What's in a mentor? He's just a bucket of advice, good advice, and so he encouraged me to try

again, navigating the working world as a young person, and it's a person who really didn't feel like

I had a place there, and feeling all the things in poster syndrome. Are they a fellow person of

color who can validate your experiences, help you overcome a toxic workplace, give you advice on

finding a new job? All of the above and more. We're in the middle of this nationwide reckoning.

Not only are we experiencing this catastrophic pandemic, but protests against racial injustice

and a financial crisis have rocked our nation. Mentorship might be the last thing on your mind right

now, but it could be the answer to some of your problems. This is NPR's life kit, I'm Anjali Sastry.

I'm a producer at NPR and one of the co-founders of the marginalized genders and intersects people

of color mentorship program here. You've just heard from one of my mentors that I called up

recently. Her name's Martina Castro. Hello. Hello. Hi. Can you hear me? I can. Cool. She's a CEO and

founder of the podcast company Adon De Media. She's also a former NPR producer. As my mentor,

she's helped me figure out what I want to do in my career path. Martina and I chatted when

things were really going down with COVID-19 this spring. Self-quarantine measures and required

work from home orders were just being put in place. So we couldn't not talk about all that.

I live alone and debating whether to go stay with my dad and what that would entail. And yeah,

it is a tough time. How about you? Yeah, same. It's kind of, we just take for granted being able

to go anywhere at any time. Oh, yeah. Well, the good news is that I think exercise is super

encouraged. So I think we're going to honestly exercise is the thing that's keeping me sane right

now. Thank you, Martina for reminding me about that. Martina also dropped some practical professional

advice on me during our chat. This advice came from her mentor, Doug Mitchell. He coached me through my

first internship applications. When I didn't get into NPR as an intern the first time I applied,

...