Live This Week
Updated Thursday, Aug. 6, 8:00 a.m. I’ll be calling into four live radio programs—based in Michigan, Mississippi, Vermont, and Massachusetts—this week. I’ll also be on a taped segment scheduled to air...
View ArticleRadio Show Update
I’ll be on additional radio programs in the next few days. Also, The Bill Newman Show will be Friday rather than Thursday as originally scheduled. Here’s the latest: Thursday, Aug. 6, 2 p.m. E.T. The...
View ArticleReview, Upcoming Interviews
Radio show host and book club president Cyrus Webb just reviewed Cut Loose on Amazon: Victor Tan Chen shares real-life examples of what needs to be done with the job market in CUT LOOSE, August 8, 2015...
View ArticleSociologists Unite
I’m looking forward to catching up with friends and colleagues at the American Sociological Association annual meeting in Chicago this weekend. Hmm, wonder what people think sociologists do when they...
View ArticleMy First In-Studio Interview on the Leonard Lopate Show (LIVE!)
The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC I am thrilled (if nervous) to share that I am scheduled to go on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC on Monday at 12 noon (E.T.). Please tune in at 93.9 FM and AM 820 if...
View ArticleEthnography & Journalism
In my first blog post over at Orgtheory.net, I kicked off a discussion about the relationship between ethnography and journalism. I have a background in both areas. Here’s some of what I said: “Like...
View ArticleMy Op-Ed in The Atlantic: ‘Forget Denmark—Emulate Canada’
I wrote about how policies matter for The Atlantic. While Denmark came up during last week’s Democratic presidential debate, my take is that we should — and could — be more like Canada. “If the goal...
View ArticleFestival of the Book
I’m very honored to announce I will be among the authors featured at the 2016 Virginia Festival of the Book. The 22nd annual festival will be held March 16-20 in Charlottesville and Ablemarle County,...
View Article‘The Lonely Poverty of America’s White Working Class’
The Atlantic has published my take on the recent study on rising mortality rates for working-class white Americans. “… policies to keep people from sinking into poverty and long-term unemployment can...
View ArticleProgress for African Americans? Yes, and No
Dr. Martin Luther King delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington on August 28, 1963. National Archives and Records Administration, via Wikimedia All the discussions today of how much racial...
View ArticleVisiting Charlottesville
As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be appearing at the Virginia Festival of the Book on Thursday afternoon in Charlottesville, Va. Click for event details. #VaBook2016 #Cville More on upcoming events can be...
View ArticleMeeting Critics
Yours truly will be on the hot seat at an Author Meets Critics panel at the Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting in Boston on Sunday. I’m very honored to appear with panelists Barry Bluestone...
View ArticleMeet the Author
I won’t have to go very far for my next book talk—it’s on my own campus. Please join me at VCU’s renovated library on Thursday, March 24, 2016, at 7 p.m. It will be held in the lecture hall (Room...
View ArticleGrowing Apart
This is truly an honor: Boston College has invited me to speak at a conference on economic inequality in April. The conference caps off a year-long interdisciplinary faculty seminar that focuses on...
View ArticleHillary Clinton and the Art of the Impossible
Hillary Clinton formally accepts the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on the fourth night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Ali Shaker/Voice of America, via...
View ArticleA Minimum of Dignity
A protester-made statue with the Spanish words “dignity” and “fight” stands outside the Chicago Board of Trade building following a march in 2015 in favor of a higher minimum wage. Scott L, via Flickr...
View ArticleConstraining Workers
I am pleased to return to Detroit to give a talk about my book at the 38th Annual North American Labor History Conference on Friday. The Rise of Meritocratic Morality and the Failure of Institutions:...
View ArticleExtremely exhausting
The Atlantic has published a piece I wrote about living in an extreme meritocracy: Increasingly sophisticated data-gathering technologies measure performance across very different domains, from how...
View ArticleMy Essay in The Atlantic: The Spiritual Crisis of the Modern Economy
I’ve written a piece for The Atlantic about the hollowness of our modern economy and the effect it has on the working class. Here is an excerpt: The modern economy privileges the well-educated and...
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