Book Bits: 22 August 2026

● We Are Not Machines: The Fight for the Future of Work
Sarah O’Connor
Review via The Guardian
It’s never been easy to land and keep a decent job. But it feels like it’s getting harder. In June, the number of job vacancies in the UK fell to a five-year low; headlines warn of a looming AI-employment shock. What might the future of work look like – and who or what will shape its terms? In her new book, Sarah O’Connor goes looking for answers in the modern collision of artificial intelligence, automation, and human labor.

● Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment
Paul Osterman
Review via MIT Press
Accounting for about one in six U.S. jobs, it’s a huge category of people, who are going nowhere fast in the workplace — and don’t really have much say about that.
“Marginal workers are employees who have no career prospects at their organizations,” says MIT Professor Emeritus Paul Osterman, author of a new book on the subject. “They are employees of the organization for whom they work, but the organization does not intend to keep them, and these workers are much less attached to any career ladder.”
As such, marginal workers are part of a larger trend in U.S. employment. According to Osterman’s analysis, 35 percent of U.S. workers are either marginal employees, freelancers, contractors, or gig employees finding work on online platforms like ridesharing services.

● This One Will Be Different: False Promises and Fiscal Realities of Publicly Funded Stadiums
J.C. Bradbury
Interview with author via Reason.com
This week, guest host Eric Boehm is joined by J.C. Bradbury, an economist at Kennesaw State University and one of the leading critics of taxpayer-funded sports stadiums. Bradbury is the author of a new book, This One Will be Different, on the “false promises and fiscal realities” of stadium subsidies.
Boehm and Bradbury discuss why stadiums rarely deliver on the economic benefits touted by team owners and local politicians, and how public officials, media outlets, and hired consultants help create the illusion that these projects pay for themselves. Bradbury explains why these deals often amount to a reallocation of existing local spending rather than genuine economic growth, and why taxpayers end up footing the bill for facilities that primarily benefit private sports franchises.

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