Published Aug 13 2021

‘What Happens Next?’: Are We Working Ourselves to Death?

Jakob
Hohwy
Professor, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies
Carly moulang
Associate Professor, Management Accounting and Accounting Info Systems
Joshua wiley
Senior Research Fellow, Psychology
Meshel laurie
Podcaster, author, comedian and broadcaster.
Susan carland
Academic, author and social commentator

Productivity hacks and optimisation have long been buzzwords of success. Startup founders and LinkedIn gurus are encouraging us to have side hustles rather than hobbies, telling a generation of young workers that a 24/7 work ethic is the way to achieve their dreams.

Why are we so down on downtime? Is being busy the same thing as being productive? And what happens to our brains, bodies, and social lives if we keep measuring ourselves by our output? Are we hustling ourselves to death?

The new season of What Happens Next? kicks off with a hard look at hustle culture. In the first episode, host Dr Susan Carland discusses the side-effects of a society obsessed with productivity, chatting with comedian and broadcaster Meshel Laurie, behavioural psychologist Joshua Wiley, Associate Professor of Management and Accounting Carly Moulang, and philosopher Jakob Hohwy.

“Being the busiest person makes you the most powerful person, I think, in a situation. It did in my family as a child. It made my father the most powerful person in our family, so he got away with lots of other bad behaviour.”

Comedian and broadcaster Meshel Laurie

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About the Authors

  • Jakob hohwy

    Professor, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies

    Jakob conducts interdisciplinary research in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. He focuses mainly on theories about brain function, which say the brain is primarily a sophisticated hypothesis tester. He's interested in supervising projects in interdisciplinary philosophy and cognitive neuroscience. This includes the science of consciousness, psychopathology, perception science, computational neuroscience, philosophy of mind and cognition.

  • Carly moulang

    Associate Professor, Management Accounting and Accounting Info Systems

    Carly’s research agenda incorporates gender and psychological-based business research. Her multi-disciplinary research has included topics such as whistleblowing, creativity, performance management, environmental management accounting, wellbeing and psychological capital, psychological safety, gender, superannuation research and decision-making.

  • Joshua wiley

    Senior Research Fellow, Psychology

    Dr. Joshua Wiley is a behavioural medicine researcher currently appointed as a senior research fellow (Asst. Professor) at Monash University in the School of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health (2016-present). Dr. Wiley's research includes basic science and applied intervention work.

  • Meshel laurie

    Podcaster, author, comedian and broadcaster.

    Comedian and broadcaster

  • Susan carland

    Director, Bachelor of Global Studies, and Lecturer, School of Language, Literature, Cultures and Linguistics

    Susan's research and teaching specialties focus on gender, sociology, contemporary Australia, terrorism, and Islam in the modern world. Susan hosted the “Assumptions” series on ABC’s Radio National, and was named one of the 20 Most Influential Australian Female Voices in 2012 by The Age.

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