How Boredom Became Her Big Idea: Meet The TED Radio Hour’s New Host

With social distancing in full effect for most of the world, many of us are rethinking how we spend our time and with whom. For Manoush Zomorodi, the author of Bored and Brilliant, this is old hat. “Before motherhood, I had been a journalist who rushed off when the Concorde crashed. Now, I was exhausted, walking 10 to 15 miles a day with a miserable, colicky baby,” Zomorodi shares in her TED talk. These long, boring walks pushing a stroller gave Zomorodi her big idea: connecting the dots between boredom and creativity. She turned this into a challenge for people to track their smartphone usage, a book and a TED talk, which has been viewed over 3 million times. And, just three years later, today Zomorodi succeeded Guy Raz as the host of the NPR podcast, the TED Radio Hour. She joined ForbesWomen to talk about her journey and the future of the TED Radio Hour.

Emily Joffrion: You’re taking the helm of a beloved podcast that sits at the intersection of two giant media companies. How did this happen?

Manoush Zomorodi: For me, it actually made a ton of sense. I’ve been a public media journalist for most of my life. I was at the BBC for a decade and then New York Public Radio, so sharing information that serves the public has always been my jam. About three years ago, I gave a TED talk and I felt like I became part of the TED family. So when TED and NPR approached me, it felt like a Venn Diagram with me overlapping in the middle. I started my career in audio and I’m so thrilled with where radio has gone with podcasting and the opportunity to reach millions of people. That doesn’t come along in the days of splintered media. For me, it was a no-brainer. Of course I had to do this.

Joffrion: You’ve been a war correspondent and a radio personality. You’ve written a book on boredom and you’ve taken the TED stage. How would you describe your style as a storyteller and your role as the host of TED Radio Hour?

Zomorodi: I’m always reporting about the big idea and how impacts people and culture, even at the BCC and at WNYC. Technology has been the lens I’ve used to understand that, but I’ve always been interested in the impact that tech has on us and our lives: the way we parent, the way we fall in love, the way we work. How does that impact people who live in communities? Their culture? As I’ve gotten older and become a parent, I’ve become more curious about what we can learn to make sense of this weird, wonderful thing called life.

When TED is your job, you get to talk to people — scientists, astronomers, musicians, writers — about their life’s work and connect their day-to-day grind (because it is a grind) to audiences in a way that they can actually apply it. So sharing these big ideas on a scale that makes it connect to listeners. That’s what I get to do with my life.

Joffrion: Motherhood was the bridge to Bored and Brilliant, which became a challenge, a book and a TED Talk. Did you plan this? What can women who are designing their careers learn from your journey?

Zomorodi: Just because you reach an offramp doesn’t mean you won’t have an onramp. Do not write yourself off, discount yourself or think there’s no way you will get back into a profession or career. There are so many different entry points. Go with whatever chapter you are in in the moment because it’s going to inform what happens next.

You know, I see so many women who want to be with their kids but also feel like they lose their identity or get behind. Many of them worry if they will ever be able to get back into the profession they were in previously. Not to say that it’s easy, but there are so many ways to work these days. It’s actually been really good for parents who work outside the home.

Joffrion: One of the great ironies unplugging for creativity is that it’s a lot of work and hustle to become visible when you’re a self-made woman. You’re competing for attention but also trying to manage the consequences of burn out. How have you managed that paradox?

Zomorodi: It is a very fine line. As we go through the process of promoting the TED Radio Hour and introducing me as the new host, I’ve felt really strongly that I didn’t want to flood social media and add to the cacophony. I don’t get it right every time, but I’m really trying because I believe that people’s attention is scarce and it’s important to look at the bigger picture and give people a moment to look at what’s happening in context.

I ask myself if this is the right thing to do. Do I really have something to say? Or am I just saying it because people think I should be saying something right now? I think if you’re adding to the conversation, you should add to the conversation. But not the noise.

Joffrion: There is a lot of noise in the media between citizen journalists, blogs and social media. That puts trusted media brands like NPR and TED in a position of being a curator and shaping the conversation. How do you look at that responsibility in the age of fake news? How do you make those decisions behind the scenes?

Zomorodi: First, I want to say hats off to all of the incredibly hard-working reporters who are on the front lines of the campaign trail and the coronavirus. I made a conscious choice to step away from the daily grind.

For us at TED and NPR, it’s about asking how our stories supplement the daily news. Frankly, we do need to stay informed on an hourly basis at this point, but how do you step back and reflect on how you, little human, fit into the broader context. Whether that’s about listening to an episode that has nothing to do with the coronavirus, because we need those breaks and life does go on. Or if we are sharing something that gives you a 30,000 foot view on really fast paced news story. Sometimes it takes a crisis to acknowledge that an institution like the press is hugely important and is a profession. Journalism is more important to our lives than it ever has been.

Joffrion: How did boredom set you up to take this bigger picture, 30,000 foot view?

Zomorodi: It was very mundane, pushing a stroller with a colicky baby. I didn’t have a smartphone yet. People weren’t on social media, there were lots of hours of walking and thinking and trying to decide how to balance contributing to the world and being there as a parent. I couldn’t keep traveling the world and taking every opportunity. I was the type of person who saw a help wanted sign in a coffee shop and thought, “I could do that!”

But taking space and walking and thinking every day, I decided that it was time to be more intentional about my choices. I started to understand that I have value and experience, that I can decide what to do. It doesn’t have to decide me. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something. I needed to do things that didn’t suck me dry. Things that made me feel like I was making the world just a little bit better for this little person that I brought into the world. It really made me think beyond myself. If I was going to be away from my kid, I wanted it to be something I could be proud of.

Joffrion: Outside of the baby industry, we don’t hear a lot about motherhood creating a career path for women.

Zomorodi: You know what else is funny? With the amount of sleep deprivation I had, I lost a filter. I was so exhausted that I started saying what I really thought and not being such a good girl. And people really responded to me. I realized that they liked the essence of me more than the me I was projecting to the world. That kind of freaked me out at first, but I was too tired to care.

Before then, I wanted to make sure that my hair was right and I wore the right things and everything I said was perfect. Then you have a kid and you’re like, “I showered. Be happy!”

Joffrion: How did you step into the limelight in the first place?

Zomorodi: It was an accident, and luck. It’s always a good amount of luck, but I also worked my ass off. But I was a news producer and I was covering the eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily and they thought the volcano has stopped erupting so the correspondent flew home to Rome. I couldn’t get a flight out and then the volcano started erupting again so they put me on TV. And I did great! You can’t do badly if there’s lava oozing behind you. You’re gonna win because even if you mess up the lava behind you is so mesmerizing.

So once that happened, I was like, “Oh, I can talk and I really like it. Maybe instead of making all these people better, I could step in and just do it.” That was the key moment with volcanic ashes in my hair.

Joffrion: What else should we know about you as the new host of TED Radio Hour?

Zomorodi: I want to acknowledge that, while some people will find this change exciting, there are a lot of fans who feel really connected to show and may be concerned about the change. I am a believer in that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, so I want to be clear that the show will not change that much. Listeners will still get all the great TED speakers and all of the TED great talks and ideas.

My hope is that I can bring my own twist to it as a woman, as a mom, as a first-generation American, as all of the things about me that are just a little bit different. This is a platform that a lot of people don’t get and I am just so grateful for it. I want to be of service to the listener and add to their day. Something we can’t make more of is time, so I want to be very respectful of taking people’s time and attention.