What Works

A probing labor story about prestige restaurants, unpaid internships, and hidden kitchen work. It spotlights allegations of physical and psychological abuse at a celebrated restaurant and the protests that followed. The conversation traces brigade hierarchies, militarized kitchen culture, and how prestige masks exploitation. It closes by weighing accountability, ethical internships, and small democratic changes at work.

They unpack models of small-business identity, from technicians and managers to visionaries and integrators. They examine how those archetypes shape coaching, platforms, and gendered assumptions. They analyze newsroom layoffs and what organizations provide that independents often lack. They reframe “going solo” as juggling multiple roles and consider how to design ventures around real needs.

A candid case study of how a messy creative process produced a sharp essay. Rapid raw drafting and ruthless rewriting get contrasted with audience-focused reframing. The story follows a surprising tech moment that sparked problem-finding and a shift to systems-thinking. It explores how projects drift toward low performance and why exposing messy thinking can strengthen ideas.

A host wrestles with learning Final Cut Pro and the weird confusion of similar-but-different tools. They compare moving between platforms like WordPress and Squarespace and explain why adult learning feels demoralizing. Practical tactics come up: using a real project, breaking skills into small problem units, iterating, and celebrating tiny wins to build confidence.

Short surprises that force you to rethink assumptions about ads, business models, and how systems work. A parent-child chat turns into a lesson on venture capital and why companies make baffling choices. Naming emotions like schadenfreude helps make confusion feel normal. The conversation shows how sharing mental models and collaborative sensemaking makes unexpected moments clearer and compelling.

Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, historian of U.S. higher education and host of the American Campus Podcast, explores how colleges connect to work and the economy. She discusses neoliberalism’s reshaping of campuses, the rise of adjunct and gig labor, culture-war pressures on academic freedom, and alternatives to the traditional university. Short, sharp conversations about institutional change and the future of learning.

A reflective look at grief for the selves we once imagined. A discussion of forgiveness reframed as a tool for political and personal renewal. How unlearning requires dismantling old narratives before rebuilding. Exploration of how speculative future selves form from childhood dreams and life choices. An invitation to mourn past expectations to make space for new directions.

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.Learn more about rethinking your small business status quo with Blank Slate."Broken Links" by Tara McMullin on What WorksCapital Is Dead: Is This Something Worse? by Mckenzie WarkHow to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell"Make Something Heavy." by Anu AtluruCasey Newton on The Vergecast (31:50) explaining his creative system ★ Support this podcast ★

Dive into a thought-provoking discussion on the 'Great Feminization' and its impact on workplace culture. Explore Mark Zuckerberg's call for more 'masculine energy' in business and the backlash against this idea. Unpack the role of AI in potentially re-establishing a masculine workplace, questioning traditional views of intelligence. The episode critiques the 'Paperclip Maximizer' thought experiment and addresses the disconnection brought by mind-body dualism. Finally, the conversation encourages a balance between rational and relational intelligence in our evolving work environment.

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 Sam"Delightful Misdirection (Or, How to Rethink Your Options)" at What Works"Honeydew" at What Works (00:00) - Puzzles (02:02) - The Challenge of Making Decisions (05:23) - The Important of Self-Knowledge (07:07) - Needs & Priorities: An Excerpt from Blank Slate (09:11) - Business Strategy Is Like Algebra? (14:21) - Exercise: Needs & Priorities (20:12) - One More Thing ★ Support this podcast ★