Where Work Meets Life™ with Dr. Laura

Dr. Laura welcomes author, speaker, breathwork coach, and community advocate Josh Connolly to Where Work Meets Life™ for a conversation about the parallels between toxic family systems and toxic workplaces. Josh draws on his own experience growing up with an alcoholic father and later overcoming addiction himself to share how healing started for him. It was truth, a safe community, and reconnectin...

Dr. Laura welcomes psychologist, speaker, and bestselling author Dr. Jody Carrington for a powerful conversation on what it means to stay human in an increasingly AI-driven world. Dr. Laura and Jody explore the increasing disconnection people feel in spite of constant digital access. Jody reframes what we label as a mental health crisis as, instead, a deep loneliness epidemic. She shares insights...

Dr. Laura offers a reassuring perspective in this solo episode, exploring how to stay grounded when the world and work feel uncertain and overwhelming. Drawing on her experience as a psychologist, she explains how fear can push us into fight, flight, or freeze responses, which ultimately drain energy and disrupt relationships. Dr. Laura brings the focus back to the present moment, encouraging us t...

Dr. Laura welcomes executive coach, author, and former Microsoft leader Sabina Nawaz for a discussion on what it really takes to become a manager people want to follow. Drawing from her own experience of shifting from a caring leader to one she no longer recognized under pressure, Sabina shares a deeply human perspective on how pressure, more than power, quietly shapes behavior at work. Dr. Laura...

Dr. Laura welcomes Hall of Fame speaker, author, and workplace culture expert Michael Kerr for a conversation on how leaders shape environments where people and organizations thrive. Drawing on decades of global experience, Michael believes that, rather than depleting us, work should energize us, and that leaders play a defining role in creating cultures grounded in purpose and connection. He shar...

In this solo episode of Where Work Meets Life , Dr. Laura explores leadership through a bell curve, illustrating the range of leaders found in today’s organizations. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience as an organizational psychologist, Dr. Laura explains how leaders often rise not through careful selection, but through promotions based on technical skill or ambition. She outlines the spec...

In this episode of Where Work Meets Life™ , Dr. Laura welcomes back Dr. Michelle Johnston for a thoughtful conversation about the seismic shifts leaders must make to create meaningful connections and stronger results. Inspired by her new book, The Seismic Shift in You , coauthored with Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Dr. Johnston shares how the future of leadership depends less on achievement and more on...

In this episode, Dr. Laura welcomes author, strategist, and keynote speaker Kim Bolourtchi to talk about unlocking potential by questioning the rules that shape our choices. Kim shares her journey from a high-powered legal career to embracing her full identity, including a lifelong passion for competitive Latin dance that she once hid out of fear of judgment. Kim and Dr. Laura explore how many pro...

In this episode, Dr. Laura breaks down why toxic bosses are so widespread and costly, and addresses the first step to stopping them: naming what’s happening. Drawing from her research and her new book, I Wish I’d Quit Sooner , she explains eight “toxic boss personas”. These include the dishonest manipulator, the gaslighter, and the control freak. Having a shared language matters when describing ha...

In this episode of Where Work Meets Life , Dr. Laura talks with Paul McCarthy (author of The Fired Leader ; leadership speaker and global thought leader/consultant reinventing the future of leadership) and Dr. Markus Zehentner (European legal professional and author of Breaking Free from Toxic Leadership ) about why toxic bosses often remain protected inside organizations while principled, high-in...

In this episode, Dr. Laura welcomes Dr. Shirley Davis, a leadership development expert, culture transformation thought leader, bestselling author, and President and CEO of Shirley Davis International, to the show for a conversation on workplace leadership and what it means to live, be in leadership, and leave a legacy. Drawing on more than 35 years of experience across HR, executive leadership, an...

In this episode, Dr. Laura talks to Catherine Mattice about navigating toxic workplaces, the topic of Dr. Laura’s new book. Catherine is a workplace culture expert, culture strategist, and author, having just released her own book called Navigating a Toxic Workplace for Dummies . She runs the organization Civility Partners that focuses on creating respectful workplace cultures across all sizes of...

In this episode, Dr. Laura officially releases her new book, “I Wish I’d Quit Sooner: Practical Strategies for Navigating and Escaping a Toxic Boss” . She introduces us to what the book is about, why she wrote it, and her hopes for the book’s impact on people’s lives. Dr. Laura has run Canada Career Counseling for 16 years, and through the work of helping clients achieve career goals, she learned...

Dr. Laura welcomes international keynote speaker, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame inductee, and one of the world’s leading experts on executive presence and influence, Stacey Hanke, to the show to talk about how we can tend to and elevate our influence at work. Stacey defines the qualities of true influence and discusses her Monday to Monday philosophy of consistency in messaging. Not only is influence...

Dr. Laura welcomes Navin ‘nuvs’ Jain, Product Evangelist at Workhuman, to the show to talk about gratitude and recognition. Workhuman focuses on workplace cultures that foster recognition, and Nuvs is deeply committed to spreading the word on the power of thanks and elevating great work happening in organizations. He and Dr. Laura discuss why gratitude can disappear from workplaces and how it can...

Dr. Laura welcomes Dr. Shahana Alibhai, a TEDx speaker, bestselling author, family physician, and medical director of The Foundry Abbotsford, to the show to talk about her book, Feel Better , and the need for more focus on mental health, especially for youth. Dr. Shahana points out that medicine is very focused on illness, on diagnosing disease and offering treatment, whereas mental health require...

In this episode, Dr. Laura explores one of the eight personas a toxic boss can inhabit: the gaslighter. A gaslighting boss tends to be very covert in manipulative behavior. She defines gaslighting as manipulating another person into doubting their own perceptions, experiences, and understanding of events. Navigating a gaslighting boss erodes self-confidence and depletes energy as all time is spent...

Dr. Laura welcomes Laura Munson, the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and international best-selling author of novel “Willa’s Grove” , memoir “This Is Not the Story You Think It Is” , and recent self-help book “The Wild Why” , to the show.  Laura Munson tells Dr. Laura about the impetus behind the writing of her new book, “The Wild Why” , and her passion for bringing wonder back into the world. As La...

Dr. Laura welcomes #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author and Inspirational Speaker Michael Hingson to Where Work Meets Life™for a conversation about his escape from the World Trade Center with his guide dog Roselle and the lessons we can all learn from their teamwork. Michael shares his story of being born blind, never allowing that fact to hold him back, and how the trust between him and his guid...

Dr. Laura welcomes wrongful conviction expert and attorney Jeffrey Deskovic and filmmaker Jia Rizvi to Where Work Meets Life™for an eye-opening conversation about wrongful conviction and exoneration advocacy. Jeffrey Deskovic was wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and spent sixteen years in prison, from age seventeen to thirty-three, until he was exonerated by DNA evidence. Jia Rizvi...

Dr. Laura welcomes Pamela Buchanan, the Founder of Quantum Sense, to the podcast to discuss the innovation of Soul Health and why it’s a missing component in today’s workplaces. Pam worked in corporate America, including at Nasdaq, for over forty years before investing over a decade of research into the concepts and framework for Soul Health. Pam defines what the soul is and how nourishing it is c...

Dr. Laura welcomes Jana Boyko, business coach and author of Bedside Business Plan and the upcoming Employee to Entrepreneur , to the podcast for a conversation on entrepreneurship and self confidence. Jana describes her journey from doing a BCom and working for a marketing firm to striking out on her own as an entrepreneur and the failures and successes she experienced on that path. Dr. Laura lear...

Dr. Laura welcomes everyone to Season 6 of Where Work Meets Life™ in this introductory episode, which lets us in on what to expect from the podcast’s sixth season, why Dr. Laura does what she does, and what she plans to bring to the world going forward. Season 6 dovetails with the upcoming January 2026 release of her new book, “I Wish I’d Quit Sooner: Practical Strategies for Navigating and Escapi...

Dr. Laura welcomes Dr. Esther Sternberg, M.D., a Professor, Research Director, Speaker, and Author of the books Well at Work , Healing Spaces , and The Balance Within , to the podcast to talk about wellness at work and how workplace environments impact employees. Dr. Sternberg shares her career journey from her start in medical family practice through to becoming the Research Director at the Andre...

Dr. Laura welcomes Kirkland Shave, co-founder of the Mountain Trek health reset retreat, back to Where Work Meets Life™ for an honest and open conversation about mindful health and steering clear of binge or bust thinking in our eating and social situations. Dr. Laura uses her own life after her experience at Mountain Trek to illustrate the kind of “falling off the wagon” thinking that we tend to...