Greetings friends: 
Welcome to the Better Life Lab Newsletter!

New America's Breadwinning & Caregiving Program is now the Better Life Lab 

Here are five things you need to know this week to make your life better at work and at home:

Schedule Stress Is Universal, but It’s Far Worse For Some Than Others

From the January/February issue of The Aspen Journal of Ideas, this article by Jodie Levin-Epstein, Deputy Director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) caught our eye. As she rightly points out: “For all workers, there are only 24 hours in a day to accomplish both job and home responsibilities. While racing the clock is a universal experience, the challenge is particularly acute for those with de-stabilizing job schedules who live with little or no economic cushion.” Not to mention the recent news reported by the New York Times and others about AT&T's "develop new skills on your own time or else" program. All the more reason for everyone, as Brigid wrote a while back, to get real about managing work, life, and everything in between. 

What We’re Writing: Presidential Politics, SCOTUS Chaos, and Feminism 2.0

Better Life Lab Fellow Jay Newton-Small was prolific this week, weighing in for the Washington Post on the subtleties and sand-traps of sexism in politics, as well as writing for Time about chaos in the wake of Justice Scalia’s death and “The Speech Hillary Should Give to Young Women.” Elizabeth Weingarten also did some in-depth reporting on the neglected voices in the so-called “who you should vote for if you’re a feminist” debate.

Invisible No More: The Plight of Working Daughters and the Need to Value Care 

At the Better Life Lab, we’re about valuing care in all its forms - parenting, elder care, self-care,  you name it. We were struck by Liz O’Donnell’s terrific piece in The Atlantic that laid bare the personal and economic costs of eldercare to women. On a related note, research released by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce got notice for its finding that African Americans are over-represented among low-paying college majors. One big reason? They’re going into professions that focus on care, like education and social work. As Center director Anthony Carnevale said of American society overall, “[it] does not value service-oriented occupations.” It’s time to change that!

Trailblazing the Stratosphere and Beyond

You may have heard of trailblazing astronaut Sally Ride, but how about system engineer Victoria Garcia? Or attorney Rosalind Cylar? Or Program Scientist Hashima Hasan? You should get to know all of them and more, courtesy of Women@NASA.

Laughter As Leadership

We’re only two episodes in, but “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” the only late-night show hosted by a woman, is bringing it so far with hilariously incisive critiques of everything from sexist politicians to xenophobic rhetoric about Syrian refugees. Browse and find a favorite clip here.

Follow us on Twitter @BetterLifeLab - and suggest your best reads on living a better life by tweeting at us!

About New America

New America is dedicated to the renewal of American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the Digital Age. Our hallmarks are big ideas, pragmatic policy solutions, technological innovation, and creative engagement with broad audiences. Read the rest of our story, or see what we've been doing recently in our latest Annual Report.

About the Better Life Lab

New America’s Breadwinning & Caregiving Program is thrilled to unveil a new name, the Better Life Lab, and an updated agenda to transform policy and culture so that people and families have the opportunity to live their best lives at work and at home. As a “lab,” we are dedicated to disruptive experiments, collaborative work, and innovative thinking.

“Your Life, Better: News From the Better Life Lab” will be our way to keep you in the know, featuring the best of what we’re reading and writing about gender equity, the evolution of work, and social policies that support 21st-century families. We will be a clear signal amid the noise to share what’s fresh and crucial to an inclusive vision of work-life, gender, and income equity issues.

Meet the Better Life Lab Team

Brigid Schulte, Program Director, Director of The Good Life Initiative, award-winning journalist, formerly of The Washington Post, and author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One has the Time
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Elizabeth Weingarten, Deputy Director, Director of GGPI
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Liza Mundy, Senior Fellow and author of The Richer Sex
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Jane Carr, American Council of Learned Societies Fellow & Program Fellow
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Katherine Zoepf, Fellow and author of Excellent Daughters
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Jay Newton-Small, National Fellow and author of Broad Influence
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Alieza Durana, Policy Analyst 
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Better Life Lab

Real choices. Real parity. All people.