S5 EP5: Changing Our Relationship to STUFF

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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected]. You can also just say hi @ManoushZ.