THE GROWTH TABLE

What does getting healthy have to do with becoming the person your family can count on? On this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Brian Parana, a coach who has spent more than 23 years helping busy, career-driven men over 40 lose weight, build strength, improve their nutrition, and create habits they can actually sustain. But Brian’s approach goes beyond calorie...

How do you make an important decision when you don’t have all the information? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Nadeem, whose career in intelligence has placed him in some of the world’s most complex decision-making environments. Having served with the Defense Intelligence Agency, supported the CIA and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and deploye...

What does it really take to keep creating when the excitement wears off? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Victor, host of Liquor Talk , to talk about what nearly a decade of podcasting has taught him about consistency, creativity, relationships, setbacks, and personal growth. Reaching a tenth season sounds like a celebration of longevity, but behind tha...

What happens when the struggle you thought you had left behind suddenly finds its way back into your life? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Xenia Ioannidis for a deeply personal conversation about homelessness, healing, adversity, faith, and discovering purpose in experiences that once seemed impossible to understand. Xenia describes a powerful realizat...

What happens when we stop treating our own ideas as something that needs to be defended—and instead invite technology to challenge them? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Mohamed to explore AIDOP, radical transparency, critical thinking, and his broader concept of Enlightened Populism. One of the most intriguing parts of Mohamed’s approach is his willing...

We spend time training our bodies, developing professional skills, and improving our businesses—but what would happen if we deliberately trained the brain with the same intention? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Arnold to explore brain fitness, nervous-system training, focus, self-mastery, and the broader question of human potential. After two decades...

What if some of the things we call “fear” aren’t actually fear of the event itself—but fear of the story we’ve attached to what might happen? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Mette to explore the powerful idea behind one of her most memorable observations: “You’re not afraid; you believe you are.” Through stories and practical insights, Mette explores h...

What if knowing about a food recall was only the beginning of keeping your family safe? On this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Jordan to explore the problem behind food recalls and the thinking behind Anxin, a technology designed to help families identify potentially affected products through receipt scanning. The conversation goes beyond simply receiving a r...

What if employee turnover, chronic vacancies, and skills shortages aren’t three separate problems—but three heads of the same monster? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Clark to explore the unconventional journey that led him from finance into one of the most challenging problems facing organizations: understanding why people leave, why positions remain...

What if the business you built for freedom has quietly become the thing taking your freedom away? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Lady Jen to explore what it really takes to build a business that can grow without depending entirely on its founder. From her remarkable journey from “Jenny Who Ain’t Got a Penny” to becoming a Dame Commander and helping fo...

What happens when the person you’ve spent the most time disconnected from is yourself? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with holistic wellness coach and author Kerisma Vere for a meaningful conversation about self-worth, healing, resilience, emotional regulation, and sustainable personal growth. Kerisma’s perspective is shaped not only by professional traini...

What happens when curiosity becomes more important than having a perfectly planned career? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Sheldon to explore an unconventional journey through science literacy, adult education, intelligence and counterterrorism, ancient Near Eastern omen texts, science education software, and even amateur rocketry. What makes his story...

What can a prolonged economic crisis—and an unexpected personal storm—teach us about resilience, leadership, faith, and perspective? On this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Bill to explore more than five decades of business experience and the difficult seasons that shaped the way he sees adversity. Bill reflects on leading Derrick Companies through the five-ye...

What happens when profound loss becomes the starting point for an unexpected invention? On this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Steve to explore the deeply personal story behind hi®—an invention that began taking shape during a year spent working in his garage after witnessing what Wendy went through. Steve’s journey brings together an unusual range of discipl...

What happens when AI moves beyond being a tool we talk to and becomes part of the infrastructure that creates, manages, and distributes value? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Olga to explore her real-world experiment with AI, automation, robotics, and the future of money and work. From the idea of “Money with robots’ hands” to 27 Minutes to the Future...

What if the most valuable thing we bring home from a journey isn’t a souvenir, but a different understanding of ourselves and the world? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Elisabeth to explore the deeper lessons hidden inside a lifetime of crossing borders, encountering different cultures, interpreting languages, and collecting stories. Inspired by her bo...

What keeps us stuck when we know something in our lives needs to change? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Dave to explore a life shaped by reinvention, creativity, entrepreneurship, entertainment, art, and a deep commitment to helping people move beyond fear and into lives of greater purpose and hope. Across five decades, Dave has continued to explore n...

What can a story do for mental health that a conversation in a doctor’s office sometimes cannot? On this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Dr. Rinderknecht, a physician who spent decades practicing family medicine before taking an unexpected turn into young adult fiction. His book, The Spark , brings themes of anxiety, depression, and PTSD into a fantasy story c...

What makes a team truly work—and how can leaders recognize when a team is quietly heading toward dysfunction? After more than 40 years of working with teams across Fortune 500 companies, healthcare, manufacturing, government, education, and the military, David has had a rare opportunity to observe what happens when people with different personalities, pressures, and responsibilities have to work t...

What happens when a lifelong understanding of people, faith, and resilience meets one of history’s darkest chapters? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Ruth, whose decades of experience as a counselor, educator, and ordained minister have given her a unique perspective on human behavior, resilience, and the role of faith in everyday life. More recently, R...

What happens when you become exceptionally good at showing up for everyone else—but forget how to show up for yourself? In this inspiring episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Anjelis to explore self-trust, resilience, identity, sustainable habits, and what it really takes to create meaningful change without relying on shame or punishment. Anjelis shares a powerful...

Why are human beings so fascinated by prophecy? Is it because we want to know the future—or because uncertainty makes us search for something deeper? In this thought-provoking episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Branch to explore prophecy, faith, spirituality, relationships, personal responsibility, and the deeper human search for meaning. Through his work on Omeg...

In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Dr. Gray to explore a perspective that challenges the way we traditionally understand workplace burnout: what if burnout isn’t simply a workload problem, but also a nervous system problem? Dr. Gray introduces the philosophy behind Regulate First, Lead Second and explains how stress responses such as perfectionism, overco...

What if you became highly successful at building a life you never truly wanted? In this episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Scarlett to explore the often complicated relationship between money, achievement, identity, purpose, and personal fulfillment. Scarlett’s journey offers a fascinating perspective on what happens when traditional ideas of success no longer fe...

How much can change when we read Scripture through the language, culture, and historical world in which it was originally written? In this thought-provoking episode of The Growth Table Podcast , Blessing Arutere sits down with Dror to explore the deeper meanings behind biblical language, symbolism, and interpretation. The conversation begins with one particularly fascinating perspective: the possi...