From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdad. I'm Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend.

Coming up, we will hear from author and indie bookseller Emma Straub all about her lovely new book this time tomorrow.

How do I tell the truest version of this story I can? Time travel was the way. It was the way to do it.

But first, we're going to talk about something I think we could all benefit from. This is a conversation

about ambition, success, and embracing mediocrity. As a young woman breaking into journalism,

Emil Niazi said she had no choice but to be ambitious. I was living by myself. I was obviously

paying all of my own bills and I had a steady job and I didn't have any parental monetary support.

I only had my job. Ambition represented security and escape hatch from poverty, a career path that

would lead to success and recognition. But like many young women of color in the workplace,

Emil was passed over for jobs that she was qualified for. She felt stuck in these toxic workplaces

that weren't giving her as much money as other less qualified people. As much as I felt like I should

quit my job and I realized that in many ways I was being exploited and that I was

never going to advance, I didn't feel safe quitting because I didn't have a backup plan.

And all that was before she became a mother, not alone parenting during a global pandemic.

So as of this year, Emil has had enough with ambition. Instead, she is choosing mediocrity.

She's a freelance writer who wrote about losing her ambition for the cut earlier this year.

Emil, hi. Thanks for having me. Okay, so the title of the article is How the Pandemic

made me lose my ambition. And I would actually like to start very basically with how you as you

were writing this felt like you were defining the word ambition. It really was about this kind of

specific careerism, this specific notion that I was going to pursue titles and promotions and

avenues within my job that would bring me a greater and greater sense of attachment to my job.

So more responsibility, hopefully more pay, more seniority, all of those kind of classic hallmarks

...