Work & Wonder
Work & Wonder brings you real conversations with the people driving business, innovation, and community across Rhode Island. Co-hosted by Lauren Malloy and Bethany Kent of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, each episode explores a guest's path, perspective, and connection to the regional business community — offering listeners a closer look at the work and the people shaping Rhode Island's economy.
Malloy previously hosted and produced My Mom's Murder, a hit true-crime podcast from AYR Media that launched on Audible in 2024 and is now being adapted into a television series by MGM Television, starring and executive-produced by Chloë Grace Moretz — with Malloy on board as a producer. Kent brings more than two decades of experience in radio and media, having started her career at 92 PRO FM, one of Rhode Island's iconic local stations, and at the legendary HOT 97, in New York City.
New episodes every two weeks, starting Monday, August 17, 2026. Season 1 is sponsored by Coastal1 Credit Union. The series is recorded at Retina Creative Lab in East Providence and produced in-house by the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, with production support from members of the Chamber's Emerging Leaders Council.
Work & Wonder
Episode 1: Monika Zuluaga — Leading with Yes
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Work & Wonder, Episode 1: Monika Zuluaga — Leading with Yes
For our very first episode of Work & Wonder, we sat down with someone we get to work with every day: our own Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce President & CEO, Monika Zuluaga. Monika stepped into the role in September 2025, but her story starts much earlier — growing up in Pawtucket as the daughter of Fijian immigrants, watching her father build an auto body shop from nothing, and eventually finding her way through corporate finance, hospitality, advocacy, and nonprofit leadership before landing at the helm of the Chamber.
In this conversation, Monika opens up about being the Chamber's first Asian Pacific Islander president, the grief and reinvention that followed her father's passing, and how that loss led her to open her own wellness studio, Paanee Wellness, just months before becoming CEO. She talks candidly about ditching the idea of "work-life balance" for something more honest, redefining partnership in her marriage, and what she hopes her three daughters take away from watching her build a career on her own terms.
It's a conversation about saying yes to discomfort, giving yourself grace, and figuring out what leadership looks like when you write your own rules.
Work & Wonder is a production of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, sponsored by Coastal1 Credit Union.