 From New America and Slate, I'm Bridget Schulte and this is Better Life Lab, our new podcast about the art and science of living a full and healthy life. Let me give you a little taste. When you ask people how many of you have right now rottening fruits and vegetables in your refrigerator? Almost everybody admits that they have it. I just took mine out to the compost this morning. And it's a sad funeral, right? You take all this stuff that you paid lots of money on and you had good plans for and then all of a sudden you check on them and it's too late. That's true. It's so true. It's so sad. And the reason, of course, is that it's a bad design. Where do we put the fruits and vegetables in a low drawer that is opaque? So because of that, we open the refrigerator and whatever comes at eye level, those are the things that we eat. So I think that what we need to do is we need to figure out how do we design better environments. It's true for the kitchen, but it's also true for the work environment. We make decisions as a function of the environment that we're in. That's Dan Arelli. He's a behavioral economist and a best-selling author of books like Predictably Irrational. We talk to Dan and experts like him who can help us understand what drives so much of this overwork and this sense of being busy all the time. And more importantly, what we can do to change it. But we also talk to people who can share their stories of how they struggle with that sense of overwork and feeling like there's never enough time to do everything you need and want in a day. People like Keenette Howard, who gave up her dream job. It was so fantastic. I really cannot say enough good things about that experience. But the clock is ticking and I also really wanted to have a child. And I finally made the tough decision to leave that job. And very shortly after that, I was able to have a child. I'd had problems with losing pregnancies. I think it was critical that I take the stress level down a notch in order to have a child. There are a lot of people like Keenette Howard. Today, Americans work among the longest hours of any advanced economy. We take the least amount of vacation and we're obsessed with productivity and always being on. But that's really exacting a huge cost, as Jeff Pfeffer told me. Unlike the case of perhaps polar bears or penguins or other forms of endangered species, the assumption is that human beings can take care of themselves. There is a very market-based ethos in the world which says, you know, employers offer work. People go to accept the terms and conditions of that work. And if they don't like it or if they feel sick, they should go find themselves another job. My bottom line is that we ought to be as concerned about human beings as we are about polar bears. That we ought to be concerned about human sustainability. As humans, we all want to find time for meaningful work, time to connect with others, and time to play, to enjoy our lives. It's really all about the good life. So join me, Bridget Schulte for Better Life Lab, the podcast about the art and science of living a full and healthy life.