Greetings friends: 
Welcome to the Better Life Lab Newsletter!

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

Your Life, Better is back after a week off for our 2016 Annual Conference! If you missed it, make sure to check out videos from the conference, including Experiments in Disruption talks from Michael Kaufman, Caroline Simard, Ankita Patnaik, Kirsten Schaffer, and Joan Williams, and our panel Dismantling Defaults: Designing Social Policy that Moves All Families Forward with Heather Boushey, Kathryn Edin, Gillian White, and K. Sabeel Rahman.

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

Likability, Security, & Election 2016

Gender is at the front of our minds this election season, and BLL Fellow Jay Newton-Small has two new pieces for TIME exploring the phenomenon. In one, she asks whether Hillary Clinton is “likable enough” to win the election: gender is an important piece of the puzzle, but it’s not the whole story. In the other, Jay explains Donald Trump’s focus on “security moms” as part of his “hyper-masculinization” approach to women voters. She also spoke on MSNBC about “likability tests” for female politicians.

Raising the Stakes on Work-Life Balance

BLL Director Brigid Schulte spoke with Beyond about her struggle with “the overwhelm” and efforts toward work-life balance. “This is a systemic issue,” she says. “We have to break out of this old, calcified thinking that when you talk about work-life balance, the only ones you’re talking about is middle-class white working mothers. You’re really talking about everybody.”

A large new study on workaholics illustrates one reason why this balance is so important. Not only can workaholism become a real addiction, it’s also tied to much higher rates of anxiety, depression, OCD, and ADHD. 

Child care(givers)

Here at the Better Life Lab we’re always thinking about how to improve child care. But what happens when children are the caregivers? In more than a million American families, children under 18 are charged with caring for sick, elderly, or disabled relatives. The New York Times’ Jane E. Brody tells the story of these children and the organization working to support them.

For another unconventional take on caregiving, check out this (imaginary) debate on family policy between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, from Ross Douthat in the New York Times. Clinton recently released a plan to improve child care access by expanding Head Start and providing subsidies and tax credits. Douthat’s counter-proposal from the right, in the voice of Trump, is simply to “give all the parents the money.”  

Why low pay is bad for business

In a provocative article for the American Prospect, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer takes aim at the “parasite economy,” the low-wage employers who are effectively subsidized by the rest of us. Not only is this business model bad for workers, he argues, it’s bad for the economy as a whole. Hanauer implores us to raise the minimum wage — for the sake of capitalism. 

The girl code

Who says technology is for boys? A video from nonprofit Girls Who Code pokes fun at the notion that girls are just too distracted by boobs and periods to be good programmers. Those stereotypes are looking more outdated than ever following the news that girls outscored boys on a national technology and engineering test. 

Upcoming Better Life Lab Events: Join Us!

June 14: Women on the Run. In the latest event in New America’s Women’s Decision series, Danny Hayes and Jennifer Lawless join BLL and the Political Reform Program to launch their new book Women on the Run: Gender, Media, and Political Campaigns in a Polarized Era. Come to New America for a conversation on what campaign discourse gets wrong about female candidates and how to fix politics’ persistent gender gap. For more information and to RSVP, visit the link above.

June 23: Care Documentary Premiere. Join us for the North American premiere of Care at AFI Docs. The film delves deep into the world of eldercare — and how vulnerable we all are to the next economic crisis to hit our homes.

​That's a wrap for this week! We'll look forward to seeing your inbox again soon, but in the meantime, you can always find us on Twitter @BetterLifeLab. Have a great week! 

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
Follow Brigid on Twitter

Elizabeth Weingarten, Deputy Director, Director of GGPI
Follow Elizabeth on Twitter

Alieza Durana, Policy Analyst 
Follow Alieza on Twitter

Liza Mundy, Senior Fellow and author of The Richer Sex
Follow Liza on Twitter

Katherine Zoepf, Fellow and author of Excellent Daughters
Follow Katherine on Twitter

Jay Newton-Small, National Fellow and author of Broad Influence
Follow Jay on Twitter

Jane Carr, Editorial Fellow and Opinion Producer at CNN
Follow Jane on Twitter

Better Life Lab

Real choices. Real parity. All people.