Jodi Kantor

And her reporting has led to measurable changes in policy and practices across multiple industries.

Her new book, How to Start Discovering Your Life's Work, turns her attention to a different but equally urgent question, how young people begin and how they make decisions about work, purpose, and direction in a world where the existing rules no longer apply.

Jodi Kantor, welcome to Design Matters.

It's great to be with you, Debbie.

Jodi, I know that you're a native New Yorker, and I believe you've lived in four of the five boroughs.

Correct.

Which one haven't you ever lived in?

I've never lived in the Bronx.

I have to tell you that I am in a very similar situation.

I've lived in all of the boroughs except the Bronx.

I think you and I have some Staten Island history in common, Debbie.

Yes.

But I think that we should get a two-bedroom apartment in the Bronx and just live there for a season so we can say that we've lived in all five.

Deal.

Because I don't know anyone that's lived in all five.

You grew up in Staten Island.

I spent several years there as a child as well, just different timing.

You grew up in an immigrant family, reading the New York Times obsessively as a child, even before you could fully understand it.

But you've said you never imagined you could be one of the people writing those stories.

What prevented that leap from reader to author in your early thinking?