What Works

So a couple of weeks ago, I downloaded Final Cut Pro and committed to learning how to use it. Despite logging hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in other video editing software, this is a big challenge. I took some time to reflect on how I make sense of learning a new skill like this—because learning new skills is an essential component of navigating the 21st-century economy. Footnotes: Read the essay version of this episode here.The Adult LearnerApple Creator Studio is launching to take on AdobeThe VergeRegistration for Making Sense, an 8-week workshop series on turning "Wait, what?!" moments into compelling content, is open for registration. Program starts March 24. Learn more: whatworks.fyi/makingsense ★ Support this podcast ★

You’re going along, minding your own business, and then it hits you: “Wait, what?!” Your expectation or assumption bumps against the facts. Things aren’t the way you thought they were. It’s not always a life-altering surprise. It might be something tiny—just enough of a shock to make you rethink what you thought you knew. Today, how we resolve those “Wait, what?!” moments. I’m kicking off my 8-week workshop series, Making Sense, on March 24. This program walks you through the sensemaking process and takes you step by step through applying it to a media-making project. By the end of the 8 weeks, you’ll have made significant progress on your project and have an effective process you can use over and over again to create more compelling content. Registration for Making Sense is now open. To learn more and enroll go to: whatworks.fyi/making-sense ★ Support this podcast ★

It's no secret that one of my, let's say, special interests is higher education. The reasons for this are at least threefold. First, I have a kid heading off to college next year. Second, I have past regrets and future fantasies about the academy. And third, the world of work and the realm of education overlap in myriad ways. Work and education have always had a close relationship. Access to education influences access to different types of work. New forms of work influence how we organize and deliver education. I've been talking about doing an episode or a series on the intersection of higher ed and work for... years now. Today, finally, I have an initial installment in what I hope is an ongoing, if nonsequential, look at how these two pillars of modern life influence each other. Joining me to share both her professional insight and her personal journey is Dr. Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, a historian of education and the host of the American Campus Podcast. Footnotes: Read an edited transcript of this conversation.Lauren Lassabe ShepherdResistance from the RightThe Old is Dying and the New Cannot Be BornAdjunct professors deserve professional developmentInsight Higher EdAn Army of Temps: AFT Adjunct Faculty Quality of Work/Life ReportThe Secret Lives of Adjunct ProfessorsElleJustice Lewis Power Jr.Bryan AlexanderSandy GrandeCheck out the American Campus Podcast: "The peak and decline of US higher ed with Bryan Alexander""How to get a job at Harvard in 1860 with prabhdeep kehal""Christianity, manhood, and college football with Hunter M. Hampton""The college bookstore racket with Katya Schwenk""The history of federal student loans with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer" ★ Support this podcast ★

A brief meditation on grief at the loss of one's future self and how often that loss passes unacknowledged. Footnotes: Read the essay version of this episode.The PittHo’oponoponoUnlearning with Hannah Arendt The Human Condition More from Tara: Blank SlateLearn more! ★ Support this podcast ★

How often do you revisit old work? Do you have systems for circling back to what you've created in the past to see how you could improve upon it or take it in a new direction? In this episode, I consider the practice of circling back through Mckenzie Wark's theory of "hacking." And I explain why my latest project, Blank Slate, is a hack and how it came to be. Footnotes: Read the essay version of this episode.Blank SlateBroken LinksWhat WorksCapital Is Dead: Is This Something Worse?How to Do NothingMake Something Heavy.Casey Newton on The Vergecast ★ Support this podcast ★

I've had all the various parts of this episode swirling in my head for months—from The Paperclip Maximizer to The Great Feminization to Meta's Masculine Energy to mind-body dualism to the AI industry's role in what I propose is The Great Re-Masculinization. It is absolutely about both the present and the future of work, and whether we accept the inevitability of regressing to an imagined past or forge into a more dynamic, multi-dimensional workplace that values the contribution of all sorts of intelligence. Footnotes: Read the essay version of this episodeThe Great FeminizationCompact MagazineDid Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?Interesting TimesThe ConversationArtificial Knowingcomments on free expressionGPT-5 has lost what makes GPT-4 so specialDid Women Ruin Everything?In Bed With The Right ★ Support this podcast ★

Have a big decision on your mind? Trying to choose between a bunch of good options? Today, I'm talking about decision-making… not so much how to choose, but the context of our choices. No decision gets made in a vacuum. Choices are always framed by circumstances, relationships, emotions, fears, and desires. The good news is that deepening our self-knowledge can be a great way to illuminate the context of our choices and point us in a productive direction. So I'm sharing an exercise from my new guide, Blank Slate, to unlock some of that self-knowledge as you head into the new year. Blank Slate officially launches on January 15, but you can pre-order today at an early bird price! Learn more here. Footnotes: Read the essay version of this episode.Clues By SamDelightful Misdirection (Or, How to Rethink Your Options)Honeydew ★ Support this podcast ★

Here we are at the tail end of 2025. I just "opened" my Spotify Unwrapped... And after 3 years of burnout recovery, I’m finally ready to figure out what getting my shit together in the shadow of everything I’ve learned about myself and my needs in the last five years is going to look like. It’s tempting to assume that getting one’s shit together is a forward-looking pursuit. You know, “Here are all the things I’m going to do.” But, in my opinion, an important part of getting one’s shit together is taking stock of said shit. And so this episode is a step in that direction. I enlisted my husband, Sean, to do a bit of a year-end review. This review is in no way comprehensive. It’s a wee bit stilted. And if it sounds a little forced, it is—because getting your shit together takes doing some things that you’re out of practice with. This episode is simply an exercise in remembering. It’s that first awkward practice that you just have to get through at the beginning of a new season. Getting my shit together is very much a work in progress, not a grand announcement of some new project or direction for my work. Maybe that will come. Maybe it won’t. My main objective is to feel like I’m steering the ship again. Heads up: this will be my final new episode of 2025. I'll be back on January 8 with fresh ideas, stories, and ways to rethink work. This episode contains repeated uses of the word "shit," so if that's something you'd prefer not to hear. Skip this one! Footnotes: YellowHouse.MediaWaxwing BooksRemnant Population I Who Have Never Known MenThe WallNo Good Art Comes From GreedDefectorAlchemised ★ Support this podcast ★

How do you get people to care about what you care about? It's a marketing question. A movement-building question. A question at the heart of the attention economy. And in one form or another, it's the question I've probably received more than any other over the last 15+ years. After all, there is no silver-bullet social media plan, no door-knocking strategy, no magical meeting agenda that produces results if the message at its heart doesn’t resonate with those receiving it. This episode is in four chapters. In the first chapter, I assure you that getting attention is actually (relatively) easy—even if few of us are willing to do what it takes. In the second chapter, I explain why paying attention is really difficult, with the help of my favorite French philosopher. In the third chapter, I've got a story about getting my teenage daughter to watch a movie explaining esoteric financial products. And in the final chapter, I'll share a little idea I've been referring to as the Swimming Pool Theory of Communication. If you care about getting others to care about what you care about (and I know you do), this one is for you. Footnotes: Reasons my husky got mad at me this weekThings that annoyed Waffles this weekThe Subversive Simone WeilThe Big Short book by Michael Lewisfilm directed by Adam McKayEncoding/Decoding ★ Support this podcast ★

If you’ve ever chosen an ambitious, unconventional, or deeply meaningful aim only to see your plan devolve into something far more run-of-the-mill, this one is for you. Footnotes: Read the essay version of this episode.AI Can't Even Turn On the LightsThe VergecastAbout OpenAIApplying Systems ArchetypesThe Systems Thinker"surpassed" the definition of AGIWhat is a search engine?Always Be OptimizingBlack Box Thinking ★ Support this podcast ★

Try as we might, many of us can’t shake the overwhelming sense that we're just too damn busy—that feeling that there’s something we’re forgetting about, somewhere we should be, some person we should be checking on. Busyness is sticky. And that’s because busyness is more than the amount of stuff we have on our to-do lists or the appointments on our calendars. Busyness is social, structural, and even political—though our go-to “solutions” for it tend to be individual. This episode examines busyness on a deeper level—and in doing so, offers ideas for how navigate it with more care and grace. And I can think of no better way to start than by talking about The Pitt. First, we’ll explore a nuanced theory of what busyness is and why we experience it. And then, we’ll distinguish between two forms of busyness and why differentiating between the two matters for how we navigate our responsibilities. Finally, I have a few recommendations for how we can approach limiting the harms of busyness without isolating ourselves. Footnotes: Read the written version of this episode.The Pitt on HBOThe Social Life of BusynessHersThe New York TimesMidlife ★ Support this podcast ★

How we think about a problem or goal really matters. The variables we include, the relationships we draw between them, the flows of influence or resources—they change the interventions we choose. They change what interventions might even be possible. Today, an episode about crosswords, coffee shops, and rethinking your assumptions. ☞ By the way, just 3 spots remain in this cohort of Making Sense! Registration closes September 12, but I expect those spots will be spoken for by then. If you want to communicate with more clarity, help others rethink their assumptions, and make a bigger impact with your remarkable ideas, check out this 8-week interactive workshop. Footnotes: Read the essay version of this episode.Thinking in Systems The Trouble with Models3 Ways to Avoid Acquiescence Bias ★ Support this podcast ★

I'm pretty sure The New York Times is trolling me. Footnotes: Read the written version of this episode.Hobbies Too Relaxing? Try 'Leisure Crafting'The New York TimesResearch: How 'Leisure Crafting' Can Help You RechargeHarvard Business ReviewOur Yearning for CompetenceAlways Be OptimizingSelf-Help, INC by Micki McGeeTurn your meaningful ideas into remarkable media—and help others make sense of chaos. Join me for Making Sense. We start September 16! ★ Support this podcast ★

"Competence porn" is an indistinct genre of media that showcases people doing their jobs (loosely defined) exceptionally well, often using niche skills or uncommon expertise. You've no doubt seen it in documentaries, in short-form video, and even in a courtroom procedural or medical drama. What is it that's so appealing about competence porn? And why call it "porn?" And what can it tell us about what's missing from our work? This episode gets into all of that. But first, I gotta tell you about the day I became a boulderer. There are just 6 open spots in my next cohort of Making Sense! If you'd like to communicate more clearly and help others make sense of our complex and oft-confusing world, check out this 8-week interactive workshop. Get all the details and register here: makingsense.fyi Footnotes: Read the written version of this episode.My Summer of Strategic IncompetenceFree Solo Competence Porn is ComfortingReactorLFG The Uses of the EroticTeaching to TransgressThe Society of the Spectacle ★ Support this podcast ★

In the last episode (written version), we talked about how "sensemaking starts with chaos" and that chaos arises when our expectations don't match reality. That mismatch occurs because the mental model we have that creates our expectations doesn't work for the situation at hand. To alleviate the frustration (or at least make sense of it), we need a new mental model. Well, in this episode, I want to share 3 mental models that I use to make sense of things that frustrate people I care about. These models aren’t even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the different ways we can make sense of the world. But I do think they’re ones you can apply broadly and start using quickly. Or, you might notice that they’re models you’re already using and now can be more conscious of how you deploy them. Speaking of which, if you want to communicate with more clarity, create more persuasive messaging, and stand out from the crowd with rigorous thinking, check out Making Sense. Making Sense is my 8-week interactive workshop that walks you step-by-step through creating media that helps others make sense of the world. Whether you’re a writer, podcaster, creator, academic, marketer, or any other kind of media maker, you’ll learn new tools for producing content that offers others some relief from the confusion and frustration they feel. To learn more and register, go to makingsense.fyi. Footnotes: Read the written version of this episode.Wait, I Think You're Platform-PilledNormalizationBuying Freedom and the Freedom to BuyRefund PoliciesThe Dark Side of Fitness TrackersValue Capture ★ Support this podcast ★

"Sensemaking starts with chaos," says organizational theorist Karl Weick. Chaos is the confusion and frustration we feel when things don't turn out the way we expect them to. To make sense of the chaos, we have to look past the results and examine how we came to expect what we did. This is the first part in a miniseries on sensemaking and media. Next week, I'll share some of the mental models I use to make sense of what feel chaotic to me. This miniseries is good on its own—and even better with MAKING SENSE, an 8-part interactive workshop about turning meaningful ideas into remarkable media. Learn more about the program here! Footnotes Read the written version of this episode.Karl Weick ★ Support this podcast ★

If you're like me, you often think about what you would have done to prepare for... this job, this economy, this political climate, this financial situation, etc... if only you'd known. But you didn't know (I didn't know). And you (I) couldn't know. Some of the loudest shoulds and supposed-tos we face are those we couldn't have achieved due to the time we were born or the family we grew up in. In this episode, I reflect on the rapid changes occurring in work and the economy in the 21st century and how they relate to how I guide my now 17-year-old daughter. Then, I share my interview with sociologist and political economist Mauro Guillén about his book The Perennials: The Megatrends Creating a Postgenerational Society. Footnotes: Read the written version of this episode.The Perennials by Mauro GuillénThe Folded Sky by Elizabeth BearMidlife by Kieran Setiya *** Making Sense is back! This 8-week online seminar is a step-by-step framework for turning your meaningful ideas into remarkable media—and helping others make sense of our complex and often confusing world. Whether you're a creator, academic, marketer, speaker, podcaster, or any other kind of communicator, this program is for you. The program is limited to 15 participants and runs from September 16 to November 4. Enrollment opens soon! ★ Support this podcast ★

No job is safer than a government job, right? Well, not anymore. At least not in the US. I’m paying special attention to the fight over government jobs (or, as the administration might put it, “bloat and inefficiency”) because it’s part of a more comprehensive narrative project—one that shapes how we think and talk about work, and therefore think and talk about who we are and how we fit into society. Questioning the narrative that government workers are lazy or that bureaucracy is bloated and unnecessary is one way to question the narratives we perpetuate in our own work lives. And that's what today's episode is all about. Footnotes: Read the essay versionJustice Jackson's dissentCautionary TalesWho Is Government?The Partnership for Public ServiceBreaking the Validation SpiralAll Parasites Have ValueThe Age of InsecurityCurrent AffairsMythocracy ★ Support this podcast ★

I wanted to drop in with a quiet interlude about re-reading (or re-watching, or re-listening) and its value in a world obsessed with new and different. Footnotes: Read the essay version of this episode.Murderbot Gets Us In Ways Humans Don'tMotley BloomBroken LinksLiquid ModernityCapital is Dead: Is This Something Worse? ★ Support this podcast ★

Why is it that it seems like no amount of work, accolades, or achievement is enough? Why do we keep signing up for more, even as our capacity becomes ever more depleted? Why do we settle for mediocrity when we yearn for excellence? In today's episode, I revisit an idea from my book—the validation spiral—and provide a framework for understanding why we become stuck in it and how we can break free. Add to that a healthy dose of Audre Lorde's feminist theory, and you've got a satisfying mental model for rethinking your commitments. Summer Seminar starts Monday, June 9! Learn more about this flexible, brain-tickling program that combines speculative fiction with systems thinking: click here! Footnotes: Read the written version of this essay (with visuals!)The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as PowerSister OutsiderWhat Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way You Approach Goal-Setting Melissa Febos on The Feminist Present ★ Support this podcast ★