Episodios

  • Appreciation at Work: How to Grow Strengths, Not Toxic Positivity

    Appreciation at Work: How to Grow Strengths, Not Toxic Positivity
    Sep 17 2025
    Research shows that the highest-performing teams give each other about five positive comments for every one negative comment. And yet, when things are uncertain, the stakes are high, and we feel frustrated by others' actions, it can be challenging to focus on what’s good. This week, Lana Jelenjev and I discuss how to restore this balance. We explore: Why focusing on appreciation is so challenging, How to build a habit of celebrating strengths, The connection between naming strengths and sharing our full essence, How to offer feedback without alienating people, The difference between celebrating what’s good and toxic positivity, A strengths-based approach to meeting check-ins, hiring, and performance reviews, And more. If you want a deeper connection with yourself and your important people, more flow at work, and an all-around greater sense of joy, this one is for you. About Lana: Lana Jelenjev is co-founder of the Neurodiversity Foundation and the Neurodiversity Education Academy. She is the co-author of “What’s Strong With You? and “What’s Alive in You?” toolkits for coaches, teachers, leaders, and facilitators to bridge the gap for all neurotypes to thrive. Rooted in the Filipino values of kapwa (seeing ourselves in our shared humanity) and pakikiramdam (deep, attuned sensing), Lana creates spaces for people to reconnect with themselves, with each other, and to witness and appreciate what has always been sacred. She lives in the Netherlands with her husband and two children. Related Episodes: How to Address Harmful Impact with Nonviolent Communication Why Capitalism Makes Us Tense & What to do About It with Donnie Maclurcan Learn More from Lana: Lana’s Website  Neurodiversity Education Academy Neurodiversity Foundation Lana on LinkedIn Lana’s Substack: Refugia 80 Check-In Prompts for Children Learn more from Katherine: Center for Callings & Courage Katherine’s LinkedIn page To receive new episodes along with other nourishment for the fight ahead, subscribe to Love Letters for Changemakers
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    50 m
  • Why Capitalism Makes Us Tense & What to do About it with Donnie Maclurcan

    Why Capitalism Makes Us Tense & What to do About it with Donnie Maclurcan
    Sep 2 2025
    We often blame ourselves for the tensions of modernity. But we can become much more effective—and feel better—when we focus on the root causes of our problems. In this week’s episode of Conflict Decoded, I talk with @Donnie Maclurcan, Co-Founder and Director of Strategy at the Post-Growth Institute. We explore: The difference between capitalist and post-capitalist economies (which will likely surprise many listeners) How capitalism disconnects us from our bodies How that disconnection makes us susceptible to authoritarianism Governance structures that allow for a real circulation of power Simple steps to redistribute money and power away from the accumulative market And more. If you want to feel less guilty and focus more on the root causes of our collective problems, you’ll enjoy this one. About Donnie: Donnie Maclurcan designs frameworks, methodologies and experiences for creative collaboration and collective liberation. These include the Offers and Needs Market, the Post Growth Fellowship, the Post Growth Alliance, and Free Money Day, and an intuitive model for a post-capitalist market economy that builds on what's already working. Donnie lives on Mapuche lands in Patagonia, with his Argentinian wife and their three cats. Learn more from Donnie: Post Growth Institute Post Growth Alliance email alerts Post Growth Institute newsletter Donnie’s LinkedIn page Learn more from Katherine: Center for Callings & Courage Katherine’s LinkedIn page To receive new episodes along with other nourishment for the fight ahead, subscribe to Love Letters for Changemakers.
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    1 h
  • Power Literacy 101: The Key to Building Multiracial Multicultural Organizations with Karla Monterroso

    Power Literacy 101: The Key to Building Multiracial Multicultural Organizations with Karla Monterroso
    Aug 19 2025
    If we are to reclaim collective power, redistribute it equitably, and cultivate the multiracial multicultural democracies we long for, we must develop the ability to read power in our institutions and our lives. We must become power literature. In this week’s episode of Conflict Decoded, I talk with the brilliant Karla Monterroso about what power actually is, how the internet and demographic shift are changing it, our relationship to it, methods for distribution of it, and its role in a more just society. About Karla Monterroso: Karla is a strategic power-builder, transformative leader, and coalition architect dedicated to supporting the leadership of multiracial multicultural institutions across sectors. As Founder and Managing Partner of Brava Leaders, she serves as a trusted coach, advisor, and strategist to organizations, social justice leaders, academics, and artists, helping them navigate power dynamics and bridge institutional divides. With over two decades of experience scaling social enterprises, Karla’s work challenges conventional management theories that perpetuate homogeneous power structures, offering frameworks designed for integrated organizations. Hire Karla: Brava Leaders Brava Leaders’ Public Sessions Learn More: Karla on LinkedIn Brava Leaders on LinkedIn The Purpose of Power, by Alicia Garza Receive Love Letters to Changemakers: To receive new episodes to your inbox along with other nourishment for the fight ahead, subscribe to Love Letters for Organizers.
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    1 h y 1 m
  • Imagination is Political: Dreaming Together with Desiree Adaway

    Imagination is Political: Dreaming Together with Desiree Adaway
    Aug 5 2025
    We are currently in a collective battle of the imagination. While the power of the 99% may be limited, we grow our power when we reclaim our ability to imagine from dominant narratives. As Desiree Adaway shares in this episode, imagining the world we long for is one of the most powerful and radical acts there is. Even if we do not live to see the fruits of our imagination, the billionaire class does not get to tell us what is possible. We get to be good ancestors. We get to choose what we long for. If you need inspiration and a soothing balm to help you see beyond the confines of our current realities, this is for you. About Desiree Adaway: Desiree Adaway, CEO of the Adaway Group, is a trainer, speaker, and consultant dedicated to intersectional race equity and DEI change work. For over 25 years, she has helped build resilient, equitable, and inclusive organizations across all sectors and educated over 50,000 people on the most crucial issues of our time. She embraces the difficult conversations required to help organizations reduce harm, center equity, and build meaningful relationships while teaching others how to do the same. Desiree supports leaders and teams in upleveling their analysis and skills around identity, power, and institutional inequities that lead to lasting culture, process, and policy change. Connect with Desiree:  Instagram LinkedIn Blue Sky Resources Desiree Recommends: A Great Starter on Time The Cycle of Liberation, by Bobbie Harro The Cycle of Socialization by Bobbie Harro The Adaway Group Resources from Katherine: Your Core Values Practice: to help you imagine and center what matters most to you To receive new episodes to your inbox along with other nourishment for the fight ahead, subscribe to Love Letters for Changemakers.
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    57 m
  • Hospicing Modernity with Giovanna de Oliveira Andreotti

    Hospicing Modernity with Giovanna de Oliveira Andreotti
    Jul 21 2025
    The daughter of Vanessa Andreotti (author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and The Implications for Social Activism), Giovanna de Oliveira Andreotti grew up facing the ongoing predicament of collapse. In this episode, Giovanna shares how facing the reality of collapse no longer destabilizes her. Instead, the wisdom she’s gleaned—and her commitment to inquiry—are helping her to acknowledge reality, notice the ways it manifests within us, and do the hard work of choosing emotional sobriety, intellectual discernment, relational maturity, and responsibility in these times. By acknowledging the ways modernity manifests in each of us, we can begin to compost the aspects of modernity we’ve internalized and create space to transform our relationships with one another, ourselves, the land, and our more-than-human kin. About Giovanna de Oliveira Andreotti: Giovanna de Oliveira Andreotti is a dancer/dance teacher, a member of the Gesturing Toward Decolonial Futures, a certified Warm Data Lab host, and an online course facilitator/coordinator. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of British Columbia and postgraduate certifications in Climate Psychology and Embodied Social Justice. Currently, she coordinates an inquiry that maps pedagogical practices addressing complexity, complicity, collapse, and accountability. Worksheets: Rude Diagnostic Exercise House of Fear - Want - Entitlement SDMR Compass Needs List Vanessa’s Books: Hospicing Modernity Outgrowing Modernity Learn More From Giovanna & Vanessa: Rewiring for Reality Giovanna on LinkedIn Gesturing Toward Decolonial Futures Hospicing Modernity Online Course Love Letters to Changemakers: To receive new episodes to your inbox along with other nourishment for the fight ahead, subscribe to Love Letters for Changemakers.
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    1 h
  • Breaking Free from the Victim Triangle with Heather Plett

    Breaking Free from the Victim Triangle with Heather Plett
    Jul 8 2025
    Heather Plett—facilitator, trainer, and author known globally for her work in holding space—and Katherine explore how activists often get sucked into the victim - rescuer - perpetrator vortex and how to break free. This model supported Katherine, Heather, and many others to shift from white saviorism to a posture of more true solidarity. Bio: Heather Plett, is the author of the award-winning book The Art of Holding Space: A Practice of Love, Liberation, and Leadership and the recently released book, Where Tenderness Lives: On Healing, Liberation, and Holding Space for Oneself. She is the co-founder of the Centre for Holding Space, international speaker, and facilitator. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages and referenced in such notable publications as Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today, and she has trained people from six continents, both in person and online. Before launching her work in holding space, Heather worked in leadership and communications in government and non-profit organizations. Having spent most of her adult life in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where she raised her three daughters, Heather has recently moved to Vancouver Island. Heather’s Books: Where Tenderness Lives: On healing, liberation and holding space for oneself The Art of Holding Space: A practice of love, liberation, and leadership Heather’s Courses & Offerings: The Centre for Holding Space Love Letters to Organizers: To receive new episodes to your inbox along with other nourishment for the fight ahead, subscribe to Love Letters for Organizers.
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    39 m
  • How to Center Radical Love in Challenging Times with Shiree Teng

    How to Center Radical Love in Challenging Times with Shiree Teng
    Jun 25 2025
    Shiree Teng—community organizer, storyteller, and healer who believes that love and courage will lead the way towards our collective liberation—speaks with Katherine about how to center radical love in our work for change. With a mixture of grace and conviction, Shiree offers guidance for how to align your life with your truth and a fierce love for yourself and others. Without cultivating love for ourselves and each other, we risk only scratching the surface, endlessly circling around the work needed for our shared liberation. A commitment to radical love makes the work rigorous. About Shiree Teng: An immigrant kid who grew up organizing, Shiree Teng has never stopped. For over 35 years, Shiree has worked as a consultant to foundations, nonprofits, and grassroots collectives—leading strategy, measuring impact, and centering the voices of those most impacted by racism and oppression. Shiree's mission is to inspire us to prioritize love as the catalyst for our freedom. She believes that we are worthy and deserving of our liberation and insists that we start with our own radical self-love. Learn About Shiree’s Work: shireeteng.org Read: Measuring Love, Shiree’s First Brown Paper  Healing Love, Shiree’s Second Brown Paper Love Letters to Changemakers: To receive new episodes to your inbox along with other nourishment for the fight ahead, subscribe to Love Letters for Changemakers.
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    43 m
  • The Building Blocks of Secure Attachment with Carmen Spagnola

    The Building Blocks of Secure Attachment with Carmen Spagnola
    Jun 10 2025
    If we are to survive the current and looming environmental and economic emergencies and grow communities in which we thrive, we need to be able to relate and work together across difference. In this episode, Carmen Spagnola teaches the building blocks for cultivating secure attachment—the ability to help ourselves and others feel safe, seen, secure, and soothed—even with people we’re most challenged by. About Carmen Spagnola: Carmen Spagnola is a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef turned trauma recovery practitioner, clinical hypnotherapist, and kitchen witch. She is author of Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times and The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year. Carmen is host of The Numinous Podcast and founder of The Numinous Network, an online learning and support portal for people healing from trauma through a cross-pollination of somatics, attachment, and nature-based spirituality. Work With Carmen: Carmen’s courses on attachment and Contact Nutrition are included in her membership site, The Numinous Network: carmenspagnola.com/the-numinous-network carmenspagnola.com Read: Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year Learn More: Collapse in a Nutshell, Numinous Podcast Episode #161 The Numinous Podcast Instagram TikTok Related Podcast Episodes from Katherine: Six Steps to Self-Resonance with Katherine Golub How Self-Resonance Heals the Brain & Helps Us Discern with Katherine Golub The Neuroscience of Human Connection with Sarah Peyton Healing Intergenerational Trauma, Part One with Francesca Mason Boring Attachment Assessments: Diane Poole Heller’s Attachment Styles Test Your Attachment Styles Over Time Love Letters to Changemakers: To receive new episodes to your inbox along with other nourishment for the fight ahead, subscribe to Love Letters for Changemakers.
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    1 h y 3 m