What Works podcast

What Works

Work is central to the human experience. It helps us shape our identities, care for those we love, and contribute to our communities. Work can be a source of power and a catalyst for change. Unfortunately, that's not how most of us experience work—even those who work for themselves. Our labor and creative spirit are used to enrich others and maintain the status quo. It's time for an intervention. What Works is a show about rethinking work, business, and leadership for the 21st-century economy. 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 deep-dive analysis of how we work and how work shapes us.

Work is central to the human experience. It helps us shape our identities, care for those we love, and contribute to our communities. Work can be a source of power and a catalyst for change. Unfortunately, that's not how most of us experience work—even those who work for themselves. Our labor and creative spirit are used to enrich others and maintain the status quo. It's time for an intervention. What Works is a show about rethinking work, business, and leadership for the 21st-century economy. 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 deep-dive analysis of how we work and how work shapes us.

 

#418

Getting My $#*! Together: A Messy Review of 2025

Here we are at the tail end of 2025. I just "opened" my Spotify Unwrapped... And after 3 y... more

04 Dec 2025

51 MINS

51:33

04 Dec 2025


#417

On Getting Attention, Encoding Messages, and Diving into the Deep End

How do you get people to care about what you care about?It's a marketing question. A movem... more

20 Nov 2025

30 MINS

30:18

20 Nov 2025


#416

Drifting Toward the Status Quo

If you’ve ever chosen an ambitious, unconventional, or deeply meaningful aim only to see y... more

23 Oct 2025

18 MINS

18:55

23 Oct 2025


#415

Rethinking Busyness (With Help From HBO's The Pitt)

Try as we might, many of us can’t shake the overwhelming sense that we're just too damn bu... more

02 Oct 2025

29 MINS

29:45

02 Oct 2025


#414

Delightful Misdirection (Or How to Rethink Your Options)

How we think about a problem or goal really matters. The variables we include, the relatio... more

04 Sep 2025

21 MINS

21:15

04 Sep 2025


#413

We Can't Quit Turning Leisure Into More Work

I'm pretty sure The New York Times is trolling me. Footnotes: --- [Read the written versio... more

21 Aug 2025

08 MINS

08:25

21 Aug 2025


#412

The Spectacle of Competence

"Competence porn" is an indistinct genre of media that showcases people doing their jobs (... more

14 Aug 2025

20 MINS

20:43

14 Aug 2025


#411

3 Ways I Make Sense of the Unexpected & Perplexing

In the [last episode] (https://episodes.fm/1054027973/episode/YzBlNzBlZmUtNDU5NS00NjdkLWI2... more

07 Aug 2025

30 MINS

30:40

07 Aug 2025


#410

Make It Make Sense

"Sensemaking starts with chaos," says organizational theorist Karl Weick. Chaos is the con... more

31 Jul 2025

17 MINS

17:15

31 Jul 2025


#409

EP 500: What if you're not off track... and never have been?

If you're like me, you often think about what you would have done to prepare for... this j... more

24 Jul 2025

40 MINS

40:16

24 Jul 2025


#408

EP 499: Reduction in Force

No job is safer than a government job, right? Well, not anymore. At least not in the US. ... more

17 Jul 2025

19 MINS

19:22

17 Jul 2025


#407

INTERLUDE: The Pleasure & Promise of Re-Reading

I wanted to drop in with a quiet interlude about re-reading (or re-watching, or re-listeni... more

26 Jun 2025

11 MINS

11:32

26 Jun 2025


#406

EP 498: Breaking The Validation Spiral

Why is it that it seems like no amount of work, accolades, or achievement is enough? Why d... more

05 Jun 2025

24 MINS

24:04

05 Jun 2025


#405

EP 497: Please Support My Work

If you subscribe to newsletters, listen to podcasts, or watch videos on YouTube, I've no d... more

29 May 2025

27 MINS

27:00

29 May 2025


#404

EP 496: What to Do When Things Get Messy

No matter how fastidious you are about creating and executing a plan, working toward any b... more

22 May 2025

20 MINS

20:05

22 May 2025


#403

EP 495: Ann Leckie vs. The "Well, Actually" Bros

Is an AI chatbot, like ChatGPT, a search engine? Does it scour the internet for helpful in... more

08 May 2025

1 HR 01 MINS

1:01:44

08 May 2025


#402

EP 494: How Structure Transforms Ideas

"I have so many thoughts and not enough time to think them," I recently blurted out to my ... more

01 May 2025

23 MINS

23:49

01 May 2025


#401

EP 493: The Prescription Economy

"No one is ever completely safe from the critical gaze of a culture steeped in the makeove... more

17 Apr 2025

20 MINS

20:15

17 Apr 2025