The Kindness Podcast

What Does Kindness Look Like When You Have to Rebuild Yourself? with Cindy Rowe Twelve years ago, Cindy Rowe was in a dark season, and a friend gave her one simple piece of advice: go do something kind for someone. Cindy took it and ran with it, turning her birthday month into a 31-day kindness challenge. Nothing about her circumstances changed. Her perspective did. Then life tested that practice...

There was a woman in Stephanie Duguid’s hometown who knew everybody’s name before they’d finished unpacking their boxes. They called her the Welcome Wagon Lady. She was also Stephanie’s mom. Margie wrote notes. Hundreds of them. She remembered students twenty years after they left her classroom, and she kept showing up long after the welcome basket was delivered. Dr. Stephanie Duguid lost her unex...

What does kindness look like when we start communicating clearly? Think about the last time you were frustrated with someone. Did they actually know what you wanted? Dr. LauraLynn Jansen says most of the friction in our relationships comes from expectations we never said out loud. In this episode, she makes the case that clarity isn't the opposite of kindness. It's one of the most generous things...

Have you ever been around someone who makes you feel like you could say anything and it would be okay? Romaine Waller is one of those people. She's the woman who says hi first at the grocery store, the friend whose confidence is "a vault," and the leader who reminds her clinical research teams that at the end of every piece of paper is a patient. In this conversation, Romaine shares why kindness c...

A note before you listen: this conversation includes references to childhood sexual abuse and trauma. Please take care of yourself as you listen. EJ and Tarah Kerwin were two therapists already barely keeping up: twins conceived on their honeymoon, four kids under five, a new counseling business. Then a medically supervised ketamine session surfaced repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse Tar...

Amanda Fornal was on a panel at SXSW when someone asked her a simple question: what gets you up in the morning? "To do good," she said, and then she said the rest of it out loud. A few days earlier she had heard a venture capitalist argue that the smart money goes to sociopathic founders, not kind ones. It did not sit right with her logically or emotionally. So on that stage she said, "I'm kind, a...

On October 16, 2016, Mickey Z. started walking the streets of New York City with food, supplies, and gift cards to hand to homeless women. He noticed something first: homeless men will often walk right up and ask for a dollar, while women, already pushed to the margins, tend to sit quietly with a sign and wait. Those women became his teachers. They told him what they needed, what size to buy, what...

Dr. Robyn Graham spent years being praised for the very habits that were quietly wearing her down: the perfectionism, the need to control, the instinct to keep everyone else okay. She was a pharmacist, a high achiever, and, underneath it, anxious. It took real work to see that some of what looked like strength was actually anxiety wearing strength's clothes. Now Robyn is an Anxiety Breakthrough St...

Seventeen years ago, Bobby Hoffman was stuck in traffic on a Friday night with nothing waiting for him at home but laundry. A car cut him off. He was angry enough to consider ramming it. And then he heard a question that changed the direction of his life: were you paying attention? That was the epiphany. Bobby called his friends, told them to show up with twenty dollars each, and sent them out int...

The Kindness Podcast with Nicole Phillips Episode: What Does Kindness Look Like When Strangers Share a Name? Guest: Phil Campbell In 1994, a college student in the Midwest was watching Hee Haw when he learned there was a tiny town in Alabama that shared his name: Phil Campbell. He went mostly because the coincidence made him laugh, and partly because he had a girlfriend nearby. He figured it was a...

Episode Description This week, Nicole Phillips sits down with nationally recognized health and wellness expert Wendie Pett, a Doctor of Naturopathy with more than twenty years in practice and the creator of the Visibly Fit program. Wendie believes mind, body, and spirit cannot really be pulled apart, and she shares how a major shoulder injury more than a decade ago reshaped everything she thought...

Episode Description What does kindness look like when we treat it as the foundation of the future, and not just a nice thing to do today? This week, Nicole sits down with futurist, keynote speaker, and international best-selling author Michael Neece to find out. After delivering more than 750 presentations inside planetariums, Michael has developed a signature way of thinking about kindness throug...

Episode Description In this episode of The Kindness Podcast, Nicole Phillips sits down with Lauren Wu, keynote speaker, attorney, former healthcare privacy executive, and founder of Heart Led Leadership, for a conversation about what happens when life forces us to rethink everything we thought we knew. Lauren shares the unexpected thread that connects her journey from ballerina to healthcare execu...

Episode Description In this episode of The Kindness Podcast, Nicole Phillips sits down with Jessica Moyer, TEDx speaker, best-selling author, and creator of the R.E.A.L. Wellness Framework, for a conversation that goes far beyond healthy habits. Jessica opens up about how grief, burnout, illness, and loss reshaped her understanding of strength and what it truly means to care for the whole self. To...

Episode Description In this episode of the Kindness Podcast, Nicole Phillips speaks with Kelly King, a male breast cancer survivor whose journey has reshaped his views on time, purpose, and kindness. Kelly shares his unique experience of being diagnosed through a DNA blood test, navigating treatment, and the ongoing challenges he faces post-cancer. He emphasizes the importance of community, kindne...

What does kindness look like when we learn to train our minds instead of being controlled by them? In this thoughtful conversation, Nicole sits down with Shashin Surkund , a technology leader who has spent his career building data and AI systems that shape how people experience products and services. But after a deeply personal life event, Shashin turned that same curiosity inward and began asking...

Episode Description : In this honest conversation, Nicole sits down with Asha Miller, breast cancer survivor, vitiligo advocate, storyteller, and founder of Asha Miller Creative. Diagnosed with stage 3B aggressive breast cancer at just 33, Asha shares how that experience reshaped not only her health, but her sense of self, her voice, her faith, and her understanding of what it means to live fully...

Episode Summary What if getting older didn’t mean fading into the background… but stepping more fully into who you are? In this episode, Nicole sits down with Gaylynn Baker, actor, director, writer, and the vibrant force behind Mabel from Retirement House . With over 30 years in the industry, Gaylynn is not slowing down. She is expanding, creating, and showing up in bold, joyful ways that challeng...

What Does Kindness Look Like When We Treat Our Body as a Friend with Camellia Jade In this episode of The Kindness Podcast , I’m joined by Camellia Jade, a creative visionary helping women build confidence, community, and a healthier relationship with their bodies. Through fashion, vulnerability, and a lot of courage online, Camellia has turned style into a vehicle for self love. She is the founde...

Finding the Eye of the Storm with Richard Greene In this episode of The Kindness Podcast, I’m joined by Richard Greene, author of Finding the Eye of the Storm . After a near death experience, Richard returned with a new way of seeing the world. Less separation. Less urgency to be right. More awareness of how we treat each other in ordinary moments. We talk about what it means to live from the “eye...

Episode Description What if kindness wasn’t soft at all, but one of the most powerful biological forces we have? In this episode of The Kindness Podcast , Nicole Phillips talks with David R. Hamilton , a former pharmaceutical scientist and one of the world’s leading researchers on the science of kindness. Dr. Hamilton explains why kindness is literally wired into our genes, how it counteracts stre...

***A quick heads up. The audio quality in this episode isn’t perfect. We’ve corrected the issue moving forward and chose to share this conversation anyway because Jess’s perspective is too valuable to miss. Season 7, Episode 5 • Mic Drop Bootcamp Registration is open now. Bootcamp begins January 16. • New book coming May 2026 Making It Without Losing It How to Stay Motivated in a World Where We Ar...

The Kindness Podcast Episode Overview: In this episode, Nicole talks with Dr. Caitlin Ryan about what real support looks like for families with an LGBTQ child. Dr. Ryan has spent decades listening to young people and their caregivers, and she brings a clear, grounded view of what helps and what harms. They focus on the work of the Family Acceptance Project, which has shown how everyday family beha...

In Season 7, Episode 3 of The Kindness Podcast, Nicole talks with Adam Schluter. Together, they answer the questions: What does kindness look like when we're talking to strangers? and What does kindness look like when we're trying to connect in a world that feels disconnected? Our guest, Adam Schluter has spent over eight years independently exploring the dying art of genuine human connection – un...

The Kindness Podcast Episode: What Does Kindness Look Like When We’re Talking to Our Teens? Guest: Shanna Reyes, MS, LCMHCS Episode Overview Talking to teens can bring out the best — and sometimes the worst — in us. In this episode, host Nicole J. Phillips talks with trauma expert Shanna Reyes about how kindness can reshape the way we communicate with our kids, especially when conversations get un...