Tricia Hersey urged Cornell students and community members to reconsider their relationship to work, exhaustion and productivity during the 2026 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture in Sage Chapel on Feb. 9.

“Capitalism wants us to be a machine, but we are not machines,” said Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry. “The systems want us exhausted. We’re easier to manipulate.”

Titled Rest is Resistance: A Conversation with Tricia Hersey, the lecture drew 250 in-person attendees and more than 430 virtual registrants from Cornell and the surrounding community. Hersey — a multidisciplinary artist, theologian and author of the New York Times bestselling book Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto — framed rest as both a human right and a radical act of resistance that disrupts grind culture.

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