EP 390: Context Clues: Is a recession inevitable?

Show Notes

How do you prepare your small business for economic ups and downs? Is a recession inevitable? And what even is a recession? In this episode, unpack why the economy cycles through periods of boom and bust. I also demonstrate how a similar cycle is at play in the online business space. And I offer some strategies for making sustainable business decisions—no matter what happens with the economy.

Footnotes:

• Gates of the Arctic National Park
• Caribou population cycles
• Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Sea by Bathsheba Demuth
• Beargrass
• Mast fruiting
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• “Are recessions normal?” on Make Me Smart
• Economic cycles on Investopedia
• Spotted lanternfly and tree of heaven
• Timothy Snyder on the Ezra Klein Show
• “The best of all possible worlds” from Candide
• A history of recessions in the 20th and 21st centuries
• Rana Foroohar on the Ezra Klein Show

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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.