Hustle: The millennials aren't alright

Word Bomb

Millennials are often called the "hustle generation." They're famous for side gigging, bootstrapping, and burning out. But what really is hustling, and where did it come from? This week on Word Bomb, Pippa and Karina meet hustle culture at the source, investigating the way we talk about work-all the way from its Jim Crow-era roots to 1950s workaholism, 90s rap to Silicon Valley startups.

There are so many articles on the phenomenon of millennial hustle culture, but you might want to start with Anne Helen Petersen's "How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation"(https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work) and Erin Griffith's ,Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?, (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/business/against-hustle-culture-rise-and-grind-tgim.html)
For more reading on the Black roots of the word "hustle" and how the word has been co-opted by startup culture, we recommend checking out this great 2020 article (https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/04/03/826015780/when-the-hustle-isnt-enough)
from Isabella Rosario of NPR's Code Switch, as well as Lester Spence's book Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics.
Credit for "Everyday Struggle": The Notorious B.I.G./Sony Music Entertainment/youtube.com
Credit for "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)": JAY-Z/Universal Music Group/youtube.com
Credit for "U Don't Know": JAY-Z/Universal Music Group/spotify.com
Credit for "Hustlin'": Rick Ross/Universal Music Group/youtube.com
Thanks for listening!

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