A Conversation with Jimmy Wales

A Conversation with Jimmy Wales

From Now What? With Carole Zimmer by Carole Zimmer

January 20, 2026 · 54 min

About this episode

Carole Zimmer interviews Jimmy Wales about his journey in creating Wikipedia and his new book on trust.

When Jimmy Wales was 3, growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, a door-to-door salesman sold his mother a copy of the World Book Encyclopedia. Jimmy fell in love with it. As an adult he had the idea of creating an online encyclopedia that would give everyone free access to the sum of all human knowledge. The result is Wikipedia, which Wales co-founded 25 years ago. Though not without controversy, Wikipedia is a runaway success. It's the world's largest, most comprehensive encyclopedia with more than 1 and a half billion unique visitors a month. That should only happen to "Now What?" I talk to Jimmy Wales about his new book The Seven Rules of Trust and how we can make a difference in a bitterly divided society. "Now What is produced with the help of Steve Zimmer, Lucy Little and Jackie Schwartz. Audio production is by Nick Ciavatta.

People in this episode

Host: Carole Zimmer

Guest: Jimmy Wales

Topics covered

  • Wikipedia
  • trust
  • knowledge
  • society
  • culture
  • controversy

Keywords

  • Wikipedia
  • Jimmy Wales
  • The Seven Rules of Trust
  • online encyclopedia
  • human knowledge
  • society
  • trust

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wikipedia

Books & works: The Seven Rules of Trust

Places: Huntsville, Alabama

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