Lean Out (ePub)

Part memoir, part travelogue and part journalistic investigation, Lean Out explores the hazards of the 24/7 work world--and the radical communities around the globe that are resisting it.

In 2016, current affairs journalist Tara Henley was at the top of her game, working at the heart of Canadian media. After almost two decades in the business, she had traveled the world, from Soweto to Bangkok to Borneo to Brooklyn, interviewing authors and community leaders, rappers and philanthropists, politicians and Hollywood celebrities. She had experienced the thrill of sitting down with Beyoncé. And of arguing with Kanye West. But when she started getting chest pains at her desk in the newsroom, none of that seemed to matter.

The health crisis--not cardiac, it turned out, just anxiety--forced her to step off the media treadmill and reexamine her life, waking up to the state of the 21st century work world around her. Henley was not alone; North America was facing an epidemic of lifestyle-related health problems. And yet, for inspiration, the culture was continually looking to the elite few who thrived in the always-on work world, those who perpetually "leaned in." But if we wanted innovative solutions to the wave of burnout and stress-related illness, Henley realized, it was time to talk to those who'd been forced to go in a different direction. It was time to talk to those who'd "leaned out." The outliers, the creatives, the rebels and eccentrics.

Lean Out: A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life tracks Henley's journey from the heart of the connected city to the fringe communities that surround it. From early retirement enthusiasts in urban British Columbia to moneyless men in rural Ireland, Henley uncovers a parallel track, in which everyday citizens are quietly dropping out of the mainstream and reclaiming their lives from overwork in all kinds of weird and wonderful ways. Underlying these disparate movements is a rejection of consumerism, a growing appetite for social contribution and a quest for meaningful, face-to-face contact in this era of extreme isolation and loneliness.