Melinda French Gates: Investing in Women's Health and Finding Joy

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

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Gabby Logan (0:25)

Hello and welcome to Life At The Midpoint with me, Gabby Logan. My guest today is one of the most influential women of her generation. Melinda French Gates has spent decades at the intersection of technology, philanthropy, and global change from her early career at Microsoft to more than 20 years helping lead one of the world's largest philanthropic organizations. But in recent years, she's made some changes of her own. After her divorce from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, she built a new chapter through Pivotal, and increasingly put women's power, women's health, and women's economic independence at the heart of her work. Today, she's using her extraordinary platform to challenge some very big assumptions about women's health, menopause, wealth, technology, and who gets to hold power. We're going to talk about what has really changed for women since she wrote, the moment of lift, the opportunities and the risks AI could bring, and the ethics of an enormous wealth. We're also going to talk about her own life, becoming a mother and a grandmother, rebuilding trust, and what she's learned about herself through those changes.

Melinda, thank you so much for coming on to chat to us today.

I'd like to know when in your life you've experienced the most dramatic change.

Melinda French Gates (1:41)

Well, first of all, thanks for having me, Gabby.

I think the most dramatic change maybe was when I launched my third and last child, who's now an adult, to college. I was in my mid-50s and she was the last of the three to go. And I suddenly realized I have more time on my hands. Like it had been years since I had more time on my hands. And so then the question becomes, what do you do at that time? And I just found it to be this beautiful opening in life. I mean, even though I was sad that she was going, but of course it was the right thing for her. And I'd done my job, I felt. But I had this opening in life and it was just so wonderful.

Gabby Logan (2:25)

You've always been somebody, and certainly from the kind of public perspective, who's given back and wanted to make change and to help to create that. So when you had that extra time, was the thought that you could put more energy into that, or was this about you and what Melinda needed from life?

Melinda French Gates (2:42)

This was about me and what did I need and how much did I want to work?

Nothing changed about my beliefs in furthering society and what I thought the role of philanthropy could be, but I said to myself, be careful what you do at this time, otherwise I could easily eke it away into work. And I thought, no, I want to make sure I do still the same amount of work in terms of time, but put more time into my extended family, some of my friendships, more into my own health. And I thought, this is an opening for me in life. I've been giving in so many ways, as a mom to my three kids, to my work, and so preserve some of this time for me.

Gabby Logan (3:27)

So what did you do?

Melinda French Gates (3:29)

I started immediately spending more time with my female friends that I felt like I wasn't getting as much time as I would like in Seattle.

I started building more of a network of business friends, quite frankly, beyond Seattle. Started spending more time with my extended family, who, you know, I just, we've spent time, but I wanted to invest more in those relationships. And then I started to realize, I wanted to put exercise back in my life. I had it in my life, but I wanted to prioritize it more than I had been. And so I'm doing that.

Gabby Logan (4:02)

What do you do?

Melinda French Gates (4:03)

For exercise.

So I walk with friends in the summer in Seattle. I'm lucky enough to live near a lake. And so I kayak and do a little bit of paddle boarding. But I love to be in the gym. I love to be on my Peloton bike. I really like to lift weights. I work out with friends. We do crazy workouts. I sometimes work out with a trainer. So I like to mix it up.