Tara McMullin
@taramcmullin.com
I'm a writer and podcaster who explores the future of work through critical theory. Autistic feminist. Wannabe independent scholar. Amateur baker.
Podcast & Newsletter: http://whatworks.fyi
Podcast & Newsletter: http://whatworks.fyi
Pinned
Tara McMullin
@taramcmullin.com
· Feb 6
Broken Links — what works
What even is a website today?
whatworks.fyi
I've been consolidating (and pruning) 15+ yrs of work online for the past couple of months. In the process, I started to ask myself: What even IS a website today?
And also, why does this project feel so... existential?!
And also, why does this project feel so... existential?!
Ever since my daughter got excited about "supporting" Taylor Swift by buying "Taylor's Version" albums, I've wanted to write something like what @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social did so brilliantly here. Spot on. Swift is the embodiment of capitalist realism.
No Good Art Comes From Greed | Defector
The packages arrived square and thin and carefully wrapped on Saturday afternoon. There were three of them, but only one was mine. If I could have rejected my package, sent it back from whence it came...
defector.com
October 8, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Ever since my daughter got excited about "supporting" Taylor Swift by buying "Taylor's Version" albums, I've wanted to write something like what @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social did so brilliantly here. Spot on. Swift is the embodiment of capitalist realism.
My daughter's school instituted a no-phone policy this year—she loves it. However, the students are on their school-issued iPads all day long. And those iPads deliver push notifications anytime they receive a grade: homework, tests, papers, etc.
This stresses her the F out.
This stresses her the F out.
October 2, 2025 at 1:57 PM
My daughter's school instituted a no-phone policy this year—she loves it. However, the students are on their school-issued iPads all day long. And those iPads deliver push notifications anytime they receive a grade: homework, tests, papers, etc.
This stresses her the F out.
This stresses her the F out.
Today I discovered @ceaubin.bsky.social’s pod This Guy Sucked because of a mention on @annehelen.bsky.social’s Culture Study pod.
Put all the millennial scholar podcasts straight into my veins. (Guessing on gen… but you catch my drift!)
Put all the millennial scholar podcasts straight into my veins. (Guessing on gen… but you catch my drift!)
August 4, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Today I discovered @ceaubin.bsky.social’s pod This Guy Sucked because of a mention on @annehelen.bsky.social’s Culture Study pod.
Put all the millennial scholar podcasts straight into my veins. (Guessing on gen… but you catch my drift!)
Put all the millennial scholar podcasts straight into my veins. (Guessing on gen… but you catch my drift!)
"I am someone who does what I do pretty well, and does very little else willingly." = My Whole Vibe
Also @katemanne.bsky.social admitting she'd "rather experience growth as a beginner than regression as a more expert practitioner": SAME.
Also @katemanne.bsky.social admitting she'd "rather experience growth as a beginner than regression as a more expert practitioner": SAME.
My Summer of Strategic Incompetence
Learning not to be so embarrassed by my ignorance and failures.
open.substack.com
August 4, 2025 at 1:05 PM
"I am someone who does what I do pretty well, and does very little else willingly." = My Whole Vibe
Also @katemanne.bsky.social admitting she'd "rather experience growth as a beginner than regression as a more expert practitioner": SAME.
Also @katemanne.bsky.social admitting she'd "rather experience growth as a beginner than regression as a more expert practitioner": SAME.
Reposted by Tara McMullin
I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
July 3, 2025 at 8:00 PM
I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
Went looking for the research (I think?) on how playing in a fenced-in area can actually get kids to explore/roam more than in an open area... and the search results for my query were... disheartening 🤣
June 30, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Went looking for the research (I think?) on how playing in a fenced-in area can actually get kids to explore/roam more than in an open area... and the search results for my query were... disheartening 🤣
"Traditional economic theory assumes information flows serve resource allocation. But increasingly, resource allocation serves attention flows. We've moved from an economy where attention supports other forms of value creation to one where attention is the value creation." - @kyla.bsky.social
Trump, Mamdani, and Cluely
attention and speculation as primary economic drivers
kyla.substack.com
June 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
"Traditional economic theory assumes information flows serve resource allocation. But increasingly, resource allocation serves attention flows. We've moved from an economy where attention supports other forms of value creation to one where attention is the value creation." - @kyla.bsky.social
My god.
June 24, 2025 at 10:42 PM
My god.
Reposted by Tara McMullin
it’s even more demoralizing when the history you’re repeating is history you were around for the first time
June 22, 2025 at 1:44 AM
it’s even more demoralizing when the history you’re repeating is history you were around for the first time
Reposted by Tara McMullin
It is a BURDEN
June 9, 2025 at 11:23 PM
It is a BURDEN
Reposted by Tara McMullin
The federal government is telling you they cannot afford to house you, feed you, educate you or heal you — but that they do have enough resources and scale to criminalize, assault, deport and incarcerate your neighbors simply going to work or taking their kids to graduation.
June 9, 2025 at 2:18 PM
The federal government is telling you they cannot afford to house you, feed you, educate you or heal you — but that they do have enough resources and scale to criminalize, assault, deport and incarcerate your neighbors simply going to work or taking their kids to graduation.
In honor of this week's Maintenance Phase episode on ultra-processed food, I must highly recommend the Ritz Crisp & Thin original chips. They kinda look like diet food... but I don't think they are? Anyhow, they're freaking wonderful.
June 4, 2025 at 6:04 PM
In honor of this week's Maintenance Phase episode on ultra-processed food, I must highly recommend the Ritz Crisp & Thin original chips. They kinda look like diet food... but I don't think they are? Anyhow, they're freaking wonderful.
Listen to @melissafebos.bsky.social on The Feminist Present with @adriandaub.bsky.social and Laura Goode this morning and PHWOOF (in the best way). Brilliant conversation, recommended it immediately to my husband, AND it unlocked part of an essay I was in the middle of!
episodes.fm/1517251918/e...
episodes.fm/1517251918/e...
Listen to from The Feminist Present wherever you get your podcasts!
episodes.fm
June 4, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Listen to @melissafebos.bsky.social on The Feminist Present with @adriandaub.bsky.social and Laura Goode this morning and PHWOOF (in the best way). Brilliant conversation, recommended it immediately to my husband, AND it unlocked part of an essay I was in the middle of!
episodes.fm/1517251918/e...
episodes.fm/1517251918/e...
Disturbing. Fascinating. And I’m absolutely hung up on the AI’s use of the word “lie.”
I’ll be thinking about that for the rest of the day, thankuverymuch.
I’ll be thinking about that for the rest of the day, thankuverymuch.
June 3, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Disturbing. Fascinating. And I’m absolutely hung up on the AI’s use of the word “lie.”
I’ll be thinking about that for the rest of the day, thankuverymuch.
I’ll be thinking about that for the rest of the day, thankuverymuch.
“The one thing that today ought to define ‘the left’ is the impulse to denounce the radical insufficiency of managing the given.” — Yves Citton, Mythocracy
May 20, 2025 at 9:44 AM
“The one thing that today ought to define ‘the left’ is the impulse to denounce the radical insufficiency of managing the given.” — Yves Citton, Mythocracy
Reposted by Tara McMullin
‘The worker can unionize, go out on strike; mothers are divided from each other in homes, tied to their children by compassionate bonds; our wildcat strikes have most often taken the form of physical or mental breakdown.’
—Adrienne Rich
—Adrienne Rich
They want more MOMS at home. And not just because they hate women.
Their *economic* model depends on unpaid labor. And the most effective way to coerce unpaid labor is to create a second class of people and teach them that they're only "naturally" suited for labor they're forced to do for free.
Their *economic* model depends on unpaid labor. And the most effective way to coerce unpaid labor is to create a second class of people and teach them that they're only "naturally" suited for labor they're forced to do for free.
May 12, 2025 at 2:38 PM
‘The worker can unionize, go out on strike; mothers are divided from each other in homes, tied to their children by compassionate bonds; our wildcat strikes have most often taken the form of physical or mental breakdown.’
—Adrienne Rich
—Adrienne Rich
Reposted by Tara McMullin
Let's be clear: Republicans don't want more 'parents' at home. They want more *women* at home.
If you think this isn't about eradicating women from the public sphere, you haven't been paying attention
If you think this isn't about eradicating women from the public sphere, you haven't been paying attention
May 12, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Let's be clear: Republicans don't want more 'parents' at home. They want more *women* at home.
If you think this isn't about eradicating women from the public sphere, you haven't been paying attention
If you think this isn't about eradicating women from the public sphere, you haven't been paying attention
Reposted by Tara McMullin
An attempt to cast consumers as feminized and hence contemptable …. not like those manly producers.
This constant use of "little girls dolls" as a placeholder for all of world trade, is doing a lot of really weird work here...
Bessent says that little girls who are sad about having fewer dolls should just have it explained to them that they will have a better life for it
May 6, 2025 at 11:57 PM
An attempt to cast consumers as feminized and hence contemptable …. not like those manly producers.
Reposted by Tara McMullin
I could be wrong about this but I really think most Americans do not want to be forced to “do their own research” about food & drug & product safety and would rather that the government agencies that have been sorting that all out for them for decades not be obliterated in the name of “efficiency.”
April 30, 2025 at 2:31 PM
I could be wrong about this but I really think most Americans do not want to be forced to “do their own research” about food & drug & product safety and would rather that the government agencies that have been sorting that all out for them for decades not be obliterated in the name of “efficiency.”
Joe Mungo Reed's new novel, Terrestrial History, is the first book containing time travel that I had zero issues with. It leaves holes in exactly the right places. Recommend!
April 28, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Joe Mungo Reed's new novel, Terrestrial History, is the first book containing time travel that I had zero issues with. It leaves holes in exactly the right places. Recommend!
Reposted by Tara McMullin
Never thought we'd do this but...
Use discount code ALGORE for 30% off titles from Theodor Adorno
Use discount code ALGORE for 30% off titles from Theodor Adorno
Al Gore ripped the Trump administration to shreds in a speech Monday at a climate week event in San Francisco.
April 24, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Never thought we'd do this but...
Use discount code ALGORE for 30% off titles from Theodor Adorno
Use discount code ALGORE for 30% off titles from Theodor Adorno
After my husband related a bonkers work story, I told him, "I have so many thoughts and not enough time to think them."
If I had more time to think about that thought, I'd explain. But, yeah.
If I had more time to think about that thought, I'd explain. But, yeah.
April 23, 2025 at 1:31 PM
After my husband related a bonkers work story, I told him, "I have so many thoughts and not enough time to think them."
If I had more time to think about that thought, I'd explain. But, yeah.
If I had more time to think about that thought, I'd explain. But, yeah.
Louder for the sacks of shit in the back!
My autism isn't a problem that needs solving, you worm-brained sack of shit.
April 11, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Louder for the sacks of shit in the back!
Reposted by Tara McMullin
A lot of people seem to be under the belief that the post-war factory jobs their parents and grandparents had were good jobs because they were masculine and tough instead of, say, protected by a union under a progressive tax rate and a massive surplus
April 7, 2025 at 10:16 PM
A lot of people seem to be under the belief that the post-war factory jobs their parents and grandparents had were good jobs because they were masculine and tough instead of, say, protected by a union under a progressive tax rate and a massive surplus