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Carolyn Chen | When Work Becomes Religion (and how it preys on us)

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Content provided by Spark Endeavors Inc. and Jonathan Fields. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Spark Endeavors Inc. and Jonathan Fields or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

You may not think of your work as your religion, but for many, it’s trying to become exactly that! Without us even realizing it. Question is – is that a good thing? A bad thing? Or just a thing?

Today’s guest, sociologist, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, and Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, Carolyn Chen, has a lot to say about this silent, yet deeply impactful, phenomenon. She spent years studying workplace culture, with a focus on the near-religious cultures of Silicon Valley. As home to startups, major tech companies, and some of the world’s most innovative and, arguably, faithful entrepreneurs and professionals, she noticed the lines between doing meaningful work and religion have not only been blurred, but work has, in many ways, squeezed out and even become employees’ religion. Problem is – the goal is not personal and societal betterment, but rather in service of one central purpose: working harder and smarter, and generating innovation and profit.

In our conversation, we explore big questions like why are so many people leaving traditional religion? How do religion and spirituality meet our needs in the first place, and what are the ways big tech or corporations are filling those gaps? What does it look like for us to choose what we want to worship and find meaning and belonging in healthy, nontraditional spaces? And, is this conversion of work into faith, actually a societally destructive phenomenon, even while organizations benefit from it?

We’re in conversation with:

SPARKED GUEST: Carolyn Chen | Website | Instagram

Carolyn is the author of Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience and co-editor of Sustaining Faith Traditions: Religion, Race and Ethnicity among the Latino and Asian American Second Generation. Her latest book, Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley, is an account and exploration of her time spent interviewing the best and the brightest in the tech world to unfold how tech giants are reshaping spirituality to serve their religion of peak productivity.

YOUR HOST: Jonathan Fields

Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED.

How to submit your question for the SPARKED Braintrust: Wisdom-seeker submissions

More on Sparketypes at: Discover Your Sparketype | The Book | The Website

Find a Certified Sparketype Advisor: CSA Directory

Presented by LinkedIn.

  continue reading

120 episodes

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Fetch error

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What now? This series will be checked again in the next day. If you believe it should be working, please verify the publisher's feed link below is valid and includes actual episode links. You can contact support to request the feed be immediately fetched.

Manage episode 418144946 series 3319703
Content provided by Spark Endeavors Inc. and Jonathan Fields. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Spark Endeavors Inc. and Jonathan Fields or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

You may not think of your work as your religion, but for many, it’s trying to become exactly that! Without us even realizing it. Question is – is that a good thing? A bad thing? Or just a thing?

Today’s guest, sociologist, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, and Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, Carolyn Chen, has a lot to say about this silent, yet deeply impactful, phenomenon. She spent years studying workplace culture, with a focus on the near-religious cultures of Silicon Valley. As home to startups, major tech companies, and some of the world’s most innovative and, arguably, faithful entrepreneurs and professionals, she noticed the lines between doing meaningful work and religion have not only been blurred, but work has, in many ways, squeezed out and even become employees’ religion. Problem is – the goal is not personal and societal betterment, but rather in service of one central purpose: working harder and smarter, and generating innovation and profit.

In our conversation, we explore big questions like why are so many people leaving traditional religion? How do religion and spirituality meet our needs in the first place, and what are the ways big tech or corporations are filling those gaps? What does it look like for us to choose what we want to worship and find meaning and belonging in healthy, nontraditional spaces? And, is this conversion of work into faith, actually a societally destructive phenomenon, even while organizations benefit from it?

We’re in conversation with:

SPARKED GUEST: Carolyn Chen | Website | Instagram

Carolyn is the author of Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience and co-editor of Sustaining Faith Traditions: Religion, Race and Ethnicity among the Latino and Asian American Second Generation. Her latest book, Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley, is an account and exploration of her time spent interviewing the best and the brightest in the tech world to unfold how tech giants are reshaping spirituality to serve their religion of peak productivity.

YOUR HOST: Jonathan Fields

Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED.

How to submit your question for the SPARKED Braintrust: Wisdom-seeker submissions

More on Sparketypes at: Discover Your Sparketype | The Book | The Website

Find a Certified Sparketype Advisor: CSA Directory

Presented by LinkedIn.

  continue reading

120 episodes

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