The HumanUp Imperative

The apps in your pocket are built to keep you. A behavioral scientist explains how to tell when technology is caring for you and when it is quietly working you over. Eden Brownell works at the intersection of behavioral science and AI. She started in theater, moved through the foster care system and public health, and now studies how the systems around us shape the choices we make. Rex Wallace sit...

Healthy relationships are mismatched 70% of the time. That's not a problem to fix. According to today's guest, it's the whole design. Dr. Claudia Gold is a pediatrician and co-author of The Power of Discord with Dr. Ed Tronick, the researcher behind the famous Still Face experiment. Their work shows that the out-of-sync, messy, imperfect moments in any relationship are where trust a...

What if the most underrated leadership skill isn't emotional intelligence, executive presence, or strategic thinking — it's a sense of humor? Paul Osincup spent 15 years researching exactly that. He's a keynote speaker, author of The Humor Habit, and host of the Laugh or Death podcast — and his work with Google, Harvard, and hundreds of other organizations makes a case that humor is...

In Season 2, Episode 3 of The HumanUp Imperative, Rex Wallace is joined by Dr. John Sviokla, co-founder of GAI Insights and Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, for a grounded, forward-looking conversation on AI and its implications for healthcare leaders. Dr. Sviokla argues that by 2030, every competitive organization will operate as a hybrid of human and machine intelligence, and that he...

Gary Culp, SVP of Government Markets at Blue Shield of California, joins Rex Wallace to explore what human-centered leadership looks like in real healthcare environments. Gary shares how he assesses culture before joining an organization, builds trust without leaning on hierarchy, and removes barriers so teams can deliver better experiences. They discuss leading in hybrid and virtual settings, for...

In this episode of The HumanUp Imperative, host Rex Wallace sits down with Gary Jacobs, longtime healthcare lobbyist, proud dad and grandpa, and author of The Zen Lobbyist, to unpack why presence, compassion, and silence can be as persuasive as any talking point on Capitol Hill. From Gary’s early days shaping Medicare policy and navigating the intensity of Washington, to the health scares that for...

In the final episode of 2025, Rex looks back on a transformative year of The Human Up Imperative —revisiting each conversation, spotlighting standout moments, and sharing his favorite quotes and takeaways from every guest. He highlights the books and resources that shaped the year’s dialogue and unpacks the themes that surfaced repeatedly across episodes. At the heart of this year-end reflection i...

In this episode of The HumanUp Imperative , host Rex Wallace sits down with Rick Whitted , 30-year “recovering banker” turned CEO of US Hunger , to explore what it really means to restore dignity in healthcare and community work. From losing everything as a young entrepreneur with a pregnant wife and two small kids, to leading a national nonprofit that treats food as a doorway into people’s storie...

In this deeply human episode of The HumanUp Imperative, host Rex Wallace sits down with Rich Schwartz, filmmaker turned pharma CX strategist, WebMD alum, patient advocate, dog and horse whisperer, to unpack why trust and reciprocity function like clinical variables. From Rich’s roots documenting health in Appalachia to his work redesigning experiences across pharma, devices, and diagnostics, we ex...

👉 Unacknowledged Grief: The Losses We Don’t Talk About, and How to Heal In this deeply human episode of The HumanUp Imperative , host Rex Wallace sits down with Dr. Saba Syed, pharmacist, healthcare leader, mom, and TEDx speaker, to explore a topic most of us never discuss but nearly all of us experience: unacknowledged grief. From the seismic shift of a child’s autism diagnosis to the quiet ache...

👉 Job Seeking in 2025, Part 2: Inside the Hiring Room: What Recruiters & Leaders Want You to Know In today’s episode of The HumanUp Imperative, host Rex Wallace flips the lens to the people connecting candidates to opportunities. He’s joined by Jamie Masters (Senior Director of Recruiting, Executive Staffing Solutions), Timshel Tarbet (former Chief Healthcare Experience & Equity Officer),...

  Job Seeking in 2025: Real Stories, Real Struggles, and How to Help In today’s episode of The HumanUp Imperative*, host **Rex Wallace* sits down with *Deb Dorsch* and *Burn Orton* to explore what it’s really like to job hunt in today’s tough employment market. Both guests bring decades of experience in **healthcare quality, compliance, learning and development, and Medicare/Medicaid programs**—an...

Welcome to Episode 4 of The HumanUp Imperative, a podcast about re-centering human connection in a healthcare industry that too often sidelines it. In this episode, host Rex Wallace speaks with Amber Maraccini, healthcare practice lead at Medallia and a passionate advocate for making healthcare more human. Drawing from professional expertise and personal experience, Amber shares how trust is the “...

Welcome to Episode 3 of The HumanUp Imperative, a podcast about re-centering human connection in a healthcare industry that too often sidelines it. In this episode, host Rex Wallace sits down with Sean Lancaster, a triathlete, Ironman competitor, and founder of Lancaster Advanced Nutrition. After spending decades in healthcare facility management, Sean made a dramatic midlife pivot, leaving a succ...

Welcome to Episode 2 of The HumanUp Imperative, a podcast about re-centering human connection in a healthcare industry that too often sidelines it. In this episode, host Rex Wallace sits down with Todd Deatherage , co-founder of the Telos Group , a nonprofit organization that builds communities of peacemakers and helps people navigate seemingly intractable conflict, across the globe and in their o...

Welcome to the very first episode of The HumanUp Imperative, a show about re-centering human connection in an industry that often forgets it—healthcare. In this premiere episode, host Rex Wallace sits down with Todd Ray, a standout executive leader in government healthcare programs, to explore what it really means to lead with purpose, humility, and impact. Todd oversees some of the most complex p...