Uncover the Human

Hosted by Cristina Amigoni & Alex Cullimore

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Episodes

231

Latest episode

Sep 2026

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EN-US

About the show

What’s the right way to live life? There are as many answers to this question as humans on the planet, so co-hosts Cristina Amigoni and Alex Cullimore set out to pursue the one theme everyone is seeking in their answer: authenticity. Uncover the Human explores the questions we all ask to pursue an authentic life and find connection and humor along the way. Each guest adds a facet to the discussion and illuminates what it means to work with human nature - at home and in the office. Uncover the Human is brought to you by Siamo, the company leading the charge to humanize the workplace.

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60 recent

September 2, 2026Episode 22653 min

What If The Real Competitive Edge Is Staying Human? With Susan Sanders

Everybody says they're behind on AI. Behind what, exactly? That's the question at the center of our conversation with Susan Sanders, back on the podcast after her first visit during COVID. Susan has spent three years working almost exclusively on AI adoption inside organizations. What she sees is a lot of companies winning a race that looks like running on a treadmill. They're burning calories. They can see their pace. They're still standing in the same gym. She unpacks the difference between usage and adoption, and why counting how many times someone opens ChatGPT tells you almost nothing. AI is like electricity, she says. It offers the potential for value, not inherent value. Until you turn on the light switch, you don't have light. We also get honest about what this is costing people. Susan names the fear of becoming obsolete. She names the employees working longer hours to learn AI on top of the job they already have. And the leaders who say AI won't take your job, right before ten thousand layoffs. But there's real opportunity here too. She points to IKEA, which retrained an entire customer support team into interior designers and built a new revenue line. And to a nonprofit training service dogs for veterans, where saved admin time means more humans in the field doing work no robot can do. Her framing sticks with us. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Listen in as we talk about breaking the AI spell, redesigning work instead of layering AI onto it, and what it might look like to change the racing course altogether.

August 19, 2026Episode 22539 min

How Mentoring Ignites Youth Potential In Colorado with Elycia Cook

We sit down with Elycia Cook, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Colorado, to get real about what mentoring is and what it is not, from safety and matching to the slow work of earning trust. We also dig into “mentor life,” the ripple effect from one consistent relationship, and why showing up beats being perfect every time. • Elycia’s personal story of growing up with adversity and being shaped by mentors • Mentoring as igniting potential through access, opportunity, and social capital • What Big Brothers Big Sisters Colorado looks for in Littles and Bigs • How matchmaking works, why safety checks are strict, and what happens when a match is not the right fit • The mac and cheese story as a lesson in patience, consistency, and trust-building • How mentoring transforms Bigs too, including empathy, relationships, and community connection • The biggest myths that stop people from volunteering, including time, age, and fear • How to support the mission through volunteering, advocacy, career talks, and donations If this conversation sparked something in you, share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review. Then take one step: visit biglittlecolorado.org to volunteer or donate, and tell us what kind of mentor you want to be. Website: https://biglittlecolorado.org/events/big-little-gala/

July 1, 2026Episode 22428 min

Exploring The Authenticity Upgrade: Part 3 of 4-RERUN

In this episode of Uncover the Human , Cristina Amigoni and Alex Cullimore dive into the power of deep listening —the often-overlooked skill that transforms conversations, relationships, and leadership. Joined by Aaron Wilson, they explore why listening feels so difficult at work, how it’s commonly undervalued, and why it’s actually the key to trust, collaboration, and empowerment. Through humor, honesty, and examples from their coaching practice, they unpack their signature LAVA framework—Listen, Acknowledge, Validate, Ask —as a simple yet transformative approach to building authentic connection and reducing workplace friction. From navigating tough conversations to creating empowered teams, Cristina and Alex show how deep listening redefines what it means to “win” in leadership: not by being right, but by creating understanding. Whether you’re a manager seeking to strengthen your team or someone tired of surface-level communication, this conversation will leave you rethinking what it really means to be heard—and to truly hear others.

June 24, 2026Episode 22344 min

Reactivity to Presence: How Mental Fitness Unlocks Authentic Leadership with Aaron Wilson

Autopilot is sneaky. It sounds like "this is just who I am," feels like constant urgency, and keeps producing the same outcomes you keep promising yourself you'll change. We sit down with Aaron Wilson, leadership coach and founder of Your Coach Through Change, to name what's really happening underneath high performance, people-pleasing, and the pressure to always have the answer. We talk burnout, consulting culture, and what Aaron calls performative resilience: projecting confidence while running on empty. We unpack the gap between who you are and how you show up, and how survival patterns like judgment and hypervigilance quietly become self-sabotaging habits. Then we get practical. Aaron shares a mental fitness approach that treats behavior change like training, not willpower, and shows how to create the pause, shift your language, and rebuild authenticity at work and at home. If you want more clarity, calmer leadership, and a healthier relationship with ambition, hit play.

June 17, 2026Episode 22247 min

Navigating AI Communication Tells While Keeping Trust with Bailey Massey

Joined again by communication expert Bailey Massey, we discuss the challenges of navigating a world where AI increasingly encroaches on human activities. What happens when writing starts to sound a little too perfect? What happens when AI results do not meet expectations? How do we foster critical thinking skills when easy answers abound? Luckily, this human conversation is here to deliver new takes on em-dashes, authenticity, and lists of three. Cristina, Alex, and Bailey explore how we can retain and even build on our humanity in an AI world.

June 10, 2026Episode 22132 min

Why AI Anxiety Is Pushing Teams Past Empty

Burnout isn't just a personal problem — it's a systemic one, and right now it's affecting nearly everyone, everywhere, all at once. In this host episode of Uncover the Human , Cristina Amigoni and Alex Cullimore dig into why burnout has gone from an occupational hazard in high-pressure industries to a near-universal experience. They trace the roots of this moment — stagnating wages, constant organizational churn, a loss of community — and make the case that AI adoption, handled recklessly, is pouring accelerant on an already burning fire. The fear of replacement, the pressure to adopt tools without clear direction, and the quiet grief of watching companies replace people rather than grow them are all adding emotional weight that workers are being asked to carry alone. But the conversation doesn't stop at the diagnosis. Cristina and Alex share two frameworks they regularly use with leaders and teams to address burnout at its source: values alignment (checking whether personal ethics are being quietly compromised at work) and Working Genius (helping teams distribute work in ways that energize rather than drain). They also introduce Siamo on the DL, a monthly space for leaders to connect and talk honestly about the struggles that are hard to name inside an organization. If you've been feeling like you're running on empty and aren't sure why — or you're a leader trying to figure out how to actually help your people — this episode is worth your time.

June 3, 2026Episode 22023 min

What If Productivity Is Not The Point?

We are living in a loneliness epidemic — and the evidence is showing up in unexpected places. People are skipping self-checkout just to exchange a few words with a cashier. Malls and bookstores are making a comeback. In this episode of Uncover the Human , Cristina and Alex explore what's driving this collective hunger for connection, why our tools and workplaces have quietly eroded the communities we depend on, and what it really costs us when we optimize for convenience and productivity at the expense of belonging. The conversation moves from the philosophical to the deeply practical: what happens to a team after a genuine offsite, why bringing your people together is actually the fastest path to the outcomes leaders want, and how to start building community moments even when the culture around you feels unsafe or isolating. Whether you're a leader trying to hold a team together through uncertainty, or someone quietly wondering why work stopped feeling like it means anything, this episode meets you where you are and offers a way forward.

May 27, 2026Episode 21952 min

Stop Performing And Start Leading with Renee Stewart

There's a difference between performing leadership and actually practicing it. In this episode of Uncover the Human, we sat down with executive leadership coach Renee Stewart to explore what that distinction really looks like in practice — and why the cost of performative leadership doesn't show up immediately, but always shows up eventually. Renee shares four intentional shifts leaders can make right now: moving from control to connection, from image to impact, from having all the answers to building awareness, and from silence to safety. We also get into the role of energy, body language, and what it means to be the culture — not just set it. Renee brings 20+ years of HR and coaching experience, a love of candid conversation, and a few new acronyms we definitely didn't plan (you'll have to listen for those). If you've ever wondered whether your team is disengaging and why, this episode is worth your time.

May 20, 2026Episode 21831 min

Why Role Clarity Requests Signal Deeper Cultural Problems

What if the problems plaguing your organization — low engagement, poor collaboration, stalled projects — aren't people problems at all? In this host episode, Cristina and Alex unpack one of the most misunderstood truths in leadership: the outcomes you're seeing are a direct result of the system you've built, not the humans inside it. Drawing on Stafford Beer's principle that "the purpose of a system is what it does," they challenge leaders to stop blaming people and start examining the structures, incentives, and practices that shape behavior in the first place. From organizational reshuffles that never fix the real problem, to the telling moment when employees start demanding "role clarity" (spoiler: it's never actually about the job description), Cristina and Alex trace how surface-level fixes leave root causes untouched. They also explore what happens when AI implementations suddenly expose the leadership gaps that humans had quietly been covering up for years — and why the real cost of a broken system only becomes visible when it's almost too late. If you're ready to stop plugging the nose and start asking what's actually causing the symptoms, this episode is your organizational Claritin.

May 13, 2026Episode 21745 min

People-First AI Strategy with Joe Messina

AI is everywhere — but are we actually using it well? In this episode, Cristina and Alex welcome back return guest Joe Messina, an enterprise technology leader with 20+ years of experience navigating complex transformations. Together, they unpack why so many organizations are rushing into AI adoption without asking the most important questions first: What problem are we actually solving? And are we making things better for our people, or just moving faster toward a cliff? Drawing sharp parallels to the cloud migration era and the dot-com boom, Joe and the team make the case that history is repeating itself — and that the real risk isn't AI itself, but the absence of strategy behind it. The conversation goes deep on what authentic, courageous leadership looks like in the middle of an AI transformation — from setting up meaningful gates and guardrails, to listening to your people before rolling anything out, to measuring what actually matters instead of just tracking adoption. Joe offers a refreshingly grounded perspective: AI should be in service of humans, not the other way around. If you're a leader trying to figure out how to cut through the hype, bring your team along, and actually do this right, this episode is your roadmap.