What Works

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.

The labor market has undergone a sea change in the last 20 years. A full third of US workers are part of the independent workforce, including gig workers, contract workers, freelancers, and sole proprietors. And yet, key provisions in our labor regulations do not cover independent workers.What's more, platform companies have further changed our idea of work. If you sell your labor on a platform, you're not an employee of the platform—you're an entrepreneur.Well, those entrepreneurs are starting to ask questions. I am, too.Today's episode examines one organization's attempt to organize the indie workforce. The Indie Sellers Guild formed in the wake of a strike action in April 2022 by 30,000 Etsy sellers. I spoke with executive director Chiarra Lohr about what they've been up to, the challenges they face, and the victories they've already celebrated.Plus, you'll learn a bit about the history of working women's organizing in the US—starting back in the 1830s!Footnotes:Learn more about the Indie Sellers GuildWhat Works Ep 385: "Who do you work for?"The Lowell Offering by Benita EislerThe Voice of Industry digital archive"History & Culture" — Lowell National Historical ParkPlatform Capitalism by Nick SrincekMonopsony 101 via InvestopediaNational Labor Relations Act of 1935Check out the Indie Sellers Guild Convention (00:00) - April 2022 Etsy Strike (00:59) - Introduction (01:45) - More on the 2022 strike (03:18) - The Lowell mill girls and early labor organizing (07:38) - The push for a 10-hour workday (10:13) - Chiarra's origin story (11:25) - Etsy is a platform, which complicate organizing (13:26) - Platform policies impact who is on the platform, what is successful, and how businesses are structure (15:05) - Example: shipping policies (16:08) - Example: production partners (17:01) - Example: the Star Seller program (19:20) - A labor monopsony? (22:09) - Etsy passes off platform problems as individual problems (24:06) - Internal competition makes it harder to see common struggles (24:53) - How the ISG is doing things differently (26:13) - Why independent workers don't have the same rights as other workers under the NLRA (or the NLSA) (28:26) - Working in solidarity with other organizations (30:13) - Success: Fighting the reserve payments policy (32:48) - Success-in-the-making: the COOL Online Act (33:22) - Success-in-the-making: the Marketplace Accreditation Program (33:47) - The ISG is also focused on education & member enrichment (35:22) - Conclusion: we have an opportunity (36:59) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

The Center for Nonviolent Communication describes what they teach as "empathy in action." And so it seems fitting to close out this series on Decoding Empathy with a look at nonviolence, Nonviolent Communication, and making social spaces at work & beyond that work for more people. I talked with Leonie Smith, founder of The Thoughtful Workplace, about how she uses the tools and practices of nonviolence to help individuals and teams feel more seen and understood.Footnotes:Find out more about Leonie Smith and The Thoughtful WorkplaceWatch the Ask Leonie video seriesThe Expulsion of the Other by Byung-Chul Han"Ahimsa" on WikipediaThe Center for Nonviolent Communication"The 'Magic' of Meeting in Person" by Devon PriceThe Notebooks of Simone Weil edited and translated by Arthur WillsRelated:My conversation with Mara Glatzel on the economics of "neediness"My conversation with Charlie Gilkey about implied rules and better team habitsCheck out the full Decoding Empathy series!Every episode of What Works is also released in essay form at whatworks.fyi! (00:00) - What if meetings came with instructions? (02:54) - A bias toward sameness (07:33) - Introducing Leonie Smith, founder of The Thoughtful Workplace (08:33) - Violence is embedded in Sameness (09:36) - What is nonviolence? (11:11) - What is Nonviolent Communication? (14:08) - Example: how to request accommodation (16:54) - Welcoming diverse forms of expression (18:23) - Managing a wider range of expressions (without it getting out of control) (21:14) - "Widen our window of tolerance" for normative behavior (23:49) - How do we know if what we're doing is working? (25:49) - Leonie's vision for the thoughtful workplace of the future (27:13) - Simone Weil on reading people (29:12) - Byung-Chul Han on listening (30:20) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

I have learned a lot about cognitive empathy by learning copywriting. After all, copywriting is a puzzle—the puzzle of figuring out what someone is thinking or feeling and how you can connect your idea to that thought or feeling. So, it seemed only fitting that I would invite a copywriter to this series on decoding empathy to share her process and give you a behind-the-scenes look at cognitive empathy in practical application. In this episode, I get real nerdy with Samantha Pollack, a positioning strategist and copywriter, and think about how the digital doppelgangers we create via our personal brands might help us get curious about who is behind others' digital doppelgangers. Footnotes:Find out more about Samantha Pollack and Cult of PersonalityDoppelganger by Naomi Klein"The Politics of Recognition" by Charles Taylor in MulticulturalismFind every essay and episode in the Decoding Empathy series.Every episode of What Works is also released in essay form at whatworks.fyi! (00:00) - Introduction (01:16) - Doppelganger by Naomi Klein (04:58) - The tension between who we are and who we want to become (09:11) - Behind the scenes of Samantha's copywriting process (12:36) - How Samantha learns more about her client's customers (16:01) - How to write in someone else's voice (17:45) - How to write in someone else's voice (21:45) - Two more tools for learning about customers (26:08) - Sometimes people surprise you (26:54) - What's the difference between the person and the personal brand? (31:09) - Doppelgangers remind us to be curious about ourselves, others, and how we're all connected (33:07) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★