Elise Hu

I am motivated in a similar way in that I often ask myself before I make a decision, how much will this help me learn and grow?

And is it in the direction that I want to learn and grow, you know, or maybe need to learn and grow?

And so that's an orienting question for me.

And then also, who are the people that you're surrounded by?

Like, who are the other players in this band?

And one thing that I generally talk to my kids about is you don't want to be the strongest player in the band.

You want to be like mid tier or the weakest player in the band, because that means you'll level up.

Yeah.

Or they'll help you level up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Molly, what do you think is a conversation about work that is most consistently avoided?

What's the thing that all of us experience maybe, but we don't say out loud or we don't talk about enough?

Yeah, because what is work or a workplace, but it's just a collection and a series of relationships that we have to navigate.

Absolutely.

And relationships are hard.

Molly Graham is the new host of Work Life, one of our TED podcasts.

Molly Graham, thank you so much.

That was Molly Graham at TED Next 2024 and later in conversation with me, Elise Hu.

Our conversation was recorded in April 2026.