Globally Grounded: The Work-Life Reset

In this episode, Kyra takes a playful but pointed look at optimization culture — the Oura rings, the 4am wake-ups, the biohacking routines, and the growing pressure to engineer every corner of our lives for peak performance. Drawing on social media musings, the Global Wellness Institute's 2026 trends report, and a global look at cultures that have been doing "slow" on purpose for centuries, Kyra g...

In this episode, Kyra dives into burnout. Drawing on a recent Fast Company piece by burnout prevention consultant Sally Clarke (We don’t have a burnout epidemic. We have a burnout buzzword problem), she unpacks why the word "burnout" has become so overused that it's actually making it harder for people to get the right support. She walks through the World Health Organization’s clinical definition,...

In this episode, Kyra zooms in on one of the most striking — and most human — findings from Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace Report: the global manager crisis. Manager engagement has dropped more steeply than any other group over the past three years, and the people most responsible for holding teams together are running on empty. Drawing from her own experience leading a manager and le...

In this episode, Kyra digs into Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace Report and what it reveals about stress, thriving, and the complicated relationship between the two. Being engaged at work and completely exhausted at the same time isn't a personal failing, but it is a global pattern. Kyra takes a look at the data, from the cultures with the richest lives outside of work, to the regions w...

In this episode of Globally Grounded, Kyra asks: What does retirement actually mean? And is the version we inherited even working for anyone? She unpacks the messy, complicated truth about retirement through a global lens, from the Japanese man her family met running a knife shop on the fourth floor of a Tokyo apartment building in his 80s, to Gen Z chasing FIRE in their 20s, to the Spanish word f...

Twenty-five episodes ago, Globally Grounded began as a mission to find the data, the global traditions, and the cultural shifts that could help us fix our sometimes broken relationship with work. But for this milestone, Kyra realized that to truly honor the mission of Clarity West and Globally Grounded, she had to look inward. In this transparent solo episode, Kyra plays both host and guest, condu...

In this episode, Kyra takes listeners to a dusty home-build site in Tijuana, Mexico, during a transformative weekend where a mix of volunteers, including kids (her 14-year-old son included), his friends, others from his school, and parents, came together to build a home for a family. Purpose emerges not as an abstract concept but as a hands-on reality. She reflects on how staying in our own bubble...

In this episode, Kyra reflects on a recent trip to Big Sur, CA and what it revealed about the uneasy balance between disconnection and peace. From unreliable service to the relief of being off the grid, she explores why stepping away from constant news, work, and family communication can feel so restorative and so unsettling at the same time. She also looks at how nature helps us reset, why re-ent...

When was the last time you had a win that no one else knew about, and it felt just as good? In this episode, Kyra continues her exploration of the 2026 World Happiness Report, but through the lens of social media and the pressure to perform happiness, success, and authenticity online. She gets honest about her complicated relationship with LinkedIn. It's an extremely useful tool for job searches,...

In this episode, Kyra revisits a topic she's explored before: the World Happiness Report. The 2026 edition just dropped, with Finland claiming the top spot again, followed by Iceland, Denmark, Costa Rica, and Sweden. This year's report focuses heavily on social media's impact on well-being (to be covered next episode!), but Kyra zooms in on a different angle: what "happiness" actually measures and...

In this episode, Kyra gets into what happens when the values you signed up for at work subtly or not so subtly shift under your feet, especially in fast-moving industries like tech. She unpacks how company values are really formed (beyond the hallway posters), why they evolve or drift over time, how to spot early signs of misalignment, and a practical framework for deciding whether to stay, try to...

In this episode, Kyra reflects on what she'd tell her 18-year-old self about work…the one who went into college pre-med, convinced she'd be a neuroscientist, with her whole career mapped out. Fun fact, that's not what happened. From pre-med to international affairs to consulting to tech to entrepreneurship, Kyra's career has been anything but linear. She explores why we feel so much pressure to ha...

In this episode, Kyra dives into the question no one wants to ask but everyone needs to: whose dream is this, really? After watching her son compete at a junior pickleball tournament—a sport he chose after burning out from tennis—Kyra explores the uncomfortable parallels between youth sports culture and corporate burnout. She gets honest about when parental support becomes control, why the "more i...

In this episode, Kyra explores the reality of midlife career pivots and why reinvention is both increasingly common and surprisingly difficult depending on where you live. She breaks down how cultural attitudes and safety nets shape who gets to pivot (and who doesn't) across the U.S., Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Sharing her own journey from international development to consul...

What does work look like to someone who hasn't entered the workforce yet? In this episode, Kyra sits down with her 13-year-old son—right on the cusp of Gen Z and Gen Alpha—to explore how the next generation is already forming opinions about work by simply observing the adults around them. From his unfiltered take on the meeting-project-meeting cycle to his pragmatic views on money, flexibility, an...

In this episode of Globally Grounded, Kyra explores what it means to keep showing up when the world feels loud, uncertain, and chronically stressful. From global work pressures and economic anxiety to a nonstop news cycle and rising expectations at work, many of us are operating in a constant state of “on.” Kyra unpacks why this kind of sustained stress is different from short-term pressure, how i...

In this episode of Globally Grounded, Kyra takes a look at the four-day workweek to explore what’s actually happened when organizations around the world have tried it. Drawing on large-scale trials from the UK, Iceland, Portugal, and Spain, she breaks down what the data really shows about productivity, burnout, well-being, gender equity, and retention. She also reflects on what these global experi...

In this episode, Kyra explores how our definitions of success are shaped by culture, economics, and the stories we’ve inherited about work and achievement. Drawing on global research, lived experience, and her own career evolution, she challenges the narrow, resume-driven version of success often emphasized in the U.S.  Rather than replacing one definition with another, this conversation invites l...

In this episode, Kyra kicks off 2026 by unpacking a timely Fast Company article that argues this year could mark a real turning point for employee well-being. Drawing on global research, lived experience, and shifting workplace realities — from investor pressure to AI acceleration — she explores why well-being is no longer a “nice to have,” but a strategic imperative. Through global patterns and p...

In this episode, Kyra closes out the year with a thoughtful, honest reflection on what it means to live in a world that holds both beauty and heaviness at the same time. Acknowledging the very real presence of some hard truths out there, without letting it consume us, she explores how different cultures create space to process difficult realities while still protecting their well-being.  Drawing f...