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Ahead of her visit to the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Friends of the Central Library at the Oncenter’s Crouse Hinds Theater Tuesday, The Daily Orange had the chance to speak with The New York Times investigative reporter Jodi Kantor.

Kantor received the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2018 for her reporting on sexual misconduct in Hollywood with Megan Twohey. She is also a co-author of “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement” and author of “The Obamas.”

For Kantor, returning to her sister’s alma mater, as well as the city of Syracuse as a whole, isn’t just about promoting her new memoir — it’s about sharing her story of how to build a working life.

Her upcoming book, “How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work,” marks Kantor’s first novel focusing entirely on her story, centered around advice from what she’s learned following her 20-year career reporting at The Times.

With her visit to Syracuse, Kantor said she hopes to inspire anyone — no matter what stage they are at in life — that they are capable of working in any field they’re interested in, despite concerns they may have.

Q: What do you hope that reporters, young reporters and student journalists can gain from the event at Newhouse?

Kantor: I want to show up and give people some confidence and courage, because the truth is that people have been saying since my college days that journalism is a terrible field to go into. I remember being warned right and left about it, and yet, of course, the message has only gotten more negative. And listen, it reflects the reality that journalism in this country is very challenging, but that’s also why we need you guys so badly.

And I want you. I want everyone. I want all the inspiring journalists at Syracuse to feel really invited into the field, to feel like this is a rigorous, rewarding, thrilling way to spend your life’s work, and that you guys have a particularly important job, which is that journalism is badly in need of refreshing and growth and revitalization. And I feel like it’s going to be your job just certainly to learn how to report the way I do, but also to think big picture about information and where it comes from and how to build an audience.

My hope is that I’m speaking to the founders of some great future publications that will help provide people with vital information, because even as old forms fade, new ones need to be born.

Q: What drew you to participate in the Friends of the Central Library speaker series?

Kantor: A completely predictable, but overwhelming love of libraries. These are temples of the written word, and you think about libraries in a new way when you’re preparing to release a book, because you realize what a miracle it is.

But also, all the hard work and commitment that goes into the idea that anybody can get to your book. (“How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work”) hardcover; I think it’ll be about $25 to buy. Books are a pretty affordable technology. If a book ends up meaning a lot to you, $25 is not a ridiculous price to pay.

I believe in an industry that supports publishers and writers, and everybody involved in the process needs to be remunerated. However, the fact that we have this other way of providing everybody books for free is one of our great institutions, and I’m just at a time when it feels like so much is fracturing, libraries feel like havens, and I’m really excited to be a part of this library community for a day.

Q: How does your approach to storytelling differ when you’re writing a book versus investigating a story for The Times?

Kantor: A book gives you a lot of running room, and a book is all your own. When I’m writing for The Times, I’m writing in a form, I’m writing for an institution, and (while) the article is very much mine, the article has to do certain things. It has to appear certain ways. A book is yours to make up as you go along, and you have far more space in which to do it.

(With) this latest book, “How To Start,” I wrote as a conversation with young people, like writing for The New York Times feels a little bit like wearing a suit and tie. This book is very different. It feels, you know, I say in the book, like, welcome to my alternate career guidance office, pull up a chair, sit down, take a deep breath, we’re going to talk to you about how to build a working life that you find really rewarding and fulfilling. So, it’s a different kind of conversation.

Q: What responsibility do you feel when you’re writing a book versus reporting on a story?

Kantor: I think the journalistic responsibilities are the same, because when you’re a journalist, you want to maintain your standards of fact and sensitivity in every medium, whether paper, in a speech, show, on a podcast or in both. I feel like my readers expect the same thing as me. You know, in terms of adherence to back, sensitivity, humility, I would never want to do anything to violate that, because being a journalist is all about really establishing trust with the audience and establishing credibility. So I don’t ever want to blow that.

I think about whether there’s another dimension to your question, though. The responsibility I feel with this upcoming book is immense because I have seen so many young people given bad advice or no advice, and the stakes are so high. I want you to have every good thing that work can bring, meaning fellowship, but also our stake in work is collective. It’s our engine of progress. We’re not going to have new cancer therapies or new publications or new TV shows without workplaces.

I’ve been speaking on campuses for a long time, and I detect rising businesses and then fear about the workplace. And my goal is to show you that work can be something different and better, and also to give you the tools to get through a really hard time. Getting started always involves struggle. I don’t think this has ever been an easy life phase, to be honest, but this era is making it harder, and we need to bring you all the help we can. So (I) feel a lot of responsibility to do as much as I can, in part because I really love my work life, and I want other people to have their own experience of that.

Q: Your new book, “How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work,” is being released April 21. What inspired you to write that book?

Kantor: So about a year ago, at the peak of the chaos at Columbia, they asked me to give the undergraduate commencement address. It was a huge honor, obviously, and it’s my alma mater, yes, but my friends were like “don’t go,” because it seemed like the school was mired in negativity at the time. I sort of felt like, give me those kids for 15 minutes, because as a mom and as an alum, I had been pretty concerned with what was going on there, so I said, okay, I’ll do it, but only if I can Zoom with the students beforehand, because this is obviously a very delicate situation, and they need to read the room before I write the speech.

Then the students really gave me the gift of a hard question. They said, we don’t want to talk about Israel. We don’t want to talk about Gaza. We don’t want to talk about Trump. Our class, even with all of its political divisions, is united in anxiety over one question: how in this crazy environment are we supposed to find our life’s work? And I thought that is a great question, but it’s a hard question. It’s a worthy question, and I can work with it in part because I’ve covered employment my whole career, yeah, and so I wrote the speech and I gave it. It’s on YouTube if you’re curious.

After I gave this speech, I could not stop writing. I couldn’t stop thinking about these students and what they had been through, and how fearful they were of the workplace, and how sad that is, because this is a time in your life that’s supposed to be about dreaming and reaching, and graduation is supposed to be about anticipation of all the cool things you’re going to do, and the payoff from having educated yourself at college and they weren’t feeling that way. And I knew that what they were facing was very real, because I had been reporting on the workplace for so long.

I knew that they were having, in many ways, a very rational response to negative development, but I also knew that they should write work off and that, you know, I mean, my day job is very busy, but I found myself looking at six o’clock in the morning to write more and more to them. My feeling was, I want to draft you an escape plan from what other people say is inevitable. I think they’re wrong. I think you have some agency here, and let’s make a plan for you to fight for your amazing dreams.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from your newest book?

Kantor: I want them to feel there is a process and a path that they that you can follow, (as described) in the book, to discover your life’s work, and that it’s okay not to know now and that it’s okay to go through the struggle, the necessary sacrifices, the compromises that may come from graduating into an iffy job market for entry-level jobs.

However, if you’re going to struggle, which most people are, it’s part of being in your early 20s. I want you to struggle well and fruitfully. There’s a big difference between a struggle that doesn’t leave you anywhere, right, it’s just about feeling awful and watching Netflix, and a struggle that is filled with curiosity and surprise and experimentation and growth and leaves you with the results that can last your whole life.

I wish I could ameliorate everything for you guys. I wish I could make the world gentler. I wish I could fix the hiring market, but I can’t, and so instead, I want to push you on what the best responses to the current circumstances (are) and make you feel that you have some control. I think you know, when you’re a student, and you’re looking at these negative job reports and stories about AI, it’s really easy to feel helpless. Yes, it’s easy to feel disposable. It’s easy to feel interchangeable. And that’s not true, the work world needs you guys, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now, and I want you to feel that you have some power and some agency in writing your own future.

Q: What do you hope they take away from your story, your reporting and your trajectory?

Kantor: I hope that students aren’t afraid to take on a little risk. And I know it’s hard right now, because this is an environment in which everybody wants stability, and that’s rational, but you actually don’t get anywhere without taking on a little risk. I also want people to know that the world doesn’t expect perfection from you.

• • •

Kantor’s book is set to release April 21, following her visit to Syracuse and other cities. She will speak at Newhouse on April 14 at 3 p.m., ahead of her conversation at the Oncenter at 7:30 p.m. the same day.

Published on April 13, 2026 at 12:21 am
Contact Lily: lvzucker@syr.edu