When we clock in on Monday morning, most of us are looking at a 40-hour work week. But what’s so special about 40 hours? Andrew Blackman joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the history of the 40-hour week, how the Great Depression finally presented an opportunity to shrink the working day, and how we might shave off even more hours in our modern era. His article “How Did We Get a 40-Hour Workweek and Has It Had Its Day?” was published in The Wall Street Journal.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was a radical concept for the Founding Fathers. How did they get there? Walter Isaacson joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how one sentence in the Declaration of Independence set out a promise of America, how Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams wrestled with its crafting, and how we can still use these words as our common values in a polarized nation today. His book is “The Greatest Sentence Ever Written.”

All those loyalty points you’re racking up at the grocery store, hotels and airlines benefit those companies way more than you. Samuel A.A. Levine is a senior fellow at U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice and he previously served as director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why newcomers to loyalty programs get priority over long-time customers, the privacy we trade off to get what we think are deals and why we might encounter higher prices anyway. His paper (co-authored by Stephanie T. Nguyen) “The Loyalty Trap: How Loyalty Programs Hook Us with Deals, Hack our Brains, and Hike Our Prices” was published by The Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator and U.C. Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice.

Newly designed earbuds promise real-time translations right to your ear. But is something lost when we don’t engage with other languages? Ross Benjamin is an award-winning translator of German-language literature. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what we miss when we don’t squirm a little in a foreign country and why being less than fluent affects how we pay attention and learn. Plus, we’ll talk about all the beauty we’ll gloss over when A.I. handles the hard parts. His article “The Costs of Instant Translation” was published in The Atlantic.

Did you know that the outfit you are wearing right now is a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions? Laila Petrie, director general of the charity Future Earth Lab, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what counts as sustainable in the fashion industry – where greenwashing is rampant – and how fast fashion contributes to climate change. Her article in Scientific American is “How to Be a Smarter Fashion Consumer in a World of Overstated Sustainability.”

Every relationship has a person who loads the dishwasher like an architect, and one who throws plates in like a tornado. Ellen Cushing, staff writer for The Atlantic, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why arguments over daily chores might signal deeper issues in a partnership, why some household appliances have such a hold on us, and, yes, we’ll get to scientific proof of how that dishwasher is really supposed to be loaded. (Be prepared to tell your significant other.) Her article is, “There Are Two Types of Dishwasher People.”

Federal spending on everything from education to medical research has been sharply curtailed this year. So, what might fill the funding gap? Host Krys Boyd talks with three guests about the role of philanthropy in America – from providing an economic boost to communities to sending students to college to protecting our national parks.

There’s a record number of single people out there, but they aren’t finding each other. Jonathan Rosenthal, international editor for The Economist, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why young people are throwing in the towel on finding the perfect partner, what education levels have to do with it, and why those who do want to partner up might be misled by dating apps hiding datable matches. His article is “All over the rich world, fewer people are hooking up and shacking up.”