EP 474: Making Non-Obvious Choices at Work with Samhita Mukhopadhyay

For justice-minded people, navigating the world of work in the 21st-century economy can feel... impossible. A real no-win scenario. There's a constant tension between what's good for the communities we inhabit and what's good (and necessary) for us as individuals. But it's in this tension that we find a "margin of maneuverability"—a source of hope, possibility, and creativity.

That's the theme of a new book called The Myth of Making It by Samhita Mukhopadhyay, a feminist writer and editor, and the former executive editor of Teen Vogue. I sat down with Samhita to talk about the book and explore our margins of maneuverability.

Footnotes:

• Grab your copy of The Myth of Making It by Samhita Mukhopadhyay
• Find out more about Samhita
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and more on the Kobayashi Maru in Star Trek lore
• The Politics of Affect by Brian Massumi
• "At 20, Teen Vogue knows its readers contain multitudes" by Annie Aguiar for Poynter

Related episodes:

• 466: Making Room for Others with Leonie Smith
• 455: The Case for Uncertainty (and How to Navigate It)
• 457: How to Define Hard-to-Define Work Stress
• 450: The Will to Share Power with Tania Luna

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What is What Works?

Work is central to the human experience. It helps us shape our identities, care for those we love, and contribute to our communities. Work can be a source of power and a catalyst for change. Unfortunately, that's not how most of us experience work—even those who work for themselves. Our labor and creative spirit are used to enrich others and maintain the status quo. It's time for an intervention. What Works is a show about rethinking work, business, and leadership for the 21st-century economy. Host Tara McMullin covers money, management, culture, media, philosophy, and more to figure out what's working (and what's not) today. Tara offers a distinctly interdisciplinary approach to deep-dive analysis of how we work and how work shapes us.