There is an invisible, on-demand workforce of gig workers who fuel services offered by digital platforms like Google, Amazon, Uber and Microsoft. In this episode, we hear from researcher Mary L. Gray who says this kind of work—possible through the magic of AI and APIs—is becoming more common, and for good reason. It typically offers flexibility for workers and cost savings for businesses. The only problem? We might need to revamp our entire social safety net to support a workforce of free agents...
Jul 19, 2021•13 min
Rising inequality and growing political instability are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory, says entrepreneur Nick Hanauer. In a visionary talk, he dismantles the mantra that "greed is good"—an idea he describes as not only morally corrosive, but also scientifically wrong—and lays out a new theory of economics powered by reciprocity and cooperation. No lesson this week as we prepare for the new season, but we'll be back again soon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...
Jul 12, 2021•17 min
We’re taking some time off while we prepare for our next season. In the meantime, this bonus episode amplifies an important call to brands who do business in Africa. Emerging markets expert Nomava Zanazo says many international companies underestimate their African customers and make costly assumptions about their diversity, preferences and buying power. Sharing the basics about what companies need to know to succeed on the continent, Zanazo debunks four myths and misunderstandings about Africa ...
Jul 05, 2021•13 min
We’re taking a few weeks off while we prepare the next season. So in the meantime, we’re sharing another episode from the TED Audio Collective that we thought you, of all people, might enjoy. It’s from The TED Interview, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson. From the strikes that transformed the world's view on climate change to the marches that demanded equity and justice for Black lives, there has been a new awakening of people passionate about creating change. As founder and CEO of Acumen, Ja...
Jun 28, 2021•1 hr 1 min
We’re taking a few weeks off while we prepare the next season. So in the meantime, we’re sharing another episode from the TED Audio Collective that we thought you, of all people, might enjoy. It’s from The TED Interview, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson. What does it take to persevere and succeed, not just in our careers but in all aspects of our lives? For psychologist Angela Duckworth, the answer can be summed up in one concept: grit. She explains the ingredients in grit and the experience...
Jun 21, 2021•1 hr 1 min
We all know relationships are hard to manage. And our work relationships—tangled with power, status and interdependence—are no exception. Last week, we heard a talk from Katie Hood. Katie is the CEO of One Love, an organization that teaches students around the world about the signs of healthy and unhealthy love. She also has a long background in business. So in this episode, Katie and Modupe dig deep into what it takes to build healthier relationships at work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...
Jun 14, 2021•25 min
On the final episode of The ZigZag Project, activist Stacey Abrams explains her short-term strategies for sticking to her long-term goals and Manoush shares data from surveying thousands of listeners about making a big career change. The project wraps up with one last assignment and Manoush’s favorite messages from listeners. It’s a tear jerker. The ZigZag Project is six steps (and episodes) to help you map out a path that aligns your personal values with your professional ambitions. Think of it...
Jun 11, 2021•27 min
Friends, family, and yes, colleagues. We all know relationships are hard to manage, and our work relationships – tangled with power, status and interdependence – are no exception. In this two-part episode, we’ll hear a talk from Katie Hood. Katie is the CEO of One Love, an organization that teaches students around the world about the signs of healthy and unhealthy love. She also has a long background in business, and went to business school with Modupe back in the day. So this week and next, the...
Jun 07, 2021•13 min
We typically think of mentoring as the older generation passing down wisdom to the young, but there are benefits to flipping this around. There’s even a term for it: reverse mentorship. In this episode, we hear from Patrice Gordon about her experience reverse mentoring not just anyone, but the CEO of Virgin Atlantic. After the talk, Modupe identifies what anyone can do to help build a culture that allows knowledge to flow up in addition to down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in...
May 31, 2021•10 min
Today, another episode from ZigZag, hosted by Manoush Zomorodi. This is Step 5 of The ZigZag Project, a six-step process to get you from wanting to make a big change in your life and work...to actually making a change, in a responsible and mindful way. And, as the project moves from ideation into action, we're getting coaching from none other than TED Business host Modupe Akinola. Modupe explains why rethinking the scary feelings that come with all big life transitions is crucial as you decide, ...
May 28, 2021•23 min
What turns a developing country into a prosperous one? For years, Efosa Ojomo has been trying to answer this question. And what he has found – through starting his own nonprofit in Nigeria, doing research at Harvard Business School and writing a book called The Prosperity Paradox with Clay Christensen – reverses many of our existing ideas around aid. In this talk, Efosa lays out a new approach to fighting poverty that identifies innovation as the key driver of prosperity. But how does one build ...
May 24, 2021•27 min
To futureproof your job against robots and AI, you should learn how to code, brush up on your math skills and crack open an engineering textbook, right? Wrong. In this surprisingly comforting talk, tech journalist Kevin Roose makes the case that rather than trying to compete with the machines, we should instead focus on what makes us uniquely human. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 17, 2021•13 min
Today, another episode from ZigZag, hosted by Manoush Zomorodi. This is episode 4 of The ZigZag Project, a special season all about how to realign your work with your core values. In step 4, we move into a more practical phase and start asking hard questions like: What might you need to sacrifice, in order to align your values with your work? Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett shares a story about what she gave up as a young aide, working for the city of Chicago. Manoush gives her own example and ask...
May 14, 2021•17 min
Why do we encourage kids to play sports? Why does writing “captain of the lacrosse team” mean anything on a résumé? And why don’t we extend that same respect to people who play video games at the highest levels? In this episode, William Collis, maestro of esports – aka competitive video games – makes the case that video games develop real, tangible and transferable skills. And it’s time that we appreciate them. So, after the talk, Modupe figures out how we can bring more video games into the wor...
May 10, 2021•15 min
Profit, money, shareholders: these are the priorities of most companies today. But at what cost? In an appeal to corporate leaders worldwide, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya calls for an end to the business playbook of the past – and shares his vision for a new, "anti-CEO playbook" that prioritizes people over profits. "This is the difference between profit and true wealth," he says. After the talk, Modupe offers some simple practices that can help leaders realize this vision, by putting people ba...
May 03, 2021•19 min
Today, another episode from ZigZag, hosted by Manoush Zomorodi. This is episode 3 of The ZigZag Project, a special season all about how to realign your work with your core values. The third step requires getting weird. Because we're gonna need to dig deep to find new ways to roll back climate change, bring equity to society, and pay our bills. If, after a year of lockdowns and stress, you feel drained at the thought, meet Rob Walker, author of The Art of Noticing. Rob has some unusual ways to in...
Apr 30, 2021•17 min
If it’s the richest country in the world, why does the American economy fail so much of the American public? Heather C. McGhee is a public policy expert who has spent the past several years trying to understand that question. Her conclusion, carefully detailed in a NYT bestselling book called The Sum of US, is that racism leads to bad public policy. Policies that have a cost for everyone—not just people of color. In this talk, she proposes a new way of thinking that can lead to a more prosperous...
Apr 26, 2021•26 min
The pandemic showed HR consultant Patty McCord something she has been espousing for years: workers are adults, with responsibilities and obligations. It seems obvious, yet at work, so many people are treated like children: too much oversight, micromanaged, with rules that get in the way of performance, rather than enhance it. But before you go set everyone free, how do you separate the rules that liberate from the ones that constrain? In this episode, hosts Corey Hajim and Modupe Akinola wrestle...
Apr 19, 2021•20 min
Today, an episode from another show in the TED Audio Collective: ZigZag, hosted by Manoush Zomorodi. This is episode 2 of The ZigZag Project, a special season all about how to realign your work with your core values. Conflict resolution specialist Priya Parker joins Manoush to talk about visioning: Taking time out of our daily lives to clarify our professional and personal purpose. With 60% of the project’s beta testers reporting that work is an important part of their identity (and 25% saying t...
Apr 16, 2021•17 min
As technology gets smarter and encroaches on more and more jobs, we have to face a question: how do we differentiate the work that humans should do from the work machines should do? In other words, no matter how smart the machines get, what will humans always do better? In this talk, Kai Fu Lee, technology investor and author of AI Superpowers, offers a surprising answer: love. And proposes nothing short of a redesign of the labor market to prioritize jobs that require compassion. But why wait? ...
Apr 12, 2021•18 min
To accomplish environmental change at the scale and pace we need, huge corporations have to make some fundamental changes. How will they do it? In this talk, the head of sustainability at Google, Kate Brandt, shows how one of the biggest companies in the world is aiming to translate techniques from nature, to build a circular system where nothing goes to waste. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 05, 2021•14 min
The past year changed us. We’re defining success differently. We’re ready for a reset. So for the next few months, we're sharing something special: The ZigZag Project, another show from the TED Audio Collective. In six episodes of ZigZag, a podcast about being human, host Manoush Zomorodi will help you better align your personal values with your professional ambitions. In a process that has been beta tested by listeners and with insight from luminaries who have helped her stay the course, the sh...
Apr 02, 2021•21 min
More and more, we buy through online marketplaces: Amazon, Uber, Airbnb — the list goes on. But this convenience and efficiency comes with a hidden cost, mostly to small local businesses and workers. Does it have to be that way? Amane Dannouni doesn’t think so. In this talk, the BCG technology consultant shares stories we’re not used to hearing: of online apps in Southeast Asia and Africa that have found a way to help local economies, even as they disrupt them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...
Mar 29, 2021•14 min
We’re seeing more and more full-time work replaced with part-time jobs, contract work, side gigs. “The term side hustle just seems to fit with this ethos where people are putting together a few different things to make a living,” says Nicaila Matthews Okome. Nicaila is the host of Side Hustle Pro, a podcast that spotlights Black female entrepreneurs. And in this talk she introduces us to the entrepreneurial spirit inside today’s side hustle revolution. Is a side hustle right for you? How do you ...
Mar 22, 2021•12 min
You know the "forgotten middle": they're the students, coworkers and regular people who are often overlooked because they're seen as neither exceptional nor problematic. How can we empower them to reach their full potential? In this talk, Danielle R. Moss describes how her mother’s special attention allowed her to climb out of the middle and towards her potential. Now, she offers that same kind of attention to high school students across the country. After the talk, Modupe and Corey explore what...
Mar 15, 2021•23 min
What do companies get when they go public on a major stock exchange? The opportunity for anyone to invest, giving the company access to a bunch of cash that allows for huge growth. And...pressure to think in the short term. This can end up hurting their workers, the environment, and even their own long-term strategy. In this episode, a proposal for a new kind of stock exchange, that isn’t just trying to shift a few rules but is building a whole new system to incentivize thinking in the long term...
Mar 08, 2021•16 min
Last week, you heard the latest thinking from Adam Grant, organizational psychologist extraordinaire, about his newest book. This week, we dive into the archives for a classic. We have a lot of ideas about what leads to our most creative thoughts. Today, Adam and Modupe tell us why we’re wrong. You might want to bring a pen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 01, 2021•20 min
Some exciting news. Today, TED is launching the TED Audio Collective, a collection of podcasts all about ideas, brought to you in audio. So we’re sharing an episode we thought you’d like that features not one, but two TED hosts. In Design Matters, Debbie Millman interviews creative people about how they design the arc of their lives. In this episode, she interviews Adam Grant, organizational psychologist and host of WorkLife. Together, they examine his astonishing career—quite an exercise with s...
Feb 22, 2021•1 hr 16 min
Did you know that in the US the average white family has ten times as much wealth as a black family? Ten times. But while we wait for government policies to shrink that gap, we all decide where our money goes. So how can we collectively chip away at that gap, now? In this episode, we find out. First, through a talk by BCG consultant Kedra Newsome Reeves that follows her family through generations to understand how policy helped build this gap—and what financial institutions can do now to shrink ...
Feb 15, 2021•23 min
Feelings are complicated. And even more so at work. We like to believe the ultimate professional is stoic, but what important information do we miss when we disregard our emotions on the job? In this episode, Harvard psychologist Susan David helps us break free from the "tyranny of positivity" and embrace the full range of our emotions. After the talk, Modupe extends this idea to the workplace by examining a time she shed tears at a meeting with colleagues. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...
Feb 08, 2021•24 min
