WorkLife: The dangers of identity capitalism with Jia Tolentino
ReThinking
TED
4.7 • 626 Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this season of WorkLife, we’re pairing each of our regular episodes with a companion interview to do a deeper dive into the topic. This is the deeper dive for our episode on the case against personal branding. Jia Tolentino is a writer at The New Yorker, screenwriter, and author of Trick Mirror—as a lauded culture critic, she’s a keen observer (and occasional victim) of the pressures we all face to brand ourselves online. Jia and Adam discuss the dark side of self-surveillance, the dangers of identity capitalism, and the routes to greater authenticity.
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Host: Adam Grant (Instagram: @adamgrant | LinkedIn: @adammgrant | Website: adamgrant.net/)
Guest: Jia Tolentino (Instagram: @jiatortellini | Website: jia.blog/)
Links
newyorker.com/contributors/jia-tolentino
Book: Trick Mirror
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ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sean has had some good ideas over the years. |
| 0:05.0 | But using Canva was a really good one. |
| 0:08.0 | Sean designed some social posts to promote his friend's car boot sale. |
| 0:13.0 | They looked good. |
| 0:15.0 | Really, really good. |
| 0:17.0 | Next thing he knows, someone came and bought the lot, including the car. |
| 0:24.5 | Now Sean doesn't know how he's going to get home. |
| 0:28.0 | Thanks, Canva. |
| 0:30.2 | Gina's a muncher. |
| 0:32.4 | Jackson Nibbler. |
| 0:34.8 | Lucy likes to linger. |
| 0:39.7 | But not for too long And Harry |
| 0:40.8 | Thank you Harry |
| 0:43.1 | Macardo is the crunchy biscuit stick |
| 0:45.5 | dipped in smooth milk chocolate |
| 0:47.3 | And makes other biscuits look so |
| 0:48.8 | Ordinary |
| 0:49.7 | Macado is deliciously Moorish |
| 0:52.3 | However you enjoy it |
| 0:53.5 | Make every day more Macardo. |
| 0:56.5 | Grab a pack in your local store today. |
| 0:58.5 | Find Macardo in the Biscuit Isle. |
... |
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