D@L Session 4 Fall 2026 - Jodi Kantor

About This Series

This fall, we're asking: what will the university be in 20 years?

AI is reshaping the economy faster than institutions can adapt. Career paths are unrecognizable. Credentials that were supposed to be portable lose meaning overnight. And yet institutions move slowly.

This speaker series brings together people working on that gap. Researchers and practitioners designing new models of education, rethinking what credentials actually signal, and asking hard questions about what institutions need to become. Some work inside universities trying to change them. Others build alternatives from outside. Across five sessions, we will share time with thought leaders examining institutional futures with hiring practitioners working in industry right now.

How to Start by Jodi Kantor is the core reading for the course. Drawing on years of reporting on work and ambition, Kantor offers a practical framework for figuring out what to do next when the old rules for careers no longer apply. Purchase the book here.

Wednesdays, 4-5 PM: Sept 30, Oct 14, Oct 21, Oct 28, Nov 18. Open to UC San Diego students and the public.

About This Talk

Jodi Kantor's How to Start is essential reading for this moment, and the required reading for the course. She asks the question institutions are ducking: what matters when credentials stop signaling what they're supposed to? Her answer is craft. Real work. What you can demonstrate. It cuts through the noise of a labor market moving faster than degrees can track.

This session flips the typical speaker format. Jodi will be onstage in conversation with UCSD students. Not as audience members, but as interlocutors asking her directly about the work they're doing, the portfolios they're building, the futures they're imagining. Students already know they can't wait for institutions to figure this out.

Design@Large brings working practitioners and researchers into direct conversation with UCSD students. Since 2014, the series has embedded speakers into DSGN 119, pairing public events with course-based engagement. The goal is straightforward: students learn how real work happens outside the classroom, and speakers engage with people thinking about and building the future.

About Our Guest

Jodi Kantor is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and a bestselling author whose groundbreaking work has helped shape conversations around power, gender, law, and culture.

In 2017, Kantor and Megan Twohey broke the story of decades of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein, helping spark the global #MeToo movement. Their reporting earned the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and inspired the bestselling book She Said, later adapted into a feature film.

Kantor’s investigations have also prompted changes at major companies, including Amazon and Starbucks, and inspired innovations that support breastfeeding mothers. More recently, her reporting has shed light on the inner workings and ethics of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Her bestselling books include The Obamas, She Said, and How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work. Recognized as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, Kantor is known for revealing hidden truths and demonstrating how investigative journalism can drive meaningful change.

For online ticket holders please follow this link for the live stream:

https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/96276700737?pwd=eLfLgneg8TW7rnnUtChwpNA0fuhaOt.1

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