
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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