We're entering college graduation season, and for many seniors, the best way to kill the excitement about this milestone is to ask, what's your plan for after graduation?

That's a particularly fraught question this year with an uncertain economy, high cost of living, and AI poised to remake the workplace.

In the midst of all of that, how can young people build fulfilling, empowering careers, and establish themselves as authors of their own lives?

This morning, I'm bringing you everything I've learned that can help.

That's Jody Cantor, New York Times investigative journalist, and author of She Said,

about a reporting on Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct that helped launch the Me Too movement.

What you just heard was a moment from a commencement speech she gave last year at Columbia University.

She spoke at a moment when the university's funding had been cut by the Trump administration, and the campus had

been roiled by tensions over the war in Gaza. Following that speech, Cantor became focused on the

question of how students in today's environment can establish themselves in a career and fill their days with

vitality and meaning. The result is a new book, How to Start Discovering Your Life's Work.

Jody Cantor sat down with 1A's Naila Boodoo to share what she learned. I'm Jen White.

You're listening to the 1A podcast. We'll be right back with their conversation. Stay with us.

Welcome back to the 1A podcast. Here's the conversation with Jody Cantor and 1A's Naila Boodoo.

Let's talk about the genesis of your book. We just played a little of your 2025 commencement speech at your alma mater, Columbia University. When you first got tapped to begin the talk, you said you didn't know where to begin.

Can you just set the scene for us of reminding us what that was like last year?

Well, it's a huge honor, of course, to be asked to give a commencement speech at your alma mater.

But in this case, to be honest, it was kind of a bad offer because you remember what was going on at Columbia at the time.

I mean, the place was just royaled by controversy.

It felt totally toxic.

And, you know, my friends from college actually tried to stop me.

They were like, don't do it. Call in sick. But something in me felt like, give me those kids

...