May 8, 2026 · 54 min · 22 segments
How can we find and start our life’s work? That’s the question Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jodi Kantor tried to answer for Columbia University’s seniors last spring in a graduation speech that…
Jodi KantorGuestMina KimHostWe're talking with Jodi Kantor about how to find your life's work and how to figure out what the world needs and how to find a craft that brings you fulfillment.
Yeah, resetting for our listeners, the question that I had just asked you was, you know, how students are really feeling, and you were talking about how we can have preconceived notions about, you know, where things are.
So my notion was that things were gonna be very different at elite universities like Stanford and Cal from, you know, community colleges, humble universities with a lot of first-gen kids.
It, it, it's not that those students' lives are the same, but the concerns I'm hearing are generational, and they span the economic spectrum.
There's a belief that the workplace can be very dystopian, that fulfilling work is for rich kids.
There is a fear that even if you get a first job, you're not gonna be able to pay for housing.
And so there is rising apprehension among the young about work, which is a rational response, uh, to this environment, and, and yet, uh, we can't, uh, we can't give up on work.
Uh, it's not an option for us personally, and also, I would say the stakes are too high collectively.
Work is still how we make progress in society, and if, um, if people become too cynical about work, we're really gonna be in trouble.
We're talking with Jodi Kantor about how to find your life's work and how to figure out what the world needs and how to find a craft that brings you fulfillment.
Yeah, resetting for our listeners, the question that I had just asked you was, you know, how students are really feeling, and you were talking about how we can have preconceived notions about, you know, where things are.
So my notion was that things were gonna be very different at elite universities like Stanford and Cal from, you know, community colleges, humble universities with a lot of first-gen kids.
It, it, it's not that those students' lives are the same, but the concerns I'm hearing are generational, and they span the economic spectrum.
There's a belief that the workplace can be very dystopian, that fulfilling work is for rich kids.
There is a fear that even if you get a first job, you're not gonna be able to pay for housing.
And so there is rising apprehension among the young about work, which is a rational response, uh, to this environment, and, and yet, uh, we can't, uh, we can't give up on work.
Uh, it's not an option for us personally, and also, I would say the stakes are too high collectively.
Work is still how we make progress in society, and if, um, if people become too cynical about work, we're really gonna be in trouble.
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