How will automation change the way we live and work? Will robots take your job? These and related questions have been asked about labor and the economy for decades, and with more urgency as artificial intelligence continues to become more pervasive in our lives. In this episode, Mark Muro, a senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program, discusses his new report, coauthored with Robert Maxim and Jacob Whiton, that addresses these questions. In “Automation and Artificial Intelligence: How machines are affecting people and places,” Muro and his coauthors write that “while the robots are coming they will bring neither an apocalypse nor utopia, but instead both benefits and stress alike.” Plus, in her review of what’s happening in Congress, Senior Fellow Molly Reynolds looks beyond the government shutdown drama to explain House and Senate hearings on a wide range of issues. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.