Elise Hu

That's company and community builder Molly Graham.

In 2024, she gave a popular TED talk about why the best careers are built by people willing to take risks, embrace being a beginner, and keep going even when things get messy.

Today, she's stepped into a major new role.

She's taking the helm of the TED podcast Work Life at a time when the future of work feels especially uncertain.

We caught up with Molly earlier this month to look back at her talk and what it's like to jump off this new proverbial cliff.

We get into the emotional side of work, how to tell the difference between good fear and bad fear, and what it means to reinvent yourself at midlife.

We also get into mentorship, the stories we inherit about who we're supposed to be and how Molly is thinking about all of this as she begins this new chapter.

The talk is first and then the conversation.

It's all coming up after a short break.

Don't go away.

My conversation with Molly Graham is coming right up.

Molly, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Elise.

I'm happy to be here.

Listeners just heard your talk again, so they know the general framework and the new season of Work Life with you as host just launched.

You have spoken openly about the fear that you felt taking this on, but that it was also a risk worth taking.

Why?

You have said that you want work life to kind of be a mentor that not everybody gets access to.

And when you think about the mentors who've shaped your own life and your trajectory, what do you feel like they have given you?

And then ideally, the show serves that kind of role for some listeners as well, and hopefully has the topics that folks are needing to hear in the moment they need to hear them.