Hi listeners, it's Katie.

Today, I wanted to reshare a conversation I had last fall with Melinda French Gates, the philanthropist, technology veteran, and author.

It's a wide-ranging discussion about her life, her attitudes on the titans of technology now, and how her focus has shifted since the Gates Foundation started.

It's one of my favorite conversations we've done on the

big interview so far, and I hope you enjoy it. From Wired, this is the big interview. I'm Katie

Drummond. Melinda French Gates wishes everyone understood that philanthropy doesn't solve everything.

But it sure seems like nonprofits have fewer and fewer places to look these days.

According to the Center for American Progress,

President Trump's Doge has cut at least $3 billion in grants for research, education,

and other programs that support women and girls.

It's almost as if French Gates had started preparing for this possibility over a decade ago.

In 2015, the co-founder of the Gates Foundation started Pivotal Ventures,

an organization fully focused on the health and social progress of women and girls.

She said it many times on paper and out loud,

quote,

I don't want my granddaughters to grow up with fewer rights than I did.

We talked about all that, along with workplace struggles, a public divorce, starting over,

and lingering questions from her most revealing memoir yet.

Here's that conversation.

Melinda French Gates, welcome to the big interview. Thank you so much for being here.

Thanks for having me, Katie. So we always start these conversations with some rapid fire questions. It's a warm up.

Get your brain working, get your muscles working. Are you ready?

...