Shows / The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
For two centuries, productivity growth has been the engine of rising living standards, yet the past decade has seen a perplexing slowdown. In this show, Lucas and Luna examine the forces that drive — and inhibit — long-term economic output. Each episode focuses on a specific lever: from R&D investment and education reform to infrastructure spending and the diffusion of digital technologies. They avoid political rhetoric, instead grounding every discussion in historical data and named case…
Episodes
The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic GrowthHow Japan Rebuilt Productivity After Its Lost Decade
Japan's 'Lost Decade' of the 1990s is often seen as a cautionary tale—but the country's productivity turnaround that followed is one of the…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
How India Built a Digital Productivity Revolution
India's productivity story is often overshadowed by its service-sector narrative. But between 2014 and 2024, the country added roughly 1.2 billion digital…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Remote Work Productivity Gains Are Real But Uneven
Lucas and Luna dig into the surprising data behind remote work productivity—and why the gains aren't distributed evenly across industries, roles, or…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Unpaid Overtime Destroys National Productivity
Lucas and Luna examine the macroeconomic impact of unpaid overtime, drawing on a 2025 study from the OECD showing that countries with the longest average…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why the 1990s Productivity Boom Remains Unmatched
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the extraordinary productivity surge of the 1990s in the United States, when total factor productivity growth hit…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why the Netherlands Crushes Europe in Logistics Productivity
The Netherlands has the most efficient logistics sector in Europe, moving goods through ports and warehouses at a pace that leaves Germany and France in the…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
How Finland Turned Education into a Productivity Engine
Lucas and Luna examine Finland's education system as a long-term productivity strategy. Since the 1970s, Finland shifted from resource-based to…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
How One Factory Error Cost Boeing Billions in Productivity
Boeing's 737 MAX crisis is often told as a safety story. But this episode reframes it as a productivity disaster — one that wiped out billions in output…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Cost of Meeting Overload
In this episode of The Productivity Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the hidden economic drag of excessive meetings. Drawing on a 2023 Microsoft Workplace…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Canada Beats the US in Productivity Growth
Episode 40 of The Productivity Podcast explores a counterintuitive economic puzzle: why Canada, often seen as America's quieter neighbor, has consistently…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
How South Korea Built the World's Fastest Productivity Growth
In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine South Korea's extraordinary productivity transformation from the 1960s to today. They focus on the specific role…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Canada Leads G7 in Total Factor Productivity Gains
In this episode of The Productivity Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore why Canada has outpaced its G7 peers in total factor productivity gains over the past two…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Italy Trails Germany in Factory Productivity
Italy and Germany both have world-class manufacturing reputations, but Italy's factory productivity has trailed Germany's by roughly 20 percent for…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Nordic Countries Lead Global Productivity Rankings
Episode 36 of The Productivity Podcast examines why Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland consistently top global productivity rankings. Lucas and Luna…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Most Productivity Tools Actually Reduce Output
Lucas and Luna investigate the counterintuitive finding that many productivity software tools actually decrease net output. They dive into the…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Canada Tops the G7 in Total Factor Productivity Gains
When economists talk productivity, they usually point to the US or Germany. But Canada has quietly posted the strongest total factor productivity growth in the…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Germany Leads Europe in Manufacturing Productivity
Lucas and Luna examine why Germany's manufacturing sector consistently outperforms its European peers in productivity, despite high labor costs and energy…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Office Layout Shapes Economic Productivity
Episode 32 digs into the link between workplace design and national productivity. Lucas opens with a 2019 study from MIT and Harvard finding that open-plan…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why the 1970s Productivity Puzzle Still Matters
Episode 31 of The Productivity Podcast digs into the 1970s productivity paradox—a period when US productivity growth collapsed from 3 percent to just 1.5…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Recessions Boost Productivity Long-Term
Episode 30 of The Productivity Podcast explores a counterintuitive economic pattern: the productivity-enhancing effect of recessions. Lucas and Luna examine…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Cost of Workplace Surveillance
Lucas and Luna examine the hidden productivity penalty of workplace surveillance software. Drawing on a 2025 study from the University of Oxford's…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Hidden Productivity Cost of Organizational Silos
Lucas and Luna explore how organizational silos silently kill productivity. Lucas cites a McKinsey study showing that knowledge workers spend nearly 20% of…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
How Japan Solved Its Lost Decade Productivity Stagnation
For decades, Japan was the cautionary tale of productivity stagnation — flat output per worker from 1991 through 2012 while the rest of the developed world…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Demographics Matter More Than Productivity Hacks
Lucas and Luna explore how demographic trends—aging populations, shrinking workforces, and shifting dependency ratios—are the hidden driver behind long-term…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Long Tail of Productivity-Boosting Capital Investment
Lucas and Luna explore a specific, under-discussed driver of productivity growth: the surprisingly long tail of returns from capital investment in physical…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Your Lunch Break Is a Productivity Multiplier
Episode 24 of The Productivity Podcast digs into a surprising but rigorously studied productivity lever: the lunch break. Lucas and Luna explore a 2023 study…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Your Health Is the Biggest Productivity Lever
This episode examines how physical health directly shapes economic productivity at the individual and national level. Lucas and Luna dig into a 2023 Rand…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Cost of Bad Management Communication
Lucas and Luna dig into a 2025 McKinsey study that found miscommunication costs large organizations $62.4 million per year in lost productivity. They explore…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Trap in Routine Work Automation
In this episode of The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore why automating routine tasks can sometimes backfire. They examine a 2024 MIT…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Cost of Low-Growth Expectations
Episode 20 of The Productivity Podcast explores how the economy's long-term potential growth rate—often called r-star or the natural rate—has quietly…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Hidden Productivity Cost of Decision Fatigue
Lucas and Luna explore how decision fatigue quietly drains productivity across organizations, using a study from a major hospital system that found…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Hidden Productivity Tax of Corporate Jargon
Episode 18 unpacks the measurable productivity cost of corporate jargon. Lucas and Luna explore a 2025 study from the University of Chicago estimating that…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Most Companies Waste Their Employee Training Budget
Episode 17 of The Productivity Podcast examines why corporate training so often fails to boost productivity. Lucas walks through the research on training…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Trap in Remote Work Asynchronous Communication
Episode 16 of The Productivity Podcast digs into a hidden drag on remote and hybrid work: the false efficiency of asynchronous communication. Lucas and Luna…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Hidden Productivity Cost of Managerial Overhead
Episode 15 of The Productivity Podcast digs into a surprising drag on American output: the ballooning ratio of managers to individual contributors. Since 1983…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Productivity Growth Has Slowed Since 2005
Lucas and Luna examine the puzzle of slowing productivity growth in developed economies since 2005, despite rapid technological change. They focus on the…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Hidden Cost of Interrupted Work
Lucas and Luna explore the 'switching cost' of workplace interruptions, drawing on a 2023 University of California Irvine study that found it takes…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
How Denmark Solved the Productivity Paradox of Short Workweeks
In this episode of The Productivity Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore Denmark's remarkable productivity paradox: since 2015, Danish workers have averaged…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
How the Fifties-Era Factory Still Haunts Productivity
Lucas and Luna explore the surprising persistence of mid-century manufacturing logic in today's knowledge economy. Drawing on a 1956 General Electric…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Cost of Open Office Plans
Lucas and Luna examine the research behind open office layouts and their surprising impact on productivity. Drawing on a 2018 Harvard Business School study of…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Deficit Hidden Inside Every Meeting
Episode 9 of The Productivity Podcast takes on the quietest productivity killer in modern knowledge work: meeting recovery time. Lucas walks through a 2025…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Hidden Output Cost of Performance Reviews
Episode 8 digs into a surprising drain on workplace productivity: the annual performance review. Lucas and Luna examine a 2024 study from the University of…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Cost of Switching Tabs
Every time you switch tabs or glance at Slack, you pay a cognitive switching cost that few companies track. In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack the research…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Efficiency Trap When Optimization Kills Innovation
Lucas and Luna explore the hidden downside of relentless efficiency: the 'efficiency trap' where over-optimizing for today's metrics crushes the…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Hidden Productivity Cost of Meeting Recovery Time
Lucas and Luna explore a overlooked drag on workplace productivity: the cognitive switching cost known as 'meeting recovery time.' Drawing on a 2024…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
How One Factory Solved the Sticky Productivity Floor Problem
Episode 4 of The Productivity Podcast. Lucas and Luna examine a real-world case study: how a Toyota transmission plant in Alabama eliminated the 'sticky…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
Why Office Productivity Peaks at Four Days a Week
Lucas and Luna dig into the real economics of the four-day workweek. Iceland's massive pilot program with 2,500 workers showed productivity held or…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Solow Paradox Is Back with AI
In the late 1980s, economist Robert Solow observed, 'You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.' That became known…
- The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The $500 Million Productivity Bet That Changed Everything
In the inaugural episode of The Productivity Podcast, hosts Lucas and Luna dive into a single, defining moment in economic history: the 1995-2005 productivity…