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The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Best of: Work as identity, burnout as lifestyle

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.511.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2019

⏱️ 78 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Here, at the end of the year, I wanted to share one of my favorite episodes of 2019 with you. Earlier this year, two essays on America’s changing relationship to work caught my eye. The first was Anne Helen Petersen’s viral BuzzFeed piece defining, and describing, “millennial burnout.” The second was Derek Thompson’s Atlantic article on “workism.” The two pieces speak to each other in interesting ways, and to some questions I had been reflecting on as my own relationship to work changes. So I asked the authors to join me for a conversation about what happens when work becomes an identity, capitalism becomes a religion, and productivity becomes the way we measure human value. The conversation exceeded even the high hopes I had for it. Enjoy this one. Book recommendations: Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials by Malcolm Harris White: Essays on Race and Culture by Richard Dyer The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914 by Philipp Blom A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan New to the show? Want to listen to Ezra's favorite episodes? Check out The Ezra Klein Show beginner's guide. My book is available for pre-order! You can find it at www.EzraKlein.com. Want to contact the show? Reach out at ezrakleinshow@vox.com You can subscribe to Ezra's new podcast Impeachment, explained on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or your favorite podcast app. Credits: Producer and Editor - Jeff Geld Engineers - Cynthia Gil Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

burnout is an accumulation of stress related to the idea that like basically you should

0:06.3

just work all the time and anytime that you're not working is bad and anytime that you are

0:10.5

working is good.

0:12.2

Workism is the idea that work should be the nucleus of our lives, the centerpiece of our

0:17.5

identity, and the fundamental organizing principle of our society.

0:30.0

Hello, welcome to Zocanjo on the Vox Media Podcast Network.

0:36.1

And happy holidays, and we're doing a rear today.

0:38.4

And it's a rear of probably my favorite episode of the year and a lot of people's favorite

0:41.8

episode of the year.

0:42.8

It's definitely one of our biggest of the year.

0:44.6

And it's a conversation I had with Anne Helen Peterson of Buzzfeed and Derek Thompson

0:49.0

of the Atlantic about work.

0:51.3

Anne Helen Peterson wrote the big piece that started the entire idea of millennial burnout

0:55.7

and she's done a lot of amazing work.

0:57.3

I think she covers in a very interesting way what it is like to live in this age of

1:00.7

capitalism better than really anybody else right now.

1:04.4

Derek Thompson wrote a great piece for the Atlantic about workism and trying to understand

1:08.0

how work becomes an identity.

1:10.0

And I think the way these two ideas work together helps explain a lot of how people feel

1:14.7

right now.

1:15.7

I thought this was a nice piece to rear over the holidays because maybe you're home with

1:18.6

family.

...

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