AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
Gloria Steinem.
- Carole Zimmer has been a journalist for 30 years covering news for Bloomberg, NBC, National Public Radio, and public radio programs including Marketplace.
- She is the host of an award-winning podcast called Now What? which features conversations with people that most of us are curious about - like Gloria Steinem and Mandy Patinkin.
- Zimmer talks to these people in their homes or offices, not in a studio, where they are surrounded by objects that evoke memories that are important to them.
- She says the wisdom they have shared has helped her have a more positive attitude toward life.
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Over the past four years, I've interviewed many people I've always wanted to meet. I was eager to meet them to learn some of their secrets. What inspires them? How do they navigate all the bumps in the road that we come across every day? What big decisions have they made that changed their lives? What makes them feel joyous when they get up in the morning?
The way I got to meet people who had something to teach me about success, fulfillment, and inspiration was I started a podcast called "Now What?" I created the program after leaving a job at a major media company where I had worked as a reporter and producer for 15 years. I said goodbye on a Friday and when I woke up the following Monday, I found myself sitting in my living room staring at the paintings on the wall, not sure what to do with myself. There were no deadlines I had to meet, no assignments to research. No one was standing over my shoulder waiting for me to finish a script for a program that was about to go on the air.
Courtesy of Carole Zimmer.
Carole Zimmer.
I didn't feel liberated. I felt lost. And that's when I decided that I wanted to hear from wise people who could tell me things about how they had conducted their lives in periods of uncertainty or when they doubted themselves or felt at sea.
I was lucky. I had known Gloria Steinem for many years and she agreed to be my first guest.
We spent the afternoon in her Manhattan brownstone talking about all the important things before going through her closet where Gloria showed me her favorite motorcycle jacket with the spikes. Besides being smart and funny and principled, Gloria has great taste in clothes.