What Works

Kelly Diels, expert on female lifestyle empowerment brand, discusses empowerment marketing and the 'female lifestyle empowerment brand'. They explore how marketing perpetuates beauty ideals, societal pressures, and limited success strategies. The podcast delves into challenges faced by women, embracing marginalized identities, and critiquing empowerment narratives in marketing.

This is Part 1 of a series from 2022 called Self-Help, LLC. This summer, I’ll be republishing this series as I work on new essays and episodes. There’s a good chance this series is new to you, and if its previous reception is any indication, I think you’ll love it! If you listened to it the first time through, I’d love to know how it hits differently today. ***It’s hard to escape the language and politics of self-help today. Whether you’re browsing your LinkedIn, Instagram, or even TikTok feed, there’s a very good chance that the first post you see offers up some idea for living a better life or growing a more successful business. Shoulds and supposed-tos are cultural currency. We gain social capital by sharing advice or “giving value.” And that’s left me wondering: are we all in the self-help business now?Today’s episode kicks off an 8-part series called Self-Help, LLC which will explore that question from a number of different angles. In this episode, I’m taking a close look at a particular construction of personal growth and entrepreneurship culture: winners and losers.Footnotes:Dr. Rick for ProgressiveWhy does the insurance industry have so many mascots? on Planet MoneySelf-Help, INC by Micki McGeeMore about Marshall McLuhan (”The medium is the message”)Nixon’s universal health care plan proposalReaganism & ThatcherismThe Old is Dying & the New Cannot be Born by Nancy FraserFind the essay version of this episode at whatworks.fyi and support my work critiquing and theorizing the 21st-century economy by becoming a premium subscriber for just $7 per month! ★ Support this podcast ★

Feminist writer and editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay discusses navigating work challenges in the 21st-century economy. Topics include the margin of maneuverability, labor rights, feedback in the workplace, making non-obvious choices, and creating a utopian work environment.

Our podcast feeds and streaming services are full of real stories of real people. And not all of those stories feel... true. I mean, even if the facts are accurate, the way something is edited, packaged, and marketed can dramatically alter a story's impact.Artist and audio producer Jess Shane wanted to create a project that would expose some of the problematic elements of this booming (and highly profitable) industry. The result is a podcast series for Radiotopia Presents called Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative. Listening to it made me deeply uncomfortable, so I knew I needed to have her on What Works to discuss it!In this episode, you'll get the behind-the-scenes on this project. And you'll learn what happens when attention becomes a fetish.Footnotes:Listen to Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative from Radiotopia PresentsFind out more about Jess ShaneCurated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling by Sujatha FernandesThe Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han (00:00) - Edited for maximum shock value (03:37) - Introducing artist & audio producer Jess Shane (04:27) - Clip from Shocking, Hearthbreaking, Transformative (06:48) - Why does someone sign up to be a documentary subject? (07:50) - Curated Stories by Sujatha Fernandes (10:46) - The personal is personal? (12:23) - What is attention fetishism? (14:56) - Jess's misgivings with the documentary industry (18:16) - Rules of engagement (21:19) - The main character (23:00) - Clip from Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative (24:17) - We shouldn't dismiss the stories at the center of our critique (24:50) - Heeding the words of Audre Lorde (25:45) - The potential for a new beginning (26:23) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

This podcast explores the challenges of living and working as a speculative investment, reflection on self-speculation, the prevalence of the second person on social media, and the influence of online advice-giving on self-worth and authority.

What would happen if you archived all of your Instagram content, announced that you had taken a job at a fictional wellness company, and then got fired for disclosing your experience with company-mandated colonic hydrotherapy? Well, Leigh Stein did exactly that.Leigh wears many hats—novelist, poet, cultural critic, book coach, publishing expert. And when she realized that she wasn't wearing the hat she wanted to wear on Instagram, she decided to have some fun with a satirical performance art project.Listen for the whole story and a provocation to embrace your own social media use as a project of identity performance!Footnotes:Leigh Stein's books and cultural criticismLeigh Stein on Instagram, TikTok, and SubstackGender Trouble by Judith ButlerJudith Butler on Why Is This Happening with Chris HayesSarah Urist Green on performance art for The Art AssignmentPerformance by RoseLee Goldberg"From Work to Text" by Roland BarthesRuPaul explaining drag on The PreachersAlso in this series:Organizing Indie Labor with Chiarra Lohr of the Indie Sellers GuildFiguring Out the Creator Economy with Charlie Gilkey & Kate TysonBuilding Solidarity in the Creator Economy with Charlie Gilkey & Kate TysonRethinking Creativity: An InterludeFind an essay version of this episode at whatworks.fyi***I'm teaching a new workshop on May 15 & 16, 2024! It's called World-Building for Business Owners, and it's based on a process I've been honing for more than a decade. I'll help you apply creative, even playful thinking to your business strategy—and help you create an internally consistent business that causes fewer headaches, meets your needs more efficiently, plays to your strengths, and creates satisfying work.Click here for all the details or go to explorewhatworks.com/world (00:00) - Digital performance art? (02:27) - Identity is performative (03:11) - Gender Trouble (04:38) - Leigh doubles down (06:46) - Leigh's "Canva period" (07:24) - Autofanfiction (08:08) - "I've been fired!" (09:38) - What is performance art? (10:47) - The real vitamin company has entered the chat (12:42) - What if we embrace the performance? (14:14) - Time to sell some books (14:52) - The confession (15:42) - Witness to and participant in (19:05) - Thinking from the reader's point of view (20:29) - Leigh's other identity performances (22:59) - Learning TikTok (25:28) - The audience participates in the text (27:27) - An optimistic view of social media (28:57) - Playing the game (30:10) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

Exploring the fascination with creativity as a cult object, historical and political dimensions of creativity, interconnected roles of creators and consumers, identity shift to modern creators, and rethinking creativity's role in society for holistic advancement.

I'm teaching a new workshop on May 15 & 16, 2024! It's called World-Building for Business Owners, and it's based on a process I've been honing for more than a decade. I'll help you apply creative, even playful thinking to your business strategy—and help you create an internally consistent business that causes fewer headaches, meets your needs more efficiently, plays to your strengths, and creates satisfying work.Click here for all the details or go to explorewhatworks.com/world ★ Support this podcast ★

"How do I want to live?" Philosopher Rahel Jaeggi says this question is bound up in the concept of alienation. Our disconnection and dissatisfaction keep us from answering that question—but they also keep us from asking it in the first place.So in this episode, Kate, Charlie, and I ask that question—and five more. We examine how work in the creator economy can reinforce competition and individualism when what we really need is solidarity and collective action. If you're curious what you can do to join with others for your own success and theirs, this episode has some ideas.Footnotes:Kate Tyson: Whiskey Fridays (podcast), Wanderings (on Substack) and Wanderwell ConsultingCharlie Gilkey: Productive Flourishing and Better Team Habits"What the creator economy promises and what it actually does" by Kyla Chayka in The New Yorker"Surplus populations are all around us" by Tara McMullinAlienation by Rahel Jaeggi"Metrics, Incentives, and the Seduction of Clarity" by Tara McMullinCasey Newton on Decoder with Nilay Patel"Algorithms at Work" (algoactivism) by Katherine Kellogg, Melissa Valentine, and Angéle ChristinAs always, find an essay version of today's episode at whatworks.fyiAnd speaking of the creator economy, if you appreciate the work I do, I'd be so grateful if you became a premium subscriber of What Works for just $7/month. Your support makes a world of difference when it comes to my ability to do this work. (00:00) - The promise of the creator economy (00:48) - An overflow room for the surplus elite (02:31) - How do you want to live? (03:34) - Asking better questions about the creator economy (04:21) - 1. What are we willing to do to be heard? (06:23) - Creating for humans versus creating for the algo (09:40) - 2. What do we expect from platforms in return for our labor? (11:11) - A closer look at creator math (12:26) - Casey Newton, from Platformer, on the value of Substack subscribers (15:27) - Platforms can alter how we see our whole businesses--not just the marketing (16:03) - 3. How do you want to contribute to your communities? (17:11) - Charlie's switch to Substack (19:35) - The risks of going all in on a platform (22:30) - What do we want to build together? (25:58) - Creating relational layers outside of the algos & platforms (28:19) - 5. How will we organize? (28:37) - Algoactivism (31:25) - Revisiting: How do I want to live? (32:53) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

Charlie Gilkey and Kate Tyson delve into the complexities of the creator economy, questioning its existence and discussing platforms' distortion of the market. They explore defining a creator, value creation, digital sharecropping, and the impact of social goods. The conversation also touches on navigating platform algorithms and maintaining authenticity in a competitive space.