Stacey Vanek Smith on “Machiavelli for Women”

Presented by the WGAE Women's Salon and open to all members.

Power in the workplace. Not enough women have it, and they don’t know how to get it. Rarely handed over, power almost always has to be taken.

In her new book, Machiavelli for Women, NPR’s host of The Indicator from Planet Money Stacey Vanek Smith looks at how women can apply the principles of 16th-century philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli to their 21st-century work lives and shatter the glass ceiling once and for all. Stacey uses Machiavelli’s The Prince as a guide to understanding behavior and power in Renaissance politics—demonstrating how women can use those same principles today to take and maintain power in careers where they have long been cast as second-best.

The book includes Vanek Smith’s interviews with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, blockbuster screenwriter (CRAZY RICH ASIANS) Adele Lim, Wall Street executive Sallie Krawcheck, tech unicorn founder Neha Narkhede, Olympian Alysia Montaño, Michelin starred chef, Niki Nakayama, and AI entrepreneur Vivienne Ming.

About the Author

Stacey Vanek Smith is a longtime public radio reporter and host, highly regarded for her insight and journalism on work, business, and economics. Stacey previously served as a correspondent and host for NPR’s Planet Money as well as the national public radio show Marketplace. She is the host of NPR’s daily podcast, The Indicator from Planet Money.

A native of Idaho, Stacey grew up in Boise and on her parents’ cattle ranch in western Idaho. She is a graduate of Princeton University and holds a master’s in broadcast journalism from Columbia University. Stacey lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she spends most of her time broadcasting out of her broom closet, hiking, cooking, rock climbing, and watching unholy amounts of Netflix.

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