Dr. Meg Jay: The Most Important Conversation You Will Hear This Year

Join the Institute of Politics for a conversation with Dr. Meg Jay, a developmental clinical psychologist and author of The Defining Decade, whose work has shaped how a generation thinks about their twenties. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Dr. Jay will discuss why this formative decade matters more than ever—and how young adults can make the most of it. Her insights, featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and her viral TED Talk "Why 30 Is Not the New 20," offer a roadmap for navigating uncertainty, purpose, and growth in early adulthood.

In keeping with our long tradition at the IOP to ensure honest and candid discussions of politics, this conversation is off-the-record.

About Dr. Meg Jay, PhD

Dr. Meg Jay, PhD is a developmental clinical psychologist who specializes in twentysomethings. She is the author of the seminal book on modern young adulthood, The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now, The Twentysomething Treatment: A Revolutionary Remedy for an Uncertain Age, and Supernormal: The Secret World of the Family Hero. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and on NPR and BBC. A recent New York Times profile called Dr. Jay “the patron saint of striving youth, a prophetlike figure for a generation of young people buried under mixed messaging.” Her TED talk “Why 30 Is Not the New 20” is among the most watched to date. Dr. Jay earned a doctorate in clinical psychology, and in gender studies, from the University of California, Berkeley. She is on faculty at the University of Virginia and maintains a private practice in Charlottesville. Dr. Jay spent her own early twentysomething years as an Outward Bound instructor.

About Marc Adelman

Marc Adelman is the founder of the strategic “Do-Tank” firm Adelmania Consulting, which focuses on creating client-specific initiatives that drive interest, awareness and opportunities for both discrete and large-scale projects with clients ranging from Marriott Hotels to the Clinton Foundation and the Motion Picture Association of America.