Sunday Pick: How Adam Grant uses data and intuition to make life decisions | from WorkLife with Molly Graham
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
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Summary
Most of us assume data-driven people make data-driven decisions. Not quite. Adam Grant has built a career helping others think more clearly — but when it comes to his own career, the most important calls he’s made didn’t have clear data behind them. So how did he decide? In this first episode of WorkLife with Molly Graham, Adam joins Molly to talk about how he actually navigates uncertainty — the four questions he asks before committing to any big project, what he calls “deliberate then dive”, and how he measures success when the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Featured guest
- Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
- Subscribe to Adam’s substack
Connect with the team
- Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
- Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
- Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
- Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Happy Sunday, Elise Hugh here. |
| 0:06.0 | Today, we are really excited to share with you the first episode of the new season of the TED podcast, WorkLife. |
| 0:13.6 | And what's more? Worklife has a new host. It's Molly Graham. Many here will know her from her popular TED Talk from 2024. You heard it here on the feed yesterday, along with a conversation I recently had with her. For today's episode, most of us assume data-driven people make data-driven decisions. Not quite. Adam Grant has built a career helping others think more clearly, but when it comes to his own career, |
| 0:38.7 | the most important calls he's made didn't have clear data behind them at all. So how did he |
| 0:43.7 | decide? In Molly's first episode hosting WorkLife, she speaks with Adam Grant, host of Ted's |
| 0:49.4 | rethinking podcasts and the former host of Work Life, to talk about how he actually navigates uncertainty. |
| 0:55.3 | The four questions he asks before committing to any big project and how he measures success |
| 1:00.1 | when the numbers don't tell the whole story. If you want to learn more ways to work smarter, |
| 1:04.6 | you're in luck. You can find WorkLife wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about all of |
| 1:09.5 | Ted's podcasts at Podcast. Podcasts.com. |
| 1:12.9 | Now on to the episode right after a quick break. |
| 1:16.7 | Hey, worklife first., it's Adam Grant. |
| 1:28.6 | I'm excited to do this today. |
| 1:31.4 | We're actually handing off WorkLife to a new host, Molly Graham, who is a tech superstar. |
| 1:38.5 | And I thought I would take today as a chance to get inside her head and figure out what motivates |
| 1:43.5 | her, how does she work, |
| 1:45.4 | what's she going to teach us as she hosts this show. So Molly Graham, welcome to work life. |
| 1:50.6 | Thanks, Adam. But just so you know, I'm actually interviewing you today. |
| 1:54.8 | Wait, what? |
| 1:57.3 | Yeah. |
| 1:57.9 | Wait, I'm sorry. I thought this was still my show. |
| 2:00.6 | Nope, it's my show now. So we get to interview you. Okay, here we go. Hi, Adam. Welcome to the new work life. |
... |
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