05/27/2026: Art Mimics Life: When Gig Work Realities Hit the Silver Screen

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

9 - 10 AM HST | 12 - 1 PM PT | 2 - 3 PM CT | 3 - 4 PM ET

Webinar Navigation

Photo of Alexandrea Ravenelle

About the webinar:

Most tv and film depictions of work life are inaccurate at best. But body-swapping aside, the 2025 movie Good Fortune provides a relatively accurate depiction of gig work and the lived experience of gig workers. This presentation will discuss what the comedy gets right, and wrong, about the challenges of gig work. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with gig workers conducted over more than a decade, learners will identify trends in gig work highlighted in the movie. The session will also provide insights into how media depictions can raise awareness of alternative employment arrangements and suggestions for how to reduce the health and economic impacts of gig work on workers and communities.

Learning Objectives

At the completion of this activity, the learner will be able to:

  • Identify the lived realities, common trends, and challenges of gig work.

  • Evaluate the portrayal of alternative employment arrangements in popular media.

  • Discuss how the challenges of gig work impact worker health and economic well-being.

Speaker: Alexandrea Ravenelle, PhD

Alexandrea Ravenelle is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research illuminates the lives of workers in the gig economy, weaving rich qualitative data with public policy implications, shining light on how modern labor markets are transforming under technology, risk, and shifting definitions of “work.” She is the author of Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy (University of California Press, 2019) and Side Hustle Safety Net: How Vulnerable Workers Survive Precarious Times (UC Press, 2023), focuses on how workers navi-gate precarity during crisis moments such as the COVID 19 pandemic. Her third book, Trapped: Gig Work’s Hidden Grip on the American Worker, is currently under contract with UC Press.

Certificates of Completion

Certificates of Completion will be available to webinar participants who are present for the complete, live webinar, and logged in with their registered email address. Call-in attendees are not eligible for certificates at this time - Please download the Zoom app to log in via email on your smartphone whenever possible.

In order to receive your Certificate of Completion, qualified learners must complete the post-webinar evaluation within 7 days of the webinar. A link to the evaluation will be emailed to qualified learners 24 hours after the webinar via no-reply@zoom.us. Qualified learners who submit their evaluation will receive a Certificate of Completion via email, and can also print/save the certificate from their browser after submitting their evaluation.

If you're not able to attend the live presentation, no problem! We record most presentations and will host them on our website provided we have permission to do so. Presentation recordings are not eligible for Certificates of Completion.

ACCESSIBILITY:

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) to fully participate in this event, please contact Will Bellamy at (510) 642-8365 or wbellamy@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail) with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.

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About the California Labor Lab

The California Labor Lab is a collaboration among investigators at UCSF, UC Berkeley, and the California Department of Public Health. The Lab is housed at the Philip R Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. Our mission is to extend the pursuit of health and safety for workers in traditional employment to those in a wide range of alternative arrangements in partnership with affected communities.

Click here to learn more about the Labor Lab.

ACCREDITATION

The Center for Occupational and Environmental Health designates this activity for a maximum of 1.0 Contact Hour. Participants should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.