Gig: Americans Talk about Their Jobs

For three years, the editors of Word, a leading web magazine, sent interviewers all over America to question people about their work. There are the conventional jobs - lawyer, nurse, steelworker, actor, journalist; the not so conventional jobs - clutter consultant, adhesives company sales rep, heavy metal roadie, buffalo rancher, supermodel; and the just plain bizarre job - crime scene cleaner, adult web mistress, Elvis Presley interpreter, telephone psychic, Wal-Mart Greeter. And everything in between - 120 different jobs in total. Inspired by Studs Terkel's 1972 classic book, Working, these interviews have spawned a collection of fabulous monologues: people talking about what their jobs are really like and how they make them feel about themselves. Told in roughly textured first person voices, these monologues are mesmerizing and addictive, and as a whole give us an understanding of how much the workplace has changed since Studs Terkel put pen to paper - and how much it has stayed the same.