As he worked to untangle his knots, he did a lot of research. She was the editor of a literary humor magazine called Opium. He tried to write a novel. (She’s still trying. “It’s about 1,400 pages with 24 major characters and 30 plot lines.”) She went to Peru to experience the vomit-inducing hallucinogen tea. Another time, she found herself in a nudist colony. In 2015, she started a book imprint called Catapult. “Cries for Help, Various” was its first title. (This month, Catapult shuttered its online magazine and writing program to “ensure a successful future” for its core book business.)
Ms Koch also worked in film finance as executive producer of “Beasts of No Nation” and “Harriet” starring Idris Elba, which was nominated for two Oscars.
I found him comfortable and upbeat. She laughed when I asked how much money she had inherited. (I pressed on, and Mr. Rowe, sitting nearby, piped in with “no comment.”) One minute Ms. Koch was serious, talking about criminal justice reform, the focus of her father’s philanthropy. is, and the next time she was frivolous, telling me about a design studio in Scotland that sells fancy wallpaper.
There was one exception to Ms. Koch’s sunny, let-it-all-hang-out demeanor: When I tried to dig into her relationship with her father, whom she calls Pop, and asked what her feelings were about him. Direct role can be “never good” from such a young age. During one of our conversations, he talked about pushing her to join the track team in fourth grade and coaching her personally for a few years. “No matter where we went on vacation, he was picking me up at 5 in the morning to go running,” she said. In the winter, sometimes when it was snowing, “he’d be driving next to me in the car, and, like, usually playing some economics tape, trying to make me learn while I was running.” Was.”
Were his expectations too high?
“There’s nothing to blame,” he replied, with some steel in his voice. “I was just confused, and I was putting things together in a really distorted way. And then I was so ashamed about it that I couldn’t talk about it.”
“When the kids were young, I inspired them to work hard and be the best,” Mr. Koch said in an email. That’s the job of parents – to help their children realize their full potential and lead meaningful lives.
no stranger to division
It’s possible that Ms. Koch will turn Unlikely Collaborators and her Perception Box credo into success. “This is not a three- to five-year plan,” said Mr. Goren, the financial and operations chief. “He has a multi-decade vision.”