Psychosocial Safety USA Podcast

Episode 95 features a conversation between host Dr. I. David Daniels and Mark-Anthony Williams, a working safety professional, safety consultant, and podcaster about “Safety in the Real World.” One important reason for this podcast is to facilitate conversation about psychological health and safety from an occupational health and safety viewpoint and perspective. One way we do this is to chat with...

In this episode, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Suzi Craig, VP of Workplace Mental Health at Mental Health America, about Mental Health America's (MHA) Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health. This national certification program recognizes employers committed to creating mentally healthy workplaces. The program recognizes workplaces that lead the way in improving employee mental health an...

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak to Torin Monet, a management consultant who has studied the data associated with psychologically unhealthy workplaces and made a profound business case for psychological health and safety. There is a significant amount of data to suggest the United States is destroying innovation, productivity, and productivity through emotional and psychological abu...

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels speaks with Laynnea Myles and Dr. Francene Scott-Diehl, the hosts of the SHE Unfiltered podcast, about their views on Safety, Health, and Environmental topics, including the role SHE professionals play in addressing psychological health and safety. The occupational health and safety professional is, for the most part, a traditional industry with its standards,...

In this episode, host Dr. I. David Daniels speaks with Dr. S. L. Young, an educator, social entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and mental health advocate whose lived experience has led him to become a voice for psychologically safer workplaces. He has turned his experience of nearly ending his own life a decade ago after a series of events that included being exposed to bullying and abuse at work, as...

In episode 90, host Dr. I. David Daniels speaks with Brian Turnage, owner and founder of Mental Edge Performance, a business focused on improving the mental performance of athletes in baseball as well as other competitive sports. He also translates these skills into organizations by connecting competition, business, coaching, and leadership. This episode is being released at the beginning of the s...

In episode 89, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Dr. Enoh Ukpong, a professor of Nursing who immigrated to the United States from Nigeria. She will share a bit of her lived experience of surviving child abuse at the hands of a family member before deciding to come to the U. S. to pursue education as a way out of those circumstances. Though she had never been on an airplane or used a teleph...

In episode 88, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Rima Seiilova-Olson, a software engineer, founder, and CEO of Tenvos. This technology company is developing an objective software-based solution to monitor the well-being of workers by objectively identifying impairment. The World Health Organization defines impairment as “any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomica...

In Episode 84, host Dr. I. David Daniels speaks with Dr. Andrea Holman about the concept of “Cultural Mistrust.” Cultural mistrust is a feeling of suspicion toward people from a culture that is perceived as dominant. It can be caused by the lived experience of being treated in a way that the target of the behavior perceives as threatening or harmful. Cultural mistrust can also be described as the...

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Dr. Lili Tenney, the associate director for outreach and programs at the Center for Health, Work & Environment and an assistant professor at the Colorado School of Public Health, where she teaches graduate courses in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health. She is also president of the Society for Total Worker Health. The origins o...

In Episode 85, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Dr. Mercedes Jiminez, a former corporate IT executive turned consultant, author, and founder of the Corporate Clapback Company. She regularly shares the combination of her lived experience, observations, and the stories she hears from her over 260,000 followers on her TickTok channel about corporate America's unwritten rules” of corporate Am...

The week host, Dr. I. David Daniels, will speak with Amanda Muhammad, a mindfulness-based stress management and psychological safety consultant based in Plano, Texas. Ananda has built a consulting practice focused on the intersection and “bi—directional” relationship between stress management and psychological safety. With roots in the field of stress management, including several practices such a...

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Trenell Boggans, the immediate past president of the American Industrial Hygiene Association‘s Minority Special Interest Group, about an industrial hygienist’s view of psychosocial hazards. Industrial hygiene is the science of identifying, evaluating, and controlling workplace hazards that can impact the health and safety of workers and the comm...

This week's host, Dr. I. David Daniels, will speak with human resource professional Brandon Springle about the role of psychological safety as a strategy for development and success for both individuals and organizations. Bradon will also highlight the importance of focusing on the humans in the organization, which can be beneficial for both the individual and the organization alike. A culture of...

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels speaks with Janet Williams, host of “The Dementia Diaries” podcast, about her experience as a caregiver and what she learned and now attempt to share with other regarding the mindset necessary to be effective in the role. This is an inspiring story of what it is like to be in a flexible working culture while being responsible for caregiving. An informal caregiv...

In our last episode, we discussed some of the protections and inadequacies of our current laws to protect the psychological health and safety of American Workers. In the episode, host Dr. I. David Daniels will talk with Deb Falzoi, founder of “Dignity Together” cofounder of “End Work Abuse, and one of the leaders of the effort to end abusive behavior in the workplace through various efforts, inclu...

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Sheri Oluyemi, Esq, a practicing employment law attorney who began her practice in Canada but now practices out of offices in the State of Georgia. Throughout the history of the United States, labor-related laws have created protections from some of the exploitation commonplace at the founding of the country, and many of those protections remain...

During this episode, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Dr. Dennis Stolle of the American Psychological Association (APA) regarding the 2023 Work in America Survey to get a sense of the “state of psychological health and safety in the American workplace.” In October 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General released the office’s first-ever Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and We...

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #24 This week's guest, Georgia Bryce-Hutchinson, was educated and trained as an environmental engineer when her lived experience in the workplace motivated her to understand better how the workplace was causing her to feel. This exploration led her to become certified as a Marriage and Family Therapist and Mental Health Consultant. She is also a speaker and author of "O...

THIS IS A REPLAY OF EPISODE #4 Dr. Namie will discuss his journey as a workplace bullying researcher and advocate over the past 25 years and his efforts to change the nature of work through the adoption of the Healthy Workplace Bill. From his experience of vicarious exposure to his wife’s experience of bullying, through their formation of an organization to train and develop anti-bullying advocate...

The week host, Dr. I. David Daniels, will speak with Aurora Higgs, a self-described “queer Black trans visionary, who’s a speaker, performer, and media producer that uses her platform to promote equity and elevate queer BIPOC voices” about their lived experience overcoming and helping others, especially those in the LGBTQIA+ community overcome barriers to psychological safety and exposure to psych...

This week, host Dr. I. David Daniels speaks with Dr. Virginia Heslinga, a wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, and now author, about her memoir, “Grace Interlaced.” While psychological health and safety is an active endeavor, parts of this effort require us to consider the past. In the workplace, an expectation that people be able to bring their whole selves is commendable and vital. However, each...

In this holiday episode, Dr. I. David Daniels will discuss psychological health and safety with members of his actual family. This “family chat” will involve his youngest sister (Kolesta Moore), his youngest son (Bryan Daniels), and his brother (the creator of the podcast theme music)’s youngest daughter (Iman Burks). As families in the U. S. gather for food and drink over the holiday season, they...

In episode 71, host Dr. I. David Daniels speaks with therapist and coach Jane Song about her lived experience of and research into work-related burnout. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It can occur when you feel overwhelmed. Burnout can be caused by work-related stress, taking on more than one can handle at work, school, or...

In this episode, host Dr. I. David Daniels will speak with Dawnnesha Lasuncet, the Equity and Inclusion Coordinator for an agency that supports school districts. It’s hard to argue that much is more important than education to the development and, ultimately, the well-being of a community. However, according to a June 2022 Gallup poll, K-12 teachers have the highest burnout rate of all U.S. profes...