Hey there, Shankar here. We're dropping this episode on September 22nd, 2025. That's 10 years to the day since we first launched Hidden Brain into the world.

Welcome to the first episode of the Hidden Brain podcast. I'm Shankar Vedantham. You may know me as a lot has changed since we started this podcast. But for us, one thing remains steadfast.

Week in and week out, we love making the show for you. It's been our calling.

So today, we mark this anniversary with an episode about just that. Callings and how finding

one can change our lives.

If you've been listening to Hidden Brain for many years, please come to my live tour.

I'll be in Baltimore on October 11th, in Washington, D.C. on October 12th, and in Los Angeles on November 22nd. More dates are coming in 2026. I'll be sharing seven key insights from the first decade of the show.

For more information and tickets, go to hiddenbrain.org slash tour. Again, that's hiddenbrain.org

slash tour. Hope to see you there, and here's today's show.

This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.

In 2005, an intense man with a receding hairline and glasses stood before thousands of young graduates in Palo Alto, California.

He wore dark robes with a hood of Cardinal Red.

Truth be told, he joked, I never graduated from college,

and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

The speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford University's commencement that year

didn't just transfix his audience.

It would transfix countless other audiences in the years to come.

His central message was simple.

As he put it, your time is limited.

Don't waste it living someone else's life.

I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.

You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for work as it is for your lovers.

...