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Valorie Kondos Field: How Can We Reinvent Our Definition Of Success?

Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode Reinvention.

Former gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field led her team to victory by creating a supportive environment, instead of a cutthroat one. The impact of that decision, she says, echoes far beyond the gym.

About Valorie Kondos Field

In her tenure as the womens’ gymnastics coach at UCLA, Valorie Kondos Field led her team to seven NCAA championships, was four times voted the NCAA Coach of the Year, and was also voted the PAC-12 Coach of the Century. Miss Val, as she’s known by her gymnasts, developed a coaching style based on trust, empathy, joy, and a radical refusal of win-at-all-costs culture.

After more than three decades of coaching in college athletics, she retired in 2019.

She is the author of Life Is Short, Don’t Wait To Dance.

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Maria Paz Gutiérrez and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at [email protected].

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. utm

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Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.

Zomorodi is a co-founder of Stable Genius Productions and is the co-host and co-creator of ZigZag, the business podcast about being human. She also created, hosted, and was managing editor of the podcast Note to Self in partnership with WNYC Studios, which was named Best Tech Podcast of 2017 by The Academy of Podcasters.

Prior to her time at WNYC, Zomorodi reported and produced around the world for BBC News and Thomson Reuters, including a few years in Berlin.

She was named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2018 and has received numerous awards for her work, including The Gracie for Best Radio Host in 2014 and 2018. Her book "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Creative Self" (2017, St. Martin's Press) and her TED Talk are guides to surviving information overload and the "Attention Economy."

Zomorodi received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in English and fine arts. She is half-Persian and half-Swiss but was born in New York City, where she lives with her family.

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