How close is a four-day working week? Over the last few years, companies and governments in a number of countries have begun to experiment with the idea of a four-day work week – and some of the results are in. We talk to experts about these recent trials, explore how they fit into the long history of ever-shrinking work hours, and wonder what this all might mean for the future of work. 

Featuring Anthony Veal, adjunct professor a the Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Jana Javornik, associate professor of work and employment relations at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds and José-Ignacio Antón associate professor at the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Salamanca in Spain.

In our second story, historian Melissa Wanjiru-Mwita from the Technical University of Kenya explains her research on the history and politics of how informal settlements in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, got their names.

And Catesby Holmes, international editor at The Conversation in New York, recommends two recent stories about immigration in the US.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

• The success of Iceland’s ‘four-day week’ trial has been greatly overstated, by Anthony Veal, University of Technology Sydney
• Four-day week: how workplaces can successfully establish it, by Rita Fontinha, University of Reading and James Walker, University of Reading
• Post-pandemic return to work is a perfect opportunity to move to a four-day week, by David Spencer, University of Leeds
• Are we ready to work from only Monday to Thursday?, by José-Ignacio Antón, University of Salamanca (in Spanish)
• Is it becoming easier to be a working mother?, by Jana Javornik, University of Leeds
• The fascinating history of how residents named their informal settlements in Nairobi, by Melissa Wanjiru-Mwita, Technical University of Kenya
• This is what happens to child migrants found alone at the border, from the moment they cross into the US until age 18, by Randi Mandelbaum, Rutgers University
• DACA in doubt after court ruling: 3 questions answered, by Kevin Johnson, University of California, Davis