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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Ahead of her 1983 space flight, NASA suggested sending astronaut Sally Ride with 100 tampons for the week-long trip. (That's too many.) In 2020, comedian Marcia Belsky sang a song about it.
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Artificial intelligence and people often struggle to seamlessly interact. Computer scientist Vinith Misra shares how computational humor could help bridge the gap between humans and their machines.
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Each year, one cow can belch 220 pounds of the greenhouse gas methane. Animal scientist Ermias Kebreab experimented with alternative cow diets and found a surprising solution: seaweed.
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Geothermal energy is a clean, renewable, nearly limitless energy source. Technologist Jamie Beard wants us to use more of it — and to do that, she's recruiting experts from the fossil fuel industry.
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Materials scientist Andrew Dent takes us on a tour of the "materials library" where companies can find existing materials to reuse in their products—from chewing gum, to fish scales, to cow manure.
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MLK Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin are household names, but what about their mothers? This hour, author Anna Malaika Tubbs explores how these three women shaped American history.
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Sometimes, we tiptoe around people experiencing depression because we don't know what to say. Bill Bernat suggests that instead of waiting for them to feel better, we can meet them where they are.
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In a small village, residents enjoy time at the pub, the theater, and the park—all while living with dementia. Yvonne van Amerongen shares how we can reimagine dementia care with a social approach.
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In the last century, human life expectancy has doubled. This hour, we talk with writer Steven Johnson on the many breakthroughs that made this possible — and where we go from here.
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Earth's soil can store vast amounts of carbon. Biogeochemist Asmeret Asefaw Berhe says soil could be a powerful tool for fighting climate change - if only we stopped treating it like dirt.