Uneducated, With Christopher Zara

Filed in Podcasts, Previous Episodes on September 5, 2023

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In his new book, Uneducated, Christopher Zara tells a highly personal story about the education divide and the stigma of being degreeless in a 21st-century knowledge economy.

He retraces his ill-fated journey through an overcrowded public-school system; getting classified as “emotionally disturbed”; ejected in 11th grade; being trapped in low-wage service jobs throughout his 20s and 30s; landing a lucky break in journalism; and finally, his years-long struggle to assimilate as a high-school dropout in the elite world of New York City media.

Tune in to hear Christopher’s answers to questions such as:

  • What happened to you in high school that got you kicked out in 11th grade?
  • How did you become an editor at a leading business magazine in NYC with only a GED?
  • How has your lack of a formal education impacted your approach to news coverage?
  • Why are large companies (Google, GM, IBM) relaxing their degree requirements now?
  • How has social anxiety impacted your career?
  • And much, much more!

Get your copy of Uneducated

 

About This Guest: ()

Christopher Zara is an author and journalist who writes about culture, media, business, and tech. He is a senior editor at Fast Company, where he runs the news desk and leads a team that covers everything from startups and Big Tech to workplace culture and finance. Before coming to FastCo in 2016, Zara was a deputy editor at International Business Times, a theater critic for Newsweek, and managing editor of the late Show Business Weekly, one of the last theater trade papers in Manhattan. Zara is the author of UNEDUCATED (Little, Brown 2023), a memoir about navigating the professional white-collar world without a college degree. The book documents his struggles as a student with behavioral difficulties in the New Jersey public school system and later his efforts to assimilate as a high school dropout in the pedigree-obsessed world of New York media. Zara was born in Trenton and obtained a GED after being ejected from high school in 11th grade. He lives in New York City with his wife and their cat.
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