Podcast Summary

Becoming You with Suzy Welch

Episode: It's the end of the world, who cares about purpose anyway?
Host: Suzy Welch
Date: January 8, 2025

Main Theme

This episode confronts the rising sense of despair and purposelessness plaguing many people today, especially in the context of turbulent global events, economic uncertainty, and rapid technological change. Suzy Welch tackles the existential question: If the world feels so bleak, why seek purpose at all? Through personal anecdote, psychological insight, and an intimate conversation with her longtime friend Sue Jacobson—a survivor of a near-fatal illness—Welch argues that “hope is a moral obligation,” and that seeking purpose is not naïve, but essential.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Oldest and Most Urgent Question: “What Should I Do With My Life?”

• Origin of the Question – Humans have always sought to understand their purpose, a need dating as far back as 32,000 BC (Blombos Cave hand stencils).
• Why It Feels Harder Now – The pandemic, shifting job markets, AI, global conflicts, and relentless bad news via technology have fueled an “epidemic of purposelessness.”
  • “You can be a highly educated 37 year old person who's done everything right, and you can be living with three roommates ... and say, this was not what I signed up for.” (04:15)

The Student’s Existential Challenge (06:20)

• Welch recounts a breakthrough moment in her NYU Stern classroom when a disengaged student asked:
  • “Do you ever get tired, Professor Welch? Do you ever get tired of teaching people how to build the lives of their dreams and that they should be living? Do you ever get tired of it? Since we're all going to die?” (06:54)
• The room goes silent. Welch recognizes the weight of the question and the need to answer honestly.

The Choice: Nihilism vs. Hope (07:44)

• Welch’s response:
  • Nihilism—believing nothing matters because we're all going to die—is a choice, not an inevitability.
  • “That attitude is a choice. It's not foisted on you. It's a choice, just as hope is a choice. ... I choose hope. I choose it because the case for hope is just better than the case for nihilism.” (08:38)
  • Each generation has believed it lived in “the worst of times” (present bias), but history has always been marked by struggle and fear.

Technology & the Overload of Bad News (10:10)

• Modern technology bombards us with every disaster, everywhere, instantly—making the world feel uniquely catastrophic.
  • “Your phone is like an actual highway to hell and back. ... It's too much for our brains to process.” (10:55)

Making the Case for Hope (12:00)

• Hope isn’t just emotionally easier; it’s a moral obligation.
  • “If we all give up at one time, then there will be no future. So someone has to have hope. And you know what? It's going to be me and it's going to be you.” (12:28)
• Living without hope is actually harder, Welch argues—nihilism is draining and self-defeating.

Beyond Platitudes: The How of Purpose (12:48)

• Welch pushes back against “bloviators” who preach purpose without explaining how to find it:
  • “I get sort of personally offended when people tell you to find your purpose and then don't tell you how ... I like being part of the ‘how.’” (13:00)
• Her central belief: Find your “how” and you’ll find your “why.”
• She references Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning:
  • “Those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how.” (12:50)

Memorable Moments & Quotes

Hope in Practice: Conversation with Sue Jacobson

[13:07] Introduction of Sue Jacobson, Suzy’s “bestie” of 50 years and survivor of viral encephalitis.

• Welch and Jacobson joke about their history, including a long friendship interrupted by an eleven-year falling out and Sue’s near-death experience.
• “One morning when Sue called me and she said to me, have you ever had a situation where your tongue went numb? And that was the beginning of a terrible nightmare where Sue got viral encephalitis and almost died.” (14:45)
• Suzy recounts visiting Sue in the hospital and yelling at her to fight on:
  • “You just knock this off. Knock it off.” (15:10)

[15:56] Conversation about Choosing Hope After Crisis

• Sue explains her conscious effort to reject despair:
  • “I don't want to pretend like it's easy ... And the one thing I wanted, believe it or not, was to get my dad's optimism back. It comes from him.” (16:24)
  • “I don't want to live like that [in despair]. And it was a choice, Sue. I saw with my own eyes it being a choice.” – Welch (16:55)
• Sue expresses the desire to inspire others:
  • “Maybe I’ll help someone else. I’m not the only one out there... Maybe I should think that way, because why not? What are we going to do, waste our lives?” (17:10)

[18:06] Welch reiterates hope as a moral obligation:

• “Hope is contagious. And that's why I say hope is a moral obligation. If we don't do it, who's going to do it?”

[18:44+] Sue on finding reasons to keep going, even when life is uncertain

• “No matter what's happening ... you have to keep going and you have to find a reason. What gives you joy, what makes you optimistic?”

[19:02] Suzy’s acidly comedic sign-off to her bestie:

• “I'm getting bored now. Okay. Bye. Bye. Goodbye.”

How You Know You've Found Purpose

[19:02]

• “It's actually not hard to know when you found it, because you feel so different than you usually feel. You feel exquisitely alive.”
• Sue serves as a real-life example of finding renewed purpose through survival and struggle.

Final Reflection

• “Is the world happening to us or are we happening to the world?... The world can happen to us, and we can surrender to that, or then we can turn around and marshal our resources to turn the tables on the world.” (20:38)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:02 – Opening anecdote: The student’s existential question in Welch’s classroom
• 06:54 – The student asks, “Do you ever get tired ... since we're all going to die?”
• 08:38 – Hope versus nihilism: Hope is a choice
• 10:55 – Technology as an “actual highway to hell and back”
• 12:00-13:07 – Hope as a moral obligation and preview of Sue Jacobson’s story
• 13:07-15:14 – Introduction of Sue Jacobson and recounting her illness
• 15:56-18:44 – Conversation with Sue: Choosing hope, channeling optimism, and inspiring others
• 18:44-19:02 – Key insight: You know when you’ve found purpose—you feel “exquisitely alive”
• 20:38 – Reflection: Are we subject to the world, or can we influence it?
• 21:43 – Episode close

Takeaway

Despite overwhelming uncertainty and negativity, Suzy Welch makes a compelling case that searching for purpose and choosing hope—individually and collectively—is both a necessary and noble response. Purpose is not obsolete in times of crisis, but precisely when it’s most needed. The “how” is a journey, not a prescription, and hope itself is contagious.

Notable quote for the episode:
“Hope is a moral obligation. If we don't do it, who's going to do it?” — Suzy Welch, (18:06)

For more, connect with Suzy on Instagram or LinkedIn. Becoming You is produced by Magnificent Noise.