Worklife with Molly Graham

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Latest Episodes:

Can AI make you a better manager? with Hilary Gridley Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

Managing people is a deeply human line of work—it requires relational skills, judgement, and deep knowledge of the people you work with. But Hilary Gridley believes that when used properly, AI can not only help you become a better manager, but can help your team make more meaningful use of their human skills. Hilary has spent years leading teams at companies like Whoop, and she’s known for her work helping managers use AI to coach people, give feedback, and develop talent more efficiently. In this episode, Hilary makes the case for why AI belongs in management, and offers practical advice for how to help your team use AI in a way that adds value to their work instead of generating meaningless slop. Hilary and Molly also take a closer look at where many organizations have gone wrong in their adoption of AI tools, and the importance of clarity and communication within a team no matter what technology you have at your disposal.

Featured guest

Follow Hilary Gridley on X, LinkedIn, and at writerbuilder.com/
Subscribe to Hilary's Substack

Connect with the team

Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDPods
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

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Lessons: What to do when you get “layered” at work Aug 04, 2026

Show notes

If your company is growing faster than you can keep up, your manager might decide to “layer” you—that is, split your job in half or hire someone with more experience to become your boss. This is an experience a lot of people go through at work, but it’s rarely talked about because it’s often unpleasant for everyone involved. In this episode, Molly offers practical advice for anyone going through layering at work, from employees who find themselves sharing their job with someone new to leaders making the tough decision to hire another person for a role. She outlines 6 important things for employees to consider if they’re struggling to adjust to being layered, and key principles to help managers layer their teams in a way that builds trust instead of breaking it. She also reflects on her recent conversation with Don Faul and the lessons he shared from his experience being layered during his early years at Facebook.

Connect with the team

Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDPods
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What pressure can teach you about leadership with Don Faul Jul 28, 2026

Show notes

A good leader is one who anchors and supports their team under pressure—and nowhere are the stakes higher than in the military. Don Faul spent five years as an officer in an elite unit in the Marine Corps. He then went on to become one of the most important operational leaders at Facebook, where he built and ran global teams during the company's most intense years of growth before he left to lead Google and CrossFit. In this episode, Molly and Don reflect on how Don’s time in the military shaped his approach to leadership, and unpack the lessons he absorbed as a young officer learning to lead under intense pressure. Don also emphasises the importance of humility and service as a leader, shares what he learned working under General Mattis, and recounts the strategies and philosophies he carried with him in his transition from military to civilian leadership.

Featured guest

Follow Don Faul on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at https://www.crossfit.com/

Connect with the team

Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDPods
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why you should give away your most valuable assets with TED Chairman Chris Anderson Jul 21, 2026

Show notes

In times of change, sometimes the best way to hold onto your success is to let go of the things that got you there. Chris Anderson became the steward of TED in 2001, and transformed what was once a small, exclusive conference into a household name when he made the risky decision to make TED talks free and globally accessible online. In this episode, Molly sits down with Chris at the 2026 TED Conference in Vancouver to dig deeper into what it takes to let go of the things that brought you success, how to experiment with giving things away, and what Chris has learned through the process of passing the torch of TED stewardship to Sal Khan.

Featured guest

Follow Chris Anderson on LinkedIn
Learn more about TED
Buy TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

Connect with the team

Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDPods
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why faith has a place at work with Stacy Brown-Philpot Jul 14, 2026

Show notes

Religious faith is something that isn’t often discussed at work—in fact, speaking openly about your religious beliefs may be regarded as an unspoken taboo in some workplaces. But just like any other source of grounding intuition, faith is a powerful foundation for so many people when it comes to navigating uncertainty and tough decisions in their professional lives. Stacy Brown-Philpot was the CEO of TaskRabbit before founding Cherry Rock Capital, where she backs underrepresented entrepreneurs building transformative companies. In this episode, Molly and Stacy dive deeper into what faith means to Stacy personally and professionally, what she’s learned from bringing her faith into her work, and what you can learn from faith even if religion isn’t central to your life. Stacy also shares about how establishing an interfaith group in her workplace opened up deeper connections with her team members, and emphasizes the importance of finding community outside your professional life.

Featured guest

Follow Stacy Brown-Philpot on LinkedIn

Connect with the team

Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDPods
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to find your way when you feel lost with Ify Walker Jul 07, 2026

Show notes

If you feel like you’ve lost your way at work—you’re burnt out, you’ve stopped trusting your own instincts, and every conversation leaves you overwhelmed or confused—then you might have a case of what Ify Walker calls the work twisties. Ify is the founder and CEO of Offor, a talent agency and recruiting firm that places executives at mission-driven businesses. In this episode, Ify and Molly reflect on their own experiences with the work twisties, and Ify shares the strategies that helped her regain her footing. She also offers advice to people searching for new jobs and breaks down her practice of being 10% braver every day.

Featured guest

Follow Ify Walker on Instagram and LinkedIn
Subscribe to Ify's Substack, The Offor Method
Learn more about Offor

Connect with the team

Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why the smartest person in the room is asking the “dumb” questions | from TED Business Jun 30, 2026

Show notes

One of our favorite TED talks on TED Business is from company builder Molly Graham. She’s also the new host of WorkLife with Molly Graham, another podcast from TED. Modupe sits down with Molly at TED2026 to talk about her journey from Facebook to giving her first TED Talk to now joining TED as a podcaster. Molly shares how she quietens her inner critic whom she affectionately calls “Bob the Monster,” what she learned from working alongside influential leaders to scale companies, and why she always advises managers to “give away their Legos.”

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

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What is your company culture (and why does it matter)? with Mike Schroepfer Jun 23, 2026

Show notes

Most leaders say culture matters. Far fewer can explain how it's actually built. Mike Schroepfer spent more than a decade helping build Facebook's engineering organization during some of its fastest—and messiest—years of growth. As CTO, he helped shape a culture built around learning, experimentation, and moving quickly. In this episode, Mike discusses why great cultures aren't created through values decks or mission statements, how leaders teach people what matters through their behavior, and why the difference between a learning culture and a blame culture can determine an organization’s success. If culture is what happens when something goes wrong, this conversation is about how to build one that gets stronger under pressure.

Featured guest

Follow Mike Schroepfer on LinkedIn
Learn more about Gigascale Capital

Connect with the team

Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why success is never linear with Claire Hughes Johnson Jun 16, 2026

Show notes

It’s easy to look at successful companies and other people’s successful careers and assume the path was obvious. The reality is that success feels messy. Claire Hughes Johnson, former COO of Stripe, joins Molly to explore how difficult moments distort our perspective and why some of the work we're proudest of often felt like failure while we were living it. Together they discuss resilience, uncertainty, leadership under pressure, and how to make decisions when you can't yet tell whether you're struggling or succeeding.

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

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FAQ: How to disagree productively, know which hills to die on, and find your mentors with Ashley Murphy Jun 09, 2026

Show notes

In fast-changing companies, some things move so fast that you rarely have time to consult the business books when questions arise. Welcome to Frequently Asked Questions, a segment on WorkLife where Molly answers questions from listeners about the topics they confront in real time. In this episode, Molly is joined by Ashley Murphy, a key member of Molly’s team and one of the people that helped create Glue Club, a leadership development community that Molly and her team run focused on helping leaders feel more confident and less lonely at work. These questions are based on common questions from the community that Molly and Ashley thought would be relevant for the WorkLife audience as well – tips for working productively with a boss you don’t always agree with, knowing when it’s time to seek out an executive coach, and struggling to pitch yourself to prospective employers if you don’t fit into a traditional box.

Featured guest