Hilary Turner on Finding Your People, Continuous Reinvention, and The Long Run

A three-chapter history connects host Liz Sweigart and Hilary Turner: dorm-mates at Rice University’s Wiess College, a wedding cameo years later, and—most meaningfully—a 2016 Facebook message that turned into miles and miles around the Rice loop. One Saturday run became a standing ritual, international half-marathons, and a friendship built on mutual encouragement and just the right amount of stubbornness.

In this Past the Profile episode, Hilary—editor-turned-MBA-turned-librarian-in-training—traces her path from New York publishing (Wiley, Penguin) to UT Austin student services to tech marketing… and finally into the library and information world she now calls home (MSLS program, practicum with Georgetown’s business library, and a joyful plunge into the American Library Association community). She and Liz talk about making friends as adults, introvert–extrovert dynamics, the upside of social media serendipity, and why it’s okay to arrive by the scenic route.

Highlights

• The running years: frozen water fountains, international races (Edinburgh, Dublin), and how “enforced bonding” turns miles into trust.
• Career throughlines: editing, research, and helping people—threads that made librarianship click in midlife.
• Finding your people: discovering community among librarians and information pros (and showing up as your full self).
• Making friends as adults: why it’s hard, why it’s worth it, and how a small “yes” can change everything.
• Joy cameos: Murder, She Wrote, The Golden Girls, and Orson the rescue “chi-poodle” who brings effervescence to every room.