Work and Wellness

What if the best way to prepare for the future isn’t trying to predict it?

In this episode, I sit down with Steph Clark, futurist, facilitator and founder of 28 Thursdays, to talk about how we can think harder about what’s next, at work and in life. Steph started out as an accountant, moved into learning and development, and now helps leaders and teams use strategic foresight to think differently about the future. She also runs the How to Friend project, which explores the art and science of friendship.

We get into why so many organisations fail to think ahead, what is happening to trust and enjoyment at work, how your brain can rehearse a crisis before it happens, and which human skills matter most as AI changes work. Then we talk friendship, and some wonderfully simple ways to stay connected when life is busy.

KEY TOPICS
Why reinvention is usually a gradual experiment, not a burn the boats leap
What leaders get wrong about the future, and why “what if to the what if” matters
Why the loss of entry-level roles today creates a problem down the track
What lean, restructured teams are doing to trust and enjoyment at work
How futures thinking works and why it is about preparedness, not prediction
The human skills that matter most as AI changes work: thinking, facilitation, feedback and discernment
Why friendship is the foundation of everything else, and simple low lift ways to nurture it
Backcasting: how to work backwards from the future you want

ABOUT STEPH
Steph Clark is a futurist, facilitator, lifelong learner and founder of 28 Thursdays, where she helps organisations challenge conventional thinking, explore emerging trends and prepare for the future. She began her career as an accountant before moving into learning and development, spending 15 years designing and facilitating leadership and learning experiences across industries and around the world.

Today she combines strategic foresight, human-centred design, innovation and facilitation to help leaders and teams think differently about what’s next. She is also the creator of Steph’s Business Bookshelf Podcast and the How to Friend project.

CONNECT WITH STEPH
LinkedIn: Steph Clark
How to Friend Substack
How to Friend Podcast

KEYWORDS
futures thinking, strategic foresight, future of work, friendship, connection, AI, leadership, career change, human skills, workplace culture

We talk a lot about what we eat, how we move and how we sleep. We talk far less about what we consume digitally.

In this episode I sit down with Jocelyn Brewer, Sydney-based psychologist and founder of Digital Nutrition, to explore what our digital diet is really doing to our brains. I had just come back from hiking the Camino with almost no access to technology, so this conversation was very much on my mind.

Jocelyn has spent over a decade translating complex research into practical, human-friendly language. We get into why screen time is far more nuanced than “good” or “bad”, what technology is doing to loneliness and friendship, how short form content trains our attention, and why we need to think carefully about outsourcing our thinking to AI. We also cover simple, realistic ways to design a digital diet that works for your life, without going cold turkey.

KEY TOPICS
What digital nutrition is and why the “virtual vitamins” analogy keeps getting stronger
Why screen time is more complicated than the hours on your phone
What technology is doing to loneliness, friendship and our tolerance for human discomfort
Why short form content trains our brains for short bursts and how to rebuild attention
How AI is changing the way we think, work and relate to each other
What leaders can do to reduce digital overwhelm in their teams
Why digital detoxes often fail and what a healthy day to day digital diet looks like
The one change Jocelyn would encourage everyone to make tomorrow

ABOUT JOCELYN
Jocelyn Brewer is a Gadigal Sydney-based psychologist and the founder of Digital Nutrition. With a master’s in cyber psychology, she is an expert on how people live, love and learn in a hyper-connected, AI-immersed world. Known for her practical, approachable style, Jocelyn translates complex research into clear language and cuts through the anxiety around screen time and tech habits.

CONNECT WITH JOCELYN
Website: https://jocelynbrewer.com/

KEYWORDS
digital wellbeing, screen time, attention, AI, loneliness, social media, sleep, burnout, leadership, mental health

We have more information, more advice and more technology available to us than ever before. But are we losing the ability to trust our own judgment?

In this episode, I share something deeply personal — how grief quietly disconnected me from my own intuition for over a year without me even realising it. It wasn’t until I spent hundreds of thousands of steps walking the Via Francigena in Italy with almost no external input that I recognised what had been missing.

This episode is about what intuition actually is, why we are outsourcing our thinking more than we realise, what constant input is doing to our judgment, and six practical ways to reconnect with the most valuable voice in the room — your own.

Key Topics
What intuition actually is and why it is not woo-woo. It is neuroscience
How grief, stress and overload quietly disconnect us from our own judgment
Why outsourcing our thinking to AI and external sources is eroding a critical skill
The default mode network and why your brain needs space to wander
Six ways to reconnect with and strengthen your intuition and judgment
How to distinguish true gut feel from fear, bias and old experiences

Keywords: intuition, self trust, decision making, leadership, grief, AI, judgment, self awareness, mental clarity, burnout

I just walked over 600,000 steps across Italy and one of the most powerful things I chose to do along the way was to go offline.

In this episode, I share what that space brought up because within minutes of coming back online after one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life, I immediately felt behind. Nothing had changed. I had just checked social media.

This episode is about what being offline reveals — about our identity, our attention, our relationship with comparison, and the question I kept coming back to on the road: how much of what we do are we doing because we truly want to, and how much are we doing because we want to be seen doing it?

Key Topics
What going offline for four weeks actually revealed about identity and wellbeing
Why comparison hit the moment social media was back and the reframe that helped
How fragmented attention is quietly costing us more than we realise
The 2025 study that found blocking mobile internet for two weeks improved attention, wellbeing and mental health
Who are you when you are not performing for an audience
How to be more intentional about what you consume and what you share

Keywordssocial media, identity, wellbeing, comparison, attention, digital boundaries, offline, mindfulness, authenticity, burnout

Your team is watching you. Every micro decision you make, every emotion you walk in with, every conversation you avoid — they notice all of it.

In this episode, I sit down with Anton Guinea, leadership coach and host of the Find Your Influence podcast, to explore how leaders influence their teams in ways that go far beyond what they say in meetings. We get into emotional contagion, the difference between influence and manipulation, what 1600 coaching conversations revealed people need most from their leaders, and how to lead with confidence when everything feels like it is falling apart.

KEY TOPICS

Why your emotional state is contagious and how it shapes your entire team's day
The difference between influence, impact and inspiration and why the best leaders are chasing the last two
What 1600 coaching sessions revealed: the three things people need most from their leaders
The micro decisions leaders make that set the standard without saying a word
How to have difficult conversations without the feedback sandwich
Radical Candor: care personally before you challenge directly

ABOUT ANTON
Anton Guinea is a leadership coach, researcher, speaker and author based in Australia. He is the host of the Find Your Influence podcast and has conducted over 1600 one-on-one coaching and leadership training sessions. Anton works with leaders and organisations across safety, culture and performance, with a particular focus on the human side of leadership — how leaders show up, how they influence, and how they build environments where people feel cared for, valued and supported.

CONNECT WITH ANTON
https://antonguinea.com.au/