What Works

This 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 interviews with the people I feature on the show, and more! Go to whatworks.fyi/subscribe ★ Support this podcast ★

This 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 "The Myth of Rugged Individualism” by Robert Reich“We’d Like To Thank You, Herbert Hoover” from AnnieIndividualism and Economic Order by Friedrich HayekHope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit“The Philosophers: Loneliness & Totalitarianism” on Vox ConversationsEvery What Works episode is also published in essay form in my newsletter. Subscribe FREE or become a premium subscriber for bonus content for just $7/month. Go to: whatworks.fyi  ★ Support this podcast ★

So 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 concepts leaving their marks on our flesh.This episode covers a tiny sliver of all the ways that the medium of self-help acts on our bodies. But my hope is that it will encourage you to think critically about the messages you receive about your body and the messages you share that might impact others’ bodies.You’ll hear from independent beauty culture journalist Jessica DeFino, body confidence influencer Tiffany Ima, and Flaunt Your Fire founder India Jackson.This episode contains frank talk about bodies, weight, beauty, dieting, and related topics. I know that these subjects can trigger harmful thoughts and behaviors for me if I’m not careful. So please, take care while listening to this episode.This episode originally aired on October 18, 2022. It's been slightly updated for this rebroadcast.Footnotes:Subscribe to Jessica DeFino’s newsletter about beauty culture and the beauty industry.Follow Tiffany Ima on Instagram.Listen to the Flaunt Your Fire podcast and learn more about India Jackson.Erica Courdae on reconsidering your normal, as well as “Normal is a Life with Michelle Kuei” on the Pause on the Play podcast.“Body acceptance stops at the skin. Why?” by Jessica DeFino“The Skin as an Antidote to Consumerism” by Jessica DeFino“How White Supremacy and Capitalism Influence Beauty Culture” by Jessica DeFino in TeenVogueWhat We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon“Postscript on Societies of Control” by Gilles DeleuzeSelf-Help, INC by Micki McGee“Rachel Hollis Part 1: Hashtag Relatable” on Maintenance Phase“The Trouble with Calories” on Maintenance Phase“Bodybuilding vs Powerlifting vs Weightlifting” on ShapeConfidence Culture by Shani Orgad and Rosalind GillLet’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World by Danielle Friedman3 Books for Remembering “You Have a Body”: On disability, on chronic illness, and on our bodies in societyYou can find essay versions of every What Works episode at whatworks.fyi - where you can become a premium subscriber, support my work, and get bonus content for just $7 per month. Upgrade today! ★ Support this podcast ★

This 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 conversation that didn't make it into the main piece involved the ratio of how much creating versus consuming we do online. On this, Jay and I have very different philosophies. I don't think he's "doing it wrong," but I did want to tease out the factors that influence whether we [can] spend more time creating or consuming online—and how that impacts the work we do.It's an episode about craft, gender, genius, and moving beyond the creating versus consuming dichotomy.Click here to read the full piece and get links to everything I cited in the piece! ★ Support this podcast ★

This 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+ million people to give Threads a try over the last week. I was not. So I wanted to see how he was approaching the platform, why he joined in the first place, and maybe, just maybe, how he's thinking about making meaning online.Footnotes:Find out more about Jay Acunzo, his podcast, and his newsletterSubstack Notes"Threads is a mecca of Millennial brain rot" by Kate Lindsay on Embedded"Meta unspools Threads" by Casey Newton on Platformer"To quit or not quit social media: opportunity cost can help you decide" on What WorksJohn Austin's How to Do Things With WordsPerformativity in the theory of Judith Butler"Queer Failure" by Kate TysonFind written versions of every What Works episode at whatworks.fyiLove What Works? Consider becoming a premium subscriber for just $7/month. Not only do you help support my work, but you also get access to bonus episodes and other goodies. ★ Support this podcast ★

"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, there is an alternative—many, in fact. We just haven't dreamed them up yet.This is the argument of Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism, a great little book that wrestles with big questions and ends on a surprisingly hopeful note. In this episode, I'll share some reflections on our identities as consumers and the nature of capitalist realism. Then, you'll hear the latest episode of the Books Applied Podcast with Iggy Perillo. Iggy and I discussed the book for her podcast and I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with you, too!Footnotes:Iggy Perillo and WSL LeadershipBooks Applied PodcastCapitalist Realism by Mark Fisher"Media Frames UPS Strike as Harming You, the Consumer and Protagonist of Reality" by Adam Johnson in The ColumnAs always, you can find my opening essay, plus a condensed transcript of my conversation with Iggy, at whatworks.fyiLove What Works? You can support my research and writing by becoming a premium subscriber on Substack for just $7/month. Thanks in advance! ★ Support this podcast ★

Welcome 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 find shows to pitch, how to think like a producer, and how to prepare for your interview. Click here to learn more & register. ★ Support this podcast ★

"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 even matter at all? Whether they serve us at all?Today on the podcast, Kate Tyson (Strathmann) is queering failure. She's questioning what it means to build a business or a project without the normative notions of success and failure. And how calling those norms into question allows us to imagine new and different ways to do business—or any kind of venture."Queer Failure" is an excerpt from [Im]Possible Business by Kate Tyson.Footnotes:[Im]Possible Business by Kate TysonFollow Kate's writing on SubstackThe Queer Art of Failure by Jack HalberstamFox Market and Bar in Montpelier, Vermont"Don't Bail Out the Restaurant Industry" by Tunde WeySaidiya HartmanÉtaín UnderthingsRunway's Entrepreneur Universal Basic Income programWanderwell Bookkeeping and Consulting"Queer Theory" by Nancy Harding in Key Concepts in Critical Management Studies ★ Support this podcast ★

Buckle 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 of work that doesn't fit the capitalist mode.Footnotes:"Leave the Baking to the Professionals" by Hannah Goldfield, New YorkerBread, and How to Eat It by Rick Easton and Melissa McCart"On Bread" via From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy"What could 'food is political' mean?" via From the Desk of Alicia KennedyKing Arthur Baking: Old-Fashioned Oatmeal LoafBreadhead by Greg WadeHistory of Low-Carb Diets on Wikipedia"I love bread!" Weight Watchers commercial"Home Cooking can be a Feminist Act" by Nigella Lawson"Men More Likely Than Women to be Seen as Brilliant" via NYU"When Male Chefs Fear the Specter of 'Women's Work'" by Meghan McCarron, Eater"The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" by Audre Lorde, YouTube"The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" by Audre Lorde, Sister OutsiderEssay versions of every episode of What Works are published at whatworks.fyi — subscribe FREE to have them delivered straight to you. Or become a paid subscriber for just $7 per month and get access to bonus content, discounts on workshops, and more! Go to whatworks.fyi to learn more. ★ Support this podcast ★

"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 episode, go to: www.whatworks.fyi ★ Support this podcast ★