Inflection Point With Lauren Schiller

Laura Weidman Powers is co-founder and CEO of Code2040, an organization focused on ending structural racism in America by smoothing the pathways into tech for people of color. She shares her ‘aha’ moment, how she got involved in this work and why it’s critical for companies to rethink their current approach to diversity.

What if the thing you really love to do makes you so anxious it gets in the way of doing your job? For Patti Niemi, a percussionist, her first experience with anxiety cropped up while in her second year at at Juilliard, causing her hands to shake uncontrollably. Niemi wrote a memoir called “Sticking It Out. From Juilliard to the Orchestra Pit.” In this episode, hear how she rose to the top of the music world and above her anxiety.

As one of few female executives in technology, Deb Liu is working to address the challenges that women in tech are facing-- both on day-to-day basis and through a non-profit she co-created called "Women in Product."

Samantha Miller is leading the only pharmaceutical company whose mission is to bring the birth control pill over the counter-- with their product "Kate." This has never been attempted before. Although men's birth control has been available at pharmacies for years.

Deb Liu, VP of Platform and Marketplace at Facebook challenges all of us to think about the words we use every day.

Jessica Jin led the protests against the campus carry gun law at University of Texas at Austin last fall by, as she says, "fighting absurdity with absurdity."

Joann Lublin is the management news editor at the Wall Street Journal and the author of the new book "Earning It. Hard-Won Lessons from Trailblazing Women at the Top of the Business World." Her finding? Gender bias is alive and kicking. Hear how these women addressed and navigated their unique situations.

We're back! The National Resources Defense Council has signed on as a partner to the Women's March on Washington. The president of the NRDC, Rhea Suh talks with Lauren about about why the Women's March matters for the environment and what's at stake with the new administration.

Ruth Whippman's new book is "America the Anxious. How The Pursuit Of Happiness Is Making Us A Nation of Nervous Wrecks." How's all the meditation and yoga working for you? Our conversation was recorded live at the 2016 Berkeley Festival of Ideas.

Donna Jaffe and her team at Peaceable Kingdom develop cooperative games for kids. We discuss what her games could teach the adults, too.

Megan Tan, the host of the "Millennial" podcast, on how she learned to negotiate.

Tiffany Shlain's new film "50/50" shares the story of what the world used to look like and can look like with true equality. Tiffany has been nominated for an Emmy for her filmmaking, she's founder of the Webby Awards, and Newsweek called her one of the women shaping the 21st century. "50/50" is part of Refinery 29's Shatterbox Anthology film series which explores the dynamics of women and power.

Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues, VDay and One Billion Rising shares her work to end violence against women, and what the rise of Trump means for the movement.

Dr. Alison Dahl Crossley is the Associate Director of Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research. She has a book coming out this spring called "Finding Feminism: Millennial Activists and the Unfinished Gender Revolution."

Jess McIntosh has worked to get pro-choice female Democrats elected while at on the team at Emily's List. She was the spokesperson for Al Franken's senatorial campaign and at the time of this interview, the Director of Communications for Hillary for America, she's on the front lines working to get Hillary Clinton elected as the first female president of the United States.

James Beard Leadership Award winner Anna Lappé has spent most of her career as a sustainable food advocate. We talk big food and marketing to kids--and the implications for the health of our planet and people.

Arlie Hochschild has been called "one of the most imaginative and productive feminist sociologists of the last thirty years." Lately she's been spending her time trying to understand the rise of the American Right–the only way that she could do that was to leave her Berkeley bubble and go to Louisiana to meet the real people of the Tea Party, not the caricatures. She shares her five year journey in her new book "Strangers in Their Own Land. Anger and Mourning on the American Right".

The Stanford Peace Innovation Lab says there is a way to achieve world peace by 2037 using persuasive technology and 'behavior design' techniques that incentivize collaboration over conflict and peace over destruction. Co-Director Margarita Quihuis shares how this vision is playing out.

MoveOn.org co-founder and liberal activist, Joan Blades has teamed up with Republican John Gable on an initiative called AllSides for Schools to bring civilized conversations about controversial topics to the classroom. We talk about why students need these tools now and what these conversations were like in high school for Joan and John.

Meet the author of "Rad Women Worldwide," Kate Schatz. She tells us why she is vocal about being a feminist, and we discuss how her books are changing perceptions about who gets to go down in history as extraordinary.