Going Through It

In 2012, Ellen Pao was fighting discrimination on two fronts: in the courtroom, where she brought a gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer Kleiner Perkins, and at work, where she attempted to change the culture of Reddit as its interim CEO. Before the end of that year, Pao both lost her case, and resigned. She talks to host Ann Friedman about her decision to keep working to change the tech industry, even after everything fell apart.

When Franklin Leonard found himself out of his big-wig Hollywood job, he wanted to mope. His mentor, the legendary Hollywood attorney Nina Shaw, wasn’t having it.

In the fall of 1965, 18-year-old Hillary Rodham left home and moved almost 1,000 miles away from everything that was familiar. Far from her parents, and far from her small Midwestern community where she was an academic superstar. And she began her first year at Wellesley College, a place she never expected would bring out her deepest insecurities. What happens when you’re afraid you can’t hack it, and you’re tempted to just give up?

In 1999, Antje Danielson wanted to start a car-sharing company. But she was a scientist, not a businesswoman, and she knew she couldn’t do it alone. After launching Zipcar with her friend Robin Chase, Danielson had to come to terms with one of her biggest mistakes: asking a close friend to become an equal partner in her company. Danielson tells host Ann Friedman what happened when Chase fired her, and why her choice to walk away ultimately saved the company.

Samin Nosrat built her career and her identity as a chef. She studied cooking in Italy, worked at the revered Chez Panisse, and launched her own pop-up catering company to overnight success. But none of this was what she actually wanted to do. Nosrat wanted to write. She talks to host Ann Friedman about how scary it was to push the reset button on her life.