Beat the Resume Bots & Build a Career You Love with Jodi Kantor

On with Kara Swisher

New York Magazine

Society & Culture

4.2 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigative reporter Jodi Kantor joins Kara to talk about her new book, “How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work.” It’s a guide for young people starting their careers in an age of AI disruption, economic instability and political chaos. Jodi acknowledges the difficult reality graduates face and tries to offer practical yet empathic advice. She argues that meaningful careers are built on “craft” and “need.” Kara and Jodi discuss how to find workarounds in an automated hiring hellscape, and what key things to look for in a first job. Plus, Jodi explains why young people need to take calculated risks, and what that looks like for recent graduates. Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The way I got a job was I called Larry Kramer at the Washington Post and started insulting him and then went down there.
0:05.6	Like it was, I had a rejection letter and a form letter and then I just ignored it completely.
0:11.7	Well, first of all, it sounds to me like a uniquely Karaswishian thing to be able to get a job by insulting somebody.
0:17.9	I'm not sure anybody but you could pull that off.
0:21.0	Okay. job by insulting somebody. I'm not sure anybody but you could pull that off. It's on.
0:34.4	Hi, everyone from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is on with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher.
0:38.7	My guest today is Jody Cantor, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for the New York Times.
0:44.2	Jody has been covering employment, the workplace, and power for decades. In 2017, she and Megan
0:49.7	Tui broke the story of sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. More recently,
0:56.1	Jody's been writing about the Supreme Court and how the notoriously tight-lipped institution
1:00.1	has made itself even more secretive by imposing NDAs on clerks and employees. Now she's applying
1:06.7	her years of experience, plus the tools she's acquired as a reporter to a guide for young people
1:11.5	starting out in their careers. In it, Jody acknowledges the difficult reality that faces
1:16.6	recent graduates, including AI, economic uncertainty, and political chaos, and tries to offer
1:22.7	practical yet empathetic advice. I think Jody's one of our best reporters in the nation. She's done an astonishing
1:29.2	job at the New York Times covering very difficult topics. But I think it was really interesting that
1:33.9	she shifted to this because she has kids of her own and also is really concerned about where
1:39.1	young people are going. And it's really important to get advice from someone like her. Let's get to
1:43.5	my conversation with Jody Cantor.
1:45.5	Our expert question today comes from Vivian 2,
1:48.2	host of the Vox Media podcast, Net Worth and Chill,
1:51.6	which is all about navigating money and personal finance,
	...

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