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About this episode

Godmother of Silicon Valley, Esther Wojcicki, shares her origin story, involvement in the early days at Google, educational philosophy’s origins, and current efforts with the Parenting Trick app.

Early Life Trauma Shaped Philosophy
Esther Wojcicki recounted a childhood trauma involving her youngest brother’s tragic death due to a lack of access to proper medical care, which became the fundamental driver for her advocacy and commitment to teaching others the art of self advocating. This event taught her that failure to speak up could be deadly, influencing her life’s trajectory despite early familial opposition to her career choice.

Education Program Growth Strategy
After facing sexism in newsrooms, Esther Wojcicki began teaching journalism at Palo Alto High School, empowering students to ask tough questions after securing tenure. The media program grew from 18 students to the nation’s largest, teaching trial and error as a core philosophy, leading to her being named California Teacher of the Year in 2002.

Parenting Trick App Philosophy
The Parenting Trick app uses the TRICK acronym (Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness) to help parents relieve the intense pressure on children, addressing the current mental health crisis among students. The app, currently running out of a nonprofit, needs promotion and marketing assistance to increase its impact and reach more parents worldwide.

Funding and Mission for Parenting Trick: They confirmed that the app is currently running out of their nonprofit, Global Moonshots in Education, but raising capital for a for-profit entity is being considered. Esther Wojcicki’s main goal is impact—to make a difference in the world and make kids happier—and they are not primarily motivated by personal financial gain (00:50:20).

About this guest

For those of you who do not know Esther,

1. The “Godmother of Silicon Valley”: Renowned as a legendary mentor to tech titans, Esther Wojcicki has shaped the leadership and innovation landscape of Silicon Valley, mentoring figures such as Steve Jobs’ daughter and founding the nation’s largest media arts program at Palo Alto High School.
2. Architect of a Global Legacy: Widely recognized for raising three of the world’s most successful women—including the former CEO of YouTube and the co-founder of 23andMe—Esther is the author of the international bestseller How to Raise Successful People, a guide that has redefined high-performance parenting and human capital development for the next generation.
3. Pioneer of the “TRICK” Framework: As the founder of the Moonshots in Education movement and the ParentingTRICK app, she champions a transformative pedagogical philosophy based on Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness—principles now being deployed globally to foster resilience and entrepreneurial leadership in both the boardroom and the home.

Connect with this guest

1. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heywoj/
2. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heywoj/
3. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/estherwojcicki
4. X: https://x.com/WojcickiEsther

Learn more:

1. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Wojcicki
2. The PalyMAC Program: https://palymac.org/

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Show Notes Generated by Gemini

These show notes were generated by AI

• Introduction and Recognition: Adi Soozin welcomed Esther Wojcicki, describing them as the “godmother of Silicon Valley” for her work mentoring and guiding top professionals in tech (00:00:00). Esther Wojcicki accepted the description, and they discussed the upcoming movie premiere titled *The Godmother of Silicon Valley* (00:01:06).
• Involvement with Google and Family Success: Esther Wojcicki confirmed her early involvement with Google, noting that her daughter, Susan, who became the CEO of YouTube, started at Google and devised the strategy for the company to generate revenue. They highlighted that Google’s founders, Larry and Sergey, initially knew how to find information on the web but struggled with monetization (00:01:06).
• Origin Story and Childhood Trauma: Esther Wojcicki shared her family history, noting that her parents were immigrants—her mother was born in Siberia, and her father was born in Ukraine—and they were the first generation born in the US (00:02:07). They recounted a tragic event from her childhood where her younger brother died after eating a bottle of aspirin because her immigrant mother, afraid to challenge a doctor’s advice and unable to secure care without proof of payment, put the child to bed, leading to a violent illness and subsequent death when no hospital would accept them (00:03:52).
• The Decision to Become an Advocate: The trauma of her brother’s death fundamentally changed Esther Wojcicki’s philosophy, teaching them that failure to speak up or advocate for themself can be deadly (00:05:10). This led them to pursue journalism, despite the opposition from her family and the era’s sexism, as girls were not typically encouraged to go into journalism or college (00:06:11).
• Career Shift from Journalism to Education: In the 1970s, women were barred from working in newsrooms as journalists, except in secretarial or advertising roles. Because they could not secure a position as a news reporter or opinion writer, Esther Wojcicki decided to teach students how to do the journalism work they wanted to do (00:07:22).
• Palo Alto High School Program Growth and Empowerment: Esther Wojcicki began teaching at Palo Alto High School with a small program of 18 students, following the rules until they received tenure after two years, at which point they stopped following the rules and began empowering her students to ask tough questions. The program grew significantly despite resistance from the administration, who worried that the students were disturbing the class culture by asking questions (00:08:25).
• Recognition and Impact on the School System: The continuous growth and success of her program led to Esther Wojcicki being named the California Teacher of the Year in 2002, which caused the administration to stop threatening them and begin acknowledging her teaching methods. The same year, they brought Google into the classroom, becoming the first teacher to do so, despite the initial conservative view of the administration that “computer things” were just a passing fad (00:10:30).
• Evolution of the Media Program: The media program grew from one small newspaper to include two and then three magazines, and today, it is the largest media program in the nation, serving about 700 students with 14 magazines. The core philosophy centered on trial and error, emphasizing that every mistake or failure is a learning opportunity that requires simple revision (00:12:35).
• Google Education Component: Esther Wojcicki was hired by Google in 2004 to create an education component, as there was none, despite Larry Page’s initial assertion that “Google is education”. They were told they would have to write the lesson plans themselves, a challenge they accepted, leading to the creation of what became the largest media program in the United States (00:13:40).
• The Film Premiere and Parenting Trick App: A documentary film about Esther Wojcicki, titled *The Godmother of Silicon Valley*, is scheduled for release on April 16th and features former students discussing the program’s impact on her lives (00:14:47). They are now using the philosophy of empowerment to help parents through her new app, Parenting Trick (00:15:54).
• Critique of the Current Education System: Esther Wojcicki acknowledged that changing the school system is difficult due to entrenched structures like unions, the tenure system, and state codes, and they argued that the system is engineered primarily for creating employees (00:15:54). Her educational goal worldwide is to allocate at least 20% of curricul time for peer-to-peer project-based learning on problems that students choose to solve (00:18:48).
• Parenting Trick Acronym and Philosophy: The app is called Parenting Trick, with TRICK being an acronym for the foundational principles: Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness (00:24:01). Esther Wojcicki believes this methodology works for both teaching and parenting, encouraging parents to be “advisors” and collaborate rather than dictate (00:23:13) (00:24:58).
• Concerns about Privacy and Technology: They expressed concern over parents using apps like Life 360 to constantly track their children, calling it a violation of privacy (00:26:49). They suggested a need for a “driver’s license for the web” to teach children and people over 60 about online dangers and scams before using devices (00:27:52).
• Biotech Fund and TreeHub Accelerator: Esther Wojcicki is involved in a biotech fund with a former student, Mary Minnow, that focuses on companies using AI to innovate in healthcare (00:35:02). They have launched an accelerator called TreeHub, named after the Stanford symbol, to support early-stage companies and student teams with office, financial, and overall support (00:36:18).
• Addressing Mental Health Crisis in Students: They shared concern that 54% of entering college freshmen are clinically depressed, attributing this to the intense pressure from parents who prioritize achievement and getting into the “right college” (00:40:06). They aim to use the Parenting Trick app to help parents relieve this pressure, allowing their children to be happier and more creative (00:41:29).
• Human Capital Needs for Parenting Trick: Esther Wojcicki stated that the Parenting Trick app, which currently has about 15,000 users, primarily needs assistance with promotion and social media marketing to reach more parents. Adi Soozin offered five organic marketing playbooks as a resource for any intern selected by Esther Wojcicki (00:40:06) (00:48:10).
• Funding and Mission for Parenting Trick: They confirmed that the app is currently running out of her nonprofit, Global Moonshots in Education, but raising capital for a for-profit entity is being considered. Esther Wojcicki’s main goal is impact—to make a difference in the world and make kids happier—and they are not primarily motivated by personal financial gain (00:50:20).

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Transcript

This transcription was generated by Gemini & edited by ChatGPT

00:00:00

 
Adi Soozin: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of 9×90. Today we have a very special guest on our show. She is  warmly known as the godmother of Silicon Valley  because she has mentored, guided and  coached  some of the world’s top performing professionals especially in the tech space of the modern era. She is the godmother actually of the modern era I would say. But today she’s on to tell us about a very amazing app that she came out with and some other very cool things that she is  working on now. So Esther, thank you so much for coming and
Esther Wojcicki: Well, thank you so much for inviting me.
Adi Soozin: joining.
Esther Wojcicki: I’m very excited to be here and thanks for that description. That was that was pretty amazing. Thank you.
Adi Soozin: I love how when we first met for pizza, I had no idea who I was meeting and you were like, “Well, I’m the mentor of all these people.” And it was like, “Oh my god.”
Esther Wojcicki: I’m trying to change the world through them, you know.
 
 

00:01:06

 
Esther Wojcicki: It’s so exciting. They’re doing a great
Adi Soozin: I think you’ve been very effective.
Esther Wojcicki: job.
Adi Soozin: My god. My god. Wow. Yeah. And you have your movie premiere coming out soon.
Esther Wojcicki: That’s right. It’s a called the godmother of Silicon Valley. How’s that for an imaginative
Adi Soozin: No, I loved it. I loved seeing that and I was like, that is so accurate.
Esther Wojcicki: title?
Adi Soozin: Although, as someone who grew up using Google for all of my homework, I would say  the godmother of modern history.
Esther Wojcicki: Yes, I was involved in Google at the very beginning. Yes, that’s
Adi Soozin: Yeah, that was incredible.
Esther Wojcicki: right.
Adi Soozin: And and your daughters have both gone on to be amazing leaders as well.
Esther Wojcicki: Right. So Susan was the CEO of you of YouTube, but actually she started at Google and she was the one that came up with the way Google should earn money because Larry and Sergey said, “We know how to find anything you want to find on the web, but we just can’t figure out how to make any money.” That was kind of an
 
 

00:02:07

 
Esther Wojcicki: essential
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Um,
Esther Wojcicki: piece.
Adi Soozin: okay. So, do you want to go a little bit, we just touched on a little bit, but would you like to dive deeper into your origin story? How you got to where you are
Esther Wojcicki: Sure.
Adi Soozin: today?
Esther Wojcicki: Um, so my origin story, so my my mother and father were born my mother was born in Crash Nayars in Siberia. Yes.
Adi Soozin: No.
Esther Wojcicki: My father was born in the Ukraine in in a little town called Came Pedulk in the it’s near the border of  Poland and  they met in New York
Adi Soozin: Oh, wow.
Esther Wojcicki: City. They had a lot in common right away and then of course they got married and then they had me. So I was the first generation born in the United States and the entire family was like so excited because like oh my god we’ve got a real American here.
Adi Soozin: We created an American. Look at us.
 
 

00:03:02

 
Esther Wojcicki: It was really crazy and it is so my father was
Adi Soozin: Oh, that’s so funny. Oh, f***.
Esther Wojcicki: very  talented artist.  but unfortunately  art is not a very highpaying profession or you know unless you’re Picasso or something. And so he was busy trying to figure out how to earn a living and he couldn’t find any place
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: in New York. So, we ended up moving to Los Angeles where he thought, “Oh, let’s go west, young man. You know, you’ll find the place to be.” So,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: I grew up in Los Angeles. Um, he actually didn’t do as well as he wanted to do financially. He ended up being a gravestone artist,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: which paid a lot. So, most of those gravestones in LA, I would say he probably carved them.
Adi Soozin: No way.
Esther Wojcicki: Can you believe? Yeah.
Adi Soozin: Oh my gosh. Oh wow. Wow.
Esther Wojcicki: So we didn’t lasting impression that’s for sure.
 
 

00:03:52

 
Adi Soozin: That Yeah. Wow.
Esther Wojcicki:  and  so  as I mentioned we went didn’t have a lot of money so and my parents were immigrants and so my  they didn’t we didn’t have health care you know which is kind of crazy but that’s true for a lot of people today. They don’t have health care. So my mother we had  three kids. My mom had me, I was the oldest, and then two boys. And so the youngest boy  was about 18 months old. He was playing on the kitchen floor with the pots and the pans and all the stuff cuz that was the toys. And then he accidentally found a bottle of aspirin and he opened the bottle of aspirin and then he ate it.
Adi Soozin: Oh my god.
Esther Wojcicki: And so my mom called the doctor and of course not having you know being a fullpaying patient you know I think he probably didn’t listen because I don’t think that he would have given this advice if he would have listened but he told her is like ah just put him to bed and see how he is in two hours which is a standardized answer for most doctors you know they’re like oh they’ve got a fever just put him to bed whatever so you know I don’t want to blame him but other than he didn’t listen my mom did not challenge this being an immigrant,
 
 

00:05:10

 
Esther Wojcicki: you know, she’s like, “Oh, you know, he knows best. He’s a doctor. You know, I’m just a little woman and immigrant and I don’t know so much.” So, she did it and  unfortunately  he got vi
Adi Soozin: There we
Esther Wojcicki: violently ill. They took him to the hospital to the to a community hospital and then to some other hospitals,
Adi Soozin: go.
Esther Wojcicki: but no one would accept him because they didn’t have proof of payment. It’s just a total nightmare situation. Now they’ve changed that so you know you have to take someone who’s critically ill and so he died and it was tragic and  so what
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: that showed me and you know I was just a 10-year-old at the time and I just you know was dragged to the from one hospital to another because there’s they had no babysitters of course. Um, it showed me that if you don’t speak up for yourself, if you don’t ask questions, if you aren’t if you aren’t your own advocate, you know, you’re going to fail, you’re dead,
 
 

00:06:11

 
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: you’re going to die. And um,
Adi Soozin: Wow.
Esther Wojcicki: so that changed my philosophy and everything. And um, I basically asked all the hard questions. I did everything that, you know, was not a you know, girls did not go into journalism. I went into journalism. Um, you know, my family being, you know, orthodox, they didn’t want me to get do anything but get married. 18. Oh, you’re perfect. We already have the prospect for you. You know,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: just go and all this stuff. And I was like, “No, I’m going to get not going to get married. I’m going to go to college.” And they’re like, “Why would you ever want to go to college? All you need to do is find a rich boy. you know, we already have one, you know, that’s perfect. So, um, there was a little bit of a disconnect there. I went off to college. They were pretty upset. Um, but then my philosophy has been my whole life has been to empower people so that they can ask the tough questions so that they don’t have to be afraid of making a mistake.
 
 

00:07:22

 
Esther Wojcicki: And even if they make a mistake, so what, you know, so just revise it.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And so I wanted first to be a journalist because I thought, well, I can reach more people that way, right? And I can help protect the underdog. But this was in the 1970s and  women were not in journalism.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: I don’t know if you knew that back then, but  women women I was banned from the San Francisco Press Club because I was a woman and you know, you couldn’t work for newspapers unless you wanted to be a secretary or in charge of advertising or but no, you couldn’t be a journalist unless you were working for some dinky little newspaper and they were really strapped and so
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: they hired you hoping that you would behave yourself and act like a man. And so I decided that okay, I can’t do what I really want in journalism because no one’s going to hire me to be a news reporter, an opinion writer, none. So I was like, okay, I’ll teach I’ll teach all these kids how to do the same thing that I was going to do.
 
 

00:08:25

 
Esther Wojcicki: And then, you know, I I get my ideas across and I’ll get my I’ll fulfill my goal. So that’s how I started working and teaching at PaloAlto High School. I started with a tiny program. I think it had 18 kids in it and they’d had a little tiny newspaper and you know when you’re a new teacher you have to follow the rules or they fire you right away. So I followed the rules for a
Adi Soozin: I’m glad you didn’t
Esther Wojcicki: while.
Adi Soozin: know
Esther Wojcicki: When I got tenure, which took about two years, I stopped following the rules and I empowered all my students to ask the tough questions and to be journalists and to do all the things that to make the world better. And you know, it was crazy. My program got to be so popular.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: It went from those 18 kids, then the next year was like 30 kids, then 40 kids, and the administration was like, “What? what are you doing to them? You know, how are you getting all these kids there?
 
 

00:09:30

 
Esther Wojcicki: And they accused me of giving them pizza. You believe that? I was like, “No, I’m not really doing that.” Anyway, and by the year 2000, it had grown to about a hundred kids in my class. They loved it. The administration loved it because they’re like, “Oh, just one teacher. she’s teaching 100 kids and we get to collect all this money from the state, you know, and other classes can be they they average class size. So, you know, I was they were able to make other classes smaller, but I was like, this is a little too much, you know, and not only that, they were threatening to fire me all the time because there the rule the word on the street is like her kids are always asking these questions in class and disturbing the class culture. you know, I I the teacher, you know, I want to be in charge and I’m gonna do what I want to do and you know, and actually they had an academic senate meeting about me and it’s like you need to stop this.
 
 

00:10:30

 
Esther Wojcicki: But actually, fortunately, in 2002, I got California Teacher of the Year for the whole state. And that was a, you know, I always wondered what awards are good for cuz you know that just you get an award, you get to hang it on the wall or something. This one had a huge impact because then they stopped threatening me and all of a sudden they
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: started they started to well she might be doing something right after all. You know what’s going on here? Let’s take a look at
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I remember that article like that was when I still read the news regularly and that article came out and it was like this woman has changed the way teaching’s happening and her daughters have achieved all these things. I was like, “Wow, I wonder if I’ll get to meet her one day.” Yeah,
Esther Wojcicki: Oh yes,
Adi Soozin: I
Esther Wojcicki: it’s incredible. So the so also the same year,
Adi Soozin: remember.
Esther Wojcicki: so that was 2000.  you know my daughter’s Google started in my daughter’s garage in 1999 1998 and so the year 2000 I
 
 

00:11:34

Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki:  I brought Google into the classroom I was the first
Adi Soozin: No
Esther Wojcicki: teacher and you cannot believe you know it
Adi Soozin: way.
Esther Wojcicki: everyone was like what is that thing Google you know like and and then the the administration you know, teaching. I don’t know. Somehow they’re so conservative that they always looking back, they’re like, “It’s just a fad these computer things. You know,
Adi Soozin: Oh
Esther Wojcicki: they’re going to disappear next year.” You know,
Adi Soozin: yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: I don’t know why you want to have a computer in your class. What a crazy idea that is.
Adi Soozin: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: So, um, of course, you know, that didn’t it of course went on.
Adi Soozin: Oh,
Esther Wojcicki: And so  so after a while they started to see me as as opposed to being you know this revolutionary person who did nothing as to being a real revolutionary. Oh my god, she’s actually on to something. It’s working.
Adi Soozin: yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And the program just boomed.

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00:12:35

 
Esther Wojcicki:  it went from that one newspaper to then I had a magazine and then I had two magazines and then three magazines. And today there are about 700 kids in this program. It’s the largest media program in the nation. And there are 14 magazines. We allow kids to even start their own magazine in case they don’t like one of the ones we already
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: have.
Adi Soozin: Wow. Yeah. That’s incredible.
Esther Wojcicki: And so the idea is, you know, you guys, it doesn’t matter whether you know how to do it right the first time. You try to do it. You just do it. And then if it doesn’t work out, every mistake or failure is a learning opportunity. You just change it and do it again and make it work. that culture spread everywhere and spread all over into Google as
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: well because at that point my daughter was already you know Google had started in her garage and  in 2004 Google hired me and they hired me basically there was no education program
 
 

00:13:40

 
Adi Soozin: Heat.
Esther Wojcicki: at Google none and I remember having a conversation with Larry and Sergey and I
Adi Soozin: Mhm.
Esther Wojcicki: was like why aren’t you having an education component, an edu or something. And Larry, this famous phrase, he’s like,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: “Google is education. We don’t need anything else. Just type your question into the search bar. That’s it.” I was like,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: “Oh my god, he doesn’t know teachers. We need help.”
Adi Soozin: I remember I remember Google edu coming out and I remember the scholarship feature coming out. I think I was in high school when that happened.
Esther Wojcicki: Yeah, probably. Yes, that’s Anyway,  I could just go on,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: but to make a long story short shorter,  it grew. And then, you know, finally, I mean, they told me if you really want to have a Google edu, Google education, you’re going to have to write the lesson plans yourself. It’s like, okay, I’ll do it. you know, don’t challenge me because I get excited when I’m
 
 

00:14:47

 
Adi Soozin: Yeah, yeah,
Esther Wojcicki: challenged.
Adi Soozin: yeah. Ashkanazi women should not be challenged. That’s when we
Esther Wojcicki: That’s right.
Adi Soozin: shine.
Esther Wojcicki: So, you know, it grew and today it’s the largest media program in the United States.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And  and you know I have hundreds of kids thousands of of them that went on to have incredible careers all over and in and everything from you know law medicine most of them became entrepreneurs of a lot of very successful students and a lot of CEOs and so forth. So they made a film about me. I know.
Adi Soozin: Yes,
Esther Wojcicki: It’s coming out  on April 16th and it’s called it’s
Adi Soozin: I had I I shared it
Esther Wojcicki: called The Godmother of Silicon
Adi Soozin: in the Miami chat and people were going to fly from Miami to Silicon Valley just to be
Esther Wojcicki: Valley.
Adi Soozin: there for the premiere, but they were put on the wait list. And then that’s what that’s why I asked you. I was like, it’s kind of full and people are going to fly 12
 
 

00:15:54

 
Esther Wojcicki: We’re going to come to Miami.
Adi Soozin: hours.
Esther Wojcicki: The whole thing will come to Miami. So, you can tell them not to worry. It’ll come to Miami.
Adi Soozin: Okay.
Esther Wojcicki: It’s going to go to DC and New York. It’ll go around the country. It’s not It’s just a short documentary.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: But what it has is it has my students are in it, my former students, and they talk about what it was that changed everything for them and how the program impacted their life. And so, I have that app now called Parenting Trick and I’m trying to help parents do the same thing. And you know,
Adi Soozin: Yes.
Esther Wojcicki: I’d love the schools to do more of the same thing, but it’s harder for schools. The culture of the school system is be it’s embedded in the teachers, but the unions and then the tenure system and then the state code
Adi Soozin: The
Esther Wojcicki: of education and there’s so many things to change. It’s really it’s really hard.
 
 

00:16:50

 
Esther Wojcicki: So, I mean, I know a lot of teachers are trying,
Adi Soozin: the other thing that’s hard is when the
Esther Wojcicki: but it’s tough.
Adi Soozin: teachers have like 600 students asking different questions and some of them are distracted and some of the questions aren’t relevant. Like the school system in the US really is just engineered for making employees. Like I remember so many of my classmates who were like the best behaved student who didn’t ask any questions, handed in all the math, didn’t push back, like they’re now employees somewhere else. Those who like didn’t fit into the school system. Like my kindergarten teacher told my parents that I wouldn’t graduate high school and I have an MBA from one of the top business schools in the world. like she she she did that because my mother had taught me how to read up to a second grade level before I started kindergarten.
Esther Wojcicki: Oh my god. They don’t want you to do that with your
Adi Soozin: No,
Esther Wojcicki: kid.
Adi Soozin: because then I sat there and she would set she was having my classmates learn the alphabet and I was like it’s not fair that I have to sit here while they learn the alphabet.
 
 

00:17:52

 
Adi Soozin: I already put in the hours and I would go look out the window. So when she like insisted my parents come with me to the principal’s office, the principal was like, “Humor me, have her take a reading test.” And so they had me take this test. And so then when my classmates would study the alphabet, I would go into the first and second grade classrooms and read the
Esther Wojcicki: Oh my god.
Adi Soozin: books.
Esther Wojcicki: That’s well I actually had one of my grandchildren was in a similar situation to you and the teacher is like  I’m going to she told my
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: mom she’s  my mom I’m sorry my daughter she said Adam  you know he knows too much already. We’re gonna put him in the library every day. He go straight to the library.
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah, that was it.
Esther Wojcicki: And that was it.
Adi Soozin: And now they call it it’s double Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: He just went to the library every
Adi Soozin: They call it double gifted now.
 
 

00:18:48

 
Esther Wojcicki: day.
Adi Soozin: If you have ADHD and Mensa, you’re double gifted. So they just they put a warning label on you when you walk into classrooms.
Esther Wojcicki: It’s hilarious. That’s true.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: So  so what I was doing in my classes and what I still do and what the program does is ask kids to to think and to ask those difficult questions and then to write about it. And  there’s five other journalism teachers there also and they all follow the same philosophy. And my goal really for the school system worldwide is to give kids at least 20% of the time of the curricul because I’m telling you never going to be 100%. But at least 20% of the time where they can work together,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: peer-to-peer on problems that they personally want to solve. And so it’s peer-to-peer projectbased learning where they’re empowered. And if they don’t do it right, so what? just do it again, you know. And Mark Zuckerberg had that statement which he actually copied from Google.
 
 

00:20:01

 
Adi Soozin: What is
Esther Wojcicki: He changed it which was like  my statement was just do it,
Adi Soozin: it?
Esther Wojcicki: move fast. His was move fast and break things. And that sounds just like him. And actually the phrase really was move fast and
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: revise and and so he wanted he just wanted to make it
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Um
Esther Wojcicki: more dynamic. Oh, of course. So, you know, but it’s the same thing. So the culture of the valley is that it’s okay to make a mistake which is one of the things that needs to switch in other communities because when you know in other parts of
Adi Soozin: yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: the world you know when you make a mistake you’re so humiliated you
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Oh my god. I know.
Esther Wojcicki: can’t forward it and so my theory is mistakes are just opportunities to learn and that’s that’s the revolution and you know I think you know Einstein said
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: that was also So an opportunity to learn.
 
 

00:21:03

 
Esther Wojcicki: So I’m just carrying along that
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah. I I I did a brain scan yesterday and they did this part where they would  ask me a bunch
Esther Wojcicki: message.
Adi Soozin: of math questions really fast and my mind was thinking of the math questions about like negotiating hundreds of millions of dollars and how if I was off but I won like that was a huge deal. They’re like your cortisol levels spiked when we got to basic math questions. What were you thinking? And I was like, I was literally picturing the last time I had to negotiate the debt and equity ratio of an $800 million asset. And they’re like, but it was a basic math question. Like, what’s 29 + 14? It was like, do not get this wrong.
Esther Wojcicki: Yes. I think when you apply it, that’s when the issues happen.
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah. But it was funny. So,
Esther Wojcicki: So anyway,
Adi Soozin: yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: what I’m trying to do since it’s hard to impact the school system because of the all the laws surrounding the school system, you know, tenure and the teachers unions and the state code and so forth.
 
 

00:22:14

Esther Wojcicki: And you know, they evaluate teachers on how well behaved your class is. Can you believe that? you want to come in and all the kids are supposed to be sitting there quietly just I don’t know what they’re supposed to be
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: doing but quietly and you know my classes were just chaos to be honest and my theory was if you didn’t understand something and
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: you wanted to work on it first person to ask is your friend and
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: don’t know ask another friend and then a third friend and if still you can’t figure it out then I’m here So, I was trying to promote peer-to-peer learning because if you go to work in a company and
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: you don’t understand something, you don’t go to the CEO,
Adi Soozin: No.
Esther Wojcicki: you know, it’s all it’s all group work,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: peer learning. So,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: I just was trying to train them for the real world and  that it turns out kids really like that.

---

---

00:23:13

 
Esther Wojcicki: They love working with each other. And they love it especially when it’s okay to make a mistake because then you can just fix it.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: So that’s that’s behind my whole system.
Adi Soozin: I I tell my children it’s not my job to be their their mother. It’s my job to be their adviser because one day they’re going to be running a company.
Esther Wojcicki: Yes, that’s right. Their advisor.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: That’s exactly it. I was actually that was my name advisor and on
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: newspaper that
Adi Soozin: Oh, cute. Oh, and the kids newspaper. Oh,
Esther Wojcicki: a newspaper that magazines I I’m sorry I don’t have any copies.
Adi Soozin: fun.
Esther Wojcicki: Oh I I might have a copy. Do you want me to try to find
Adi Soozin: It’s It’s okay.
Esther Wojcicki: one?
Adi Soozin: Um, we we can we can  jump into the next
Esther Wojcicki: They can just go to Palo Alto High School Media Arts Programs and they’re
Adi Soozin: question.
 
 

00:24:01

 
Esther Wojcicki: online.
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah. And if they I’m sure if they Google your name they’ll see things and we could also embed one and link to in the the web
Esther Wojcicki: Okay,
Adi Soozin: page.
Esther Wojcicki: perfect. Yeah.
Adi Soozin: So you’re now you’re working on parenting trick the app. Can we dive into that a little
Esther Wojcicki: Yes. So, parenting trick.
Adi Soozin: bit?
Esther Wojcicki: First of all, the question is why is it called trick? And trick is the acronym I came up with to help parents remember what’s important. It’s in my book, How to Raise Successful People.
Adi Soozin: Yes.
Esther Wojcicki: And  I also wrote another book called Moonshots in Education. It’s a book too. And trick stands for trust. That’s the first thing I think is important.
Adi Soozin: Okay.
Esther Wojcicki: Trust your children. Second, respect. I is for independence. Give your children as much independence as possible depending on their age of course. C is for collaboration.
 
 

00:24:58

 
Esther Wojcicki: Collaborate. Stop being such dictators. You know, parents are just like you’re going to do this.
Adi Soozin: Huh?
Esther Wojcicki: you know, it’s like 8:00 and if you don’t do it. And then K is for kindness. And it’s so important.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: It works in the classroom because I trusted my students and respected their ideas. You can’t believe what wacky ideas they came up with. But some of those ideas worked out beautifully.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: So I don’t even want to say that those ideas were wacky. And then I gave them a lot of independence. I collaborated with them instead of dictating. And I was I was always there to help them no matter what. And I always wanted them to know that no matter what mistake they made, I was there.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: I think parents need to do the same thing. So that’s why it’s called parenting trick.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And what’s happening in most parents, parenting situations is, you know, I don’t know if you know that the test scores get home to your parents, get home to the parents  before the kid even gets home.
 
 

00:25:58

 
Esther Wojcicki: It’s required by state law that the teacher put up the test scores right away.
Adi Soozin: Yeah. I never look at that. I wait for her to come home and
Esther Wojcicki: In the afternoon,
Adi Soozin: explain.
Esther Wojcicki: Johnny comes home from school, his mom is already like furious that he flunked his math test, right? Back in the old day,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: that was when I was going to school and you you too probably if you came home and your mom said, “So, how you do? How’d you do math?” You’re like, “Oh, great.”
Adi Soozin: My parents didn’t even keep track if we had tests.
Esther Wojcicki: And
Adi Soozin: Like, they didn’t ask. Like, I just kept it in my backpack. The tests and the homework, they didn’t they didn’t
Esther Wojcicki: well, that was smart. Anyway,
Adi Soozin: ask.
Esther Wojcicki: but then so in addition to getting an F on your test, you get yelled at by your parents and you might might have another punishment coming along that you didn’t even
 
 

00:26:49

 
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: anticipate. And  so it makes the life of kids really challenging.  they have no privacy. They they’re being tracked all the time.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki:  it’s it’s really hard for them. So there’s there’s an app called Life 360. It’s one of the most popular and profitable apps out there. Parents put that on their kid on their phone or on their watch or something and they can track them wherever they are. And  this is a total violation of their privacy of course and it but it’s it’s super popular. I mean I I think it’s you can look it up. It’s like 80% of the parents are using it or something like that because people don’t trust each other
Adi Soozin: Well, it’s also crazy cuz like you look at things like Roblox and these other these other ways that um
Esther Wojcicki: anymore.
Adi Soozin: pedophiles are getting access to children nowadays.
Esther Wojcicki: I know it’s terrible.
Adi Soozin: Yeah. So, yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: So we we do need to be careful on the web.
 
 

00:27:52

 
Esther Wojcicki: You need to teach your kids. So my theory and what I tried to do and I still I’ve not given up is I wanted to on the phone before you get your phone for a child. There’s a little course on that phone. There should be one which teaches you all the dangers of the phone and how you should behave. It’s kind of like how would you like to just give your kid a car and just say, “Okay, here’s the keys. Go ahead. You can just drive wherever you see you’ve seen me drive, right? So, you know how you know we we need a driver’s license for the
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: web. And this is this is what I’ve been trying to do to help kids avoid being tricked. We could also have a driver’s license for the web for people over 60 because they’re getting spammed
Adi Soozin: Oh my
Esther Wojcicki: and they’re just getting they they’re having a lot of problems because they were not digital
Adi Soozin: god.
Esther Wojcicki: natives and they don’t understand a lot of the terrible things that are happening online.
 
 

00:28:50

 
Esther Wojcicki: And so I get this magazine, this art magazine, and one of every single copy, every edition has an article on how to avoid being scammed.
Adi Soozin: Oh my gosh. That’s that’s a great thing.
Esther Wojcicki: It’s terrible.
Adi Soozin: We had with my grandmother before she passed. She passed a few years ago. She was in her 90s.  my cousin was having to go over there regularly and look through her emails and texts for spam.
Esther Wojcicki: I they don’t even know the difference.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And  and you know,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: even though today’s grandparents are savvier than the early ones, they still have there’s still a lot of scammers out there.
Adi Soozin: Yeah. My father will ask me.
Esther Wojcicki: And right.
Adi Soozin: He’s like, “Is this real or not?
Esther Wojcicki: So if you just look at the history of what Google has purchased in the last year or maybe two years, they paid the most for a security company.
Adi Soozin: of course it Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: Without security, we have nothing on the web.
 
 

00:29:46

 
Esther Wojcicki: Nothing. So, and by the way, yeah, be careful with invitations.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: By the way, this is for everybody. birthday invitations. All these invitations, most of those now are
Adi Soozin: I know. I know. Yeah. Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: scams.
Adi Soozin: I get I get invited to speak at all these different events. I’ve done what, like 40 panels between Singapore to Abu Dhabi and back to the US since October. And  and now I tell people the easiest way for me to sus out the scams is I tell them what the comp is. I’m like, “Okay, yeah, you have to pay my first class flight, fivestar hotel, and you have to give me a speak. This is my speaker fee.” And if they can’t do that, and they’re like, “Oh, we were hoping you’d pay to speak.” I’m like, “Nope. Thank you so much. Where do I send my check?” No, that’s your first Yeah,
Esther Wojcicki: Anyway,
Adi Soozin: that’s your first
Esther Wojcicki: I think we have a lot in common.
 
 

00:30:37

 
Esther Wojcicki: And so I’m trying to my goal worldwide with parenting trick is to help them bring up
Adi Soozin: red.
Esther Wojcicki: children that are happy, believe in themselves, and can accomplish something to make the world better.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And I just think about Mark Twain.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: Everybody remembers Mark Twain, the author. He said the two most important days of your life. Number one, the day you were born. And number two,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: the day you figure out why.
Adi Soozin: Yes. Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And you cannot figure out why if you’re always being told what to do.
Adi Soozin: What what I love with my family  so I’m fifth generation real estate and they when
Esther Wojcicki: Yes.
Adi Soozin: you’re when you’re turn seven eight years old you get a blue blazer and you come to  you start going to business and board meetings and city hall planning meetings and they don’t say you’re going to be an architect. They say figure out where you’re going to sit in the real estate ecosystem.
 
 

00:31:35

 
Esther Wojcicki: Yeah. What do you want to do?
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: Because you know the real estate is like huge.
Adi Soozin: I know.
Esther Wojcicki: I mean you all have to have a place to live and the
Adi Soozin: Yeah. But like but that that gave it gave so much autonomy and then people were like how are you guys in
Esther Wojcicki: businesses
Adi Soozin: real estate for five generations? And it was like well actually if you go overseas it’s much longer. But in the US it was never oh your you and your siblings are going to fight over inheriting one company. It was, “No, you can go out and make your own real estate companies and your own real estate groups and your own private equity funds, but stay in real estate because that’s where all of our contacts
Esther Wojcicki: Right.
Adi Soozin: are.” But I I love I also
Esther Wojcicki: That’s great. Yeah, that is great.
Adi Soozin: love the collaboration piece that you that you have. My my children, when my husband’s here, he’s like a drill sergeant.
 
 

00:32:19

 
Adi Soozin: He’s trying to get everyone to do everything and he’s so stressed by the end of the morning routine. And when he’s not here, I’m like, “Okay, who’s getting who dressed? Who’s helping with this?” And I list the tasks that need to be done. And then the two of them, age four and nine, figure out who’s doing
Esther Wojcicki: I think that’s great.
Adi Soozin: what?
Esther Wojcicki: You know, you want to give your kids a responsibility that makes them feel like they’re
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: actually doing something real to be part of the family,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: not just something that is you you cook up for no reason whatsoever. They actually have to be part. I mean, I had my kids. Well, poor Susan when she was like two. She was I already She was already in training because, you know, back then we used cloth diapers. It was just so annoying. And the diapers, you know, they had to be folded.
Adi Soozin: Oh my god.
Esther Wojcicki: But can you believe you can teach a two-year-old how to fold?
 
 

00:33:13

Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And she thought that was she was so proud of herself.
Adi Soozin: Yeah,
Esther Wojcicki: Janet, by the
Adi Soozin: that’s an achievement because my four-year-old will take my t-shirt,
Esther Wojcicki: way,
Adi Soozin: he’ll fold it in half, and then he looks at he just rolls it up into a ball and hands me the ball. Thank you. I love that.
Esther Wojcicki: I have this woman that was fixing my drawers for me and she rolled everything up into what looked like little sardines. It was crazy. And she’s like, “It’s the best way for your drawers.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: You can see everything. They’re like little
Adi Soozin: Yeah. I I had a mate who used to do that. Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: sausages.
Adi Soozin: I mean, some people I’m talking about, but I don’t have the patience for that. I’ll I’ll literally some weeks I take all of my black t-shirts out of the laundry. I throw them in the drawer. I don’t care that they are going to be wrinkled when I put them on.

---

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00:34:09

 
Adi Soozin: And then I’m literally Yeah,
Esther Wojcicki: I know your favorite color.
Adi Soozin: it’s
Esther Wojcicki: My favorite color is black. You know why is that?
Adi Soozin: Yep.
Esther Wojcicki: First never gets dirty and you can’t see it.
Adi Soozin: I know. I know. Yeah. I have I have 20 pairs of the same black t-shirt and same black leggings.
Esther Wojcicki: I do too. Oh my god. We have the same out the same
Adi Soozin: Same thing. Yeah. Yeah. And then I have like my occasional I’m like,
Esther Wojcicki: wardrobe.
Adi Soozin: “Okay, I have to wear this blazer once a week. I have to wear that blazer once a week.” But 90% of my wardrobe is just two items. But yeah,
Esther Wojcicki: I knew there was a reason I liked you.
Adi Soozin: I thought it was because I put my older brother on the nuclear power plant  panel at Davos.
Esther Wojcicki: Oh, that was good, too.
Adi Soozin: I loved you like you were like judging by the way you’re laughing, I don’t think you enjoyed it as much as you did.
 
 

00:35:02

 
Esther Wojcicki: Oh my
Adi Soozin: Yeah,
Esther Wojcicki: god.
Adi Soozin: that was very funny. But no, he did great. So, okay. You also are working with Stamford and selecting biotech companies that you then bring to Andre and
Esther Wojcicki: Well, I let me tell you. So,
Adi Soozin: Horowitz.
Esther Wojcicki: this is another one of my former students. Her name is Mary Minnow. And we just set up this biotech or this fund basically. And what we’re doing is we’re looking at companies that are using AI in health care that is somehow going to change health care and help the world. And so and the main people involved are my or students, present students at Stanford and then professors of medicine at Stanford because they know when something I actually have some people from Harvard as well. And so the idea is what can we do with AI that is then going to really have an impact on your health or on the system where you get your health on the doctors. How are we actually going to change it?
 
 

00:36:18

 
Esther Wojcicki: So we have seven companies that we we we are early investors and several of the early companies were picked up after we invested in them by Andre Horowitz. So we were the first ones in and they were second and we have some other sort of  companies on Sand Hill Road where a lot of these are that are also doing the same thing and the student and then we
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: started a an accelerator kind of crazy. And this is not all this is not my idea. This is my student who I’m so proud of idea. She we called it she called it I should say treehub.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: I was like treehub what is that? She said Stanford’s you know logo Stanford symbol is a tree and then we are using Stanford students and we have a
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: hub for them as an accelerator where they can come and get support. We have a a building and an office and they can get office support. They can get financial support.
 
 

00:37:27

 
Esther Wojcicki:  and we help them get started if we like their idea and we like the team. So that’s what we do.
Adi Soozin: Yeah,
Esther Wojcicki: It’s called
Adi Soozin: that’s amazing. I just joined  as managing partner at a fund that’s taking
Esther Wojcicki: TreeHub.
Adi Soozin: desalinization and energy tech companies that are ready for commercialization like rapid scale around the world. And you were in that meeting where we were like, okay, we’re we’re going to make money this way. We’re adding power plants to your country if you can tell me how you are improving women’s education with those energy plants.
Esther Wojcicki: I was in that
Adi Soozin: Like what? Like we thought this was a business deal.
Esther Wojcicki: meeting.
Adi Soozin: And I was like, it is a business deal. I care about women’s empowerment. I want women nurses in your country. So I’ll give you an energy grid that we’re going to make money off of, but part of those pro proceeds go to women’s schools.
Esther Wojcicki: Smart. Smart.
 
 

00:38:20

 
Esther Wojcicki: You’re very
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: clever.
Adi Soozin: Anyways, that’s fun. Um, okay. So, what is one thing you were shocked to face or have to overcome on your path to success? I know I know you covered a few different things like the story about your younger brother is absolutely atrocious. That’s just heartbreaking to use lose a younger sibling is just it’s it’s
Esther Wojcicki: I know.
Adi Soozin: brutal.
Esther Wojcicki: I you know I still can’t think about it without getting upset. And that was like all those years
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: ago.
Adi Soozin: When I was 11, my sister was poisoned with mercury. She was five and a half years old and she went to the hospital and she ended up having a 45minute seizure. They couldn’t get her out of it.
Esther Wojcicki: Oh,
Adi Soozin:  they had to they had to hook her up to machines to get her brain to stop seizing. And then after that, because it took them so long to they kept thinking her seizure is going to stop any minute.
 
 

00:39:14

 
Adi Soozin: because it took them so long before they did anything, she ended up with permanent brain damage and epilepsy until she was 18.
Esther Wojcicki: my god, what a terrible story.
Adi Soozin: Yeah. But it’s just it when something happens when you’re like an older sibling and something happens to your younger siblings, you’re like it’s it’s crazy because you want to be their protector and then you feel like you failed but you’re just a child and
Esther Wojcicki: Yeah, you can never forget it.
Adi Soozin: just
Esther Wojcicki: It just has an imprint on you that is just lifelong. It’s
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: forever.
Adi Soozin: Yeah. And I’m I’m very specific with which doctors I trust, why when they tell me they’re going to do a procedure, I’m researching it. I I always verify anything that they’re recommending supplements, taking being a self- advocate with my own medicine. But so so you have you have this this you had to over you had to overcome that thing at such a young age and then you had to overcome where people all all these other obstacles.
 
 

00:40:06

 
Adi Soozin: Are there any more recent obstacles that you were kind of shocked to face when rolling out the parenting trick
Esther Wojcicki: Um,
Adi Soozin: app?
Esther Wojcicki: well, I’ve been I’ve only been trying to roll out this parenting trick app for the last like nine months. Um, so I’ve haven’t had, you know, it it we have about 15,000 users. I would like to get more users because what my goal would be is for more parents to believe in their kids and  to produce kids
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: that are I would say that believe in themselves.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And so I I don’t I don’t know what the  I mean I haven’t succeeded in figuring out exactly how to reach more parents. I do I am concerned. I’m working with UC Berkeley 3,000 students at UC
Adi Soozin: Mhm.
Esther Wojcicki: Berkeley.  54% of the entering freshman class at universities across the country but also UC Berkeley are clinically depressed. So that means they either need a therapist or they need a drug or they need something.
 
 

00:41:29

 
Esther Wojcicki: They can’t function independently. So how do we get into this state? Well, it’s unfortunately it’s a pharmacological problem, but it’s exacerbated by parents who are always wanting to make sure their kids are doing the absolutely right thing to get into college. They’ve got this target point and who don’t get into the right college and so forth and you
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: know it’s terrible things and we have all these teenage suicides and  the pressure is intense. And so what I’m trying to do is help parents let up on that pressure. Their kids are going to be happier, more successful,  do more creative things in the world if they believe in them and allow them to make mistakes. I mean, it’s the same thing that I was talking about earlier with the system. You know, it’s just people are so angry when anyone makes a mistake and it comes from the culture of testing. You know, the whole testing system. You have one chance to take that test and then if you don’t get a good grade, well, oh, terrible.
 
 

00:42:42

 
Esther Wojcicki: You know,
Adi Soozin: Yeah,
Esther Wojcicki: my theory is you took the test and you do well,
Adi Soozin: but high stakes negotiations are the I
Esther Wojcicki: big deal. Just take it again.
Adi Soozin: high stakes negotiations though, they’re the same way. Like like I if if you misspeak, there was one person said one thing in a negotiation yesterday and it almost blew up a $250 million
Esther Wojcicki: Oh,
Adi Soozin: deal and it’s it’s just like high stakes
Esther Wojcicki: good grief.
Adi Soozin: negotiations are are the same like when you get into private equity and you get to these other levels. But  to your point, I absolutely agree about the pressures. A lot of the kids I grew up with, um, not a lot, I’d say a significant amount, a higher than normal, um, either died of suicide or drug overdose because the pressure was just too much.
Esther Wojcicki: pressure is just too much.
Adi Soozin: Their parents Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And we have a lot of kids that are on drugs, all kinds of drugs. And of course,
 
 

00:43:31

 
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: this is promoted by the pharmarmacological industry. And  you know, I so ADD and ADHD and you know, aderall and all I just think it’s terrible situation. So that’s what I’m trying to help parents understand that that wild,
Adi Soozin: I
Esther Wojcicki: rambunctious four-year-old of theirs can turn out to be an amazing human being. Can we just give them a chance to live and to grow and to not not be
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: criticized?
Adi Soozin: And there’s so much where people will say, “Oh, you have a mental illness if you don’t fit into this cookie cutter thing. Um, there was a young kid in uh, not young kid, he’s in his 20s. People were giving him a hard time because he’s hypervigilant. And I was like, “Don’t I was like, don’t do that.” And they were like, “Why?” I was like, “Because the CIA, the FBI, the police force, they all need people who are hypervigilant. And that’s baked into you.
Esther Wojcicki: Right.
Adi Soozin: That’s not something you can be the the level of hypervigilance that kid has is in his DNA.
 
 

00:44:35

Adi Soozin: And that’s what keeps our nation safe.
Esther Wojcicki: That’s right. And so he can be valuable in in many ways. And so we need to, you know, calm down. Also, there’s a book out that I don’t like the whole book, but I like parts of it. It’s called Bad Therapy. Um, we we entrust our kids mental health to somebody else.
Adi Soozin: Nope. Nope. That That’s my job. I’m very with that.
Esther Wojcicki: I you know you’re the mom, you’re the dad,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: you know, and you’re like and and who are these people, you know,
Adi Soozin: Yep.
Esther Wojcicki: and and I think it’s really important.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: Kids don’t need to have therapy, you know, a normal kid is okay.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: You know, they do crazy things. That’s what kids do back in the old days. That was kid That was like kid-like behavior. I mean,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: seriously. And I think that’s one of the things my students like best about what was going on in my classes is that all this wild crazy behavior that teen especially teenage boys have.

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00:45:42

 
Esther Wojcicki: I was like, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” You know, they’d be running around. I mean, one of my classrooms was a portable. They’d literally run around the portable like it was some kind of a track field. I was like, “Okay, if that’s what you guys need to do right now, just do that.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: Um, I can tell you a lot of other crazy things that they did. So, but I don’t know how much time we
Adi Soozin: You know, I actually I do that between between when I’m like reading through,
Esther Wojcicki: have.
Adi Soozin: for example, this week we had to do some really difficult ne negotiations and read through 90 more than 90 pages of legal documents. The only way the only way I made it through that is every time my brain would feel too much pressure,
Esther Wojcicki: headache.
Adi Soozin: I went to the gym downstairs and I worked out and then cleared my mind and then I could push through more. But without doing that physical
Esther Wojcicki: Yeah,
 
 

00:46:32

 
Adi Soozin: exertion.
Esther Wojcicki: that makes a huge difference. You have absolutely have to give yourself that. You know,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: you have to take care of yourself. And oh, the other thing that I always say in all my talks to all these young people that after you make all these mistakes and you have
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: all these problems and you think life is falling apart, first person you have to forgive, guess who?
Adi Soozin: It’s yourself.
Esther Wojcicki: Yourself. Yes. Yourself.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: And most people don’t they don’t even think about that. They don’t even realize that they’re mad at themselves.
Adi Soozin: Paul Hutchinson says the same thing.
Esther Wojcicki: But could you please let up on yourself?
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: Be nice.
Adi Soozin: He’s like, “Forgive yourself.
Esther Wojcicki: Right.
Adi Soozin: There was no way you could have known and this is not your responsibility.” Like Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: That’s
Adi Soozin: But any Yeah. I I did I actually I got in trouble.
Esther Wojcicki: right.
 
 

00:47:21

 
Adi Soozin: I used to they used at my daughter’s elementary school they  they would have the parents help give the tests the spelling tests and when the kid got too fidgety and they stopped spelling I would tell them to go walk to the water fountain and walk back to like clear their mind.
Esther Wojcicki: That’s a good idea.
Adi Soozin: Yeah. And they were like you let the kids move too much during the test. It’s distracting the other kids and parents. So So I was never asked to come back. So, by trying to be helpful with the kids, I effectively got myself to be the only one not asked to help with the spelling tests at school.
Esther Wojcicki: I would have hired you. You would have been perfect for my class.
Adi Soozin: I would have been running with them. Yeah. So, let’s see. Um, Jul is on your team now with your parenting trick app. Uh, are you looking for interns? What are what do you need in terms of human capital?
 
 

00:48:10

 
Adi Soozin: And then we’ll go into investor
Esther Wojcicki: So I have  two engineers that are great and I have two other sort of CEO people from other groups that are also advising and helping me. Um, I probably I could use more help in I guess in just in social media and how to get it out to people. Um, so I I’m not a big fan of Tik Tok. Um, but I wondering whether Tik Tok would be a good way to get to parents. Um, I have not I’ve advertised it on Instagram a little bit, a little bit on Facebook. I guess I need most help with promotion. That would probably be the most
Adi Soozin: Okay. So,
Esther Wojcicki: effect
Adi Soozin: I have  five playbooks that  teach everyone how to do all the organic marketing. And when companies have gone through those five playbooks, uh, they’ve gone from idea on paper to anywhere between, uh, $21,000 and $13 million because that’s the power of organic marketing. Yeah. So, we’re going to give an ask to the audience.
 
 

00:49:26

 
Adi Soozin: I will give you free access to those playbooks that are usually 500 bucks. If you are going to implement them for Esther’s company, you can reach out to her on LinkedIn to apply to be her intern. And then when she picks an intern, she’ll reach out to me to give you access to those
Esther Wojcicki: Thank you. Thank you.
Adi Soozin: playbooks
Esther Wojcicki: That would be so incredible. Yes. and just think you’d be part of making the world a better place for everyone.
Adi Soozin: and you’d get to say you worked with the godmother of modern history.
Esther Wojcicki: I think my title has just
Adi Soozin: Well,
Esther Wojcicki: grown.
Adi Soozin: that’s how I’m introducing you from now on. Like that’s it. It’s done. It’s official. And that’s the name of of the this episode is the godmother of modern history.
Esther Wojcicki: I love it. Thank you. This has been so much fun.
Adi Soozin: So let’s let’s dive into the last question.
Esther Wojcicki: Honestly,
Adi Soozin: Are you raising capital for this?
 
 

00:50:20

 
Adi Soozin: Is this something people can invest in or is this like a passion project that you want it to to just be privately held? Like what are you thinking there?
Esther Wojcicki: you know, I haven’t thought that through, but I will. It It actually could be something that I could raise  money for. Right now, I’ve just been running it out of my nonprofit. It’s called Global Moonshots and Education. Um, but I have considered, but I need to fully develop a plan if I if I’m going to do something that’s actually going to be a a marketing plan and  and a for-profit company. It could be a for-profit company
Adi Soozin: If you keep it in the nonprofit world,
Esther Wojcicki: easily
Adi Soozin: there are some aeryses that their family expects them to work with nonprofits. They’re very intelligent,
Esther Wojcicki: nonprofit.
Adi Soozin: very well connected.
Esther Wojcicki: my my goal is impact. Um,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: you know, I’m not as interested in, you know, making a lot of money on it.
 
 

00:51:19

 
Esther Wojcicki: Um, if I what I tend to do with all the extra money that I have for any reason is I donate it. So, I’m constantly donating to all these organizations. So, I’m not sure that I really need to make any more money,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: but I would like to I’d like to make a difference in the world and make kids happier. I don’t like seeing 54% of college freshmen depressed and they’ve got all kinds of, you know, eating disorders and psychological problems and, you know,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: really the we’ve got so much more in the world today than we did a hundred years ago. We should be happy and we
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: aren’t.
Adi Soozin: But the the thing is like our parents now treat us like status symbols. Like I can tell you from the other side, like my parents didn’t care if I had depression or if I was having issues with food. I don’t even think they noticed if I skipped so many meals in order to do my weigh-ins when I was a professional ballerina.
 
 

00:52:15

 
Adi Soozin: Um, they didn’t know what my test scores were. They didn’t know until I got my quarterly grades that I’d even taken tests. like they it was it was at the it was all about what do you get to say to the other Wall Street executives
Esther Wojcicki: Oh,
Adi Soozin: and other  New York City big big wigs when you go to the country club or the yach club. And so your children were just like another way that you could like measure yourself against others in the in in the community.
Esther Wojcicki: I think unfortunately that’s true in a lot of cases it’s kind of like a dog show.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: You know,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: you’re parading your children around like little pets and you know,
Adi Soozin: Yep.
Esther Wojcicki: children aren’t pets and you know, you don’t want to be treated that way either. And so, we just need to take realize that, you know, this is God’s attempt or it’s not only an attempt, it’s his way of creating the next generation. And we just are caretakers and we want to make these people into the best people they can be for the society that is coming in 20 years.
 
 

00:53:19

 
Esther Wojcicki: It’s every 20 years another generation.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: So that’s this is my goal.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: But I would be I’ll be happy to entertain any ideas that they have. My goal is impact as I said. So the more people that use this Oh, it costs $6.95 a month by the way. That’s just to maintain
Adi Soozin: So then,
Esther Wojcicki: the
Adi Soozin: so then I mean even if it’s a nonprofit, nonprofits still have to have a P&L and they still need to have a budget to keep the lights on. Like what is it? American Cancer Society,
Esther Wojcicki: right.
Adi Soozin: doesn’t their CEO make 70 750,000 annual salary?
Esther Wojcicki: Oh, yes they do. Well, I can just tell you that my annual salary is a zero.
Adi Soozin: I know, but I’m saying like even if you made it a nonprofit
Esther Wojcicki: If I made a lot of money, it would still be zero.
Adi Soozin: should
Esther Wojcicki: I would be using it to do things to make the world better.
 
 

00:54:11

Esther Wojcicki: You know, this is not just true in Europe,
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: and it’s not just true. This problem is not just here in the US, it’s worldwide. It’s everywhere because  the PISA test, that’s the international test of student achievement, tests the entire world and we’re competing against each other and the main focus in the whole world is achievement and not making a mistake and doing well on the test and you know all that stuff. So it’s it’s a problem everywhere and we all need to work together to save this planet.
Adi Soozin: Yeah.
Esther Wojcicki: You know, let’s face it, it’s got a few
Adi Soozin: Oh yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Esther Wojcicki: problems.
Adi Soozin: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your time.  and thank you everyone for tuning in. This was a lot of fun.
Esther Wojcicki: It’s fun with you,
Adi Soozin: Um,
Esther Wojcicki: I must say. I have to come to Miami and see
Adi Soozin: you do.
Esther Wojcicki: you.
Adi Soozin: You do. We’ll take you. We’ll go out of the boat.
Esther Wojcicki: Yes, that would be great. That would be great. Oh my god.
Adi Soozin: Oh, and you’ll you’ll love my children. They’re they’re hysterical. They were bonding with Stephanie, the past president of Rotary International. They were taking care of her on the boat. Uh, they’re Yes.
Esther Wojcicki: Oh,
Adi Soozin: They’re they’re very they’re they’re used to having adult conversations and  most adults enjoy interacting with them. They’re good kids.
Esther Wojcicki: that sounds
Adi Soozin: Yeah. Well,
Esther Wojcicki: great.
Adi Soozin: I’ll see you in Miami or in Silicon Valley or maybe at your premiere in New
Esther Wojcicki: Okay,
Adi Soozin: York.
Esther Wojcicki: that’s perfect. Well, thanks so much for this conversation. It’s been a highlight already.
Adi Soozin: Yeah, likewise. Take care.
Esther Wojcicki: Take care.
Adi Soozin: Bye.

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