Jacinda Ardern thinks world leaders need more kindness

It is easy to forget that Jacinda Ardern is a former prime minister of New Zealand.

- Alisha Haridasani Gupta

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — It is easy to forget that Jacinda Ardern is a former prime minister of New Zealand.

Standing in line at a cafe in Cambridge, Massachusetts, wearing a suit by New Zealand designer Juliette Hogan, with sneakers and gold hoops, she flashes a disarming smile and says to call her "just Jacinda".

As she orders a cappuccino, the cashier wonders why she looks so familiar. Was she, by any chance, that person on TV? "Toni Collette?" they ask, referring to an Australian actress.

Ardern, without security detail, waves off the misidentification and does not set the record straight.

The cafe is a 10-minute walk from Harvard University, where Ardern, who resigned as prime minister in 2023, now holds three fellowships.

In the aftermath of her voluntary resignation, she married her longtime partner Clarke Gayford and temporarily moved her family to Massachusetts.

The day before we met, students and faculty had gathered for their commencement.

The ceremony capped a school year in which the institution has been entangled in a legal stand-off with United States President Donald Trump's administration over allegations of anti-Semitism, with federal funding and the visas of international students enrolled at the university in jeopardy.

It is in that tense environment that Ardern, who during her time in power was frequently referred to as the "anti-Trump", is publishing her memoir, A Different Kind Of Power.

The book, which was released on June 3, makes the case that leading with empathy and kindness might be the solution for a range of global crises — an argument that has also been the subject of one of her fellowships at Harvard Kennedy School.

Whether such a book will resonate in a highly charged moment is an open question.