Stories about a future of work that works for all.

Welcome to the second newsletter for The Life I Want, a project by Christine Bader and Eva Dienel exploring stories that show a better future of work—one that enables the life you want rather than determining the life you’re stuck with. (You can see our first newsletter here.)

Since we last wrote, Christine moved back to the U.S. from Bali with her family and is settling into McMinnville, Oregon, where her husband is working with a local winery. Eva and her family have been exploring the best of Australia, from the climate strike in Melbourne, to the Flinders Ranges in the Outback, to the party waves of Port Fairy. She’s getting ready for her annual trip home to Oregon and is pretty damn excited that’s where Christine has landed.

We have six new blog posts to share, exploring different dimensions of work and life. We’re also including links to articles and essays we’ve enjoyed recently.

• After our last newsletter, one reader suggested we write about “male partners of working women with children.” Eva has been obsessively researching gender inequality and decided to take this on, putting her own life and marriage under the microscope in a personal essay exploring whether gender (in)equality is affecting the life she wants.

• Christine has spoken with Marc Weinstein of the infamously doomed Fyre Festival; Reverend Chris De La Cruz of First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens about the “adulting empowerment hub” he’s launching (you can also listen to an audio version); and a group of experts on the coworking movement.

• Eva interviewed Keri Tietjen, a 40-year-old digital nomad and divorced mother of two, about how she changed her relationship with work—transforming her life in the process.

• Finally, Christine wrote a “Life I Want” tribute to her uncle Ken Bader, who died in August at age 70. He was much loved, and often fired, for never wavering on his principles—and came this close to finding Osama bin Laden.

Next up, we’re exploring how work is affecting people’s mental health, and would love to hear your stories and questions on that topic. And send us ideas: Who would you like to see us profile? What topics do you want us to explore? Tell us at hello@thelifeiwant.co.

Please share our newsletter and encourage others to sign up. You can learn more about this project—and the journey we’re on—at thelifeiwant.co.

We’re grateful that you’re here with us.

Here’s what else we’re reading:

• This post by Anne Helen Petersen (who wrote that viral BuzzFeed article about millennial burnout) about what some employers have done to make their people feel more human—and how f*d up it is that we're grateful for them doing so.

• Anna Wiener’s clever, incisive, entertaining New Yorker essay about her time in tech start-ups. (“The CEO motivated us with fear. ‘We are at war,’ he would say, his jaw tense. We would look down at our bottles of kombucha and nod gravely.”)

• Joan Westenberg on what it was like to transition at work as a transgender woman. She wrote her Aussie tech company’s transgender inclusion policy, then made it open source.

• Heather Bryant wrote a gut-punch of an essay about balancing life and work with the responsibility of providing unpaid care to a loved one, something 43.5 million adults must do on a daily basis.

• A trio of articles explores what it means to earn a living. Why do we undervalue certain jobs, relegating those who do them to poverty? The New Republic looked at “The New American Homeless” (people who have jobs), The Atlantic explored America’s “hot new job” (servants working for the wealthy), and Vox profiled one of the fastest-growing and lowest paying jobs in the U.S. (care work).

• Like everyone, we’ve been reading and absorbing The New York Times’ powerful 1619 Project.

Until next time,

Eva & Christine