About this item
Anjali Kumar, a pragmatic lawyer for Google, was part of a rapidly growing population in America: highly spiritual but religiously uncommitted. But when her daughter was born, she became compelled to find God--or at least some kind of enlightenment.Convinced that traditional religions were not a fit for her, and knowing that she couldn't simply Google an answer to "What is the meaning of life?", Kumar set out on a spiritual pilgrimage, looking for answers--and nothing was off limits or too unorthodox. She headed to the mountains of Peru to learn from the shamans, attended the techie haunt of Burning Man, practiced transcendental meditation, convened with angels, and visited saints, goddesses, witches, and faith healers. She even hired a medium to convene with the dead.
About the Author
Anjali Kumar is a Brooklyn born, first generation Indian American author, attorney, advisor, speaker, and "idea acupuncturist". She is currently the Chief People Officer and General Counsel at Cheddar, a post cable network led by Jon Steinberg (the for-mer president of Buzzfeed and CEO of Daily Mail US.) Anjali was formerly the Found-ing Head of Social Innovation and Founding General Counsel at Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand offering designer eyewear at affordable prices while leading the way for socially-conscious businesses. Prior to joining Warby Parker, Anjali was Senior Counsel at Google where she was a commercial and product attorney on areas ranging from Google X to YouTube. Anjali curated and hosted the @Google Speaker Series on campus in New York City bringing Googlers from around the globe face-to-face with today's most prominent and innovative thought leaders including; Anthony Bourdain, Marcus Samuelsson, Garance Doré, Questlove, and Jacques Pépin. From this speaker series, Anjali hosted a YouTube interview series "Lunchtime at Google". Anjali has taught for several years as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School and Fordham University. She has served as an advisor to prominent technolo-gy companies, luxury fashion brands, consumer products, and non-profit organiza-tions including Malala Fund, IDEO.org, and organize.org.Anjali's lectures often deal with questions around innovation: why is innovation not the answer? how can you live in the questions you can't answer? how can social impact programs improve your business? As an "idea acupuncturist", Anjali brings a spiritual approach to the business world. She doesn't give black or white answers to business-es or problems, she looks at a set of issues and works on pressure points using differ-ent interventions to help keep the energy flowing in an idea or business. Anjali has been featured as a Keynote Speaker at major events such as TEDWomen, TEDX, Seat-tle Interactive Conference, and The Connecticut Forum and has participated in fire-side chats with Danny Meyer (Union Square Hospitality Group) , Ezra Klein (Washing-ton Post) , and Neil Blumenthal (Co-CEO/Founder of Warby Parker) . Anjali's work in social innovation has been featured in Inc., Forbes, and the New York Times. Anjali's first book, Stalking God: My Unorthodox Search for Something to Believe In, humorously chronicles her attempts to answer questions she can't Google an answer to for her six year old daughter.Anjali earned her BA in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University and a JD from Bos-ton University School of Law. In 2016, she was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to join the NYC Children's Cabinet Advisory Board. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Happy Money, GloScience Professional, Amplifier Foundation, Edible Schoolyard NY, and GrowNYC. Anjali also serves on the Guggenheim museum's Global Innovation Group
