The Connection Effect with Bill Groner

In this episode of The Connection Effect, Bill Groner sits down with Christian van Nieuwerburgh and Robert Biswas-Diener , co-authors of Radical Listening: The Art of True Connection, about what it takes to make someone feel truly heard. They unpack positive intention — the practice of deciding, before a conversation even starts, what you want to accomplish and how you want the other person to wal...

In this aftershow episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner reflects on his recent conversation with Dr. Jane Dutton on high-quality connections. Bill is joined by three fellow alumni of the University of Pennsylvania Master of Applied Positive Psychology program: Harry Hofer (Executive Coach), Gaia Uman Borrero (Operations Manager), and Ilene Schaffer (Executive Coach). While the main ep...

What if the most powerful act of connection takes only forty seconds? In this episode of The Connection Effect, Bill Groner sits down with Dr. Jane Dutton — professor emerita at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and co-founder of the field of positive organizational scholarship — who spent decades studying something most of us have felt but never had words for: the micro-moment...

In this aftershow episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner reflects on his recent conversation with Josh Howard . Bill is joined by Harry Hofer (Executive Coach), Dee Sullivan (Marketing Director), and Laura Onelio (Internal Family Systems practitioner). While the main episode made a case for the positive potential of social media, this conversation gets personal and honest. Each member...

What if social media isn't the problem — it's how we're using it? In this episode of The Connection Effect, Bill Groner sits down with Josh Howard , social media strategist, LSU adjunct professor, and MAPP alumnus, whose research makes a case you don't hear often enough: that social media, used with intention, can be a genuine tool for human flourishing. Drawing from his MAPP capstone on social me...

In this aftershow episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner reflects on his recent conversation with Dr. Lawrence Edwards. Bill is joined by three of his classmates from the University of Pennsylvania Master of Applied Positive Psychology program: Harry Hofer (Executive Coach), Gaia Uman Borrero (Operations Manager), and Sahar Emambakhsh (Director of Operations and External Affairs, PCI)....

What if the thoughts and feelings flooding your mind aren't actually who you are? In this episode of  The Connection Effect,  Bill Groner sits down with  Dr. Lawrence Edwards  — retired licensed psychotherapist, Jungian therapist, board-certified neurofeedback therapist, and founder of Anam Cara Meditation — who has practiced and taught meditation for over 50 years. Drawing from both Western scien...

The inner work doesn't end with us. It shapes how we show up for everyone around us. In this second reflection episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner and co-host Sahar Emambakhsh revisit moments from their early conversations with Mónica Guzmán, Scott Barry Kaufman, Todd Kashdan, and Andrew Sether — exploring what it actually takes to connect across difference, disagreement, and the as...

Before we can connect well with others, we have to build a better relationship with ourselves. In this first reflection episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner and co-host Sahar Emambakhsh revisit the most resonant moments from the show's early conversations — with Andrew Sether, Scott Barry Kaufman, Todd Kashdan, Fred Luskin, and Mónica Guzmán — and trace a thread that runs through all...

In this aftershow episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner reflects on his recent conversation with peak performance expert Andrew Sether. Bill is joined by three of his classmates from the University of Pennsylvania Master of Applied Positive Psychology program: Harry Hofer (Executive Coach),  Gaia Uman Borrero (Operations Manager), and Niels Gott , Leadership Transformation Architect)....

What if peak performance wasn't just for elite athletes, but for all of us, every day? In this episode of The Connection Effect, Bill Groner sits down with Andrew Sether, a peak performance expert whose clients include professional athletes across the NFL, NBA, MLB, and PGA Tour. But this conversation moves quickly beyond sports. Andrew's core insight is both humbling and hopeful: what separates a...

Curiosity isn't just a conversation skill. It's a way of orienting your life. In this aftershow of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner reunites with MAPP classmates Harry Hofer (Executive Coach), Noah Adams (Strategy & Operations Manager at McMaster-Carr), and Sonya Looney (World Champion Athlete and Performance Coach) to reflect on his conversation with Todd Kashdan — and what it actually mea...

Curiosity isn't just about asking questions or exploring novel experiences. It's about what happens when you do. In this episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner sits down with psychologist, researcher, and author Todd Kashdan — one of the world's leading experts on curiosity — to explore what curiosity really is and why it's far more powerful, more complex, and more trainable than most...

In this aftershow episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner discusses his conversation with Fred Luskin on forgiveness, grief, and letting go. Bill is joined by  Harry Hofer (Executive Coach), Ava Shahi (Talent Development at ALO), and Gaia Uman Borrero (Operations Manager). While Fred's work on forgiveness is profound and often deeply personal, the group discusses that this isn't just ab...

What do we do when life doesn't go the way we hoped—when we're hurt, disappointed, or overwhelmed by circumstances we can't control? In this episode of The Connection Effect, Bill Groner sits down with Fred Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project and one of the world's leading researchers on forgiveness. But this is not a conversation about excusing harm or forgiving others. Instead, i...

In this aftershow episode of The Connection Effect , host Bill Groner discusses his recent podcast with Scott Barry Kaufman on self-actualization and transcendence. Bill is joined by Sahar Emambakhsh (Director of Operations & External Affairs at the Positive Connection Initiative) and Courtney Reimer (The Connection Effect Executive Producer; Founder & Principal Strategies at Sounds Great Podcast...

We are not finished products. In this episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner sits down with psychologist, researcher, author, and self-actualization coach , Scott Barry Kaufman to explore what it really means to explore and grow—not as a race toward achievement or happiness, but as a lifelong process of becoming who we are capable of being. Drawing from his work revisiting and reimagin...

This aftershow is where theory turns into practice—and suddenly, the fog lifts. Coming off our conversation with Mónica Guzmán, host, Bill Groner , gathered members of the Positive Connection Initiative (PCI) braintrust, Trevor Fornara (PCI co-founder & board member), and Sahar Emambakhsh (Director of Operations & External Affairs) for our first-ever aftershow roundtable. The three of us unpack wh...

In this episode of The Connection Effect, host Bill Groner sits down with journalist, author, and bridge-builder Mónica Guzmán to explore a deceptively simple idea with profound implications: that the secret to enhanced inter-personal connection, curiosity,  is not a personality trait. It's a practice. Drawing from her work on depolarization and her lived experience navigating political difference...

In an era of extraordinary division, we often focus on winning arguments rather than building understanding. But what if the key to our future as a society isn't about who is right, but about how we connect? Hosted by Bill Groner, a former trial lawyer and mediator who spent decades representing over 10,000 9/11 responders, The Connection Effect explores the profound impact of being truly heard. D...