Aeon Video has a monthly newsletter!
Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
‘Brand consultant’? ‘PR researcher’? Why the ‘bullshit jobs’ era needs to end
If capitalism is supposed to value work, why has it led much of the workforce into the age of seemingly meaningless tasks, titles and functions? This brief animation by the British artist Jack Dubben uses audio excerpted from a presentation at the RSA by the US-born, UK-based anthropologist and activist David Graeber advocating against what he frequently refers to as ‘bullshit jobs’, and in favour of an economic reformation that places greater value on meeting today’s most pressing human needs.
Video by the RSA
Animator: Jack Dubben
video
Archaeology
What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation
16 minutes
video
Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
video
History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes
video
Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes
video
War and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
12 minutes
video
History of technology
Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy
19 minutes
video
Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
10 minutes