Brigid Schulte is the director of the Better Life Lab, the work-family justice program at New America, a nonpartisan think tank, that uses narrative to move public policy, workplace practice and culture so that people of all genders and racial and ethnic identities can thrive, with decent, dignified work and time for care and connection across the arc of their lives.
Schulte is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, formerly of the Washington Post, and the author of the New York Times bestselling Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play when No One has the Time, which was named a Washington Post and NPR notable nonfiction book of the year, has been translated into numerous languages and sparked a national conversation about overwork, gender inequity the toll that outdated policies and cultural attitudes are taking on modern lives, and how to move forward. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Monthly, Vox, BBC, Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, Slate, the Atlantic, New York Magazine, the Boston Globe, Fast Company, Time, CNN, Quartz, the Guardian and others. She hosts Better Life Lab podcast, an Apple Top 50 podcast. She’s a sought-after keynote speaker and has spoken at venues around the globe, and has appeared on a number of TV, podcast and radio programs, including NPR’s Morning Edition and Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
A native of Oregon, Schulte has a BA in English and modern languages from the University of Portland, and an MS from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband, Tom Bowman, who covers the military for NPR, and their two children. Growing up, she spent her summers in Wyoming on her family’s sheep ranch, where she did not feel so overwhelmed.
