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KQED's Forum

How Did You Find Your Life’s Work?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.2726 Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 went viral. She urged graduates facing a brutal job market to focus on two things: need and craft. Kantor encouraged graduates to use that lens to assess what services, products or information society will most need in their working lives and what expertise they can develop to bring them to fulfillment. We talk to Kantor about her new book “How to Start.” Guests: Jodi Kantor, investigative reporter, The New York Times; author, "How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Right, home from work, walk the dog, kids are back.

0:05.0

Mom!

0:06.0

Up the stairs for something.

0:08.0

Ugh, back down, no idea what I went up for.

0:12.0

Mom, what's for dinner?

0:14.0

Chop, sizzle, done.

0:17.0

Hello Fresh can't slow life down, but it makes bringing everyone together around the table a whole lot easier.

0:23.4

So its phones down, forks up.

0:25.5

Hello Fresh. Bring back dinner time.

0:31.3

Head to the coast in Abercrombie's latest summer drop.

0:35.0

It's short season, and their new C-Fade shorts add the perfect wash look to your fit.

0:40.3

They're so easy to throw on and pair with everything in your closet.

0:44.2

Complete the look with a new shirt and your set.

0:47.3

Prep for summer with Abercrombie in the app, online, and in stores.

0:54.5

Okay. and in stores. From KQED.

1:01.9

Welcome to Forum.

1:03.3

I'm Mina Kim.

1:04.5

Every generation feels like they had it rough.

1:06.7

But this generation, graduating into the job market today, has a point. Robot interviews, threats to

1:13.4

entry-level work, intimidating housing prices, writes the Times Jody Cantor, who was asked to give

1:18.6

the undergrad commencement address at Columbia last spring. Add to that, Dumers, who say,

1:23.7

careers don't matter because we're all headed for collapse. Cantor, who, among other career highlights,

...

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