Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

In a pandemic, big city living loses its allure. As pricey, small spaces feel ever-more stifling, we talk with three people about leaving. 

Does talent matter? Researcher Angela Duckworth thinks it's not the most important thing. Exceptional performance requires passion and perseverance - it’s what Angela calls “grit.” In this conversation with Hello Monday host Jessi Hempel, Angela outlines her philosophy on grit, explains why grit isn’t the only trait that matters, and shows how each of us can move the needle forward in our own prof...

A linear life is a nice idea. But as 2020 has taught us, life is way more like a game of chutes and ladders. We’re up. We’re down. We’re sidelined by a global pandemic. Unexpected change can feel disorienting, but according to author Bruce Feiler, navigating through is also a huge opportunity for growth. Bruce sits down with Jessi to share the chutes and ladders that lead to his new book, Life is...

This week we draw from the archives to bring you Troy Carter. Troy bets on underdogs, and it pays off. This bears out in music (he managed Lady Gaga) and in investing (he bet early on companies like Uber and Warby Parker). In this conversation with Jessi Hempel, Troy shares how he made it from West Philly to Los Angeles, and what it taught him about taking risks.

We’re at a critical moment in the country, and the world. Protests against systemic injustice have touched every corner of the globe. Statement after statement of support has gone out. But what happens next? Saying Black Lives Matter is a great start (and they absolutely, unequivocally do). But that statement has to be followed by action if we’re going to make real change to inequitable systems. T...

In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and podcast host Charles Duhigg visits Jessi to discuss the relationship between work and meaning. Charles tells the story of his experience attending Harvard Business School and all that followed after. It turns out that a paycheck - even a fat one - doesn’t buy a meaningful life. Charles and Jessi dig deep on the perks and pitfalls of bu...

Author, business professor, and coach Dorie Clark is a master at reinvention. She learned to be. Her job evaporated after 9/11. In the years since, she’s written a number of books, including one called Reinventing You. She’s a communication coach, and she has taught at the business schools of both Columbia and Duke. On this episode of Hello Monday, Dorie and Jessi chat all about making a good Plan...

Earlier this year, just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down so much of the world, Jessi traveled to Tupelo, MS, to interview the founders of Blue Delta Jeans, Nick Weaver and Josh West for an episode of Hello Monday. Nick and Josh are small business owners with a twist: Their base of operations is in Tupelo, but their business - selling bespoke jeans - happens online and around the world. A bun...

Each week on Slate's How To! podcast, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, takes on his listeners' toughest problems. He calls up an expert, and together, they find answers. This week's question: How to Find a New Career Before it's Too Late. And that expert Charles called? It's our own Jessi Hempel. We're excited to welcome Charles to the Hello Monday fa...

A lot of people are between jobs right now. In the past, “go network” would have been Jessi’s first advice on how to change that. But there is no “let’s grab coffee” right now. And even if you can meet in person, the help is often less immediate and tangible. So many companies are just not hiring. So...how do we network now? Entrepreneur and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman joins Jessi to help her...

It's a holiday Monday in the United States, so this week on Hello Monday we're featuring a favorite conversation from last fall. Host Jessi Hempel sits down with Roxane Gay - the author of NYT bestsellers Bad Feminist and Hunger - for a conversation that touches on persistence in the face of rejection, discipline when honing a craft, and the power of being mentored, mentoring others, and creating...

More than two months into working from home, we've settled into some new routines. But the uncertainty of "what now, what next?" can feel intolerable. To learn how we can all build up some resilience, Hello Monday host Jessi Hempel welcomes psychotherapist and author Lori Gottlieb to the show. Lori is the bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, a frank and entertaining account of h...

Guy Raz got his start as a reporter and host on NPR. Then he left news to become one of podcasting’s earliest megastars with The TED Radio Hour. He launched one of the most popular podcasts in existence, How I Built This. It’s about to become a book. He has a kids’ show called Wow in the World. And he has a new show on Luminary, Wisdom from the Top. Guy is an expert interviewer, and in this episod...

FOMO Sapiens host Patrick McGinnis joins Hello Monday's host, Jessi Hempel, for a conversation on how to spend less time on small decisions that don't really matter. McGinnis is familiar with FOMO and FOBO - He was in business school when he coined both terms. He's gotten very good at spotting Fear of Missing Out, and Fear of a Better Option - even in the midst of a pandemic. He's also very, very...

This bonus episode of Hello Monday is a coda to our look at the lost art of 2020. We hear about three incidences of performing arts moving from physical landscapes to digital ones, and learn about what gets lost - and found - in the transition. Featuring playwright Ren Dara Santiago, artistic director Rob Neill, dancer Anke Veens, and composer/musician Wim te Groen.

Today we're bringing you the podcast version of our very first Hello Monday LIVE, featuring Jessi in conversation with investor and author Arlan Hamilton. Hamilton shares her journey from homelessness to head of her own VC firm, Backstage Capital. She answers listener questions on how to overcome underestimation, and she and Jessi both speak on the importance of the leadership group Out in Tech to...

In this, the second of our two part series on the lost art of 2020, we look at what's being created that didn't - and maybe even, couldn't - exist in the time before physical distancing practices made gathering for art and music impossible. Jessi speaks to producer Kabir Sehgal about his Quarantine Concert Series. These nightly online living room concerts are paying gigs - critical for homebound p...

On today's bonus episode of Hello Monday, Jessi visits with Broadway and TV star Laura Benanti. This spring, as schools everywhere closed, school musicals got cut off. Lots of teens who’d been practicing for their big moment onstage suddenly lost the chance to perform. Benanti knew how hard they'd worked, and remembered how much her own school shows had meant to her. So she offered to become an au...

On March 9, Jessi attended the launch for Glennon Doyle’s new book, Untamed. It was a magical night, full of promise and potential. It was also the last time in 2020 that Jessi would gather in a room of people. Two days later, Glennon canceled the tour. Now, she chats with Jessi about what that decision meant for her career and for her community, and kicks off our look at where art goes, when the...

As writer and director of last year’s standout film The Farewell, Lulu Wang was set to have a banner year. Her film cleaned up at the awards, winning accolades at The Globes, Critics Choice Awards, and the Independent Spirit Awards among others. Jessi was set to interview her for the show at SXSW in March. Then there was no SXSW. Now Lulu has thrown herself into collecting personal protection equi...

Like most people we know, actor LeVar Burton is quarantined at home right now. The former Reading Rainbow host is trying to make sense of it all. And for him, a huge part of that journey is figuring out how he can show up for others. He's determined to keep sharing his storytelling gifts and his wisdom with the world, even when he can't leave his house. In this episode, he and Jessi talk about wha...

It's been a rough week. So Jessi got on a call with Nancy Lublin, the CEO of Crisis Text Line. Nancy shared how coronavirus is changing what people need to talk about - and who's reaching out. She also gave insights into how people are being helped through this very difficult time - and how they're helping one another - via text. Need to reach a trained counselor? Text 741741. Interested in becomi...

Attorney and activist Ally Coll left her post at prominent law firm Boies Schiller after learning of the firm's partnership with Black Cube in its defense of now-convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein. She founded the Purple Campaign - an organization devoted to making workplaces more inclusive and harassment-free. Two years in, she'll share what's working and what's still to be done. We also che...

Actor, musician, and philanthropist Kevin Bacon talks to Jessi about leveraging the power of our interconnectedness to encourage each other to stay home during this critical time, using his SixDegrees. Org's new initiative, #IStayHomeFor.

This week on Hello Monday, Jessi sits down with Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Stanford professors and the authors of Designing Your Work Life. This lively conversation investigates the power each of us has to make small/work life changes with big impact - even when we can't necessarily change our circumstances. We also hear from listener Min Yang, who shares her story of living through the lengthy...