I am such a fangirl of the journalist, Anne Helen Petersen. She writes honestly and with clarity about really complex and nuanced issues. I'm still pinching myself about the fact that she endorsed my book. If you haven't gotten your copy yet, order here: www.smosseri.com/trust-fall

My latest Work Fails post draws on Jackson Lamb from Apple's Slow Horses to explain the unspoken labor of protective managers. Check it out and share with others!

This is such a heartbreaking story of the trust fall of modern work that I describe in my book. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/p...

My Op-Ed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution dropped this morning! Check it out! www.ajc.com/opinion/2025...

“I think I shall write books, and get rich and famous; that would suit me, so that is my favorite dream.” – Jo March I’m not rich or famous (yet 😉), but holding my book in print feels like the best measure of success!

So excited to have Caity Collins endorsement!!

My latest Work Fails post looks at how “fighting fires” became the new trust fall, and why crisis feels so meaningful even when it burns us out open.substack.com/pub/workfail...

The Red & Black at UGA did a profile on me and my book! As an alum, I'm super excited! www.redandblack.com/culture/sara...

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/o...

Meg-of-all-trades discusses the hope for sustainability after visiting New Zealand: "All I can tell you is that — on the other side of the planet...Climate change is a mutually agreed upon fact that helps push progress in sustainability forward." open.substack.com/pub/megoffsu...

I first met @allisonpugh.bsky.social on the page of her book, Longing and Belonging. I was instantly mesmerized by her writing and thinking. She offered a model of what I aspired to be as a sociologist. So grateful to have her support now as I publish my first book!

My latest Work Fails post breaks down some of the key concepts of the book, most notably "flash intimacy." Specifically, I show how the mechanisms of flash intimacy work together to trap talented people in unfulfilling roles. Check it out, share and subscribe: lnkd.in/eFk2RXVt

Learn about the University of Virginia’s Department of Sociology‬ & other sociology depts in the 2025 ASA Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology. Now completely online and free for ASA members. Also available for a fee to nonmembers. https://bit.ly/ASAGradGuide‬‬‬

I first met @jaclynswong.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy at WFRN in 2018 when I was a grad student presenting. She smiled, nodded, and later chatted with me. It was a small moment of mentorship that meant so much. I’m so grateful she endorsed Trust Fall.

Findings from my recent ASA presentation in Chicago. Would love to hear feedback! open.substack.com/pub/workfail...

So fun to share my latest research at ASA in Chicago. Great conversations, long overdue reunions & fabulous new connections!

The latest from Laid Off tackles the dehumanizing nature of today's hiring processes:"So many hiring practices, even at mission-driven companies, end up being extractive or unnecessarily opaque." lnkd.in/evq-S7Bw

How conversations about AI are hiding more important political questions & serving as a scapegoat for long-brewing institutional problems www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-are-we...

I love this description of tactile poetry: open.substack.com/pub/thestag/...

This recent post on Laid Off speaks to why we need more than relationships of trust at work: laid0ff.substack.com/p/laid-off-i...

My partner, sister-in-law & parents shoulder the bulk of care work for our aging relatives (each 25+hrs/week) but even my brother & I each spend 10+ hrs/week. That’s 120+ hrs weekly & we’re not exceptional-we have privileges many others don’t. All while the US keeps shrinking its care infrastructure

Can America Recapture Its Populist Soul? My forthcoming book, Trust Fall, aims to equip workers with a language to fight back against capital www.thebignewsletter.com/p/a-fourth-o...

I wrote Trust Fall for four audiences: workers, managers/coaches/L&D professionals; activists/policy advisors; academics. Learn more about how Trust Fall might speak to you in my latest Substack. lnkd.in/eSVYYyS8

My latests on why a baby bonus won't fix a broken economy & hurts men in the process open.substack.com/pub/workfail...

I finally finished Prophet Song last night after having to put it down post-election. So much of this book is haunting me, but this quote was just so beautiful and poignant, as both someone who has been an observer of "other" societal crises and as someone living in the midst of one in her society

Personal relationships can't fix structural problems.Yet American work culture expects interpersonal trust to solve what policies should address.New piece on why this 'workplace trust fallacy' is failing us all: open.substack.com/pub/workfail...

I have swag for everyone who pre-orders Trust Fall! If you pre-order (or already did), DM me your address & I'll send it your way :) And if you haven't pre-ordered yet, you can do that here: www.smosseri.com/trust-fall (see buttons at the bottom of the page)

I'm blown away every time this newsletter by @garrettbucks.bsky.social drops in my email! thewhitepages.net/p/you-havent...

This was more than venting. It was an act of moral repair. These testimonies pushed back vs the logic that says hardship is just part of the job. Instead, drivers named suffering as a structural failure. They refused to dignify dysfunction -my latest from Work Fails open.substack.com/pub/workfail...

Not only are they ignoring climate change—they’re trying to cover up the cost. Shutting down NOAA’s disaster tracking so we can’t see the BILLIONS it’s costing us? This ain’t solving the crisis—it’s hiding it.

So much to chew on in Ocean Vuong's NYT interview. I was struck by his description of what I call "communions of crisis" in my book when talking about the intimacy one develops with coworkers while working at a chain restaurant (see quote in comments). #TrustFall www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/m...

Beautiful essay by Suleika Jaouad! This line resonated strongly: "Illness taught me how much we need one another, how we come into this world needing so much care, how we die needing so much care, how we get that from the people we love and who love us." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Saw this chalk art on my way to the coffeeshop this morning. I truly believe the revolution will be driven by workers who have been abused by institutions and told false promises of meritocracy for too long! Hope my book can be part of use to these workers! www.ucpress.edu/books/trust-...

My book is available for pre-order! Check it out! open.substack.com/pub/workfail...

I want to write a report fully detailing the conditions in CECOT via curatorial journalism—there is so much people don't know—but I'll tell you honestly that writing my last three reports on this subject has broken my spirit. My health has been affected. This is the worst topic I've ever written on.

We hear a lot about student debt, but not nearly enough about how policies are shaping the financial models of the colleges themselves. Capitalizing on College unpacks the unintended consequences of federal aid policy and what it means for equity and access.

Got a sneak preview of Josh Brown’s new book. It opens with this quote from a uni administrator: “Six months before I was hired, the university had taken on $140 million of debt.” As Josh argues, administrators like this hold insights that are eerily on point for the current moment in higher ed.

Some thoughts on workplace surveillance from my research

My book has a cover 🙃 Thanks to the team at @ucpress.bsky.social for helping me get there. This is getting real...out this fall!

My latest Work Fails post on "managed absence" is up. Last issue I talked about how elite workplace cultures compel workers to hide their overwork. In this issue, I take up the flip side, looking at how absences from work have become hyper visible and must be carefully managed.

A union organizer doesn’t finally get an audience with the boss so that they can say “you know who sucks? All those workers.” Garrett Bucks discusses the underlying concerns with new pragmatist movements that throw key groups under the bus while contending they are the only alternative to MAGA.

A century ago, a German sociologist explained precisely how Donald Trump thinks about the world, @jon_rauch writes. Understanding this view is essential to defeating it.

My latest Work Fails post is up! Check it out and subscribe!

"Making public services worse is the point. Making people (further) dislike and devalue public infrastructure — the point. How else do you get millions of citizens on board with a handful of robber barons profiting off what rightfully belongs to the public?"

"Maybe, to put it more simply: we are living in symbol collapse, in which everything is both literal and symbolic, in equal measure. The planes falling from the sky are symbols of a failed regime, but also…they are literal planes falling from the sky. It is endlessly recursive."

I'm launching my long-form newsletter today! Check it out for a sociological take on everyday work situations! The 1st post is longer than most & deconstructs the Lively/Baldoni controversy, arguing the dynamics at play are not unique to "LaLa Land" Let me know what you think & share w/ others!

While reading Hisham Matar's The Return (highly rec!), I learned of the brutal Italian colonization of Libya. 100K+ Libyans were sent to concentration camps. The poet Rajab Hamad Buhwaish al-Minifi crafted this poem while there, w/ others helping him document it by each memorizing a line.

Join us for our next colloquium! Tomorrow at 12:30pm. #UCSD #sociology

Grad students! The ASA Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work invites you to Grad-to-Grad Networking on Feb. 14 @ 12:30 PM EST / 9:30 AM PST. Connect with peers, share ideas, and build networks! Open to ALL grad students, no ASA membership required. Register: tinyurl.com/oownetwork

Love this post from Lisa Sibbett's archives! Some of my closest friends have become parents in the last five years, and I'm so excited!!!!