What Works

I've had all the various parts of this episode swirling in my head for months—from The Paperclip Maximizer to The Great Feminization to Meta's Masculine Energy to mind-body dualism to the AI industry's role in what I propose is The Great Re-Masculinization. It is absolutely about both the present and the future of work, and whether we accept the inevitability of regressing to an imagined past or forge into a more dynamic, multi-dimensional workplace that values the contribution of all sorts of intelligence.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode"The Great Feminization" by Helen Andrews in Compact Magazine"Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?" on Interesting Times with Ross Douthat (gift link)"Why does Mark Zuckerberg want more masculine energy in the corporate world? Patriarchy is still in charge" by Ashley Morgan on The ConversationArtificial Knowing by Alison AdamMark Zuckerberg's comments on free expression"GPT-5 has lost what makes GPT-4 so special... Its ability to feel emotional nuance with users" post by alan1cooldude"Did Women Ruin Everything?" on In Bed With The Right (00:00) - Rage Bait Strikes Again (02:24) - The Great Feminization (05:44) - Exploring the Great Feminization (08:49) - Mark Zuckerberg and Masculine Energy (11:36) - AI & The Great Re-Masculinization (17:02) - Mind-Body Dualism (20:37) - The Backlash (26:17) - Conclusion: Embracing a Balanced Intelligence ★ Support this podcast ★

Have a big decision on your mind? Trying to choose between a bunch of good options?Today, I'm talking about decision-making… not so much how to choose, but the context of our choices. No decision gets made in a vacuum. Choices are always framed by circumstances, relationships, emotions, fears, and desires.The good news is that deepening our self-knowledge can be a great way to illuminate the context of our choices and point us in a productive direction. So I'm sharing an exercise from my new guide, Blank Slate, to unlock some of that self-knowledge as you head into the new year.Blank Slate officially launches on January 15, but you can pre-order today at an early bird price! Learn more here.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode.Clues By Sam"Delightful Misdirection (Or, How to Rethink Your Options)" at What Works"Honeydew" at What Works (00:00) - Puzzles (02:02) - The Challenge of Making Decisions (05:23) - The Important of Self-Knowledge (07:07) - Needs & Priorities: An Excerpt from Blank Slate (09:11) - Business Strategy Is Like Algebra? (14:21) - Exercise: Needs & Priorities (20:12) - One More Thing ★ Support this podcast ★

Here we are at the tail end of 2025. I just "opened" my Spotify Unwrapped... And after 3 years of burnout recovery, I’m finally ready to figure out what getting my shit together in the shadow of everything I’ve learned about myself and my needs in the last five years is going to look like.It’s tempting to assume that getting one’s shit together is a forward-looking pursuit. You know, “Here are all the things I’m going to do.” But, in my opinion, an important part of getting one’s shit together is taking stock of said shit. And so this episode is a step in that direction. I enlisted my husband, Sean, to do a bit of a year-end review. This review is in no way comprehensive. It’s a wee bit stilted. And if it sounds a little forced, it is—because getting your shit together takes doing some things that you’re out of practice with.This episode is simply an exercise in remembering. It’s that first awkward practice that you just have to get through at the beginning of a new season. Getting my shit together is very much a work in progress, not a grand announcement of some new project or direction for my work. Maybe that will come. Maybe it won’t. My main objective is to feel like I’m steering the ship again.Heads up: this will be my final new episode of 2025. I'll be back on January 8 with fresh ideas, stories, and ways to rethink work.This episode contains repeated uses of the word "shit," so if that's something you'd prefer not to hear. Skip this one!Footnotes:YellowHouse.Media (the podcast & video production agency that Sean and I run)Waxwing BooksRemnant Population by Elizabeth MoonI Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline HarpmanThe Wall by Marlen Haushofer"No Good Art Comes From Greed" by Kelsey McKinney on DefectorAlchemised by SenLinYu (00:00) - 2025 Review (00:35) - Introduction (06:08) - Reflecting on 2025 (08:09) - What was unexpectedly fun or easy for you this year? (14:42) - What did you create this year? (19:06) - What habits or systems supported your well-being? (34:06) - What did you read, watch, or listen to that stuck with you? (45:02) - What was your favorite word this year? (46:51) - What are you looking forward to in 2026? (50:28) - Last Thing ★ Support this podcast ★

How do you get people to care about what you care about?It's a marketing question. A movement-building question. A question at the heart of the attention economy. And in one form or another, it's the question I've probably received more than any other over the last 15+ years. After all, there is no silver-bullet social media plan, no door-knocking strategy, no magical meeting agenda that produces results if the message at its heart doesn’t resonate with those receiving it.This episode is in four chapters. In the first chapter, I assure you that getting attention is actually (relatively) easy—even if few of us are willing to do what it takes. In the second chapter, I explain why paying attention is really difficult, with the help of my favorite French philosopher. In the third chapter, I've got a story about getting my teenage daughter to watch a movie explaining esoteric financial products. And in the final chapter, I'll share a little idea I've been referring to as the Swimming Pool Theory of Communication.If you care about getting others to care about what you care about (and I know you do), this one is for you. Footnotes:Reasons my husky got mad at me this weekThings that annoyed Waffles this weekThe Subversive Simone Weil by Robert ZaretskyThe Big Short (book by Michael Lewis, film directed by Adam McKay)"Encoding/Decoding" by Stuart Hall (00:00) - Introduction (03:02) - 1. Attention is Easy (07:38) - 2. Attention is Really Hard (15:33) - 3. The Big Short (24:17) - 4. The Swimming Pool Theory of Communication ★ Support this podcast ★

If you’ve ever chosen an ambitious, unconventional, or deeply meaningful aim only to see your plan devolve into something far more run-of-the-mill, this one is for you.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode."AI Can't Even Turn On the Lights" on The VergecastAbout OpenAI"Applying Systems Archetypes" via The Systems ThinkerSam Altman saying we've "surpassed" the definition of AGI from 5 years agoMore from Tara on AI:"What is a search engine? Or, Anne Leckie versus the 'Well, Actually' Bros""Always Be Optimizing""Black Box Thinking" ★ Support this podcast ★