Work Space Talk Show

The five-day workweek was built for an industrial economy, but AI, hybrid work, and knowledge work are forcing leaders to rethink what a productive week should actually look like.

Joe O’Connor, CEO of Work Time Revolution and one of the leading voices behind the four-day workweek movement, joins Nathan Manuel to explain why working fewer hours can improve performance when companies redesign work around outcomes instead of time. Joe connects the history of the 40-hour workweek to today’s AI transition, arguing that leaders now have a choice: use new efficiency gains to cut headcount and intensify work, or reinvest them in people and build a more sustainable model.

They also discuss return-to-office mandates, digital distraction, UBI and AI-driven job loss, the role of recovery in high performance, and what younger workers should prepare for as careers become less predictable.

Learn more about Work Time Revolution

https://www.worktimerevolution.com/

Check Out Joe's Book, "Do More in Four"

https://www.domoreinfour.com/

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Forcing employees to use AI may be one of the fastest ways to destroy trust at work. When leaders frame AI as a tool for greater output and efficiency, employees often hear something else entirely: layoffs are coming, and everyone is competing to survive.

Brian Elliott has spent years studying how organizations respond to changes in the way people work. He co-founded Future Forum and wrote How the Future Works, but he did not start out as a writer or workplace strategist. He was a math undergrad and self-described data geek who says he only began seriously writing in his forties, and continued improving well into his fifties.

Brian and Nathan discuss why AI mandates backfire, what workers are actually afraid of, why young AI-native employees have a growing advantage, and why “soft skills” may be the most durable skills of all.

Check out Brian’s Work Forward newsletter: https://theworkforward.substack.com/

Get a copy of "How the Future Works"https://futureforum.com/how-the-future-works/https://www.amazon.com/How-Future-Works-Leading-Flexible/dp/111987095X/

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The way companies work is changing faster than traditional office space can adapt.

Kayley DiCicco, Director of Enterprise Sales at Expansive, joins Nathan to discuss why flexible workspace is becoming a long-term business strategy rather than a temporary solution. They explore how coworking has evolved beyond the WeWork era, why enterprise companies are demanding more adaptable real estate, and how AI is changing both headcount needs and the value of working together in person.

Learn more about Expansive:

https://expansive.com

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Jenny He, Founder & CEO of Ergeon, joins Nathan to discuss what McKinsey taught her about industrial work, why construction punishes inaccurate estimates, how small contractors get trapped by admin work, and how AI could change the path into construction management and operations.

Learn more about Eregon:https://www.ergeon.com/

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Brett Hautop, Founding Partner of WorkShape, joins The Workspace Talk Show to discuss why companies need to rethink how they measure offices, workplace strategy, AI, and the future of work.

Instead of starting with desks, conference rooms, or attendance numbers, Brett argues that workplace leaders should start with outcomes: what people need to accomplish, what behaviors the space should support, and whether the office is actually helping the business.

Learn more about WorkShape:

https://www.theworkshape.com/

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Dr. Glenn Mueller joins The Work Space Talk Show to walk through his real estate market cycle report and explain what the data says about where the market is headed next.

Nathan and Dr. Mueller discuss the leading indicators that contractors, developers, owners, and real estate teams should be watching, including population growth, GDP, employment, inflation, interest rates, local economic-base industries, demand and supply, occupancy, rent growth, capital flows, cap rates, and how different property types are moving through the cycle.

The core question of this episode is practical: what should people in the built environment pay attention to before the market shifts?

Glenn R. Mueller, PhD is Professor Emeritus at the University of Denver’s Burns School of Real Estate & Construction Management and Director & Investment Committee Chair at Sharing Connexion Group.

Learn more about Dr. Mueller:https://daniels.du.edu/directory/glenn-mueller/

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Nathan Manuel sits down with Nader Soubra, an interior designer, 3D visualization practitioner, and author of "The Future of Architecture", about the future of architecture, interior design, AI, visualization, and building resilience. They discuss why design is more than decoration, how AI is changing early-stage visualization, what people misunderstand about the work architects and designers actually do, and how Lebanon’s energy crisis has pushed buildings toward solar, batteries, and self-sufficiency.

Get a copy of Nader's book, "The Future of Architecture"https://www.amazon.com/Future-Architecture-Nader-Said-Soubra/dp/B0FKX3ZGT6

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Dr. Peter Linneman joins The Workspace Talk Show for a wide-ranging conversation on real estate, capital markets, AI, productivity, and why long-term thinking matters in an industry built around long-term assets.

Peter is the Founding Principal and CEO of Linneman Associates and a Professor Emeritus at Wharton. In this episode, he explains why real estate continues to hold his attention, how he thinks through short-term market shocks, why the U.S. remains a difficult market to bet against, and why he believes AI is more likely to create new opportunity than eliminate work entirely.

The conversation also moves into Peter’s broader view on work, technology, success, and what it means to keep moving the ball forward over a long career.

Learn more about Dr. Linneman: https://www.linnemanassociates.com/peter-linnemanSave a Mind Elimu chartiy: https://www.samelimucharity.org/The Linneman Letter: https://www.linnemanassociates.com/the-linneman-letterLearn more about the Work Space Talk Show: https://workspacetalkshow.com/

Architect and author Stefan Al joins us to talk about the long history of dwellings, and what that history reveals about the housing problems we face today.

Stefan is a professor at Hunter College, a trained architect, and the author of "Dwelling on Earth". In this conversation, he and Nathan discuss how homes evolved from early shelters to dense Roman apartment buildings, why the home and workplace were once the same space, how zoning became one of the biggest barriers to new housing, and why converting empty offices into apartments is much harder than it sounds.

They also get into mixed-use cities, the American single-family ideal, AI tools in architecture and planning, and why the built environment keeps forcing humans to solve new problems created by previous solutions.

Learn more about Stefan: https://www.stefanal.com/

Check out "Dwelling on Earth" - https://www.stefanal.com/books/dwelling-on-earth

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America’s housing affordability problem is often discussed through prices, interest rates, investors, or politics. Dr. Joseph Gyourko argues that the core issue is more direct: we are not building enough housing where people want to live.

In this episode of The Work Space Talk Show, Nathan Manuel talks with Dr. Joseph Gyourko, Martin Bucksbaum Professor of Real Estate, Finance and Business & Public Policy at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, about the history of housing affordability in the United States, the post-1970 shift in local zoning and supply restrictions, and the price-to-income ratio that explains why so many households feel squeezed.

They also discuss institutional single-family rentals, whether banning institutional buyers actually helps renters, why the commonly cited housing shortage number may be too low, what China’s overbuilt housing market reveals about supply-side policy, and why local zoning boards often represent existing neighbors more clearly than future residents.

For anyone working in real estate, construction, architecture, development, or public policy, this conversation connects housing economics to the systems that determine what actually gets built.

Learn more about Dr Gyourko: https://gyourko.github.io/

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