Reporting

Lutece Restaurant: Food Writing

At the Pass 

Cara Cara oranges are supreme-style cut, and the juice from the pith is squeezed on top to keep them moist. The marigold petals on top of the tuna crudo all face the same direction. The bouquet garni are trimmed so they look like a scroll that flavors the consomme.

This is some of what I saw as a stagiere at Lutèce, who opened their doors (and walk-in) and shared a table and time with me at family meal.

Setting the Stage

The practice of staging (pronounced “staaj”), referring to working in a restaurant without pay to learn, has recently sliced through the popular zeitgeist thanks to its portrayal in The Bear, where Sydney, Richie, and Marcus all spend time in other kitchens. In the episode “Forks,” Richie’s first task is to polish forks all day–a seemingly frustrating drudge that teaches attention to excellence and a respect for standards.

But its roots can be traced as far back as early 20th century Europe. “Staging” (from the French stagiaire, meaning trainee or intern) was a very organic part of Auguste Escoffier brigade de cuisine idea–a kitchen where everyone had an institutionalized role in a hierarchy that one worked one’s way through. Young cooks would work days, and sometimes months, in fine dining kitchens to gain exposure. The goal wasn’t employment, or at least not employment in the kitchens where they staged, but in times where prestige mattered a great deal, having a famous chef on one’s résumé opened doors–and that hasn’t changed in the present either.

Staging became the norm at world-renowned restaurants like noma and elBulli. elBulli, the culinary temple of Ferran Adrià, would regularly have 3000 staging applicants. The final 32 apprentices would travel to the town of Roses on Spain’s Costa Brava and often work 14 hour days for 6 months doing such repetitive yet precise tasks like squeezing the germ out of corn kernels or trimming the slime from anemones or (steel yourself) extracting rabbit brains out of skulls. Over the years of elBulli, hundreds of stages worked there–so many, in fact, that their stories are featured in Lisa Abend’s 2011 book The Sorcerer’s Apprentices. Adrià called them his greatest “technology,”–the humans who materialized a spectacular vision with their handiwork.

If this smells of exploitation far too much for your taste, the restaurant industry hears you and has certainly changed its reliance on unpaid labor. Questions about fairness, access, and the cost of culinary ambition have made staging what it is in the present–a very short engagement or a job interview. Month-long stages simply do not exist anymore–maybe not even week-long ones.

There are several reasons why cooks want to stage and why restaurants take them on, in turn. Most often, staging is a part of a job interview and one not even necessarily for a job at the restaurant where one stages. Lutèce is part of the Popal family hospitality group, so a chef may stage at Lutèce but work at Maison or one of the other restaurants down the line. You can learn a lot about “how a chef moves in the kitchen,” in one day, says Chef Anthony Laclair. And the stages can, too–deciding if a job is a good fit for them also.

Anatomy of a Dish

A tarte Tatin is an upside-down caramelized apple tart. Its (potentially apocryphal) origin story is that one particularly rushed day at their inn (an inn busier than the one on Gilmore Girls, clearly), the Tatin sisters, made an apple pie but forgot to put the crust on the bottom. After flipping it over, they discovered apples caramelized so exquisitely, the guests flipped over it, in turn. A classic was born.

At Lutèce, the shallot tatin, halved, is served alongside the Wagyu steak. Making the tarts is…predictable enough that Chef Bruno trusted me to make them on my second staging day. But, again, it is the small touches that make this dish spec-tart-cular.

Let’s start with the caramel–the sugar, salt, and glucose syrup (the secret ingredient!) are weighed out. I don’t know if you have ever attempted to weigh out glucose syrup, but let’s just say it is a very sticky situation. The syrup comes as a clear tub of goop–attempting to so much as scoop it out is…a mood. But Chef Bruno says it gives the caramel a “nice sheen.”

As the caramel was sitting on a low burner, I prepped the shallots–peel any “grimy” outer layers, halve them, so they have a “face.” Those “faces” form the gorgeous layers once the tart is flipped over. Chop the rosemary, but make firm measured chops, no more than two passes, so you don’t bruise it.

When the caramel is ready, measure out on a scale the correct amount for each cast iron pan. Pepper and rosemary on top, and then strategically smoosh the shallots. I say strategically smoosh because when the tart is baked, there should be “no negative space,” Chef Bruno underlined. A culinary game of Tetris ensures that just the right shape of shallots are fitted into the pan. Lutèce, as most other places, buys frozen puff pastry and cuts the right shape using a stencil. When the puff pastry coats the shallots, one must lovingly swaddle the shallots like a sweet onion bebe, or else they fall out when the pan is flipped. Here comes the fun part–scoring the dough so it doesn’t puff up, despite its deceptive moniker. This can only be done with a tool expressly created for this purpose–an oyster shucker (this is a joke, btw).

The pans have to be flipped with great alacrity or else the shallots come flying out of their shells, and their beautiful faces are no more. Chef didn’t trust me with that part, thankfully.

Little Things

So what do stages get out of the experience? Well, I came to learn, it’s seemingly small but significant things. And not all of them are culinarily uber serious.

Remember that oyster shucker turned puff pastry piercer? I saw another tool with an alternative purpose–a pastry sifter usually used to sift powdered sugar on top of desserts makes an excellent stock foam remover. The duck skin has to be “needled” by something that looks like a a torture device but perforates the skin so that the meat can cook evenly. I am going with the duck stapler for that one.

The Maldon salt at the pastry station has a sign, “No boys allowed!” because Chef Anna noticed that herb pieces and black pepper would make their way into the salt–thanks, boys!

It’s seeing that the scallop and oyster shells are saved to be used as serve ware. It’s finding out which things get ordered and which get made in-house. One day, I was peeling 2 pounds of black garlic–a job that can’t be done by a machine because the soft molassy cloves have to be gently coaxed out of the paper skins.

It’s also sitting for the family meal and seeing how the rice is made. Readers, restaurants don’t measure out the water when making big pots of rice–they cook and then drain out the water. They also season the rice after it is cooked–don’t worry, I contested this technique vocally!

 

Exit Stage

Staging lets you become a part of a crew that works in very tight submarine-like quarters. It lets you become part of a cadence. Before the doors open, everyone is working on something. The only sound is the French hip hop from the speakers, and the occasional “hot pan.” Everyone calls each other “Chef.” Everyone sits down for the family meal, and eats it on real place settings, not standing up. You find out if you share the same sense of humor as the crew. And you get to see people savoring the fruits of your work, in a small way. It’s pure magic.

Reviews

Book Review: Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle by Natan Last

My book review for the Washington Independent Review of Books

An overly wordy ode to word games and the nerds who love them.

As a cruciverbalist czarina (you try coming up with a better alliteration!), I thought I’d be down, up, and generally all over Across the Universe, Natan Last’s celebration of all things crossword. Instead, I found it nothing short of a Sisyphean slog. This book is not so much a love song to crossword puzzles as it is a highly intellectual but not-so-intelligible serenade by an author who enjoys the sound of his own warbling a bit too much.

Last’s facility with crosswordese and language is unparalleled, but it also often requires a rereading of his serpentine circumlocution, which gives the book a noxious air of “the gentleman doth prolix too much.” Take this sentence, for example, which describes the moans puzzle-solvers often utter at puns: “But a groan is not the body implicating fairness, only taste; ‘I see what you did there’ is a registering of annoyance just as much as a literal acknowledgment.” Or try this passage, in which the author comments on his 2009 summer internship with New York Times Puzzlemaster Will Shortz:

“The environment offered, or we projected a sense that survival required a leery competence, one correlated with age, responsibility: riding the subway alone, knowing which strangers to talk to, and so on. But fluency with highbrow media — of which the Times puzzle was an exemplum — could act like a cultural fake ID.”

It’s a bit much.

Still, stories from the then-18-year-old intern’s experience are among the most interesting parts of the book, including anecdotes about how the “avuncular” Shortz eats like a “latchkey kid” and names Green Day as his favorite band. (We will forgive Last for describing buildings in Manhattan as being “huddled like gargoyles made of terra-cotta and limestone, reliefs and colonettes like ears leaning to ingest the scuttlebutt from City Hall.”)

Across the Universe also explores the crossword’s impact on and reflection of popular culture. On the origins of the puzzle in 1913, Last writes, “Whatever its narcotic middle-class charm, the crossword — like many American triumphs — is the invention of an immigrant, Arthur Wynne.” Given the puzzle’s burgeoning popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, a moral panic of sorts spread that people would be too busy solving crosswords to function; the New York Times would not even publish them until the 1940s.

Chapters on “crossword diplomacy” and crossword politics are also compelling. In “The Melting Pot of the Crossword,” Last tells the story of crossword constructor Mangesh Ghogre of Mumbai, a recipient of an EB-1A visa (the “super special person” visa) for his skill. Ghogre started doing crosswords to broaden his English vocabulary. “He could grok a puzzle’s linguistic quirks even if, some eight thousand miles away from the US, he didn’t always understand their context.” This chapter captures the magic of crosswords so perfectly.

Last’s discussion of clue politics is also amusing. In 2022, the answer “clean coal” to the clue “Greener energy source” stirred up quite a bit of dust. And a crossword I recently did had the clue “Creator of some bubbles,” with “corporate greed” as the answer. Ha!

Above all, the book is an ebullient celebration of crosswordese — a language replete with florid wordplay, puns, palindromes, and various other jocular antics. Seasoned cruciverbalists know, for instance, that the words oboe, epee, and ocher often make appearances (oboe, in fact, has been used in over 200 New York Times crosswords). Another clue I see quite often is “a real humdinger”: beaut.

Ethnicity-centric clues also hold their own — such as “bhindi masala component”: okra or atta, the flour used in chapattis — as does Princess Leia, who reigns supreme in crosswords (and for whom Last came up with an especially good groan-inducing clue: “Film character known for her buns”).

Across the Universe, then, will be a fun read for some, although it requires quite a bit of mettle to muddle through Last’s overstuffed prose. But it will never be as much fun as doing an actual crossword. Luckily, it’s not trying to be…I don’t think.

Reviews

Book Review: Fierce Desires by Rebecca L. Davis

My review for The Washington Independent Review of Books

Rebecca L. Davis’ Fierce Desires is impressively comprehensive in scope and depth, offering an account that spans four centuries of American views on sexuality. Building on John D’Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman’s 1988 Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, Davis’ book examines the same history through the lens of the popular zeitgeist, dispatching the notion that the currently “fiercely contested” questions about sexuality and gender are, in fact, new.

The author’s thesis is that matters of gender nonconformity, non-heterosexual sex, permissible sexual behavior, and birth control have been around for ages, but that we’ve shifted away from “interpreting sexual behavior as a reflection of personal preferences or values to defining sexuality as something that makes a person who they are.”

While it’s debatable whether she proves her thesis, the book’s breadth is incontestable. Although Davis’ narrative device of devoting entire chapters to one obscure person — a colonial Virginia indentured servant named Thomas/Thomasine Hall, anyone? — is a little clunky, she nevertheless has a knack for choosing topics whose popular perception belies the historical reality. For example, she explores how Puritans were actually very fond of female pleasure within the context of marriage. And though they viewed sexual intercourse as necessary for procreation, they also believed sex was an important way to build a loving bond. Indeed, there’s precedent for long-ago husbands being censured for coming up short on their “duties of desire.”

The chapter on enslaved peoples’ relationships is particularly poignant and tackles that story in a trenchant way. Similarly, Davis always has an eye toward how race affected attitudes regarding sexuality, tracing, for instance, how defenders of slavery weaponized the specious claim that Black women were loose compared to allegedly chaste and faithful “respectable white women.”

Queer relations also receive excellent coverage here. “Suspicions about what went on in those beds might occasion gossip,” Davis writes, “but same sex and queer relationships of the 18th and 19th centuries were generally tolerated so long as they were not flaunted or disruptive to neighbors.”

The author makes the interesting point that in the 18th and 19th centuries, many queer people didn’t classify their desires or themselves as such. Neither law nor language included or excluded same-sex relationships. Furthermore, she argues, a person’s gender, not the object of their desire, determined social acceptability. This is why lesbianism was tolerated as long as the woman didn’t attempt to assert the privileges of manhood. (Patriarchy was strong back then, just as it is now.)

Davis has an especially fascinating chapter on groundbreaking sexologist Alfred Kinsey, as well as chapters on Gay Liberation Front cofounder Kiyoshi Kuromiya and pleasure activist Betty Dodson. She also engages with ideas of motherhood, delineating how, after the American Revolution, a new ideal emerged; women were encouraged to have fewer children, whom they could then better educate as “future citizens of the nation.”

Fierce Desires shines as a robust, well-researched, and expansive history of American sexuality, one written in non-academese. Its core argument — that our gender-centric system gave way, in the early 20th century, to one in which sexuality is considered fundamental to a person’s identity — gets a bit lost, but Davis’ ultimate assertion that sexuality has moved from being a reflection of social or religious status to being a marker of individuality still rings true.

Reporting

Inflation Is Down. Why Aren’t Prices?

My article for the Kogod School of Business

Over the past several years, the economy has experienced unprecedented shifts driven by the pandemic, stimulus packages, and changing consumer behaviors. In July, inflation began to cool meaningfully after record increases during the previous two years. This year, the Consumer Price Index climbed 3 percent through June and less than 4 percent through May, after peaking at roughly 9 percent throughout the entire previous year in 2022. Unemployment remains historically low at 3.6 percent, due to robust hiring. Nonetheless, consumers continue to spend at a solid clip.  

There’s a lot to be said about living through a period with the highest inflation in four decades—and more than anything, it has been an ideal experimental setup for economists. While supply- and demand-related drivers frame the typical discussion of inflation, another idea that has gained attention is “greedflation.” Kogod finance professor David Stillerman offered his take on this phenomenon. 

“Inflation has been driven by both supply- and demand-side factors. During the pandemic, plant closures, supply-chain issues, and changes in labor-force participation put upward pressure on costs (and, therefore, prices),” Stillerman says. “This inflationary pressure was sustained or exacerbated by changes in demand for goods and services due to changing consumer preferences and pandemic-related fiscal policy. As supply chain issues resolve and the impact of interest rate hikes is felt, it is natural for inflation to decline.” 

Here’s how greedflation works:  

Inflation first rose because of factors like the pandemic and economic stimulus bills. But companies raised prices more than necessary to net higher profits because consumers no longer had a benchmark for what prices should be. When all prices are rising, consumers lose the sense of “reasonable” prices, creating room for companies to redefine that range. Dismissing greedflation as a “conspiracy theory” obscures the intricate relationships that characterize it.  

Greedflation could reflect corporate leverage and, in that sense, be more of a visible thumb on the scales if we believe corporations are supercharging inflation by increasing prices or not lowering them even as inflation declines.  

The greedflation argument is that higher firm markups (i.e., the ratio of price to marginal cost) have led to a rise in prices.  

“As someone who studies industrial organization, I take very seriously the idea that much of the time, markets are not perfectly competitive and that firms exercise their market power, raising prices and restricting output.”

However, the “greedflation” story suggests that a systematic change—unrelated to demand and marginal costs—occurred in the period following the onset of the pandemic that changed the way firms compete, allowing them to charge even higher prices (and earn higher markups). This could be, for example, that firms began colluding.  

The greedflation theory suggests that large companies can leverage their outsized market power to raise prices more than what should be possible in a truly competitive economy. But in some concentrated markets, that has not happened: hospitals are highly consolidated, yet healthcare prices have risen more slowly than overall inflation throughout the past year. 

In a greedflation scenario, we would expect that markets where prices increased the most also saw significant markup increases. But, recent empirical work and modeling find little relationship between industry-level changes in markups and price changes during the inflationary period. 

The conversation around “greedflation” underscores the intricacy of economic phenomena and the influence of corporate decisions in the broader economy. “In my view, this suggests that there is more going on than the ‘greedflation’ story implies,” says Stillerman. 

Reporting

Manifesting A Bakery

My article for District Fray magazine

Rick Cook and his wife have been in the restaurant industry for decades: he as a cook and his wife Tyes as a front-of-house manager. Before the pandemic, while Rick was working first at Etto and then at 2Amys, he began experimenting with baking at home and applying some of the techniques he saw at work. (He used some of the leftover flour from work, too.)

He sold a couple dozen loaves at a weekly wine tasting at Weygandt Wines in Cleveland Park. Back then, he was making two loaves at a time in his home oven, long-fermenting the sourdough in the fridge and using lidded cast iron pots for the bake. Between the rise and the baking, he needed a full day to produce a bread loaf.

Then the pandemic hit, and Rick found himself with a lot more time as restaurants shuttered their doors.

So, the Cooks started a monthly bread subscription service — a grain to gate, if you will (sorry, I love alliteration). Business was brisk and ballooned thanks to a fortuitous article in DCist (and a painting-worthy loaf picture).

“Overnight, I had 50 emails from people waiting to get on the delivery list,” he says. “We would post the menu on Instagram in the morning, and it would sell out in minutes.”

With this good problem on his hands, Rick upgraded his kitchen oven and got a mill to grind the flour. Much like the ever-multiplying yeast, the Cooks moved from making 12 to 200 loaves. They also started selling cookies and other baked goods.

The Cooks’ lifelong dream of opening their own restaurant manifested itself in the burgeoning bakery operation.

“We just had a kid, and I really started thinking seriously about building something for our family [that] I could pass down in a sustainable way,” Rick says. “A bunch of people from the restaurant industry moved into real estate and switched careers, but I realized the baker’s schedule of 4 a.m. – 5 p.m. is actually not a bad way to raise a family. My wife and I were so used to working 12 hours, and we saw this as something different. I have been cooking for 20 years and wanted to stay with the craft. This was perfect.”

About a year ago, the Cooks signed a lease to found Manifest Bread, their very own bakery dedicated to quality handmade products, in Riverdale, Maryland.

“[Even though] we signed the lease a year ago, we are opening in September. This gives you an idea of how much preparation goes into equipping and designing the space.”

Riverdale is close to Cottage City, home to the Cooks’ OG cottage food home bakery. They also ran a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign which overshot its goal in just 20 days. With the funds, they bought a stone mill, oven and mixer.

Milling the flour right before it is used is critical for the flavor profile (as any bread connoisseur will tell you), but it also makes for a beautiful bread biome of nutrients, oils and pre- and probiotics. Rick also sources local spelt, wheat and rye from Maryland and Pennsylvania.

“It is going to be a bit strange being in a commercial space,” Rick laughs. “Right now, our dining room doubles as the baking space. We have about 1,000 pounds of grain under my son’s bed.”

Rick describes himself as “the bread boy,” while Tyes wields “the binder and the bullhorn.” And much like baking, the Cooks’ dream of a space to call their own manifested itself organically.

“There is this huge underground community of home bakers across the country that feels very much like a family. We share tips and puzzle over techniques — the yeast is wild and has a life of its own. The rise seems to come out of nowhere and has its own kind of energy and pull.”

Manifest Bread: 6208 Rhode Island Ave. Riverdale Park, MD; manifestbread.com // @manifest_bread

Give your carb knowledge a boost with these essential terms.

Alveoli: The holes created in the crumb of the bread. Many artisan breads boast an uneven structure with translucent strands of gluten.

Crumb: The interior of a loaf of bread. Often described as either open crumb (lots of irregular holes) or closed crumb (fine-textured).

First rise: The first fermentation after the dough is mixed but before the loaf is shaped. Also known as bulk fermentation.

Gluten: The proteins that allow dough to stretch out and maintain its shape. When combined with water, it gives structure to baked goods.

Maillard reaction: The reaction that occurs when a mix of protein, starch and water is heated above 250 degrees. It contributes to the browning of the bread crust and caramelized flavor.

Proofing: The final rise of dough after it is shaped. Also known as the second rise.

Sourdough: A culture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria that ferments cereal grains. Also known as sourdough starter or levain.

Gluten-free? Go with sourdough.

Bread that does not rely on commercial yeast strains for a quick rise is easier to digest — especially for those who have trouble with gluten, a protein that breaks down almost fully before the bread is baked.

When you mill your own flour — as we would have in days past — the result is a more rustic bread with a significantly richer array of nutrients, much higher fiber and a far lower GI. The fiber of whole grains contains many prebiotic fibers that fuel the good bacteria in the gut, promoting their growth.

Reporting

Consumer Behavior During Times of Inflation—And How to Save

My article for the Kogod School of Business

According to Numerator, a white woman between the ages of 55 and 64 years old, married and living in the Southeastern suburbs of the US, is the “typical” US Walmart shopper. This shopper likely has an undergraduate degree and earns about $80,000 annually. She visits Walmart about once per week and picks up roughly 13 products for a total cost of under $60 per trip. This shopper spends about 13.5 percent of her income at Walmart and another 11 percent on Amazon.

The typical Walmart shopper primarily buys groceries, including chicken, fruit, snacks, and sweets, but she supplements her groceries with fast food meals. Her favorite five brands at Walmart are Turkey Knob, Cheetos, Betty Crocker, Dole, and Tyson.

With the price of goods continuously creeping up, consumer behavior has been surprisingly adaptive in response. During times of inflation, it’s expected that consumers will switch to cheaper alternatives and stop spending on items deemed non-essential. More surprising, however, is that higher-income households are on this tightening-of-belts pursuit of value to quite a similar degree as their lower-earning counterparts. In a CNBC report, Walmart CFO John David Rainey said the company is attracting more middle- and high-income shoppers. Seventy-five percent of the company’s market share gains came from customers with an annual household income of $100,000 or more. He told CNBC that inflation-strapped shoppers are trading down in quality and quantity.

So, what does this mean? The Morning Brew defines trading down as the phenomenon when consumers who are facing tough times swap high-priced items for cheaper versions. A similar trend occurred during the 2009-2011 economic downturn. The ratio of high-quality to low-quality goods shifts as recessions ebb. This is also a time when consumers start paying more attention to value, which Kogod professor Ron Hill describes as the idea of how much one must give up to get a specific good.

In addition to its convenience and low prices, Walmart’s recent investments in its digital capabilities are possible lures for upper and middle-class shoppers. Professor Hill suggests that another reason is that the pandemic eroded store loyalty.

People became used to uncertainty about what products they would find in the stores, so loyalty went out the window in favor of finding the best deal—or finding the item at all.”

“Plus, there may also be a ‘kitschiness’ factor at play where it may be kind of cool and quirky for someone who can afford to shop elsewhere to shop at Walmart,” says Hill.

Of course, Hill notes, the best strategy during inflationary times is to look widely for needed items to get the best value. Comparing prices online and planning your list ahead of shopping can offer the most significant time and money savings. And look to the experts like Professor Hill whenever you can for tips and tricks that you may not have tried yet to beat inflation woes!

Reporting

Breaking Down Mental Health Barriers

My article for the Kogod School of Business

Kogod MBA ‘19 alumna MaBinti Yillah is in the process of developing her startup company, Ziefah Health, a mental health platform that connects Muslims with pre-vetted, licensed providers of culturally responsive care.

When someone close to Yillah had a mental health difficulty, they struggled to seek treatment due to stigma and distrust of mental health professionals; Yillah did her own research to find a solution.

“I found that my loved one wasn’t alone. Finding the right mental health professional is a common problem, especially among certain cultures,” explains Yillah. “This led me to create Ziefah Health.”

Twenty-five percent of American Muslims report suffering from mental health challenges, but only 11 percent sought help. Many American Muslims don’t trust therapists because they fear privacy breaches, discrimination, and bias. Culturally, therapy also carries an unwarranted shame in being associated with mental illness instead of being part of a regular health care routine.

Muslims, especially those of the African diaspora, have encountered unique social experiences that someone from the same culture can better understand. Experts find that the most effective care comes from a person patients feel they can trust. Mental health professionals who share a cultural understanding with their patients can provide especially beneficial care. However, Yillah clarifies that there are many layers to someone’s identity, and it’s useful for everyone to see mental health professionals whom they feel they can trust and relate to.

Being Muslim is not just about religious practice—it’s a mindset and way of life. There is a particular family culture that also goes along with being from the African diaspora, independent from being Muslim.”

“Unlike other apps on the market, Ziefah Health recognizes that the one size fits all model doesn’t work—we will ask our clients to share their priorities with us, so we can best serve them,” explains Yillah. “In addition to our app, we plan to host a bi-monthly peer support group to help young Muslims learn and practice wellness tactics to support their life-long mental health journey.”

Yillah worked with General Assembly on the Ziefah Health app. “I’m running two three-month programs to develop, nurture, and convert customers. I’m running a low-tech version of the app to refine the provider matching and vetting process, understand my client’s needs, and ultimately convert these early adapters into customers. It’s a two-sided marketplace model, so I must get the business model right. I’m also shopping for tech partners to integrate with the app. This isn’t a business that’ll be an overnight success—much groundwork is involved!” says Yillah.

Yillah’s Kogod experience equipped her with the confidence and the knowledge required to take on such an important task. She credits Kogod professor Tom Kohn’s entrepreneurship course with teaching her the foundational skills needed to create a business plan and turn it into a reality. “I was familiar with the lean startup method, but I never put it into practice until Tom Kohn’s class. Ash Maurya’s book coined this term and is still a source of inspiration and guidance.”

I received so much advice from classmates and professors like Professor Bill Bellows. He was the one who suggested creating the peer support group with the idea of providing a service but also getting insight into the needs of youth.”

“Dr. Walters-Conte, who works closely with the American University Center for Innovation, also helped me pinpoint the root of the problem I am trying to solve by doing root-cause analysis with me,” says Yillah.

As Yillah continues to work on her startup mental health app, she remembers that the life of an entrepreneur is not always easy, but when her idea comes to fruition and helps create meaningful change in the world, it will be worth the years of hard work.

“The greatest advice I can offer young entrepreneurs and Kogod students is to remain inquisitive—you really don’t know everything. Don’t assume you know what your customers want. Ask your customers many questions and lean on your Kogod network for support and guidance,” says Yillah.

Reporting

Combatting Age Bias in the Workplace

My article for the Society of Human Resources Management Magazine

Millions of older Americans have re-entered the workforce in recent months. In fact, nearly 64 percent of adults between the ages of 55 and 64 were working in April.

Precipitous rises in the cost of living have forced many of them to return to work from retirement. Others have returned to work because they enjoy the engagement and camaraderie work provides.

That said, economists tend to believe that workers in their 50s and 60s have a harder time than their younger counterparts finding jobs, keeping them or moving ahead at a company, mostly due to ageism.

Beth Finkel, state director of the New York chapter of AARP, has been at the forefront of the organization’s fight at the state and national levels for laws and policies that protect older workers from age discrimination.

A recent AARP New York survey found that nearly half of voters age 50 years or older said they were subjected to or witnessed at least one type of workplace age discrimination. Twenty percent said they were passed over for a job because of their age, and almost 10 percent said they were fired due to their age. And a national AARP poll found that 78 percent  of workers age 50 or older said they’ve seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace. Age discrimination against Americans ages 50 and over robbed the U.S. economy of $850 billion  in 2018 alone.

A large study of 5,000 workers and managers in seven countries by the global nonprofit Generation offers some rather grim statistics: People who are age 45 or older make up a high share of the long-term unemployed. Hiring managers tend to view job applicants who are 45 or older negatively, even though employers rate highly the job performance of the older people they do hire. The challenges and experiences of job seekers who are 45 or older, this study found, display striking consistency around the world.

One key insight from the survey is hugely positive, however. Yes, hiring managers express bias against applicants who are 45 or older. But those very same employers also acknowledge that once they hire people over 45, those workers perform on the job just as well as, or even better than, their peers who are a decade younger.

In New York, the state Senate passed a bill this year prohibiting employers from requiring or asking for job applicants’ age or birth and graduation dates unless clearly relevant to the job. In Washington, D.C., AARP is urging the U.S. Senate to follow the House by passing the Protect Older Workers Against Discrimination Act.

As older people seek work in a world where retirement ages are being pushed up by higher life expectancies and inadequate savings, they need employers and policymakers to take steps to counter rampant ageism, Finkel said.

“Advocacy with businesses is part of AARP’s ultimate goal—to protect people 45 [years or older] from age discrimination,” Finkel said. “At the end of the day, discrimination in any form is wrong, and multigenerational workforces are proven to be more productive.”

Tracey Gendron, author of Ageism Unmasked (Penguin Random House, 2022), wrote her book to “help myself and others understand how ageism (and ableism) have been silently yet pervasively embedded in society over the years. The book takes a journey through time to uncover the forces and events that shaped our understanding of what it means to age and be old. The book also describes the various expressions of ageism (e.g., internalized, externalized, relational) and how ageism manifests in different institutions (e.g., health care, workplace, technology).”

The book also offers the following points about ageism in the workplace:

  • Ageism in the workplace can be subtle and hard to recognize. It can be embedded into the recruitment process; for instance, when job descriptions use terms such as “cultural fit,” “energetic,” or “fast-paced.”
  • Ageism can be manifested in “over-the-hill” birthday celebrations or jokes.
  • Ageism can manifest itself in commonly held myths about older people, such as “older people are out of touch with technology and current trends.”