Barack Obama provides us a snapshot of the working lives of Americans in new Netflix limited series

A new Netflix show, hosted by former President Barack Obama, aims to spotlight working middle class Americans and their plight to make a living in the modern world of rising costs and shrinking opportunities. It’s called Working: What We Do All Day, and it’s coming to Netflix.

The show is a limited series courtesy of Higher Ground Productions, a company founded by Obama and his wife Michelle in 2018 with the purpose of telling “powerful stories that entertain, inform, and inspire – while elevating new and diverse voices in the entertainment industry.”

“We may not think about it, but we’re all part of something larger than any single one of us,” Obama says in the trailer for the show. “And out work is one of the forces that connects us.”

Then we see Obama, in his natural swagger (he’s still got it) visiting people in their natural working habitats.

“A revolution is happening right before our eyes. Artificial Intelligence, remote work, spiraling inequality,” he said. “It can be hard to make sense of where we’re going.”

The show will focus on three different industries: Technology, Hospitality and Home Care. The show’s inspired by “a classic 1974 nonfiction work of the same name by Studs Terkel.”

The book “chronicled everyday Americans of the era, their jobs and how their work impacted their lives.” A lot of things have changed since then, Netflix said, and American workers not only face “explosive changes” but “increasing inequality” as well.

“The series follows service employees; middle-class workers struggling to afford the rising costs of living; managers and knowledge workers afforded the luxury of earning enough to explore other, more “meaningful” work — and company heads whose decisions can affect millions of lives.”

Working: What We Do All Day lands on Netflix on May 17.