In NPR’s How I Built This podcast series, host Guy Raz interviews entrepreneurs to explore their journeys and lessons learned. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the series took a slight detour and began to record segments entitled How I Built Resilience where entrepreneurs share past experiences that required grit and discuss how the current coronavirus situation is impacting business.
“How I Built Resilience” episodes include:
- April 2, 2020 – Jeni Britton Bauer, founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. Jeni’s company battled a Listeria outbreak in 2015 that almost broke her business, but she bounced back stronger than ever and is confident her company will survive this crisis, too.
- April 9, 2020 – Susan Griffin-Black, founder of EO Products. Susan’s company has made a full pivot by only producing hand sanitizer and hand soap to support public health needs during the pandemic.
- April 16, 2020 – David Neeleman of JetBlue Airways and Tristan Walker of Walker & Co.
- April 23, 2020 – Author Simon Sinek whose books about business include “Start with Why,” and “The Infinite Game”
- April 30, 2020 – José Andrés, a restaurateur who is now running World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit he founded that brings food to people during humanitarian crises.
- May 7, 2020 – Christina Tosi of MilkBar and Gary Erickson & Kit Crawford of Clif Bars
- May 9, 2020 – Stewart Butterfield of Slack and Steve Holmes of Springfree Trampoline
- May 14, 2020 – Samin Nosrat, author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and Alice Waters & Fanny Singer of Chez Panisse
- May 16, 2020 – Tobias Lütke of Shopify and Jon Stein of Betterment
- May 21, 2020 – Tony Xu of DoorDash and Marcia Kilgore of FitFlop
- May 23, 2020 – Sarah LaFleur of M.M. LaFleur who is rethinking her brand and her marketing to stay relevant in a new work-from-home world
- May 28, 2020 – Restaurateurs Kyle Connaughton and Daniel Humm
- May 30, 2020 – Alli Webb of Drybar and Andy Puddicombe & Rich Pierson of Headspace
- June 4, 2020 – Jenn Hyman of Rent The Runway
- June 6, 2020 – Troy Carter of Atom Factory
- June 11, 2020 – Actor and comedian Kevin Hart
- June 13, 2020 – Y-Vonne Hutchinson, founder of ReadySet, a consulting firm that helps companies make authentic commitments to diversity and inclusion.
- June 18, 2020 – Cathy Hughes, founder of Urban One, the largest African American-owned broadcast network with 54 radio stations around the United States.
- June 20, 2020 – Sadie Lincoln, founder of Barre3 who had to transition from in-person to online fitness programming.
- June 25, 2020 – Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick who discussed how protests for racial justice have resonated with him personally, and how this moment can spark meaningful change for African Americans — in the world of business and beyond.
- June 27, 2020 – Canva founder, Melanie Perkins and Spindrift founder, Bill Creelman
- July 9, 2020 – Sharon Chuter, founder of UOMA Beauty, a cosmetics company that caters to a wide variety of skin tones.
- July 11, 2020 – Morgan DeBaun who founded Blavity as a media platform for Black millennials to convene and connect online.
- July 16, 2020 – Julia Hartz, founder of Eventbrite
- July 18, 2020 – John Foley of Peleton