Manoush Zomorodi
Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.
Zomorodi is a co-founder of Stable Genius Productions and is the co-host and co-creator of ZigZag, the business podcast about being human. She also created, hosted, and was managing editor of the podcast Note to Self in partnership with WNYC Studios, which was named Best Tech Podcast of 2017 by The Academy of Podcasters.
Prior to her time at WNYC, Zomorodi reported and produced around the world for BBC News and Thomson Reuters, including a few years in Berlin.
She was named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2018 and has received numerous awards for her work, including The Gracie for Best Radio Host in 2014 and 2018. Her book "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Creative Self" (2017, St. Martin's Press) and her TED Talk are guides to surviving information overload and the "Attention Economy."
Zomorodi received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in English and fine arts. She is half-Persian and half-Swiss but was born in New York City, where she lives with her family.
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Artist Matthew Mazzotta says every community needs public spaces to gather, discuss, and address issues. He works with towns to reimagine overlooked buildings and give them a new public purpose.
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Public places don't always fully meet the needs of a community. Shari Davis explains how participatory budgeting can give us all a voice in creating safer and more equitable public spaces.
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Wikipedian Jake Orlowitz describes how volunteers update the world's largest encyclopedia. And co-founder Jimmy Wales says the site must not only be a neutral space, but one that encourages diversity.
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Eli Pariser has an optimistic vision for our digital public spaces. He says that by structuring them like real-life parks, libraries, and town halls, we can create more welcoming, safe places online.
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Legendary oceanographer Sylvia Earle has been exploring and working to protect our oceans for more than half a century. Her message has stayed the same: we're taking our oceans for granted.
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In 1998, Alasdair Harris went to Madagascar to research coral reefs. He's worked there ever since. He explains the true meaning of conservation he learned from the island's Indigenous communities.
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For marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, not knowing where our seafood comes from isn't just a mystery—it's a problem. She says we should reconsider what we eat and how we take it from the sea.
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Cone snails are deadly sea predators; their venom can kill fish and even humans. But chemical biologist Mandë Holford says that powerful venom can actually be used for good — to treat human diseases.
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Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is obsessed with one research subject — the parrot fish. She says there is urgent work to be done to save them and their home, the coral reefs.
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Marine biologist Marah Hardt is fascinated with the mating habits of marine life. If we want to save the oceans, she says we have to understand the weird and whimsical sex that helps populate it.