Re-Quilibrium Podcast

Forgiveness is a skill and a practice that we can embody to live more peaceful lives. Yet it's not one that is often taught, leaving many people confused about the tasks involved with moving forward through unpleasant or even traumatic experiences. To go from being disturbed to being at peace with your life, to transition from an argument with life to an acceptance of life — this is the work of forgiveness. Essentially, forgiveness is making peace with the word no. Dr. Fred Luskin of Stanford University's Forgiveness Projects joins Re-Quilibrium to discuss his life-long work researching and teaching forgiveness.

What if most of your conversations about time are actually conversations about feelings? 80% of working adults feel like they're “time-poor,” but time is a tricky concept to pin down. What many people really mean when they say “I don't have enough time” is that they feel stressed or overwhelmed by the demands of work and life. This truth has costly consequences—feeling time-poor can have stronger negative effects on happiness than being unemployed. Dr. Ashley Whillans of Harvard Business School discusses the research linking time and well-being and offers suggestions on how to adopt a healthy time lifestyle.

Flourishing provides a framework for how to live well by taking into account individuality, constraints, and systems. Yet what does it look like to apply this framework in education? Classroom-teacher-turned-positive-psychologist Nick Holton has been exploring the concept of flourishing through a performance lens to determine how to help students become the best versions of themselves. Nick; widely versed in various theories in positive psychology, well-being, and flourishing; includes concepts like achievement, mastery, motivation, flow, meaning, and connection in his promotion of flourishing in schools. He also acknowledges the role of privilege in well-being and how to repair system-level concerns to help more people access vital aspects of life.

Mental health in elite athletes is an elevated topic in 2021. In sports, there's a fine line between growth and exhaustion, strength and breakdown, health and pathology—and this couldn't be more true for athletes competing during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Yet sports also provide a unique playground for the development of mental tools, identity, and tolerance for discomfort.  In this conversation with Beth Launiere, storied head coach of the University of Utah Women's Volleyball team (and my former coach), we discuss the mental and emotional facet of competition and the responsibility of the systems and leaders that support elite athletes. We also discuss the challenges of a season during COVID and social unrest and how tumultuous times can give way to a fresh start.

In a time of great division, we become positional and put up our walls. So in this episode with the University of Utah's Dr. Danya Rumore, we talk about how to attack problems instead of people, avoid zero-sum thinking, and manage our needs to come together in a time marked by cancel culture, aggression, and a breakdown of dialogue. We even dive into the mass migration to the rural Mountain West and how income inequality, housing affordability, and water issues necessitate greater skills in conflict and dialogue.

What does it mean to be well? In this conversation with Dr. Matthew Lee, Director of Empirical Research at Harvard's Human Flourishing Program, we run the gamut of subject matter—love, spirituality, inner peace, business—in search of the answer. A sociologist and former criminologist, Lee's research explores the pathways to human flourishing, benevolent service to others, and the integration of social science and the humanities. 

Time management, productivity, high-performance—these buzzwords govern the way we view our roles in not only our jobs but society as a whole. But often, notions that center around the idea of “high performance” are just that: performative. In this conversation with Dr. Christine Seifert, we unpack what productivity really means and the assumption of morality that unpins it. A professor of communication and author of a number of books and articles, Dr. Seifert thinks deeply and often about the mechanics and implications of rhetoric and how we can be deliberate in our engagement with metaphor.

Conversations about individuals and systems tend to veer into the realm of either/or. Yet in this episode, Francois Sauer and I explore how complex, dynamic systems can work to serve individuals and create an environment for human flourishing. Initially trained as a physician and having worked at the systems level with healthcare technologies, Francois is a polymath, philosophical thinker, and truly beautiful mind. We wander from topics like creativity and leadership, to how constraints are a real and often fruitful element of organic systems, to how data ecosystems are informing society at an unprecedented level. 

As we continue to navigate the difficulties of the pandemic, a shift toward care and empathy in the workplace, coupled with boosts in individual learning and creativity, could hint at lasting positive impacts on our post-COVID economy. In this episode, I talk to Dr. Eileen McNeely, Founder and Executive Director of the Sustainability and Health initiative for Netpositive Enterprise (SHINE) at Harvard University, about how the pandemic is affecting workers and the role of work in human flourishing. Eileen's research focuses on work as a platform to improve well-being, and she aims to shine a light on worker health and well-being in the business context.

I'm back. It's been a few years. I've got a new name (Danielle LeCourt), a new logo, and a new take on an old question: What does it really mean to change? This episode was recorded in November of 2020. 

"We've got this dormant capacity-building resource in the skills and talents of corporate employees that, when deployed effectively, provides benefits to the community, nonprofits, and to the professionals themselves. It's there, and it's just a matter of waking it up and connecting it with the right organization." - Danielle Holly The nonprofit sector is charged with saving the world, yet it pursues this mission facing constant limits to resources and capacity. While corporate companies often spend 20-35% of their budget on infrastructure--talent and leadership development, technology, innovation--nonprofits have an average of 2-5% to spend on those infrastructure-building functions. Yet the resource disparity between these two paths can be closed through an innovative approach to CSR: skills-based volunteering. Common Impact CEO Danielle Holly explains on this episode of Re-Quilibrium.   

"Marketing is obsessed by being consumer-centric. I think the opportunity is for it to become more decision-centric... There's a lot of noise in being consumer-centric that may not be relevant to the choice. Start with the choice and work from there." -Matthew Willcox How much do you really understand how people choose? The past decade has brought to light a flood of research from behavioral science, neuroscience, and everything relating to the mind. Yet, the scope of the literature is both empowering and paralyzing. And while I won't go so far as to say that marketers and scientists speak a different language, there is a notable difference in creed that drives how they view science and research. And as guest Matthew Willcox, author of The Business of Choice: Marketing to Consumers' Instincts, notes, marketers would do well to think of the research as inspiration, not proof. So how can we use research on decision making as inspiration for behavior change strategies? In this episode, Matthew Wilcox discusses how to better influence people's choices by working with human nature, not against it.

"Fundamental to science is a process and a worldview. It's a way to confront reality. It's how you establish what's real and what's not real; what's true and what's false. It's how we understand what is. Having a strong background in science and a basic amount of science literacy is really important for being a civic participant." -Cara Santa Maria Science communicator Cara Santa Maria knows what she's up against. A culture driven by the 24-hour political news cycle. Fake news. Entrenched sexism and racism. An ever-lurking wedge between the scientific community and the public. Yet to her, the roadblocks are exactly what necessitates a warmer embrace of science as an approach. It's a struggle in many respects for science communicators to stay the course and help develop the public's scientific literacy. Yet the payoff is equally as great, helping grow people's abilities to spot bad sources and utilize alternative media to model a more diverse, adaptive world. Science communication, and really communication in general, has become the first-touch for adult education and shaping new normative behavior. In this conversation, the host of Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria, co-host of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe, and founding member of the Nerd Brigade, discusses how science communication and science literacy work to affect change on a global scale. Don't let the conversation end here. Discuss this episode on social media using #ReQPod19.

"Rather than having someone burn the finger and think "I'm not going to do that again", can we actually bring about an emotional response in a young person's mind using all of the tools of media?" - Paul Irwin Think back to your youth, to some memorable choices you made. If you're like the majority of people, your teen years were notably ripe with tricky situations. Situations in which the stakes were high, emotions were high, and tough decisions came at you from all sides. Yet what if there was a way to make youthful mistakes without risking such serious consequences? That question lies at the heart of TryLife, and interactive drama that blends the power of media, game theory, and the principles of behavior change. TryLife was designed by some of the best people from the creative, youth, education and health care industries in which the story is molded and shaped by the user. Like the Choose Your Own Adventure books popular in the '80s and '90s, Trylife places users at the center of the story and relies on their decisions to chart the course of the narrative. Authentic and hard-hitting, the plot routes are based on probability using real stats and data.  In this episode, TryLife creator Paul Irwin discusses TryLife's approach to behavior change and its wild success since its inception. Don't let the conversation end here. Discuss this episode on social media using #ReQPod18.

"If we do the science right and we're really understanding what works, whether it's what we expect or not, it will be the truth... All we want to know is the truth." - Dan White Facts, the final frontier.  We live in a weird time. While a major percentage of the world population carries access to the most sophisticated information technologies and scientific applications that have ever existed, we find ourselves constantly debating the truth. Terms like "facts" and "truth" have become battleground concepts for subjective experience, leaving both tension and confusion high. Yet the pursuit of the truth always has an ally in the scientific method and good academic research, a creed that drives Dan White, co-founder and CEO of The Behaviouralist. Driven by a desire to bridge the gap between the cutting edge of science and its application in society, Dan White and his co-founder Dr. Robert Metcalfe were responsible for some of the UK's earliest applied behavioral economics research–-no easy feat. The roadblocks between good research and societal application are myriad, leaving much good research to sit on the shelf for years before benefiting society. Yet in the spirit of being both creative and scientific, The Behaviouralist utilizes technology and data to bring a science-based voice to conversations with governments and organizations worldwide. And when tackling some of the world's most pressing issues, it isn't enough to get the message through. We must get it through quickly. Dan White discusses his process in this episode of Re-Quilibrium. Don't let the conversation end here. Discuss this episode on social media using #ReQPod17.  

"We don't just dive into a country with predetermined solutions. We sit and talk to people about what the issues are." Gael O'Sullivan joins the podcast to discuss the challenges that come with confronting assumptions related to global health issues and the benefits of adopting a mixed-method research approach for behavior change.

"The problems are complex, but the process is relatively simple. The trick is to get politicians to endorse the application of that process and practitioners to help deliver it." Professor Jeff French joins the podcast to discuss his recent work defining and advocating for strategic social marketing. Through the idea of strategic social marketing, Professor French challenges social marketers and policy makers alike to embrace social marketing techniques and theories when planning at the policy level.

"Ultimately, if we think about the people we're working with, they know their context best. They know the ultimate outcomes and goals they want to see in their communities." Alexandra Jabs, Training Director at Rare, and Claudia Quintanilla, Traning Director at Rare Brazil, join the podcast to discuss Rare's approach to conservation through community partnership and capacity building. Through this model, Rare is able to create highly localized solutions to global conservation issues.

"What does our future look like? We can't plan for the past anymore, we have to plan for our future climate." Dr. Danya Rumore joins the podcast to discuss how she and other planners are helping communities take action in response to our changing climate. Particularly, we focus a lot on her work helping coastal cities in the United States plan for and adjust to such challenges as flooding and rising sea levels.

"Marketing is both a powerful and positive tool for shaping our perceptions, actions, and social norms. I encourage anyone who's working in any cause-based mission to embrace social marketing as an important tool, especially those working in conservation." Brooke Sadowsky and Kevin Green from Rare join the podcast to discuss how working in conservation informs their social marketing and behavior change approach.  

"You've got to look at what people do about climate change, not what they think about it... Ultimately we're going to be judged on how effective we are, not whether people remember the brand or message of a program." David Meiklejohn joins the podcast to discuss wicked problems, super wicked problems, and climate change. David discusses his work with these topics and provides recommendations for how social marketers might address them in the future.

"Governments and other social actors need to take an ambidextrous approach—they have to at the same time try to eliminate [ill-being] while at the same time creating conditions for people to flourish and reach their potential." Hamilton Carvalho joins the podcast to discuss how we define social good and how social marketers can best take steps to facilitate it.  

"Understanding the persepctive of the people you're serving should be the most important benchmark for how you conduct research and evaluation activities." Craig Lefebvre, PhD, re-joins the podcast for the second episode of a two-part series on research in social marketing. In this episode we discuss theories, concepts, and strategies for conducting quality evaluation.  

"If you want to watch a lion hunt, don't go to the zoo. Go to the jungle." Craig Lefebvre, PhD, joins the podcast for a two-part series on research in social marketing. In this episode we discuss theories, concepts, and strategies for conducting quality research for campaign and program planning.

"We wanted people to understand that for the military, energy is not about being green... it's about the mission." Darrin Kayser of Booz Allen Hamilton joins the podcast to discuss his work to reduce military energy use and how culture change strategies provided the key to doing so. 

“Behaviors around seatbelt use had been advertised for some 30 years, although people were still dying and being injured from non-use of seatbelts...Something was missing. Something needed to change." Neil Hopkins, previously of the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership, joins the podcast to discuss the viral Embrace Life campaign and its legacy since being released over five years ago. 

"We are a community of social marketers. I think it's important to remember that we need to support each other in the work that we do and offer that support in a number of ways. One way is through mentorship, another way is by collaborating with each other." Dr. Nadia Zainuddin from the University of Wollongong joins the podcast to discuss mentorship and the academic path in social marketing.

"Rhetoric is how we use symbols, whether images or language, to make sense of the world around us and communicate our particular perspectives to each other." Teacher, scholar, and writer Dr. Christy Seifert joins the podcast to discuss rhetoric, how it both reflects and reinforces culture, and how rhetorical analysis can benefit social marketers and communication professionals.

"When done well, social marketing programs really can be effective in creating large-scale change." Nedra Weinreich of Weinreich Communications joins the podcast to provide an introduction to social marketing and to illustrate how social marketing campaigns manifest in the real world.

This will be your introduction to the project and will give you all the information you need to listen to and engage with the Re-Quilibrium Conversations.   And don't let the conversation end here. Discuss this episode on Twitter any time using #ReQPod1. Once again, that's #ReQPod1. And don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Our name for all accounts is @ReQPod.