 You know that awful feeling. I'm pretty sure you do. That feeling when work gets so all-consuming, so completely overwhelming you can barely think straight. That feeling when, on just three or four hours of sleep, you start having visions of deep sea creatures. And Octopus has eight legs and whenever all those are applied to a single task, it can do some amazing things. But my life often feels like every one of the eight legs is actually doing a different task, or all the eight legs are going off in different directions trying to fulfill all these competing needs. From New America and Slate, I'm Bridget Schulte, your host for Better Life Lab, the podcast about the art and science of living a full and healthy life. I'm delighted to be back with a brand new season. We'll hear stories from people whose work may sound from the outside like a dream, a leading surgeon in Texas, the CEO of a thriving startup in Seattle, a home health worker who loves what she does. But all of these people turn out to struggle like the rest of us, trying to make work work and still have time for a full life. Even though we have all these pieces in place that's still incredibly hard, it's crushing. We have all of this amazing technology, why aren't we leveraging it to change the American workplace so that people can be with their families? And this season, I get the chance to talk with the creator of one of my personal demons. For years, I'm not particularly proud of this, but I've spent late nights pounding away at my laptop in vain pursuit of, to me, an impossible goal. But this season, I get to confront the guy who coined the term Inbox Zero. I kind of hate you. Join the club. For all the stories of struggle and stress as people try to combine work and life, I'm especially pleased to also bring you some hope. We'll hear some inspiring approaches from people like Jason Freed, who has made millions by proudly running what he calls an intentionally calm company. I don't think you need to work yourself to death in order to achieve some sort of dream. Most people don't have their best idea after they've worked 13 hours straight. They have their best idea in the morning in the shower after they took a nap and went to sleep. Why not just try and find a place where you can take good care of your employees, build a profitable business that you can control, you don't have to answer to anybody other than you and your customers, and contribute something great to the world that way? I think that that is more valuable and more attainable and more realistic than just about any other business model there is. So please join me, Bridget Schulte, for Better Life Lab, the podcast about the art and science of living a full and healthy life.