"Hearing people's stories and helping them get justice" - Lauren Conlin

Lauren is a NYC based entertainment journalist and host, who knew she wanted to write about gossip and entertainment for much of her life. She loves to investigate and write about Hollywood crime and has been featured on Fox News, Sky News Arabia, Elle, Page Six, and many other places. As she stated with her value, she has a deep passion for sharing people's stories and has committed herself to this world. I found this conversation really interesting because in many ways the world of deep philosophical thinking seems to be very different than the world of entertainment news and gossip. I was very conscious of that during the discussion and wanted to be really careful not to come off judgmental or critical, while at the same time trying to explore Lauren's values/work to understand it better. It's funny because if you think about it, I am also trying to hear people's stories and share them with the with the world, we just have different approaches to it.  It was cool to hear how she got into this career, the challenges she faces, and the dreams she has. We talked about some of the negative connotations that can be attached to gossip and entertainment, which Lauren acknowledged can be very real. As she said at one point, it is a weird phenomena to get a huge dopamine hit when your post on Tik Tok gets over a million views but at the same time knowing how bad it is for you. We talked about that tension of needing the external validation while also trying to maintain a healthy ego and perspective.  Maybe the most interesting part of the discussion was about the role bullying plays in her profession. Lauren talked about the degree of bullying she experiences for the views she shares (as you'll hear she also holds some strong political/social views as well). So we talked about the level of trust you have to have in your own judgement to report stories that can have such a negative impact on people's lives. Also the circular nature of bullying, where people may feel like she is bullying or mistreating them, so they return by bullying and mistreating her. As I said it can feel far removed from philosophy, but I actually think there is a ton to learn about human nature in the work Lauren does. A big thanks for her being on and sharing her story.