Culture

Future of Work

Future of Work explores monumental changes in the workplace and the long-term impact on workers, employers, educators and communities. Employment is part of the American Dream. Will the future provide opportunities for jobs that sustain families and the nation?

Changing Work, Changing Workers - Preview

30s

Companies rethink the need to even have offices, or how to redesign places of work. The traditional work shift - 9-5, 5 days a week – is losing relevance. Many companies are adopting the remote work models, spawned by the pandemic, as their new normal. Does the nation need new policies of Guaranteed Basic Income, (UBI) or a drastic rethinking of the social safety nets?

Extras + Features

  • Changing Work, Changing Workers - Preview: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Changing Work, Changing Workers - Preview

    30s

    Companies rethink the need to even have offices, or how to redesign places of work. The traditional work shift - 9-5, 5 days a week – is losing relevance. Many companies are adopting the remote work models, spawned by the pandemic, as their new normal. Does the nation need new policies of Guaranteed Basic Income, (UBI) or a drastic rethinking of the social safety nets?

  • Futureproof - Preview: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Futureproof - Preview

    31s

    Frontline and service workers have borne the health consequences of the pandemic, increasing racial and economic disparities. Certain robotic and AI applications are accelerating as the value of human workers is further questioned. Determining the likely areas of job growth and training needs is difficult. Post-secondary education has become more virtual and its costs, more controversial.

  • Apprenticing: Working Towards the Salary You Want: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Apprenticing: Working Towards the Salary You Want

    4m 1s

    Tiffany Spraggins decided to go back to college after working jobs with no opportunity for growth. Knowing she wanted to make a livable wage, she started by looking at jobs that paid the salary she wanted. At college, she learned about an apprenticeship program to become a software functions tester, and she’s now on a path to being a full professional in a white-collar job.

  • Autonomous Robots: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Autonomous Robots

    2m 40s

    Robots are already replacing human jobs. Advocates say they are the jobs people don’t want, but nonetheless, they are paying jobs, and the advent of human-like robots is getting closer as technology advances. AI systems have the capacity to replace humans on a scale never seen before. Should we embrace the future of robots, because it will create jobs that are more meaningful?

  • Youngstown, Ohio, and the American Dream: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Youngstown, Ohio, and the American Dream

    3m 23s

    From 1977 to 1987, automation and outsourcing rapidly disrupted steel and manufacturing industries in places like Youngstown, Ohio. The result: mass unemployment, and an exodus of people going elsewhere for work. The effect wasn’t just economic; depression, alcoholism, drug use, and suicides rose in Youngstown, foreshadowing the consequences of technology and globalization everywhere.

  • Nomadic Workers and the American Dream: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Nomadic Workers and the American Dream

    3m 53s

    Chris Francis lost his white collar career in the 2008 recession, and has been piecing together a livelihood ever since. He’s part of a growing movement of nomadic workers, living in their RV’s, and travelling the country from job to job. Today, with retirement less of a guarantee, and younger Americans being the first generation to be worse off than their parents, the American dream is at risk.

  • Robotics in Medicine: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Robotics in Medicine

    4m 44s

    15 years ago, Bryant Hospital in Lincoln, NE was one of several hospitals pioneering the use of ‘surgical cobots’. Now they are an accepted part of surgical practices across America. In this video, for example, Dr. Michael Jobst brings new levels of precision, control, and safety to his surgical procedures, by using multi-arm robotic surgery. But does this current generation of robots cost jobs?

  • Date Palms and Drones: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Date Palms and Drones

    3m 4s

    When local growers in Yuma, AZ reached out to University of AZ Engineering and Business programs for help modernizing the date industry, inventors and entrepreneurs Madeline Melichar and Evan Westman took up the challenge. Forming a tech start up, they have designed a drone to dispense pollen to the hard-to-reach Medjool date trees. They hope to attract new work and higher paying jobs to the area.

  • Betting the Future on a New Business Model: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Betting the Future on a New Business Model

    3m 50s

    When COVID forced his company to completely shut down, Robert LeBlanc initially felt defeated. But looking at Toyota’s production systems helped him re-invent his business. See how he applied a ‘one-piece flow’ production model to his restaurant and hotel, and how he sees this method as the key to the future success of his industry.

  • Domestic Workers in the U.S.: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Domestic Workers in the U.S.

    1m 53s

    There are 2.5 million domestic workers in America, and by 2030 that number is expected to double. Many are immigrants, and people of color, often underpaid, with little or no job security. But they do the work that makes all other work possible, and it’s work that’s not going anywhere. For many who lose their employment to automation and outsourcing, domestic work may be a viable option.

  • The Gig Economy: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Gig Economy

    3m 2s

    Today more than 55 million Americans work in the gig economy, which operates through digital platforms like Uber, Lyft and Task Rabbit. Fueled by technological advancements, the gig economy allows workers like Chloe Grishaw to set her own schedule, and know what she’s agreeing to, without any long-term obligations. The freedom and flexibility, however, comes with financial insecurity.

  • The New Industrial Revolution - Preview: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The New Industrial Revolution - Preview

    29s

    In addition to illuminating the ongoing drivers for disruptions to the world of work – AI, robotics, platform technology, globalization, labor practices -- the pandemic has been a driver of change. Unemployment flipped from lowest in 50 years to highest in a century.

Schedule

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