For this week's episode, we decided to social distance from our guests and talk to some numbers instead.

As much as we've loved talking to real people working jobs they really love, and as excited as we are about having even more of those conversations, we wanted to take a step back to frame the "thesis" for this podcast in light of the available data. This podcast started with a simple idea: meaningful work is a necessary component of a meaningful life. But is that really true? Is it just something Millennials say to justify their pathological inability to stay in a job for longer than 24 months? Are there other macro trends at play that make it challenging (but no less essential) to structure our work in a way that provides purpose beyond a paycheck?

This episode attempts to answer those questions while also unpacking the uniquely-Millennial hangups and neuroses that make meaningful work especially challenging in 2020. Like most of these early episodes, this conversation was recorded months ago and, therefore, has no knowledge of the impending COVID calamity. (Ah, December...such a simpler time.) But it doesn't make the data any less relevant or any less true. Give it a listen! And let us know what you think.

Articles and data points referenced in the episode: 

• Workism is Making Americans Miserable (The Atlantic)
• How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation (Buzzfeed)
• Life purpose is significantly correlated with all-cause mortality
• Embracing community leads to longer, happier lives (HBR)
• Millennials value paychecks over purpose (Gallup)
• The Enormous Cost of Unhappy Employees (Inc.)
• Millennials and loneliness (Vox)
• Millennials are poorer than previous generations (Financial Times)
• 95% of teens say having a job they love is extremely or very important to them (Pew)
• Why are young people pretending to love work? (NY Times)