90,000 Hours – Details, episodes & analysis

You’ll spend 90,000 hours at work in your lifetime. How do you make that time count?

90,000 Hours is a weekly podcast from the newsroom of The Ken that helps you navigate today’s changing world of work, where the traditional 40-year career is gone, entry-level jobs are being replaced by artificial intelligence, and staying relevant means constantly reinventing yourself.

Hosted by Rahel Philipose, the show features conversations with the people creating, breaking, and rewriting the way we work.

For decades, studying in the US was seen as a golden ticket: a degree that promised not just world-class education, but a clear path to jobs, visas, and a better life abroad.

But in 2025, that promise looks very different. We surveyed 50 Indian students and recent graduates in the US. Almost half told us they’ve either already moved back to India or are planning to.

In this episode of 90,000 Hours, we follow the journeys of Indian students who chased the American dream and discovered the reality was far more complicated. From shrinking job markets and tougher visa lotteries to the hard decision of whether to stay or return home.

The American Dream isn’t gone. But for Indian students, it has shifted from a one-way ticket to something far less certain.

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What happens when AI at work isn't optional anymore?

Across the board, companies are investing in AI tools for their teams. But with that access comes a new kind of pressure to work smarter, move faster, and think more creatively.

So what does that actually look like in practice? And how does it feel on the ground?

In the latest episode of 90,000 Hours, Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur, The Ken's Deputy Editor Arundhati Ramanathan, and others break it down.

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Check out Arundhati's story.

Got a favourite AI tool at work? Tell us here 

For decades, networking was about being seen: showing up in the right rooms, handing out the right cards, and saying the right things.

Today, a new generation of founders and VCs is rewriting that script with sweat, sneakers, and a shared goal to win the next point.

In this debut episode of 90,000 Hours, host Rahel Philipose heads to a pickleball court in Bengaluru to explore how the startup world is quietly staging a revolt against traditional networking.

You’ll hear from:

🎾 Arjun Vaidya – Founder of Dr Vaidya’s and now an investor at V3 Ventures. He’s launched Pickle & Pitch, a new way for founders to raise capital on the court, not in a conference room.
🎾 Vaniya Dangwal – Former professional tennis player and founder of Courtside Club. She’s bringing startup folks together through curated sports mixers, where the serve matters more than the sales pitch.
🎾 Piyush Jain and Pravruth BH – Founders of Sprentzo, a platform building grassroots sports communities across India. Their fastest-growing sport? Pickleball.

Why are people trading name tags for paddles?

What happens when connection becomes the goal and not the card you walk away with?

And what does it say about the future of work?

This episode is about something deeper than just a game. It’s about belonging, access, and how we build relationships that actually matter over our 90,000 hours.

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🎓 Are you an Indian student in the US or recently graduated? Tell us what your journey’s been like: Take the survey

In this week’s 90,000 Hours, Rahel Philipose speaks to Kirthiga Reddy, Meta India’s first hire, SoftBank’s first woman investing partner, and now founder of blockchain-powered credentialing platform, Verix.

From taking a 40% pay cut after Stanford to steering an all-women SPAC through a turbulent market, she shares lessons on risk, reinvention, and building culture.

This episode is also a first for us: a full-length conversation instead of our usual narrative. We would love to know what you think and who you would like to hear from next. Write to Rahel at rahel@the-ken.com

This episode was edited by our wonderful in-house sound engineer, Rajiv CN.

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P.S. Are you a manager, recruiter or founder who has been part of a hiring process in the last year? I want to hear from you. Take our survey. 

Being an employee in corporate urban India is living in a perpetual state of frustration. Long hours, followed by longer commutes. Add infrastructural issues to the mix. 

It is a nightmare. But people stay on for opportunities and growth. 

That script is now flipping. Smaller cities in India are attracting talent, GCCs, and investments. 

In this episode, we tell you the stories of three cities: Mangalore, Vizag and Nagpur.  In Mangalore, we talk to a founder looking to make the region the “silicon beach of India”. An incubation centre head from Vizag tells us about the “speed of doing business” in Vizag.  A former IT services veteran tells us what it takes to start from scratch in your hometown and what it means to take a long-term bet in a city full of promise. 

Have thoughts about the episode? Write to me at vidhatri@the-ken.com or reach out to me on Linkedin at Vidhatri Rao. 

Credits: 

Written and produced by Vidhatri Rao

Edited by Rajiv CN

We started 90,000 Hours because we believe careers are at an inflection point. Nothing seems to be certain anymore as old rules are actively being thrown out of the window. As we wrap up five months of this podcast, our reporting and stories reflected just that. 

We have covered everything from how the American dream has shifted to how traditional networking has upended. 

Across all these episodes, some themes showed up time and again. And before heading into 2026, we ask: 

— What will replace the pyramid structure in organisations? 

— What will the assessment of AI-led productivity look like? 

— How to get hired when hiring is broken?

Have thoughts on the episode? You can take this short survey or write to us at rahel@the-ken.com and vidhatri@the-ken.com. 

Credits: 

Written and produced by Rahel Philipose, Vidhatri Rao
Edited by Rajiv CN

Generative AI has made it easy to churn out decent design, copy, code in seconds. But in this flood of outputs, who decides what’s actually good?

This episode looks at taste. Not the elite kind shaped in galleries or runway shows, but the kind that helps you make better calls at work. The kind that separates polished from passable, thoughtful from just fine.

You will hear from:

• Professor Bernd Schmitt, who teaches marketing at Columbia and has spent years studying brand experience and aesthetics.
• Sunit Singh, co-founder of Design Capital, on how designers build creative judgment and why tools haven’t really changed the fundamentals.
• Prateek Jogani, CTO at Qoala, on what taste looks like in code, and how engineers can sharpen theirs.

If you have ever looked at something AI-generated and thought, “It’s... okay, I guess,” this one’s for you.

As promised, check out the Museum of Bad Art 

Every generation has a way of thinking their problems are unique and that they have somehow been handed the wrong end of the stick. Most times, it is a cliche. But sometimes, it captures a rare moment that we are only beginning to understand.

Ask a young software engineer at an IT services firm today, this reality hits deep. The thing is there is a general sense of dread in the air. Only compounded by the constant noise about automation and AI taking away entry-level jobs. Add tariff uncertainties and clients tightening budgets... You get an industry under pressure from every direction.

Today, you enter an organisation with expectations and land up in a reality you didn’t sign up for. No incentives. No challenges. You don’t know if you stand out, or if your work matters. Forget a plan for life. You don't know what’s going to happen in the next six months.We are giving this feeling a name: The ‘Hope Gap’.

When this gap arises, people complain about not feeling ambitious or motivated. And the worst part is that nobody is telling them what to do to regain that hope again. What’s the solution? An IT services veteran and two open source contributors tell us.

Their approaches are different but have takeaways for all.

Tune in!

Have thoughts about this episode? We would love to hear from you! Write to Rahel (rahel@the-ken.com) or Vidhatri (vidhatri@the-ken.com).

Credits: Written and produced by Rahel Philipose, Vidhatri Rao
Edited by Rajiv CN

P.s Tell us about your best AI prompts