She+ Geeks Out Podcast

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181

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Jun 2026

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About the show

We interview brilliant humans who share their journeys, insights, and experiences. Each interview is with someone from the Good Humans Club. We bring you the voices of those from all walks of life to share with you what they geek out about-- their passions, talents, struggles, and successes. This doesn't mean that they're going to be tech talks (although they might be!). Each episode will feature the hosts and their guests talking about topics including health, psychology, art, music, learning, and more-- the list goes on. Episodes are fun and engaging and provide some nuggets of information that you can take away. Oh, and yeah, they might be awkward sometimes. That's just how we roll.

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June 2, 20261 hr 6 min

AI Policy and Work Inequality with Julia Regier

Julia Regier is a policy and research manager at MIT's Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work, where she focuses on workforce and policy impacts. Her path here was anything but straight, from studying philosophy at Wellesley to an MBA at Yale to translating dense economics research for people who don't speak economics. We talk about what the data shows for workers without college degrees (spoiler: it's not great, and it’s been getting worse since 1980), why the self-checkout AI surveillance story is a perfect case study in automation gone wrong, and what it would take to redirect AI development toward something that works for workers, not just around them. We also get into the market failure at the heart of how AI is being built, why a handful of people setting the vision for all of us is a problem, and what policy levers could shift things. Julia also makes the moral case, loud and clear, for a living wage, and we’re here for it. Chapters 00:00 - Intro - Felicia and Rachel talk local politics, civic assemblies, and more 20:28 - Welcome Julia! Her Nonlinear Path: Philosophy, Recruiting & Landing at MIT 25:00 - Worker Ownership, Co-ops & Why It's Harder Than It Sounds 29:35 - Job Quality for Workers Without College Degrees: What the Data Shows 37:00 - AI Surveillance, Self-Checkout & the Annoyance Factor 43:45 - Taking the Long View: Policy Impacts & the Case for Investing in Children 49:40 - Who's Setting the Vision for AI (and Why That's a Problem) 54:26 - Pro-Worker AI: Policy Levers That Could Actually Change Course 62:00 - Gender, Diversity & Who's Missing from the Research 65:20 - If You Could Change One Thing + Closing Thoughts Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

May 28, 20269 min

We launched a new pod!

We are SO excited to share that we launched a new podcast called Public Speak! If you've listened to our intros lately, you may already know that we're engaged in local government. As it turns out, there's a lot to it! ☺️ In this teaser episode, we pull back the curtain on our unexpected journeys into local public service, with Felicia serving as City Councilor in Easthampton, MA, and Rachel freshly elected to her North Park Neighborhood Planning Committee in San Diego. What prompted this new pod? Our shared conviction that local government is wildly misunderstood, frustratingly slow for good reasons, and way more accessible than most people think. From demystifying city council meetings to explaining why your park might take five years to materialize, Public Speak aims to make civic life feel a little less like a foreign language, and a lot more like something you could actually be part of. Guests from around the country are coming. Robert's Rules will be explained. Subscribe on any platforms or you can support us and get full episodes at https://publicspeakpodcast.substack.com/! Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

April 24, 20261 hr 6 min

Belonging and Somatic Leadership with Rhodes Perry

What happens when a former White House policy nerd realizes the real work of culture change isn't in politics? Let's find out! In this episode, we chat with Rhodes Perry, social entrepreneur, author of Imagine Belonging, and founder of Rhodes Perry Consulting, for a thoughtful, grounding conversation about what it takes to build belonging at work when the ground keeps shifting under all of us. We dig into why the epidemic of loneliness at work is a business risk most leaders aren't tracking, why Rhodes welcomes diversity of thought but draws a hard line at diversity of respect, how somatic leadership and nervous system regulation are becoming essential skills for leading through chaos, and what it means to support trans, non-binary, and gender diverse colleagues when just existing feels targeted. Rhodes also shares how burnout cracked him open five years into building his company, why he made unapologetic trans joy a personal commitment, and why the leaders we've been underestimating the longest are the ones this moment is calling for. It's one of those conversations where we left feeling steadier and a little more hopeful, and we think you will too! Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction & Episode Preview 01:50 - Felicia and Rachel Intro 11:57 - Welcome, Rhodes! 13:09 - The Epidemic of Loneliness at Work 15:38 - From the White House to Founding Rhodes Perry Consulting 18:35 - Why Belonging? The Heart Behind DEI 23:54 - Diversity of Thought vs Diversity of Respect 27:51 - Somatic Leadership and Regulating the Nervous System 33:34 - Why Getting Into the Body Feels Hard 38:54 - The Sludge of Transformation 43:36 - Does the DEI Industry Still Have a Place? 47:22 - What This Work Really Asks of Leaders 50:51 - Supporting Trans, Non-Binary, and Gender Diverse Communities 59:53 - The Future of Work and the Rise of Minority Leadership 64:04 - Rhodes's New Book, Out This Fall 64:56 - Closing Thoughts & Where to Find Rhodes Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

March 18, 20261 hr 6 min

AI Ethics, SHRM, and Building New Playbooks with Kristy McCann

What happens when one of HR's most seasoned leaders gets fed up with broken systems and decides to build new ones? Let’s find out! In this episode, we sit down with Kristy McCann, multi-time founder, CEO, and HR powerhouse, for a wide-ranging, energizing conversation about the real state of the future of work. We dig into why change management is ultimately just project management (and why most leaders are failing at it), the growing ethics and efficacy crisis around AI adoption in the workplace, what's gone wrong with SHRM as a certifying body, and why consumer power might be the most underutilized lever we have right now. Kristy also shares how she reads pattern recognition as a superpower, and what her next chapter looks like as she works to close the skilling gap she's spent her career fighting. It's one of those conversations where we left feeling genuinely fired up and we think you will too! Also in this episode: we introduce Ask the Librarian, our new AI-powered tool built on the Inclusion Geeks resource library. {blush emoji} Chapters 00:00 - Introduction & Episode Preview 01:14 - Introducing Ask the Librarian, Our New AI-Powered Resource Tool 11:47 - Welcome, Kristy McCann Flynn 12:03 - Kristy's Career Journey, From Scranton to HR Founder 18:02 - Rethinking Change Management for a World in Constant Flux 22:00 - AI in the Workplace, Enhancement or Replacement? 28:33 - AI Ethics, Data Privacy & the No-Guardrails Problem 31:11 - Leadership Gaps, Accountability & Why Ideas Aren't Enough 33:21 - Kristy's Stealth Next Chapter, Education, Skilling & AI Efficacy 35:13 - The SHRM Problem, When Certifying Bodies Lose Their Way 44:49 - Rebuilding Critical Thinking & Trust in Institutions 50:18 - Consumer Power, Boycotts & Collective Action 52:59 - Unionization, General Strikes & Protecting Workers 57:42 - Think Globally, Act Locally 61:14 - AI Displacement, What History Tells Us 64:31 - Closing Thoughts & Where to Find Kristy Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

February 19, 20261 hr 16 min

The Future of Work, Gig Economy Lawsuits, and Who Tech Really Builds For with Jarah Euston and David Chiu

This episode goes somewhere we didn't plan, and we think that makes it one of our best yet.We sat down with Jarah Euston, co-founder and CEO of WorkWhile, a fast-growing app-based staffing platform connecting 80 million frontline workers with flexible shift opportunities. Jarah grew up in Fresno working retail, got burnt out building software for tech people, and decided to build technology for workers instead. It's a compelling vision and a genuinely interesting conversation about flexibility, AI, and what the future of work could look like for hourly employees.But after that conversation wrapped, we learned that WorkWhile had recently settled a second major lawsuit with the San Francisco City Attorney's office for misclassifying workers as independent contractors. So we spoke with David Chu, the San Francisco City Attorney, and asked for his side of the story.What you'll hear in this episode is both interviews back to back. First, Jarah's perspective on building worker-centered technology, and then David's perspective on what happens when "flexibility" becomes a cover for avoiding worker protections.Together, these two conversations raise a question that feels urgent right now: Is it possible to build a genuinely worker-centered future of work, one with flexibility, innovation, and fair treatment? Or are we just repackaging old inequities in new apps? Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

February 13, 202646 min

Billionaires, Epstein, and the Reckoning We're Living Through

It's February 2026, and everything is happening all at once. In this unfiltered bonus episode, we try to make sense of the polycrisis… from billionaires losing it (looking at you, Benioff), to the Epstein files, to AI potentially developing consciousness, to Tesla pivoting to humanoid robots. We dig into why the people with the most power and money seem to be the most broken, how institutions (including Felicia's own alma mater!) are choosing money over morals, and why this might actually be the reckoning we've been overdue for. Plus: Reggie Watts' optimistic AI theory, the case for dismantling the patriarchy, why capitalism is the connective tissue in all of this, and an honest conversation about aging as women in a world designed to make us hate our wrinkles. Let’s get into it! Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

January 21, 20261 hr 7 min

The Current State and Future of DEI Work with Chris Haigh

We're catching up with Chris Haigh, founder of True Change Associates, to discuss the dramatic shifts in DEI work over the past few years. From the surge of interest post-2020 to the current backlash, we explore what it means to do this work within a capitalist framework and whether it's even possible to create real change from within existing systems.Chris shares Dr. Carmen Foster's powerful framework of the time-space continuum, a reminder that today's challenges are a blip in the larger arc toward justice. We discuss language shifts, the persistence of this work despite market pressures, and what the future might hold 10 years from now, including the role of AI in creating equitable workplaces.This conversation is both a reality check and a beacon of hope for anyone navigating the complexity of DEI work in 2026.Chapters:0:00 - Intro and Felicia and Rachel chat about the state of the world13:30 - Catching up with Chris: Where in the world & what's new22:15 - DEI as an industry: Can it exist within capitalism?32:40 - The 2020 surge and subsequent backlash42:50 - Language shifts: From DEI to "culture" and "belonging"48:20 - Islands of psychological safety: Doing the work where you can55:10 - Companies still doing the work (quietly)60:54 - The time-space continuum: Taking the long view62:40 - Future of work: AI, humanity, and what's next65:35 - How to connect with Chris & True Change Associates66:48 - Wrap-up Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

December 9, 20251 hr 9 min

From Gin & Tonics to Good Trouble with Anouska Bhattacharyya

In this episode, we sit down with the brilliant Anouska Bhattacharya, VP of Programs at YW Boston, for a conversation that somehow ties together the imperialist history of the gin and tonic, the absolute barbarism of mammograms, and the future of equity work in a post-DEI world.Anouska shares her origin story as a "recovering academic" who traded the ivory tower for community organizing, and explains how her neurobiology background helps her understand why systems can, and must, be unlearned. We get into how DEI work is evolving (spoiler: call it civility, call it employee engagement, the work continues), what it means to find joy as fuel for sustainability, and why she's currently tap dancing in her Watertown basement while performing in a burlesque reimagining of the Nutcracker.Plus: ice shipped from Massachusetts to India, dense breasts, and a love story between Pluto and its moon. You know, the usual. 😂Chapters:[00:00] Intro & Workshop Promo: Reimagining the Future of Work Together[09:19] Meet Anouska: A Recovering Academic's Origin Story[14:07] Why History of Science? Drawing Lines Between Normal & Abnormal[17:30] The Three Pillars: Leadership, Community & Joy[21:13] How Felicia & Rachel First Met Anouska[22:01] The Imperialist History of the Gin & Tonic[28:06] Ice Ships from Massachusetts to India[33:36] The Mammogram Rant[38:37] Hard Pivot: The State of DEI Work[43:40] Renaming the Work: Civility, Employee Engagement & Beyond[49:52] Did Companies Ever Really Care? Risk Mitigation vs. Real Change[53:11] Finding Balance: Tap Dancing, Plants & Pluto's Love Story[56:22] The Slutcracker & the Radical Power of Art[60:35] Colonialism, Modesty & Reclaiming Our Bodies[61:14] Station Eleven: Survival Is Insufficient[64:05] Building Community in Hard Times[66:10] Where to Find Anouska & Slutcracker Performance Dates Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

November 19, 20251 hr 11 min

The Future of Work is Still Human with Rashmi Jolly

The robots aren't in charge... yet!In this episode of the She Geeks Out podcast, we chat with Rashmi Jolly, founder of Assideo Consulting, global innovation leader, and deeply thoughtful future-of-work nerd, to talk about what happens when AI collides with humanity, power, and culture.Rashmi shares her wild journey from immigrant kid with “doctor or bust” expectations, to Wall Street, to entrepreneurship in women’s health and genetics, to roles at the Economist Intelligence Unit, Mastercard, and Bain’s innovation group, and now to life split between Dubai, Zurich, and her kids’ school in the U.S. Together, we explore:How AI is being treated like the new high-priced consultant, and what gets lost when leaders trust the tool more than their own peopleThe quiet ways generative AI is eroding creativity, learning, and confidence, especially for younger workers who never got to solve problems without itThe ethics red flags Rashmi is most worried about, from biased datasets in women’s health to opaque data collection and “empathetic” chatbots that are a little too good at keeping us hookedHow different countries (including China, Singapore, and the UAE) are regulating tech, education, and kids’ screen time, and what the U.S. might learn from that, even with all the complexities and human rights concernsWhy psychological safety is non-negotiable for real innovation, and how framing work as “serving another human” changes everythingRashmi also shares hopeful stories about her kids and their peers, the emotional language they’re developing, and why she still believes the next generation can pull us out of this feverish tech dream and back into a more grounded, human way of working.If you care about AI, inclusion, power, leadership, and what kind of world we’re handing to young people, this one will stick with you long after you hit pause.Episode Chapters:(0:00:07) - Intro (Felicia and Rachel) Neuroscience of Trust in Workplace(0:10:16) - Navigating a Dynamic Work Landscape(0:16:45) - Reimagining Work in AI-Era(0:28:00) - Balancing Empathy in AI Development(0:41:33) - Building Psychological Safety for Innovation(0:54:19) - Ethical Concerns in AI Development(1:00:52) - Cultural Perspectives on Future Work Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

October 23, 20251 hr 9 min

Aging is for Everyone with Christina Peoples

We’re joined by Christina Peoples, gerontologist, age enthusiast, and the brilliant mind behind GeroWhat?!® Christina is on a mission to make aging real, joyful, and something we all engage with, no matter how old we are. We love this for us!Together, we explore:Why aging isn’t just about older adults, it’s about all of usHow ageism intersects with race, gender, and power in the workplaceWhat workplaces miss when they equate “fresh energy” with youthThe value of intergenerational connection, curiosity, and empathyWhy reframing aging as a privilege can change everythingWe also share laughs over acid-wash jeans, hearing aids, and The Golden Girls, and unpack the “stereotypical baggage” we all carry when it comes to age. Whether you’re 25, 95, or somewhere in between, this conversation invites you to rethink how we grow older and how we can build workplaces (and lives!) that honor aging as a shared human journey.Tune in and get inspired. Because aging is for everyone!Chapters(0:00:07) - Intro: Felicia and Rachel Talk About the Future of WorkWe share a workshop envisioning a more inclusive and collaborative future workplace amid uncertainties like AI and climate change.(0:12:29) - Passion for Aging and GerontologyInterview with Christina! Discovering passion for aging, exploring life course, and early experiences with older adults in gerontology.(0:27:17) - Intersectionality and Cultural Values in AgingHow age discrimination intersects with race and gender, influenced by cultural and generational values in the workplace.(0:40:08) - Promoting Age-Inclusive Work EnvironmentsIndividuality in the workplace, ageism, intergenerational connections, reducing bias, and valuing curiosity and innovation.(0:49:45) - Navigating Aging and AuthenticityEmbracing identity and style as we age, challenging societal beauty standards, and valuing intergenerational relationships.(0:59:50) - Aging With Intention and EmpowermentAging brings shared experiences and challenges, including the use of orthotics and hearing aids, and the importance of intergenerational dialogue. Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.