All the Gold Stars Audiobook Libro.fm

From journalist and author of An Ordinary Age an examination dismantling and reconstruction of ambition where burnout is the symptom of our holiest sin the lonely way we strive

Ambitionthe want the hunger the need to achieveis woven into Americas fabric from the first colonization to capitalism From our first gold star assignment to acceptance at the right college to hustle and grinding our lives we celebrate our drive even as we gatekeep who is permitted to striveand how visibly Even as we burn out When we cant even When we know work wont love us back

All the Gold Stars looks at how the cultural personal and societal expectations around ambition are driving the burnout epidemic by funneling our worth into productivity limiting our imaginations and pushing us further apart Through the devastating personal narrative of her own ambition crisis Stauffer discovers the common factors driving us all peeling back layers of family expectations capitalism and selfesteem that dangerously tie up our worth in our output Interviews with students parents workers psychologists labor organizers and more offer a new definition of ambition and the tools to reframe our lives around true success All the Gold Stars provides ways for us to reject our current reality and reconceive ambition as more collective imaginative and rooted in caring for ourselves and each other