Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

Lesbian bars aren’t just nightlife, they’re evolving spaces of community and chosen family, and they have a special place in Jessi Hempel’s heart. On this bonus episode, Jessi sits down with one of Hello Monday’s own producers,  Rachel Karp, to talk about her new book The Lesbian Bar Chronicles: The Living History and Hopeful Future of America's Dyke Dives and Sapphic Spaces. 

Rachel’s journey started as a passion project: a documentary podcast in which the Cruising podcast team went on a road trip to visit every lesbian bar in the US. Their goal was to tell the history of lesbian bars and stories of the people who go to them. Now, those stories– and the lessons we can learn from them about how to create real-life community spaces–are in a book.

In this episode:

Why Rachel and the Cruising podcast team went on their road trip

Why lesbian bars have endured, even as culture, technology, and rights have shifted

What makes physical spaces of belonging different from digital communities

The role of leadership in shaping inclusive, values-driven spaces

What “chosen family” looks like in practice, and why it matters

What anyone (queer or not) can learn from lesbian bars

Follow Jessi Hempel and Rachel Karp on LinkedIn.

We're trained to climb ladders and chase titles, but what if the real metric of career success was the positive impact you have on the world? In this episode from the Hello Monday archives, host Jessi Hempel sits down with Rutger Bregman to explore moral ambition—a framework for building a career based on what positive impact you can have on the world. 

Rutger's groundbreaking book, Moral Ambition: How to Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference, is a wake-up call for anyone who's felt something was missing from their work. Whether you're early in your career, questioning your path, or rebuilding after a layoff, this conversation offers a practical roadmap for pivoting toward meaningful work.

In this episode, Jessi and Rutger explore:

What moral ambition is, and why it's the antidote to burnout

Why "follow your passion" is the wrong advice for building a sustainable career

How to shift from success-driven to service-driven work

Which industries funnel talented people into unfulfilling roles, and how to break free

Real-world examples of people solving humanity's biggest problems

How to build coalitions and find collaborators aligned with your values

The hidden cost of prestige, and how to redefine what winning looks like

This episode is a call to action for anyone who wants to do good—and do it well.

Follow Rutger Bregman and Jessi Hempel on LinkedIn

Rituals work. They help us make meaning, process transition, and connect with each other. That’s why we’ve been doing them for more than 300,000 years. So why, in this century, have we largely abandoned them? 

This week, bestselling author, repeat Hello Monday guest, and longtime friend Bruce Feiler joins us in the studio to talk about his new book, A Time to Gather: How Ritual Created the World and How It Can Save Us. Bruce traveled to 16 countries on six continents to explore why ritual matters and identify how we can bring it back into our everyday lives.

In this episode:

Why ritual is the original human algorithm and why we've abandoned it

The difference between self-care and group care, and why the latter matters so much

The rise of new rituals: cancer-versaries, sober-versaries, infertility ceremonies, and divorce parties

Why funerals are disappearing, and what we're losing when they do

A live ritual design class: Bruce walks Jessi through building one for her daughter's preschool graduation

The three things every ritual needs: a beginning, a middle, and an end

From "rites of passage" to "bites of passage": why small, frequent moments of connection matter as much as the big ones

Virtual vs. ritual: why 2026 feels like the year we're choosing to come back together in person

Follow Jessi Hempel and Bruce Feiler on LinkedIn. And let us know how you’re incorporating ritual into your own life.

You might think the biggest, most prestigious job is always the right career move. Patty Stonesifer — founding CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and an early Amazon board member — says that’s exactly the wrong way to decide what to do next. So what should guide your career? In this special episode from WorkLife with Molly Graham, Patty shares the nine-word personal mission statement she’s used for decades to filter opportunities, turn down what doesn’t fit, and speak up for what matters. Patty shares how you can write your own, and even coaches Molly through creating hers in real time.WorkLife is a podcast from TED where host and company builder Molly Graham and her expert guests talk through the messy feelings we all experience at work. Ambition and failure, joy and burnout, confidence and self-doubt — this show digs into it all to help you build a career without losing yourself.

Listen now: https://link.mgln.ai/7r9KAe

We talk a lot about what technology is doing to our minds. But what about everything below the neck? This week, Jessi is joined by Manoush Zomorodi, host of NPR's TED Radio Hour and author of Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age, and New Science to Reclaim Your Wellbeing. Unfortunately, a killer workout or a standing desk won’t save us from the long-term health consequences of a sedentary lifestyle. But five minutes of gentle movement every half hour could. In fact, Manoush helped run a clinical trial with 23,000 people to prove it.

Jessi and Manoush discuss:

Why sitting all day drains your energy even when you haven't done anything

The Columbia study that got 23,000 people moving, and what it proved

Why standing desks aren't actually the fix we thought they were

The "garden hose" model of what happens to your arteries when you sit or stand too long

How people can restructure their workdays (and their calendars) to make movement stick

What "information athletes" can learn from dancers, musicians, and pilots

The shift from screen-shaming to something kinder and more practical

This one might make you want to stand up and take a lap while listening. That's kind of the point.

Follow Manoush Zomorodi and Jessi Hempel on LinkedIn.