Notes on Resilience
Notes on Resilience explores how human experience, including adversity, shapes leadership, innovation, and culture. Host Manya Chylinski talks with people whose work, research, or lived experience reveal how we adapt, care, and create after challenge—what these stories show about the systems we build, and what must evolve.
These conversations are rooted in a simple idea: the goal isn’t resilience for its own sake, the goal is well-being. Resilience is what makes recovery and growth possible.
The show serves as field research on how people and systems recover, rebuild, and move forward.
Episodes
169 episodes
169: The Recovery Gap
The finish line gets repainted, the cameras come back, and the speeches sound certain: we’re stronger, we’ve recovered, we’ve moved forward. But what happens when a community’s timeline keeps marching and a person’s nervous system d...
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Season 4
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Episode 12
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22:08
168: Ready Already, with Allister Frost
Your boss doesn’t know what’s coming next. Neither do you. That’s not a crisis; it’s the new starting point for modern leadership, where real agency can finally show up.We sit down with ...
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Season 4
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Episode 11
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27:43
167: When Clear Messaging Still Misses
Good intentions can still break trust. After a crisis, many leaders speak with calm certainty, hoping to steady the room, only to discover it doesn't work the way they thought.We unpack why offering reassurance can backfire, how timing a...
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Season 4
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Episode 10
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14:45
166: Resilience Is Motion, Not Stillness, with Kenyada Meadows
Balance isn’t the finish line. It's the pendulum that’s almost never centered, the butterfly that needs resistance to fly, and the swimmer who learns to win with water in his goggles.We sat down with coach, author, and financial services...
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Season 4
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Episode 9
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27:08
165: The Quiet Phase After Crisis
When the headlines fade and the urgent meetings stop, most leaders exhale—and miss the most important phase of recovery. We unpack the quiet phase, that deceptive calm where people finally feel the impact and disengagement takes roo...
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Season 4
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Episode 8
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14:54
164: Leading Through Unrest, with Ayme Zemke
When a crisis engulfs your community, the urge to go quiet can be powerful—and costly. We sit down with Ayme Zemke, Chief Client Officer and Certified Crisis Communication Leader at Beehive Strategic Communication, to break down how...
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Season 4
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Episode 7
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24:34
163: Resilience Is The Real Infrastructure, with Tony Crescenzo
Pressure tests every organization, and Tony Crescenzo believes resilience isn’t a perk—it’s the infrastructure that keeps the mission alive. We sit down with the Marine veteran turned CEO of Intelligent Waves and founder of Peak Neu...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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30:45
162: Back To Functioning - Steadiness or Speed?
What happens when the crisis is no longer in the news?We dig into that uneasy stretch when calendars fill back up and leaders feel the urge to get back to normal. And why that push can cause mistrust and leave people alone with their pai...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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28:57
161: Resilience Without The Buzzwords, with Kemia Sarraf
What if we stopped treating trauma like a forbidden topic and started treating it like a leadership skill set? That’s the spark for a candid, practical conversation with physician and public health expert Kemia Sarraf on how to show...
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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33:33
160: Resilience With Boundaries, with Kathryn McEwen
What if compassion without boundaries is the very thing burning leaders out? We sit down with organizational psychologist and executive coach Kathryn McEwen to unpack resilience at work as a living system.Kathryn leads the Working with R...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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28:54
159: Stronger Together At Work, with Peter Turner
Real care at work isn’t about saying yes to everything. It is about designing a culture where people can struggle together and still deliver. We brought Pete Turner, partner and senior executive coach at 2B Limitless, to talk about ...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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32:56
158: Resilience Without The Hype, with Shaun Murphy
Ever wish you had a steady rhythm to move you through doubt, fatigue, and fear? We sit down with Shaun Murphy—Mr. Motivation—to explore how a veteran turned educator, musician, and author uses leadership and motivation to transform ...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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26:35
157: Year Three, Clearer And Kinder
Resilience shows up in the small choices that restore steadiness after a hard season, and in the rare moments when private truth reshapes public policy. As we mark three years of the show, I share the unexpected chapter that changed my professi...
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Season 3
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Episode 53
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14:47
156: Unexpected Moments That Make Us
What if the choices that define you arrive sideways—on an ordinary day, without a plan, and ask you to cross a threshold you never imagined existed? We pull together standout moments from season three to explore how our identifies c...
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Season 3
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Episode 52
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21:43
155: Breaking The Silence On Workplace Bullying, with Kim Williams
Silence protects bullies.We sit down with Kim Williams—veteran HR executive, survivor of workplace abuse, and founder of the Fair Path Project—to unpack how brilliant jerks get shielded, why moral injury cuts deeper than most leaders rea...
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Season 3
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Episode 51
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31:23
154: Empathy That Works, with Dr. Helen Riess
What if the fastest path to better outcomes is a renewed commitment to empathy you can actually teach, measure, and scale? We sit down with Dr. Helen Riess—Harvard Medical School psychiatrist, founder of Empathetics, and author of T...
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Season 3
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Episode 50
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27:29
153: Truth In The Eye Of The Storm, with Samantha Montano
Crisis leadership is about recognizing reality faster than everyone else. And telling the truth when it’s hardest. We sit down with Samantha Montano—associate professor of emergency management and author of Disasterology—to unpack w...
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Season 3
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Episode 49
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27:25
152: Leading Without Fear, with Melissa Agnes
Fear rewires leadership in the moments that matter most. We sit down with Melissa Agnes, keynote speaker, author of Crisis Ready, and a shaper of ISO 22361, to explore how leaders can move from survival mode to creation mode when th...
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Season 3
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Episode 48
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31:52
151: From Crisis Plans to Operational Resilience, with Suzanne Bernier
News travels faster than your approval chain—so who speaks for you when it matters most? We sit down with crisis management consultant Suzanne Bernier to unpack what effective leadership looks like under pressure. The conversation q...
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Season 3
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Episode 47
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30:06
150: Leaning Into Anxiety, with David Rosmarin
Anxiety doesn’t mean you’re broken; it means you care. When stakes rise, that surge of energy can sharpen focus, rally teams, and improve decisions—if you know how to work with it. We sit down with Harvard Medical School psychologis...
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Season 3
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Episode 46
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30:44
149: Trust Builds Teams, with Nate Amidon
A cargo plane cockpit isn’t the first place most people look for lessons on software leadership—until you hear what happens when a co-pilot stays silent. A single dismissive moment can shut down a voice and invite disasterIn this episode...
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Season 3
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Episode 45
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27:14
148: Adapting After Trauma, with Dr. Jordan Smoller
Resilience isn’t about being unbreakable. We sit down with Dr. Jordan Smoller—psychiatrist, epidemiologist, and geneticist at Harvard and Mass General—to discuss resilience as adaptation and explore why naming harm matters, how ackn...
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Season 3
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Episode 44
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29:42
147: Designing Work For Every Mind, with Travis Hollman
Work should feel human, not like a daily battle with noise, sameness, and stress. We sit down with Travis Hollman, CEO of Hollman Inc. and founder of MeSpace, to unpack how neuroinclusive design, compassionate leadership, and AI can...
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Season 3
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Episode 43
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29:12
146: Serve First, Lead Strong, with Sebastián Torres-Calderon
What if leadership is a practice you start the moment a gap appears? That’s the lens Sebastián Torres-Calderon brings to our conversation. He was an intern who helped stabilize a hospitality company during COVID and later became its...
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Season 3
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Episode 42
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24:31
145: Why Your Brain Won’t Read a Long Email During a Disaster, with Mary Schoenfeldt
A steady voice can feel like a life raft when the world flips. We sat down with emergency management expert and ICISF faculty member Dr. Mary Schoenfeldt to unpack how leaders actually help in the acute moments and the aftermath—wha...
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Season 3
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Episode 41
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37:47
