How the American Dream Became Temporary w/ Louis Hyman
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 12 July 2021
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Three generations ago, large American corporations offered their employees the stability of life-long employment and the promise of a pension-funded retirement. In the 21st Century, that model has given way to the "gig economy" in which people work multiple jobs. In this episode, Bob and Ben speak with Cornell University's Louis Hyman about the forces that led us from then to now, what it means for our daily lives, and how we might structure the economy of the 21st century in a way that offers the freedom of the gig economy without the insecurity that so many face under our current institutions.
Dr. Louis Hyman is a historian of work and business at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, where he also directs the Institute for Workplace Studies in New York City. His book Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary was published by Viking in 2018.
This is a broadcast of an episode that originally aired on The Road to Now on August 20, 2018. This re-broadcast was edited by Gary Fletcher.
The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is in the loop, the Legion of Osiris Podcasts. |
| 0:03.9 | Osiris is creating a community that connects people like you |
| 0:06.8 | with live experiences and podcasts about artists and topics you love. |
| 0:11.6 | Get in the loop at Osirispod.com. |
| 0:20.2 | I'm Ben Sawyer, and this is The Road to Now. |
| 0:24.9 | Today's episode is a conversation with Lewis Hyman on his book, Temp. |
| 0:29.9 | It's a book about how we went from being employees for life with major corporations in the mid-20th century to essentially temp workers in the gig |
| 0:39.0 | workforce. It's a major transformation that's been happening. I think we were starting to pay |
| 0:44.3 | attention to it actually before the pandemic. But right now with everything so up in the air, |
| 0:50.6 | I feel like this has been something that's been put on the back burner, thinking about ways |
| 0:54.5 | to improve people's lives who are trying to piece work together as a gig worker. And so I thought |
| 0:59.9 | this would be a good time now that we're beginning to at least somewhat settle in. I know there's |
| 1:04.4 | still a lot up in the air, but I thought it'd be good to re-air this episode now just to make sure |
| 1:09.1 | that we keep thinking about it. There are some fascinating |
| 1:11.9 | things in here about what potential there is for life in the gig economy. If we can find out a way |
| 1:18.6 | to make sure that it's able to provide for what we need. So I hope you guys will enjoy this. |
| 1:23.3 | The book is Temp. And if you have not read this book already, guys, go check it out. |
| 1:28.6 | There's just a lot to think about there and a lot that we can really use from the past moving forward. |
| 1:34.9 | Now, before we go into the episode, speaking of things getting to semi-normal, Bob and I are back performing, and it feels amazing. |
| 1:44.6 | For Bob, the Ava Brothers have shows coming up in the Midwest. |
| 1:48.5 | They're playing, they played Red Rocks this last weekend. |
| 1:51.4 | Guys, I saw them when they were at Bonaroo, the Bonaroo Farm. |
... |
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