Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

Finding your path to a meaningful career has never felt more complicated. The job market is entirely unpredictable, AI is reading your resume, and entire industries seem to be disappearing. 

It’s a particularly uncertain moment to be entering the workforce for the first time. This week on Hello Monday, Jessi Hempel talks with Jodi Kantor about navigating the early years of a career. 

Jodi is one of the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story, igniting the Me Too movement. Last year, she delivered a commencement speech to Columbia’s class of 2025, offering practical and comforting advice for young people on the cusp of their professional lives. She’s expanded on that guidance in her new book, How to Start, which offers a roadmap to a meaningful career.

In this episode, Jessi and Jodi discuss:

Why the early stages of a career are inherently difficult, and how to embrace a “fruitful struggle” instead of giving up

Jodi’s own winding path, from law school dropout to journalist

How the job search itself has changed, including the rise of AI interviews and increasingly impersonal hiring processes

Why the real measure of a career isn’t prestige or stability, but how connected you feel to the work in your day-to-day tasks

The challenge of distinguishing your own voice and interests from expectations coming from parents, culture, or conventional career advice

Why trying to game the job market or chase the “safe” profession rarely works

How to hold onto the belief that work can be meaningful, satisfying, and sustainable, even in a difficult job market

How cold calling doesn’t get easier, and why you should do it anyway

This episode is for anyone starting out, starting over, or helping someone else navigate the messy early chapters of a career.

Follow Jodi Kantor and Jessi Hempel on LinkedIn

If you feel like your attention span has shrunk, you’re not imagining it.

According to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, our phones and social platforms have fundamentally reshaped childhood, work, and our ability to focus. In his bestselling book The Anxious Generation, Jon argues that the rise of smartphones and social media triggered what he calls the “great rewiring of childhood.” But the consequences extend far beyond kids.

In this episode of Hello Monday, Jessi talks with Jon about what constant connectivity is doing to our minds,how we got here, and why reclaiming our attention may be one of the most important challenges of our time.

Jon and Jess discuss:

How smartphones reshaped adolescent development

Why social media use is linked strongly to rising anxiety and depression among young people

How tech platforms are intentionally designed to capture and fragment our attention

Why today’s digital tools isolate people

Practical steps families, workplaces, and individuals can take to reclaim focus and develop healthier tech habits

Why restoring unstructured play, independence, and boredom is critical for healthy development

At its core, this conversation asks a simple question: What happens when an entire society loses control of its attention, and how do we get it back?

Find Jon’s new book for kids, The Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-Filled World, here. 

Follow Jonathan Haidt and Jessi Hempel on LinkedIn.

Do you think of your beliefs as immutable facts? If so, you might be holding yourself back.

In this episode of Hello Monday, Jessi Hempel sits down with Nir Eyal, bestselling author whose work sits at the intersection of psychology, technology, and human potential. His latest book, Beyond Belief, explores how the stories we tell ourselves shape our motivation, and how changing those stories can change our outcomes.

In this conversation, Jessi and Nir explore how limiting beliefs take hold, why our brains default to helplessness, and how we can challenge the narratives that keep us stuck.

Jessi and Nir discuss:

Why beliefs should be treated as tools, not truths

How limiting beliefs undermine motivation and progress

The “motivation triangle” and why belief is essential to action

Why we often quit too early, and what a famous rat experiment reveals about persistence

A practical method for questioning assumptions and collecting new perspectives

Why visualization can actually hurt motivation, and what to do instead

The difference between pain and suffering, and why separating the two matters

At the heart of Nir’s work is a simple idea: our minds default to safety and survival, not growth. But when we learn to question the beliefs that hold us back, we can unlock more motivation, agency, and possibility in our lives.

Follow Nir Eyal and Jessi Hempel on LinkedIn.

Office Hours are back! Join Jessi live from her LinkedIn page on Wednesday 4/1 at 3pm EST.

Women spend nearly a decade more of their lives in poor health than men. It’s a gap that doesn’t just affect individuals, it holds back entire organizations.

This week on Hello Monday, Jessi Hempel sits down with Melinda French Gates, philanthropist and founder of Pivotal, and Regina E. Dugan, President and CEO of Wellcome Leap, to unpack the health disparities impacting women at work, and explore what it will take to close them.

Melinda and Regina both operate at the intersection of capital, science, and equity. Together, they are rethinking how we invest in women’s health, examining why progress has been so slow, and identifying what leaders can do to drive meaningful change.

Jessi, Melinda, and Regina discuss:

Why women spend more years in poor health, and how that affects their careers

The ways health inequities limit advancement and economic opportunity

Why investing in women’s health isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s a smart move financially

The role senior leadership plays in reshaping outcomes for women at work

How policy, science, and leadership all play a part in closing the health gap for women

Follow Melinda French Gates, Regina E. Dugan, and Jessi Hempel on LinkedIn

This conversation was recorded live in Bellevue, Washington. If you’re a premium member, you can watch the extended version, featuring lots more audience questions, here.

We will be launching the Hello Monday book club soon. If you’re interested in joining, send us an email at [email protected] and let us know!

AI is reshaping industries and jobs faster than most of us can keep up. But futurist Amy Webb argues we have more control over what lies ahead than we might think. 

In today’s episode, Jessi Hempel sits down with Amy, founder and CEO of the Future Today Strategy Group and one of the world’s leading experts on strategic foresight. For nearly two decades, Amy’s annual tech trends report has helped leaders understand what’s coming next, and what to do about it.

Amy and Jessi explore the concept of creative destruction—the economic force that disrupts old systems to make room for new ones—and what today’s wave of AI-driven change means for workers, leaders, and organizations.

Amy and Jessi discuss:

What creative destruction really means, and why we should embrace it

How AI and emerging technologies are transforming industries faster than many leaders expect

How leaders can strategically prepare for trends and crises, rather than merely reacting to them

Why organizations need to invest in foresight and long-term thinking

How individuals can position themselves to adapt and thrive during rapid transformation

Follow Amy Webb and Jessi Hempel on LinkedIn

Learn more about The Future Today Strategy Group

Watch Amy’s 2026 SXSW talk 

We will be launching the Hello Monday book club soon. If you’re interested in joining, send us an email at [email protected]