Book Club: ‘Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation’

Nerdette

WBEZ

Tv & Film, Self, Nerd, Books, Technology, Tv, Improvement, Culture, Wbez, Society & Culture, Pop, Nerdette, Nerds

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2020

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation from author Anne Helen Petersen.

In Can’t Even, Petersen argues that societal conditions and poor timing primed the millennial generation for burnout. Petersen points to the 2008 recession, the rise of the contract worker, the prevalence of cell phones and astronomical student loan debt as a few contributing factors.

Listen along as Nerdette host Greta Johnsen discusses the book with Avery Trufelman, host of The Cut podcast, and Indira Allegra, a sculptor and performance artist. We also hear from many of you who called in with your feelings about burnout. Press play above to hear the conversation.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This fall, W bez invites you to our upcoming live events.
0:05.0	Join us in person for smart discussions, heartfelt storytelling, and more.
0:09.0	Check out the full calendar now at W be easy.org slash events.
0:15.6	From W be easy Chicago I'm Greta Johnson and you are listening to the
0:21.6	Nerdat Book Club it's just like a normal book club,
0:24.0	except you can show up without reading the book, and you don't even have to share your snacks.
0:28.0	This month, we are talking about Anne Helen Peterson's non-fiction book,
0:32.0	Can't even How millennials became the burnout generation.
0:36.4	It is all about, yes, millennials and burnout.
0:40.4	For the record, and finds millennials as people who were born between 1980 and 1995 and
0:46.8	she describes burnout essentially as like that feeling of running a race that just never actually ends. You probably have it right
0:55.7	now. Whatever that feeling is, yes, that is burnout. So the thesis statement of this book for people who maybe are too burnt out to read it is that because of timing and societal conditions, especially millennials have been primed to experience total burnout.
1:15.0	And mentions among other things the fact that the 2008 recession was right around
1:19.2	when a lot of us were finishing school, let alone things like the rise of the contract worker and the
1:26.1	prevalence of cell phones and you know astronomical student loan debt, just to name a couple of
1:31.4	things. At this point in the book club
1:34.9	announcement I would normally put a spoiler warning in but this is a
1:37.9	non-fiction book so I feel like there are no spoilers in real life. Earlier this month I will say I had a conversation
1:45.3	with the author about the book so if you want to listen to that first that is
1:48.4	totally cool. Today is our panel discussion and we're also going to be hearing from some of you.
1:55.2	So I am joined today by Avery Truffelman. She's the host of the new New York
2:00.0	magazine podcast The Cut. Avery, hey!
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WBEZ, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WBEZ and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.