Ever tried to cram a year's worth of relaxation, adventure, and bonding into your precious few vacation days? Had a meltdown while lost down the TripAdvisor rabbit hole? Got down on yourself for feeling unproductive and wanting to ditch? This time Noorain and Maria talk about vacations: who gets to take them and who doesn't, the benefits of leaving your job both physically and mentally behind, "authentic" trips and the upsides of kicking back in a world of total artifice. Maria spills about her epic Disney Cruise experience, Noorain admits her addiction to online travel planning, and Max Weber and Jean Baudrillard toss their most vacation-relevant theories into our luggage for the trip. Whether you need some holy days of holiday reflection or just want to vacate on your vacation...all aboard!
Links to Stuff We Talk About
Theory
Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, transl. Sheila Faria Glaser (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1994). http://www.amazon.com/Simulacra-Simulation-The-Body-Theory/dp/0472065211, especially hyperreality.
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905). http://www.amazon.com/Protestant-Ethic-Spirit-Capitalism-Twentieth-Century/dp/0140439218
Context
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights' "right to rest" (Article 24): http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
Rebecca Ray, Milla Sanes, and John Schmitt, "No-Vacation Nation Revisited." Center for Economic Policy and Research. May 2013. http://cepr.net/publications/reports/no-vacation-nation-2013
Juliet Schor, The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline Of Leisure (Basic Books, 1993). http://www.amazon.com/The-Overworked-American-Unexpected-Decline/dp/046505434X
George Tripp, "The Christian's Work Ethic" (excerpt from New Journey Fellowship Ministries sermon). Archive.org. July 11, 2012. https://archive.org/details/TheChristiansWorkEthic NOTE: we excerpt from this in our discussion of the Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism. Fittingly, George Tripp also has a ministry consulting company (Grace & Truth Consulting) that you can check out here.
Articles
Anne Fisher, "Why don't Americans take more time off?" Fortune Magazine. July 28, 2015. http://fortune.com/2015/07/28/americans-vacation-use/
Douglas LaBier, "So Much Work, No Time For Vacation? Here's Why!" Psychology Today Online. August 11, 2014. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-resilience/201408/so-much-work-no-time-vacation-heres-why
Andrea Sachs, "How TripAdvisor altered your vacation planning universe." The Washington Post. August 29, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/how-tripadvisor-altered-your-vacation-planning-universe/2015/08/27/43fdec1e-4064-11e5-bfe3-ff1d8549bfd2_story.html
Brigid Schulte, "Leisure is the new productivity." CNN.com. February 4, 2015. http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/12/opinions/schulte-leisure-productivity/
Bonus
Plan your own Disney cruise...we are in no way sponsored by Disney, but are open to offers. ;) Or get philosophical with Robert Rowland Smith's Breakfast with Socrates: An Extraordinary (Philosophical) Journey Through Your Ordinary Day (Free Press, 2011). Or both! That great Emerson quote from the end of the episode is, for the record: “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.”
Music this time around by the legendary Britney Spears (work bitch!), Malian duo Amadou & Mariam, your grandma's (and Gabriel's) favorite old-time crooner Bing Crosby, and the fabulous Lana Del Rey.