ZigZag

On the final episode of The ZigZag Project, activist Stacey Abrams explains her short-term strategies for sticking to her long-term goals and Manoush shares data from surveying thousands of listeners about making a big career change. The project wraps up with one last assignment and Manoush’s favorite messages from listeners. It’s a tear jerker. The ZigZag Project is six steps (and episodes) to help you map out a path that aligns your personal values with your professional ambitions. Think of it as a RESET for your career or business. Find the assignments, survey, newsletter and more at ZigZagPod.com

Today is Step 5 of The ZigZag Project, our six-step process to get you from wanting to make a big change in your life and work...to actually making a change, in a responsible and mindful way. Now, as we move from ideation into action, we're getting coaching from Columbia Business School professor, psychologist, and stress researcher Modupe Akinola. Modupe explains why rethinking the scary feelings that come with all big life transitions is crucial as you decide, with the help of this episode’s assignment, which of your ideas--your paths--to actively pursue. The ZigZag Project is six steps (and episodes) to help you map out a path that aligns your personal values with your professional ambitions. Think of it as a RESET for your career or business. Find the assignments, survey, newsletter and more at ZigZagPod.com

On this episode of The ZigZag Project, we move into a more practical phase and start asking hard questions like: What might you need to sacrifice, in order to align your values with your work? Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett shares a story about what she gave up as a young aide, working for the city of Chicago. Manoush gives her own example and asks listeners to try a strange (but proven) methodology to figure out what changes are worth pursuing. The ZigZag Project is six steps (and episodes) to help you map out a path that aligns your personal values with your professional ambitions. Think of it as a RESET for your career or business. Find the assignments, survey, newsletter and more at ZigZagPod.com

The third step of The ZigZag Project requires getting weird. Because we're gonna need to dig deep to find new ways to roll back climate change, bring equity to society, and pay our bills. If, after a year of lockdowns and stress, you feel drained at the thought, meet Rob Walker, author of The Art of Noticing. Rob has some unusual ways to inspire you to get creative and figure out your next job, business model, or project. Manoush turns Rob’s insight into this episode’s assignment: The Board of All Ideas, No Matter How Weird. The ZigZag Project is six steps (and episodes) to help you map out a path that aligns your personal values with your professional ambitions. Think of it as a RESET for your career or business. Find the assignments, survey, newsletter and more at ZigZagPod.com

Conflict resolution specialist Priya Parker joins Manoush to talk about visioning: Taking time out of our daily lives to clarify our professional and personal purpose. With 60% of the project’s beta testers reporting that work is an important part of their identity (and 25% saying they define themselves by the work they do), picturing the future is a particularly crucial step. Manoush shares instructions for listeners to conduct their own visioning lab, similar to the session she did with Priya years ago, but with a ZigZag twist. The ZigZag Project is six steps (and episodes) to help you map out a path that aligns your personal values with your professional ambitions. Think of it as a RESET for your career or business. Find the assignments, survey, newsletter and more at ZigZagPod.com

We’re doing something different this season… The ZigZag Project is six steps (and episodes) to help you map out a path that aligns your personal values with your professional ambitions. Think of it as a RESET for your career or business. In this first episode, host Manoush Zomorodi shares stories and data from the 150 listeners who volunteered to test the project. We also learn why change requires spending time in “the neutral zone,” from MIT Humanist Chaplain Greg Epstein, and get our first assignment. Find the assignments, survey, newsletter and more at ZigZagPod.com.

You may have heard Aarti Shahani’s voice on the radio when she was NPR’s Silicon Valley reporter. The techies she interviewed often assumed she came from a family of engineers or scientists. Nothing could be further from the truth, Aarti says. Her parents brought her to the U.S. when she was a child. They overstayed their tourist visas, moved the family into a roach-infested apartment, and subsisted on welfare while looking for work. Eventually, they all got green cards and Aarti thrived as a American teenager…until the day her father was arrested at his electronics store in Manhattan for a crime he didn’t know he’d committed. Now Aarti is reporting her own story: why her parents migrated, what it took for the family to survive in the U.S. economy, and how their saga reflects the state of the “American Dream” right now. Plus, listeners share what’s happened to their careers, businesses, and mental health since the pandemic began. This is the final episode of Season 5 which explains six systemic problems and profiles six amazing people working to fix them. You can get updates and stay in touch with Manoush on Twitter @ManoushZ or @ZigZagPod on Twitter and Instagram. Or just sign up for the newsletter.

We recycle. But does it make a difference? We donate our old t-shirts. But does anyone want them? We try to shop less. But isn't that bad for the economy? On this episode, author Adam Minter explains the connections between our personal habits and a massive global network of recycling and secondhand markets...and he helps us consider: what would it take to build an economy that didn't depend on manufacturing yet more STUFF? Plus, Adam's own zig-zagging story: from growing up in a junkyard to carving out a career as an expert on the global recycling and reuse economies. This is the fifth episode of Season 5 which explains six systemic problems and profiles six amazing people working to fix them. Tell Manoush what’s going on with your career or company during these strange times @ZigZagPod on Twitter and Instagram or send a voice memo to ZigZag@StableG.com. You can also just say hi @ManoushZ

Carrie Goldberg‘s legal career changed course the year her ex-boyfriend relentlessly cyber-harassed her. At the time, the First Amendment protected his right to post nude photos of her and file (false) police reports against her. Frustrated and angry, Carrie quit her stable nonprofit job and started a law firm to help people dealing with abusers and stalkers. But, as Carrie explains, she quickly realized that finding justice for these victims required more than taking on their individual cases. She needed a three-pronged approach: come up with a business plan, challenge the law that protects tech platforms, and change a culture that weaponizes women’s sexuality. This is the fourth episode of Season 5 which explains six systemic problems and profiles six amazing people working to fix them. Tell Manoush what’s going on with your career or company during these strange times @ZigZagPod on Twitter and Instagram or send a voice memo to ZigZag@StableG.com. You can also just say hi @ManoushZ.

From his posts at Harvard and M.I.T., Greg Epstein observed that the tech industry– with its hierarchies and sacred texts–looked a lot like a religion…and his students worshipped at the alter of Elon Musk. The chaplain wondered: how could he counsel techies to build more humane products? On this episode, Greg explains why he decided to take an unusual side gig as TechCrunch’s ethicist-in-residence and bring his Humanist perspective to Silicon Valley. He also shares how he became an atheist chaplain, why he thinks so many college students are obsessed with exceptionalism, and his own personal epiphany about what it means to be human. This is the third episode of Season 5 which explains six systemic problems and profiles six amazing people working to fix them. Tell Manoush what’s going on with your career or company during these strange times @ZigZagPod on Twitter and Instagram or send a voice memo to ZigZag@StableG.com. You can also just say hi @ManoushZ.

In 2018, Backstage Capital's Arlan Hamilton was on the cover of Fast Company magazine. The headline was irresistible: homeless, gay, Black woman becomes hot-shot Silicon Valley investor. But the reality is that Black female founders still get token amounts of funding, despite being the fastest growing demographic in the startup world. On this episode, Arlan reflects on whether she's improved the plight of “underestimated and underrepresented” founders and how she explains privilege to white, male investors who don't understand the point of her investment fund. Plus, Manoush's daughter weighs in on entrepreneurship. This is the second episode of Season 5 which explains six systemic problems and profiles six amazing people working to fix them. Tell Manoush what’s going on with your career or company during these strange times @ZigZagPod on Twitter and Instagram or send a voice memo to ZigZag@StableG.com. You can also just say hi @ManoushZ.

When Eric Ries wrote The Lean StartUp he had no idea his book would inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs to ‘pivot’ and ‘iterate.’ Now Eric is 'disrupting' how we do business again. His Long Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) requires companies to change their measurements of success. Rather than live and die by quarterly earnings reports that require inhumane management tactics, companies on the LTSE have to do right by their employees, customers, and communities. Is that really so radical? This is the first episode of Season 5 which explains six systemic problems and profiles six amazing people working to fix them. Tell Manoush what’s going on with your career or company during these strange times @ZigZagPod on Twitter and Instagram or send a voice memo to ZigZag@StableG.com. You can also just say hi @ManoushZ.

ZigZag, the business podcast about being human, returns as a member of the TED family of podcasts.  Join this zig-zagging quest with Manoush Zomorodi (Host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour; Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business) to discover new ways we can align our ambitions with systemic change that’s good for our fellow human beings. On Season 5, Manoush profiles six unusual dynamos reinventing business, their industries, and even capitalism in the name of humanity. It will change the way you see your work and your self. Let Manoush know what’s going on with your career or company @ZigZagPod on Twitter and Instagram or send a voice memo to ZigZag@StableG.com. You can also just say hi @ManoushZ.

Two years ago, Jen and Manoush quit their jobs and became business partners. Today their adventure comes to an end. Hear how financial and parenting pressures in the age of COVID-19 forced them to make a hard choice. And what happens to this podcast.

The newsletter company Mailchimp made an impressive $700 million dollars in revenue in 2019 and, after 20 years, it’s still owned and operated by co-founders, Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius. On this episode, Ben shares his tactics for staying focused and calm through market crashes, tech disruptions, and now playing role model for CEOs who think success requires treating employees poorly. Manoush and Jen aren’t so sure about Ben’s advice regarding “scaling.” But as they play voice memos from listeners going through professional zigs zigs, they realize a serious truth about their own small business. **Who You’ll Hear: **@manoushz (Manoush Zomorodi, host of ZigZag and cofounder of Stable Genius Productions), @jpoyant (Jen Poyant, cohost of ZigZag and cofounder of Stable Genius Productions), @benchestnut (CEO and cofounder of Mailchimp) ZigZag is the business show about being human. Join a community of listeners riding the twists and turns of late-capitalism, searching for a kinder, more sustainable way. Manoush Zomorodi and Jen Poyant investigate how work and business impact our wellbeing and the planet we live on. On Seasons 4 and 5, hear from rebels and visionaries with radical ideas on how we can build stable lives, careers, and companies.  If you’re also interested in Jen and Manoush’s personal story and their adventures in starting their own business with a little help from blockchain technology, listen to the first three seasons, starting with Season 1, Chapter 1. Thank you for supporting us by using special offer codes from our sponsors, signing up for our free newsletter, and subscribing to the show on Apple Podcasts, GooglePodcasts, RadioPublic, Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, or Breaker.