Aki Ito on Hustle Culture & How We Got Here

In white-collar, salaried America, there’s an idea that our jobs are supposed to give our lives meaning. It’s the gospel according to Steve Jobs, who famously said the only way to be truly satisfied is by doing great work. And in many industries, working long hours is a badge of honor. But it wasn’t always this way. Work in America was once viewed as a means to an end, not an end in itself. Up until 1980, salaried Europeans actually worked longer hours than Americans in similar jobs – but today, Americans work ten more weeks per year than Germans do. That is… a lot of hours.

So, uh, what happened? How and why did we get here? And where are we going? This week, we’re talking with business journalist Aki Ito about all this and more.

The intro ends, and the interview begins, at 00:07:50

Aki Ito is a senior correspondent at Insider based in California. She writes features about the economy and the workplace, and she's recently covered everything from the rise of working from home to salary transparency, the Great Resignation, and the history of hustle culture. Aki started her career as an intern at Bloomberg News in Tokyo, and went on to spend a decade at Bloomberg in Tokyo and San Francisco as a reporter, editor, podcast host, and video series host. She grew up in Tokyo and New York, and is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont. You can find her on Twitter at @akiito7.

Music: Michael Blumenfeld, mikebloomstudio.com

Sound engineering + edits: Adam Day

Producer: Cathleen Kisich

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