Session 1
Sept. 20th, 2021 6:30 pm PST
Flexible for whom?: Work Equity Post-COVID
While the pandemic upended the world of work for all of us, it also highlighted disparities in risk, wages, and stability for workers across sectors. Frontline employees throughout the pandemic have often been the first to face cutbacks and low-wages, while also disproportionately carrying the burden of risk to exposure. Make no mistake, for the care, agriculture, and service industries, as well as so many others, these disparities have always existed and work has consistently been undervalued. How might we reimagine work with a view to better equity post-COVID?
Aquilina Soriano Versoza
Executive Director, Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California
Session 2
SEPT. 27TH, 2021 6:30 PM PST
Work Environment: Who Makes All the Decisions?
The aging population of the U.S. and world underscores the need to reassess foundational parts of our work culture. From longer careers, to multigenerational teams, to the divide in decision making power, age is an increasing factor in how jobs are allocated and how work is accomplished. As we continue to adapt to COVID, who will own the decision power to reimagine work?
Laura Carstensen
Founding Director, Stanford Center on Longevity
Jennifer Liu
Journalist for CNBC
Manu Meel
Executive Director, BridgeUSA
Session 3
OCT. 4, 2021 6:30 PM PST
Citizens & Workers: Education in a Capitalist Democracy
The U.S. economy is intricately tied to the education of its workforce. COVID highlighted the persistent challenges in our schools, including unequal access, segregated classrooms, and a growing student debt crisis, calling into question the purpose of education and the responsibility of business, government and philanthropy for providing it. In a republic and capitalist economy that depends on an educated citizenry, how should we reimagine education at this critical time?
Rachel Carlson
Co-founder and CEO, Guild Education
David Osborn
Author of Reinventing America’s Schools
Session 4
OCT. 11TH, 2021 6:30 PM PST
Firing the Office, Freeing the Workers
Work consumes most of our days and guides many decisions in our lives. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, employers lost some of their grip on white collar workers when people discovered that work could be done from anywhere and decided to fire the office. How many more ways are workers held captive by work? Who will see the benefits of this new flexibility? Is the office done for good?
Karen Arnold
Head of Talent Acquisition at Automattic
Anu Partanen
Journalist and the author of "The Nordic Theory of Everything"
Session 5
OCT. 18TH, 2021 6:30 PM PST
Worker Power
With the lowest-paid workers at the highest-risk for COVID exposure and for wage loss, the pandemic propelled workers rights issues to the forefront once again. But the inequities of our economy are nothing new. We live in an age of rapid technological change and outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing that threatens to leave many workers behind. What does the future of worker protections look like? How can we protect dignity and fairness in work?
Roy Bahat
Head, Bloomberg Beta
Mary Kay Henry
International President, SEIU
Session 6
OCT. 25TH, 2021 6:30 PM PST
Rethinking Gigs, Redefining Careers
These days, everything from rides and food, to graphic design and copy editing can be accessed in near real time. Gig work is on the rise and is revolutionizing not just how we live, but how we work. How did the gig economy adapt through the pandemic? Might it provide a model to reimagine work post COVID?
Melissa Valentine
Associate Professor, Stanford University
Samuel Bright
Chief Product and Experience Officer, Upwork
Session 7
NOV. 1ST, 2021 6:30 PM PST
Who’s Responsible?: Business, Government and Philanthropy
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, some business leaders saw it as their responsibility to help their workers in these unprecedented and trying times. Others welcomed the intervention of governments and the charity of philanthropists. The roles and responsibilities ascribed to business, government, and philanthropy in caring for individuals is a foundational debate within the U.S. and Western democracies. While the form of this debate has changed with the times, the underlying question remains the same: who is responsible?
Aisha Nyandoro
CEO, Springboard to Opportunities
William E. Spriggs
Chief Economist, AFL-CIO; Professor, Howard University
Session 8
NOV. 8TH, 2021 6:30 PM PST
Broken Paths to Economic Mobility
How far will working hard take you in today’s American society? Based on the experience of the frontline workers we called heroes during COVID, not very far. As the wealth divide continues to deepen and class and race inequities are exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the American dream of upward mobility has been called into question. Can one make it simply by trying? This Monday, Professor Brian Lowery talks about mobility and wealth with Christina Sass, the co-founder of Andela, and Laura Maristany, the director External Affairs of Bitwise Industries.
Christina Sass
Co-founder, Andela
Laura Maristany
Director External Affairs, Bitwise Industries
Session 9
NOV. 15TH, 2021 6:30 PM PST
“No Place for That in the Office…”: Activism in the Workplace
The expectations for leaders across sectors to engage with issues of social and political importance are growing. As leaders navigate these public responsibilities, tensions have arisen between management and employees around the proper role of politics in the office. Should employers be allowed to ban politics in the workplace? Should employees be able to revolt against their bosses when they don’t? Where does the workplace end and politics begin?
John Russ
Global marketing leader and former Head of Global Marketing for Coinbase
Jason Fried
CEO, Basecamp
Session 10
NOV. 29TH, 2021 6:30 PM PST
Interconnected: Work in the Global Economy
Opportunity is unevenly distributed around the world, yet - as the pandemic so clearly illustrated - we are all interconnected and dependent on each other. Given the ever-more connected world we live in, how should we reimagine the economy?
Condoleezza Rice
66th US Secretary of State and current Director of the Hoover Institution
TBA
Session 11
DEC. 6th, 2021 6:30 PM PST
Working for What?: Reimagining the Meaning of Work
Humanity is facing multiple, once-in-a-generation challenges simultaneously. Climate change, a pandemic, inequality, the impact of rapid technological innovation, all demand that we examine the economic systems and structures we are operating within. In this time of unprecedented change, how might we reimagine work?
Darren Walker
President, Ford Foundation