Jodi Kantor

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, by the time I was invited to give that commencement speech, I had been talking to young people for years, in part because after the Weinstein story, ever since the Weinstein story, Megan and I have been invited to a lot of campuses to speak.

And there are journalism kids who want to talk about that.

How do I do work?

That means something.

And I had witnessed this rising tide of cynicism about the workplace from young people.

And listen, it's a rational reaction.

In many ways.

But I had seen it on campuses.

I had, listen, my daughter's 20, you know, like I'd seen it around my dining table.

And when we think of young people starting their careers, sure, it's always been scary.

But what you want to see is a spirit of like, this is exciting and I'm learning and I can do great things and I can reach for the moon.

And I had felt something really powerful.

in the last couple of years, tremendous anxiety about finding a job, a feeling of apprehension about employers, a pessimism with rising housing costs, a feeling that even a good job wasn't going to be enough.

to make rent or eventually buy something decent.

And I was very concerned about those feelings.

And I think I felt also pulled into them because I've reported so many bad things about the workplace.

I had told those stories and warned people, but privately, I didn't want young people to give up or write it off.

You opened the book by describing the atmosphere at Columbia University when you gave the commencement address.

It had an air of doom.