In this episode of Laughing Matters, Paul Merchan and Steve Cody interview Gloria Rodriguez, the founder and president of Comunicad, a Ruder Finn company, and a pioneer in multicultural communications and advocacy for the Latino community. She shares some of her amazing stories and insights from her career, such as:

● The time she took clients to Puerto Rico to help support Hurricane Maria relief efforts and helped expand the aid to our furry friends

● How she uses humor to bridge the gap between Latino and mainstream cultures and to overcome challenges and stereotypes in the media industry

● How she convinced a former U.S. president to restore funding for job training programs for Puerto Ricans in New York

Tune in to the latest episode of Laughing Matters, featuring David Dye, President of Let’s Grow Leaders and co-author of “Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict.” David shares tips on what to do when faced with a workplace conflict, including results from the study he conducted for his book. Among his insights:

• The difference between productive and destructive conflict and the role of humor
• How to navigate hot-button issues when others see the world differently than you do
• Which countries in the study experienced the most workplace conflict (spoiler: US is high on the list but did not finish #1, believe it or not)

Dr. Phillip Gable, Director of the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Graduate Program and Professor at the University of Delaware, recently joined the Laughing Matters podcast to dissect the intricate world of human emotions and humor with the precision of a brain surgeon but the vulnerability of a stand-up comedian. 

Dr. Gable discusses everything from how our emotions impact behavior to the neural underpinnings that drive our humor responses. 

He also addresses the following:

• With all due respect to Socrates and Plato, Dr. Gable says using an Aristotelian approach to set up punchlines and make sense of the unexpected are linked to humor in the business world
• A laugh out loud tale involving an unexpected restroom encounter with the police at a restaurant
• How he uses emotions to set the rhythm for effective teaching and storytelling and, critically, deepening connections with students.