Over six million prime-age men are neither working nor looking for work; America's low unemployment rate hides the fact that many men have dropped out of the workforce altogether. Our workforce participation rate is on par with that seen during the Great Depression.
Why does this problem affect men so acutely? Why is it so specific to America? What are these ... Show More
Yesterday
Eloise Moss, "The Secret Life of the Hotel: Sex, Crime and Protest in British Guesthouses Since 1918" (Bloomsbury, 2026)
Hotels represent nations, hosting visiting monarchs, politicians, and diplomats. Hotels underpin global networks of travel and communication, on which national and international prosperity have increasingly depended since the end of the First World War. Yet hotels are also places ... Show More
43m 45s
May 16
Tara Mulder, "A Womb of One's Own: Lost Histories of Childbirth in Ancient Rome" (U California Press, 2026)
In the well-trod history of the Roman Empire, a pivotal moment has long gone unnoticed: It was in ancient Rome that medical men first set their sights on childbirth, the traditional domain of female midwives.Taking us to the dawn of Western obstetrics, A Womb of One's Own: Lost H ... Show More
56m 2s
Apr 2023
#614 - Nicholas Eberstadt - Why Do Millions of Men Not Want to Work?
Nicholas Eberstadt is a political economist, demographer, American Enterprise Institute scholar, and an author.
More than 7 million prime working age men in America are not looking for work, and each year that number continues to grow. Given that unemployment is at a massive low, ... Show More
54m 59s
Feb 2022
Elizabeth Anderson, "Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It) (Princeton UP, 2019)
One in four American workers says their workplace is a "dictatorship." Yet that number almost certainly would be higher if we recognized employers for what they are-private governments with sweeping authoritarian power over our lives. Many employers minutely regulate workers' spe ... Show More
50m 1s
Nov 2021
Forward Thinking on making labor markets work smarter—for people and companies—with Beth Cobert and Byron Auguste
In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Michael Chui talks to Byron Auguste and Beth Cobert whose professional life is dedicated to fostering a more skills-based labor market. Their focus is on the United States, but their diagnostic can just ... Show More
44m 34s