Downtime With: Manoush ZomorodiThe longtime tech and culture journalist on small changes that can make us feel like ourselves again. And why she won't tell you to stay away from screens.
Note: Alisha is currently on maternity leave until the summer. In the meantime, Downtime is edited by Elise Hu. Our full weekly posts during this time are exclusively for paid subscribers. Upgrade here for full access and get 20% off your subscription. Thank you for your support! Manoush Zomorodi is a journalist, host, author and mom of two living in New York City. She is out with a fascinating new book, Body Electric, and writes musings at her Manoush Minutes Substack. You are probably familiar with her voice, as she is a vet of WNYC and has since 2020 hosted NPR’s TED Radio Hour (not to be confused with TED Talks Daily, which is the show I host). She is a trusted colleague and a friend. So I can personally attest that Manoush is indefatigable. Below, Manoush shares the secret to her high energy at midlife, shows us the “box” she works in each day, and offers recommendations for books that reflect on womanhood and our climate present.
Manoush’s 3 Good Things
Downtime With: Manoush ZomorodiTalk to us about where you’re from and what you do? I grew up near Princeton, NJ with a Swiss mom and an Iranian dad who are both retired doctors. After spending a decade in Washington, D.C. and Berlin and London, I ended up in Brooklyn in 2002 and have been here ever since. I do a lot of things (make videos, podcasts, write etc) but essentially, I’m a journalist and have been for over 30 years (whoa, that’s crazy). Today, I host TED Radio Hour, write a Substack, and am in the midst of getting my latest book out into the world. Basically, I’ve got one foot in legacy media and the other in the more indie online arena. I love having a mix of both. How did you end up in the work that you do now? I had no idea what I wanted to do in college, but I thought I might like to work on documentaries, so I called the BBC’s news bureau in Washington, D.C. Lucky for me, the bureau chief picked up. He’d never heard of “interns” but agreed to let me come in and be one, after I explained it to him. I ended up working for the BBC for the next decade — first as a producer and later as a reporter. When my kids were born, I worked part time, first as a business reporter for Reuters TV and then as a consultant helping nonprofits learn to make their own journalism. In 2012, I started making a radio show for New York Public Radio that eventually became Note to Self, a podcast about technology for normal people, asking questions like Why do I feel so distracted? That’s where I started creating large-scale interactive projects with listeners. One of them, Bored and Brilliant, was about the value of boredom and mind-wandering and making sure you spend less time on your phone and more time just thinking. It became my first book and then a TED Talk about boredom, attention, and creativity. 
A few years later, I took over as host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour, which let me keep asking big questions about science, technology, and how we live. Now, with Body Electric, I’m asking what all this screen-and-chair life is doing not just to our attention, but to our bodies. I’m less interested in telling people to reject technology and more I’m interested in delving into big questions like: What are these systems asking of our minds and bodies? And what small, practical changes can help us feel a little more like ourselves again? Can you walk us through a typical day for you? The dog waits patiently for me to get ready after the alarm goes off. I feed her and we go for a 45 min walk to the coffee shop and back. Then, I try to do my physical therapy exercises for a half hour or so. I’m really trying to strengthen the left side of my body and my back muscles. It takes my full concentration. After that, I usually head to my studio/office, which is five blocks away. About eight years ago, I decided to set up my life in a way that made it possible to avoid a commute, pick up my kids from school, and have a place where I can be fully focused on work. The studio is an added expense but I think it makes me far more efficient and focused. The space itself is kind of like a big box, within a big warehouse space. It’s called Good Studio and owned by my old public radio pal, David Herman. He works in another box across the room, where he composes music and scores podcasts.
In other parts of the office, there are smaller studios where people are often recording audiobooks. There’s a great creative vibe. I’ll be in my studio, writing and recording interviews, but I can pop out and make an espresso with the amazing coffee set up he has in the kitchen. Sometimes the dog comes and sleeps under my desk. I’ll try to take breaks during the day and I’ll give myself a destination: walk to check on the birds by the canal or go to my favorite GF bakery, Sixteen Mill. How do you end your day? I used to race home to make dinner for the kids but now that they’re older (one is in High School and wants nothing to do with me and the other is in college), evenings are less frantic. That said, my dog is like my third child and she likes to be fed promptly. I’ll feed her around 5pm and then we go for an evening walk. My husband, if he’s home from work, will usually join me. She can be stubborn so about half-way through, if we’re going the long way, she’ll refuse to budge.She weighs about 12 lbs so I try to think of her as my little kettle bell. I’ll carry her for a block in the right direction. Then she knows I’m serious and gets with the program. If my husband isn’t with me, I’ll listen to the headlines or absolutely nothing and just try to process my day.
What does your downtime / “you time” look like? I’m not great at downtime because I’ve always really loved my work. But I’m also an introvert and need a full 8 hours of sleep and learned the hard way that coming back from burnout sucks! I try to get into bed around 9:30pm so I can read for an hour. Mostly New York Magazine, the New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine, all on paper. Propped up on pillows, with the dog at my feet. That is my happy place... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Downtime to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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