Lifehacks, Oprah, The Secret…who CAN’T use a little self-help to maximize their personal and professional lives? We kick off Season 3 by diving into self help and celebrity advice culture, exploring both what’s great about them and their darker sides. We pin down the concept “neoliberalism,” and talk about how competition from the boardroom to the bedroom is leaving people feeling more isolated and looking to self-help for ways to survive in an increasingly precarious economy. On the way, Noorain opens up about her love of Oprah and her celebrity book binges, and Maria casts some epic shade on Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Let’s get this In Theory party started!
Links to Stuff We Talk About
Theory
Daniel Nehring, Emmanuel Alvarado, Eric C. Hendriks, and Dylan Kerrigan, Transnational Popular Psychology and the Global Self-Help Industry: The Politics of Contemporary Social Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9780230370852
Jennifer M. Silva, Coming up Short: Working-Class Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty (Oxford University Press, 2013) https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Short-Working-Class-Adulthood-Uncertainty/dp/0190231890
Articles
Peter Fleming, “The way to a better work-life balance? Unions, not self-help,” The Guardian, October 11, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2016/oct/11/way-to-better-work-life-balance-unions-not-self-help
Vanessa Friedman, “How Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Has Become a Role Model for Other Celebrities,” The New York Times, November 14, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/fashion/how-gwyneth-paltrow-goop-has-become-a-role-model-for-other-celebrities.html
George Monbiot, “Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems,” The Guardian, April 15, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot
Joe Pinsker “America Is Even Less Socially Mobile Than Most Economists Thought,” The Atlantic, July 23, 2015. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/america-social-mobility-parents-income/399311/
Context
William G. Domhoff, “Wealth, Income, and Power” Who Rules America? September 2005; updated February 2013 http://whorulesamerica.net/power/wealth.html
Trysh Travis, The Language of the Heart: A Cultural History of the Recovery Movement from Alcoholics Anonymous to Oprah Winfrey (University of North Carolina Press, 2009) https://www.amazon.com/Language-Heart-Cultural-Recovery-Alcoholics/dp/1469607301
Janice Peck, Age of Oprah: Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era (Routledge, 2008) https://www.amazon.com/Age-Oprah-Cultural-Neoliberal-Media/dp/1594514690
Bonus: Noorain’s celeb list!
Goop http://goop.com/
Top 10 Oprah moments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3qKEDBxwzY
Jewel, Never Broken https://www.amazon.com/Never-Broken-Songs-Only-Story/dp/0399185720
Janet Mock, Redefining Realness https://www.amazon.com/Redefining-Realness-Path-Womanhood-Identity/dp/1476709130
Shonda Rimes, Year of Yes https://www.amazon.com/Year-Yes-Dance-Stand-Person-ebook/dp/B00YTG3C0G
Lindy West, Shrill https://www.amazon.com/Shrill-Notes-Woman-Lindy-West/dp/0316348406
Music this time by the Bananaramas, Miike Snow, and Destiny's Child.