This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

Like millions of people around the world, Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom has been working

from home since March 2020.

Instead of a university classroom, he now uses a spare bedroom.

Sometimes, one of his four kids pops in while he does meetings over Zoom.

He'll never forget this one time when he was in a very important call with some business

executives trying to help them with a research project.

About 20 minutes into the call, this happened.

It was two of my kids starting their daily practice on the bagpokes.

I was thinking, oh no, no, now is not the time.

I had to say quickly to ever meet him.

Sorry, there's something going on in the background.

I mute myself and run into the toilet.

Ah, to take the rest of the meeting in the exit was the only place that was quiet enough.

And our house isn't that big and you know, the soundproofing is just dreadful.

The toilets about the only sound bunkered room, so I'm sure I'll be back in there again

taking calls.

Probably many calls, because Nick is an expert on the economic, cultural and social implications

of working from home.

Now in an almost surreal twist, he's living his research day in and day out, just like

many of us.

So is working from home, working?

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