How Did the Pandemic Change Work for You?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As part of our series looking back on how the pandemic changed us, 5 years on, we examine the way we work. From working remotely to handling childcare needs to coping with being an essential worker, Covid forced innovations and exposed fault lines in the nation’s employment structure. We’ll talk about what we learned and we hear from you: How did the pandemic change how you do your job and think about work? Guests: Nicholas A Bloom, professor of economics, Stanford University — senior fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research Joan Williams, former professor of law, UC Law School San Francisco, and the founding director of the Center for WorkLife Law; UC Hastings College of the Law - author of White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America and the forthcoming title, "Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort in Baja, California, just an hour from San Diego.
0:07.6	Three, four, and seven-night summer packages include fitness classes, hiking, live music, mindfulness, and culinary adventures, featuring fruits and veggies straight off the vine.
0:18.9	Special rates and offers are available for summer stays and first-time guests.
0:23.8	Saver summer at Rancho LaPuerta, rancho LaPuerta.com.
0:28.3	Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:35.7	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of
0:40.0	Leo and Lucille Frank, a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is
0:46.9	accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice,
0:54.1	and devotion.
0:55.8	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
1:04.2	Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
1:09.0	From KQED.
1:10.5	Music from KQED. From KQED. From KQED. In San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. Something fundamental changed about Americans' relationship to work during the pandemic.
1:31.0	Maybe it was white-collar workers increased flexibility.
1:34.8	Maybe it was the two-faced way essential workers were treated as expendable.
1:40.2	Maybe there's something else entirely.
1:42.0	We're going to look back five years after the pandemic began, part of our series, at how
1:47.1	jobs have changed.
1:49.1	We've got a panel of experts, and we're going to hear your experiences about the feel of work.
1:55.5	That's all coming up next, right after this news.
2:13.1	Music right after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
2:16.0	A job's always been a bit of a confusing category.
	...

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