the header RIP Gimlet. She continued: I’m heartbroken over the news that Spotify has laid off another 200 podcast employees, though I’m not shocked. — Skye Pillsbury, The Squeeze I devoured Alex Blumberg's Startup when it first came out, which was about a year before I started podcasting. Then, I inhaled Reply All when it launched, and despite its later troubles, was genuinely moved by its final...
EP 428: "You paid WHAT for that?!" Or, How Echo Chambers Distort Prices and How We Think
June 08, 2023 08:00 - 44 minutes - 40.5 MBI’m about to write the most journalistic thing I’ve ever written: I received a tip. I wish I could say it was an “anonymous tip” because that sounds even more journalistic. But it wasn’t anonymous, though I won’t say who it was. Anyhow, my source told me about a small business owner—someone who sells online courses and does quite well—paying an outrageous sum for a fairly standard service. This, of course, was not an isolated incident. I didn't really need a tip. I know all about ...
This is Not Advice: Making Work That Can't Be Sold
June 05, 2023 15:30 - 7 minutes - 6.98 MBWelcome to the 3rd edition of This is Not Advice, my advice column that’s not an advice column for paid subscribers of What Works. This week, I am tackling a question that came up during last week’s workshop on media ecosystems (link to replay below!) and that my husband Sean asked me just this morning. It also came up a number of times during a workshop on audio essays that I taught earlier this year. So I’m going to assume this is something that a lot of folks struggle with—mys...
EP 427: The Trust-Profit Paradox
May 25, 2023 06:00 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBToday's episode is all about trust and responsibility—and how those qualities impact the cost of doing business and the work that's required for any company to be successful. And specifically, it's about something I'm calling the Trust-Profit Paradox. Simply put, you can't build trust and optimize for profit at the same time. After losing my ish listening to The Verge's Nilay Patel stump Airbnb's Brian Chesky with a question about AI-generated images on the Decoder podcast, I star...
EP 426: This is Not Advice: It's Our World, AI Just "Lives" In It
May 22, 2023 08:00 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MBWhat are we really talking about when we talk about our hopes and fears about AI? It's us. We're the problem. Actually, we're not the problem—we're more like the solution. But that's less mimetic. Sure, this is yet another pod hitting your feed with a take on AI. I'll assure you, though: this episode isn't really AI. There's no fear-mongering or cute suggestions for prompts. It's a bit of a meditation on the very human parts of our relationship with technology. And it's probably ...
EP 425: [Dispatch] Gone Meta
May 18, 2023 08:00 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MBThere's a sort of inside joke in the online business space of coaches, creators, and service providers. Or maybe, at this point, it's an "outside joke?" Q: What's the surest way to make more money as a creator or small business owner? A: Teach other people how to make money as a creator or small business owner. Hilarious, right? Anyhow, this isn't some weird quirk of extremely online people. It's something huge companies do, too. Douglas Rushkoff calls it "going meta." You can se...
EP 424: How the Game We Play Changes Our Work
May 11, 2023 08:34 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MB“This cancerous economic principle means that executives and venture capitalists have abandoned the concept of value within a business. Through decades of corporate greed, production has become almost entirely separated from capital, meaning that executives (and higher-ups) are no longer able to understand the nature of the businesses they are growing.” — Ed Zitron, “Absentee Capitalism” This might sound weird—but most companies today aren’t in the business it appears they’re in. Ne...
EP 423: This is Not Advice: What can I do to grow my audience?
May 08, 2023 08:28 - 14 minutes - 13.1 MBToday’s quick episode is a sample of something I’m creating for paid subscribers to What Works. I’m calling it my “This is Not Advice” column. Or, TINA for short. Not to be confused with TINA a la “there is no alternative”—if you know, you know. Paid subscribers not only receive this subscriber-directed content, but they also have the chance to, well, direct the content! When you’re a paid subscriber, you can write in with a question, topic, or observation that you’d like my take o...
EP 422: The "Risks" of Losing What You Never Had with Nathalie Lussier
May 04, 2023 08:00 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MBWhat does a bad movie from 1992, loss aversion, Steinbeck, pizza, farm animals, and the founder of a software company have in common? Well, you’ll find them all in this episode. This episode will take you places. I don’t want to spoil it. So suffice it to say, this episode is all about questioning why we act the way we do when it comes to how we scale up (and scale down) our dreams. Footnotes: Learn more about Nathalie Lussier and AccessAlly Far and Away (1992 film) Oklahoma l...
EP 421: AI, Automation, and the Case for Luddism
April 27, 2023 09:00 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBI am on board when it comes to technological progress. I look forward to updating my devices (although I don’t do it as frequently as I used to). New apps and features excite me. I’m pretty quick to adapt to change. I am not a Luddite. Or so I thought. “The word Luddite still means an old-fashioned type who is anti-progress,” writes Jeanette Winterson in her book 12 Bytes. “But the Luddites of the early 19th century were not against progress; they were against exploitation.” Rea...
EP 420: Why every business is "on a mission to..."
April 20, 2023 13:34 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBIt seems like every company today claims to be "on a mission" to change the world or improve our lives. They bill themselves as social movements more than profit-driven enterprises. It sounds nice. But how does it really function in the lives of workers? Do these missions meaningfully improve our communities? In this episode, I briefly explore the history of the corporate mission statement and then dive into a critique of the bestselling leadership book, Start with Why. You'll hear...
EP 419: What is an “ethical business?” with Brooke Monaghan
April 11, 2023 07:36 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBAt least in my corner of social media, there are a lot of folks asking what makes a business ethical. Or, perhaps more accurately, there are a lot of folks answering that question. And there are probably even more folks worried that there’s something unethical about the way they run their businesses. They’re afraid they haven’t checked all the ethical business boxes. When Brooke Monaghan emailed me to ask whether I wanted to have a messy conversation about some of the messaging ...
EP 418: [Dispatch] Going beyond the "greedy corporation" critique
April 04, 2023 13:44 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBThis Earth Month... buy more stuff?! We're about to be bombarded with messaging about corporate climate initiatives. We'll have the chance to buy merch to "support" the planet. And we'll be incentivized to spend more so that a small portion can be donated to organizations fighting climate change. As you might expect, it's all marketing. Earth Month and Earth Day seem to have become another excuse for a sale. But we miss a key issue in our fight for change if we stop at the "greed...
EP 417: [Dispatch] "All parasites have value"
March 28, 2023 09:00 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MB"All parasites have value, Sibling Dex. Not to their hosts, perhaps, but you could say the same about a predator and a prey animal. They all give back—not to the individual but to the ecosystem at large." — Mosscap, in A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers For the next few months, I'm focusing on some big projects and taking my foot off the gas of the podcast a bit. But since writing is how I think, my big projects spin off shorter pieces as I work through ideas. I'll shar...
EP 416: Anxiety (and Mental Health) in the Achievement Society with Morra Aarons-Mele
March 14, 2023 08:00 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBI’ve called myself a recovering overachiever. I’m recovering not from the drive to excel but from the anxiety inherent to wondering if anything I achieve will ever be enough. And folks, it’s a struggle. The philosophy Byung-Chul Han describes this anxiety as central to contemporary society. He dubs our modern age the “Achievement Society” and argues that our plethora of potential projects and opportunities work to maximize our productivity. After all, what better way to inspire pe...
EP 415: The Economics of Being Needy with Mara Glatzel
February 28, 2023 07:53 - 49 minutes - 45.1 MBWe all have deep human needs—for belonging, for autonomy, for creative expression, for safety and security. But modern life can make it a real challenge to get those needs met in meaningful ways. Instead, we’re offered products with flashy marketing messages. Kitchen gadgets, social media platforms, clothing, personal care products, and many others offer to help us live our best lives. Financial and educational products promise a greater sense of security and autonomy. But do these ...
EP 414: The Economics of Ideas with Jenny Blake
February 21, 2023 08:47 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBWhat makes an idea valuable? What turns it into a product that can be bought, sold, or rented? Ideas turn into capital assets thanks to our system of intellectual property rights. But understanding IP isn’t simply a matter of learning what a trademark or patent is, and then learning how to leverage it to create wealth. To truly understand intellectual property, we need to under property—what it is and why it exists—first. In this episode, I explore the origins of our conception of ...
EP 413: The Economics of Getting (And Paying) Attention: Part 2
February 14, 2023 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBThis is Part 2 of The Economics of Getting (and Paying) Attention. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, I highly recommend starting there! In today’s episode, I explore the “right to publicity” and the value of celebrity as an economic condition. From there, we get into how audience-building businesses gain efficiency by vertically integrating media, ads, and offers and how micro-media creators often leverage monopoly power to charge exorbitant prices. Footnotes: “New wellness pric...
BONUS: Permission to Speak with Samara Bay
February 09, 2023 16:46 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MBHow comfortable are you with your own voice? How likely are you to say what's on your mind? Samara Bay, the author of the brand-new book Permission to Speak, is on a mission to change what power sounds like. I found Samara because one of my favorite podcasters was on Samara's show. I then binged her back catalog and started recommending her show to everyone I worked with. One of those folks then turned around and told Samara I had shouted her out! We've been fangirling together eve...
EP 412: The Economics of Paying Attention (Part 1)
February 07, 2023 08:00 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBAttention is a scarce (and precious) resource. A gargantuan number of media outlets, advertisers, influencers, and brands vie for our attention every day. In turn, many of us (including me) are out there trying to attract attention, too. At the same time, the changing nature of the attention market (as well as larger macroeconomic shifts) creates some real weirdness. This is the first episode of a two-part deep dive into the economics of paying attention, getting attention, and aud...