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With warmth, honesty, and inspired wisdom, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jodi Kantor expands on her triumphant Columbia University commencement address, tackling the question, “How, in this environment, is anyone supposed to find and start their life’s work?”Jodi Kantor’s groundbreaking reporting has toppled media magnates, sparked reform worldwide, and foretold many of the unsettling changes we see in the workplace today. But before all of this, Kantor was kicked off her college newspaper. Society expects perfection, but Kantor knows those first professional steps are often rocky. She also knows that young people are facing new and frightening terrain, with political upheaval, skyrocketing costs of living, and the unknowns of AI.
Kantor casts aside platitudes and false hope to offer tangible help. Work is how we spend much of our time. It’s our engine of progress: how cancer therapies are invented, political campaigns won, thrilling art created and matched with an audience. Instead of letting cynicism take over, Kantor identifies two principles to help young people discover their life’s work: craft and need. By pairing the two, they can navigate tough, sensitive choices: how to think about money. How much risk to take on. When to buck what others are saying.
Powerful and provocative, How to Start is a statement of faith for young people as they make their way through uncertain times, offering wisdom, strategy, and a set of aspirations to launch their careers and last their whole lives.
The talk will be moderated by Astronaut Cady Coleman. Dr. Cady Coleman is a celebrated former NASA Astronaut and retired Air Force Colonel, with over 180 days in space: two missions on the Space Shuttle Columbia and a six-month expedition aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as the Lead Robotics and Science Officer. Her many leadership roles at NASA included Chief of Robotics for the Astronaut Office and Lead Astronaut for supply ship integration, where she pioneered strategic partnerships with SpaceX and others, paving the way for commercial spaceflight collaborations that are now commonplace.
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Event venue
Symphony Hall, Springfield, United States
Tickets
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