Your Work Friends | Fresh Insights on the Now and Next of Work
We break down the now and next of work. You stay ahead.
Its not just you - work is bonkers. Burnout is high, trust is low, and everything is changing at breakneck speed.
Friend-to-friend? We get it. We're in it. And we're here to guide you through it.
We’re two leadership insiders—and real-life friends—who’ve led teams, sat in the tough seats, and know first hand how fast, complex, and personal work has become.
Every week, we break down what’s happening at work and to work, taking you behind the scenes of what's happening now, and preparing you for what you'll see in 6 months. We're bringing you breaking news, workplace trends, and interviews with top experts shaping the future of work. We cover what’s changing so you don’t get left behind.
Join us for smart, unfiltered (with the occasional f*bomb or two) conversations about how work is evolving and what you can do about it.
Great for:
• Employees rethinking their careers and trying to navigate what comes next
• People leaders shaping culture and driving change while getting the work done
• Orgs wanting to build smarter, more profitable, more human workplaces
• Anyone craving more honest and practical conversations about the future of work
Topics we cover:
Future of work, leadership, workplace culture, team dynamics, change management, human-centered strategy, layoffs, burnout, performance, career growth, workplace news, workplace humor, and more.
Episodes
104 episodes
From Cigarettes to Smoke-Free: What Real Transformation Actually Takes w/ Philip Morris International's Dr. Kaleen Love
From cigarettes… to smoke-free.What does real organizational transformation actually take?In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Kaleen Love, U.S. Chief People and Culture Officer at Philip Morris International, to explore what it ...
AI: Magic or Miss? Potential. Cheap Labor. Productivity Mirage. Brain Fry.
AI: Magic or MissAI has officially become the corporate answer to everything.Need more productivity? AI.Need fewer people? AI.Need to sound innovative on an earnings call? Definitely AI.But underneath all the...
More Than What You Do: How to Rebuild Identify, Purpose and Direction After Leaving a Role That Defined You w/Former NFL'er and Leadership Coach Alex Molden
What happens when the thing that defined you ends?In this episode, we sit down with former NFL first-round draft pick Alex Molden to talk about reinvention, identity, and what it actually takes...
The Tech is Here. People are the Decision. Our Download from the UNLEASH America Conference.
We just got back from UNLEASH America with one big conclusion:The tech decision is over.The people decision is still up for grabs.In this episode, we break down what we heard from some of the biggest voices in AI, HR, l...
Productive. Profitable. People Not Included? AI Displacement. Org Redesign. Universal Basic Income.
Productive. Profitable. People Not Included?Companies are getting more productive and profitable — while quietly employing fewer people. This week we unpack the growing gap between AI productivity, disappearing jobs, and the uncom...
HR's Biggest Moment is Right Now: The Only Question is Who is Going to Take It ft/ Hacking HR's Enrique Rubio
HR’s Biggest Moment Is Right Now. Who’s Going to Take It?AI isn’t just another HR tech tool.It’s becoming infrastructure.In this episode of Your Work Friends, Mel Plett and Francesca Ranieri sit down with En...
The Rise of the Multi-Hyphenate Leader: How Women Are Leading the Way ft/ Chief's Trey Boynton
Women aren’t dialing back ambition.They’re redesigning it.New research with the Harris Poll shows 86% of women say they’re more ambitious now than they were five years ago. The difference? They’re building careers that don’t l...
Build Your Personal Brand Now ft/ Goodstory's Gina Clementi
Personal branding isn’t about LinkedIn clout—it’s about career clarity, visibility, and opportunity.In this episode of Your Work Friends, we’re joined by Gina Clementi, founder of Goods...
People Are Not OK: And Business Can’t Pretend Anymore
People are not okay.And if people aren’t okay—neither is your business.This week on Your Work Friends, we slow down and say the quiet part out loud.In just the last two weeks, we’ve watched:AI leaders at Dav...
Culture Under Pressure: The 5 Behaviors That Decide If You Scale—or Stall
Most strategies don’t fail because leaders don’t know what to do—they fail because organizations can’t behave their way into it.Pressure doesn’t break culture.It exposes it.Most organizations don’t fail because leaders lack st...
New Week, New Headlines: The 2026 Job Market - Hot Jobs, Labor Shortages, and the End of Happy Hour
From AI-reshaping careers to widening talent gaps, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of labor “stuckness.” We analyze the fastest-growing jobs, high-pay trade shortages, teen gap-year programs, and the quiet end of happy hour.Here’s the de...
Collective Intelligence: Why Team Performance is Set Before the Work Even Begins w/Carnegie Mellon Professor Anita Woolley PhD
Smart people don’t automatically make a smart team.In this episode of Your Work Friends, we talk with Dr. Anita Woolley, professor at Carnegie Mellon University and one of the world’s leading researchers on collec...
Ownership Works: When All Employees Own a Piece of The Upside w/ Anna-Lisa Miller
Why are we still treating wealth-building at work like a VIP perk?Senior executives have long enjoyed equity as part of their compensation. But what happens when everyone gets a piece of the upside?This week, we sit...
Code Red: Zapier's Approach to Move from AI Fear to AI Integration w/ Zapier's Brandon Sammut
“With AI you can delegate a bunch of the work, but you cannot delegate the accountability.”This week on Your Work Friends, we sit down with Zapier’s Chief People & AI Transformation Officer Brandon Sammut to br...
AI Ambition: Balancing Innovation with Trust, Connection and Human Relationships w/McKinsey NA CHRO Wendy Miller
Here’s the deal—AI promises a lot.Efficiency, productivity, transformation. Every week, something new.But work also runs on things like trust, connection, and human relationships. So the real question isn’t just how fast
Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage w/ Ranjay Gulati
Here’s the deal—fear isn’t the villain. Left alone, it just drives. In this episode, we sit down with Harvard Business School professor and Thinkers50 honoree Ranjay Gulati, author of How to Be Bold: The Surprising S...
New Week, New Headlines: AI Joins Your Performance Review, and Sam Altman Says Your Job Wasn’t Real
First: AI is now sliding into your performance reviews.Forbes says it’s here to “remove bias” and “automate feedback.”We say… careful what you outsource. Because when algorithms start coaching humans, you risk losing the part that ac...
Creating Meaningful Community in the Workplace w/ DeMario Bell
Ever felt like you’re on your own at work—even in a “great culture”?That’s because culture isn’t the same as community.One happens whether you shape it or not. The other takes intention, safety, and a shared purpose.In ...
New Week, New Headlines: Open Enrollment Alert: 2026 Health Costs Surge, 4-in-5 Workers ‘Career Catfished,’ and AI Actress Tilly Norwood Sparks a New Labor Fight
This week on Your Work Friends, we break down three headlines every professional should know:Career Catfishing: Monster’s 2025 report found 4 in 5 U.S. employees say they were misled about their job. We unpa...
The Doors You Can Open: Unlocking Opportunity Through Sponsorship at Work w/ Rosalind Chow
Ever felt like your hard work wasn’t enough?That’s because the biggest career breaks don’t always come from effort alone—they come from the people who open doors for you.In this episode of Your Work Friends, we...
New Week, New Headlines: 42,000 Manufacturing Jobs Lost. 72-Hour Work Weeks Exploding. Immigration Raids Threatening America’s Skill Base
New Week, New Headlines: your fast-track through the now + next of work.This week we’re covering three stories shaping how you work, earn, and lead:42,000 US manufacturing jobs lost. Since April, durable goods h...
New Week, New Headlines: Dying at Work, The Job Market Flatlines, Hugging Your Job & Google’s 20,000 Apprenticeships
New Week, New Headlines: Burnout turns deadly at Microsoft, the U.S. job market flatlines, “job huggers” cling to stability, and Salesforce cuts while Google opens 20,000 apprenticeships. What it all means for how you work, earn, and lea...
New Week, New Headlines: Your Rights at Work Just Changed, Women Shut Out of IPOs, Canva’s Millionaires & OpenAI’s Miss
New Week, New Headlines: your fast-track through the now + next of work.This week we’re covering four stories shaping how you work, earn, and lead:Your rights at work just changed. From overtime pay to union pro...
The Future of HR: Developing the Next Generation of HR Leaders w/ JP Elliott
The future of HR isn’t just about people, it’s about how business, technology, and strategy come together.In this episode of Your Work Friends, we sit down with JP Elliott, host of The
Leading Through the Age of Outrage w/ Karthik Ramanna
Oxford professor Karthik Ramanna joins us to unpack how to lead with humility and temperance in the age of outrage—so you can build trust, lower the temperature, and keep your team thriving in polarized times.Outrage is everywhere—at wor...