ROADTRIP NATION: LIFEHACKERS follows three roadtrippers - Antwan King, Emily Cox and Mansi Thakar - in the iconic green RV on a cross-country journey that goes "off road" and into the world of cyber security. Thirty-two-year-old Antwan King from Greenville, North Carolina sometimes gets stressed out by the thought of competing with younger college grads for jobs in cyber-security. But he's worked too hard to get here-holding down a full-time job during the day and loading UPS trucks at night just so he can finish his master's in digital forensics and cyber investigation. "I refuse to give up," he says. The memory of his grandfather, who never complained, keeps him going. The thing Emily Cox loves about cybersecurity is its duality: the tools used to break into a system are the same ones used to protect it. The 26-year-old Bloomington, Illinois native discovered cybersecurity a year ago and found a home in the fast-moving, constantly evolving field. However, formal education was a struggle-she dropped out of high school and didn't finish college- and it seems like everyone else started coding as a kid, so Emily wonders if she'll be able to catch up. She's been teaching herself and completed a coding bootcamp in between working as a barista, and now she's at a crossroads. It's time to take a leap if she's going to pursue cybersecurity, and that's why she's on this road trip-to find guidance and inspiration to jump-start what's next. To San Diego native Mansi Thakar, cybersecurity is a field where you can be a superhero. But when you're a modern-day tech protector facing millions of malware threats, you need backup. That's why she's drawn to the space where cybersecurity meets machine learning. The 24-year old is pursuing her master's in the field and wants to help shape how we confront the growing magnitude of cyber threats through data and automation. For four weeks, Antwan, Emily and Mansi seek out different members of the cyber security workforce who have become stories of success, in order to gain insight into what it really takes to thrive in the next chapter of their lives.
