Who's Missing?

The first Friday of every month, we'll be dropping a leadership and life gem in response to an anonymous question . . . submitted by our  Who's Missing?  listeners!    Ask Us Anything  is a series hosted by Emily Drake and fellow coach, Chicagoan and counseling professional Katie O'Malley. Just like  Who's Missing?  the conversation will be juicy, the questions will be interesting, and we also hop...

Brandon Kazen-Maddox is an ASL (American Sign Language) artist, dancer, and filmmaker, and Co-Founder of  Up Until Now Collective . They join Emily to share their fascinating story and give their insights on how to find your place in this world.

Rena Singer is a Rabbi at Temple Sholom of Chicago . She joins Emily to discuss quitting: when it's "okay" to quit, how to reframe it, and why there's so much judgment around it. 

The first Friday of every month, we'll be dropping a leadership and life gem in response to an anonymous question . . . submitted by our Who's Missing? listeners!    Ask Us Anything is a series hosted by Emily Drake and fellow coach, Chicagoan and counseling professional Katie O'Malley. Just like Who's Missing?  the conversation will be juicy, the questions will be interesting, and we also hope ou...

Katie O'Malley is a career coach, workplace consultant, and founder of (en)Courage Coaching , with over 15 years of professional experience in the nonprofit, corporate, and education sectors. Katie joins Emily to discuss unique challenges for women in the C-suite: the cognitive and emotional labor that women bear, internalized capitalism, and the vital importance of rest.    Episode Citations: fai...

Sara Alvarado is the co-founder of Own It: Building Black Wealth , and author of Dreaming in Spanish: An Unexpected Love Story in Puerto Vallarta . She joins Emily to discuss taking responsibility without shame, blame, and guilt, and the art of having difficult conversations. https://saraalvarado.com/free-resources/

Puja Ramaswamy is the choir director at Lake View High School, and she was awarded the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2022. She joins Emily to discuss navigating boundaries in the workplace and how to strive for career excellence while living within your values.

Catherine Zack is a corporate litigator turned wellness consultant and owner of Village Yoga . She joins Emily to discuss balancing external vs. internal change, our tendency to conflate decisions, ongoing wellness practices, and "planicking."

The first Friday of every month, we'll be dropping a leadership and life gem in response to an anonymous question . . . submitted by our Who's Missing? listeners!    Ask Us Anything is a series hosted by Emily Drake and fellow coach, Chicagoan and counseling professional Katie O'Malley. Just like Who's Missing?  the conversation will be juicy, the questions will be interesting, and we also hope ou...

Emily Achler is the CEO and Co-Founder of the book tracking app Italic Type . She joins Emily Drake to discuss our society's obsession with productivity, optimization, and always doing more, more, more.

Ethan Lim is a chef and owner of Hermosa . In 2022, he was awarded the Jean Banchet Award for Rising Chef of the Year in Chicago. He joins Emily to discuss all things stress: how he relates to it, how to deal with it, and how to decide what's "worth it."

Tamika Maria Price is a vegan blogger and content creator ( @plantbasedtamika ), and owner of Standout Style Boutique . She joins Emily to discuss the risks and rewards of investing in your dream, and how to trust yourself along the way.

The first Friday of every month, we'll be dropping a leadership and life gem in response to an anonymous question . . . submitted by our Who's Missing? listeners!    Ask Us Anything is a series hosted by Emily Drake and fellow coach, Chicagoan and counseling professional Katie O'Malley. Just like Who's Missing?  the conversation will be juicy, the questions will be interesting, and we also hope ou...

Dr. Emma Belcher is the President of Ploughshares Fund , a foundation that supports initiatives to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons, and to prevent conflicts that could lead to their use. She joins Emily to discuss imposter syndrome within the scope of her work in the nuclear field, and its effect on women in particular.

Michael Goi is a 4-time Emmy nominated director, cinematographer, writer, and producer, known for his work on American Horror Story, Glee, My Name is Earl, Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix, and The Rookie: Feds , to name a few. He joins Emily to discuss his journey from Chicago to Hollywood, the role that mentoring plays in his life, and embracing the discomfort of success.

Arionne Nettles is a journalist and the Director of Audio Journalism Programming at Northwestern University. She's also getting her PhD in Educational Leadership from DePaul University. She joins Emily to discuss engaging with her audience, her holistic approach to teaching, and her bout of depression during the height of her career (and how she got through it).

Dr. Corrie Moreau is a myrmecologist with a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University. She's the CALS Senior Associate Dean of DE&I at Cornell University and the Founder & Co-Chair of The Field Museum's Women in Science. She joins Emily to discuss being a first generation college student, empowering women to pursue a career in science, and of course: her love of ants and bugs!

Sophie Evanoff is a pastry chef and owner of Vanille Patisserie in Chicago. She joins Emily to discuss self-compassion, how she relates to her inner critic, and what we get wrong (and right!) with our romanticization of owning a bakery.

Ashley January is an oil painter. After going through a traumatic delivery of her son, she decided to channel it into her art. Her oil portraits depict fellow survivors and aim to raise awareness of the growing crisis of black maternal and morbidity rate in the United States. She joins Emily to discuss this issue, her own experience with preeclampsia, and how she uses art to create positive change...

Simba Gandari, a Zimbabwean immigrant, is a student at Harvard getting his Masters in Education Leadership, Organizations and Entrepreneurship. He joins Emily to discuss how mentorship has shaped his life, the power of underestimation, and navigating what it means to be a man in today's world.

Sarah Littlefield is a dairy farmer and the Executive Director of the Maine Dairy & Nutrition Council . She joins Emily to discuss life on a farm, her decades-long love of cows, and how there's no such thing as a "half-hearted farmer."

Pamay Bassey is the Chief Learning and Diversity Officer at the Kraft Heinz Company, and author of My 52 Weeks of Worship . She's a first generation Nigerian-American, and she has a B.S. in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in AI from Stanford. Pamay joins Emily to discuss the power of being a lifelong learner, and inserting joy into your day to make it "delicious."

Emily Blum is the Executive Director of Disability Lead . One in five people live with a disability, and many of those disabilities are invisible. Emily Blum joins Emily Drake to discuss her journey with dystonia, misconceptions about people with disabilities, and shifting the conversation around it.

To kick off Season 2, we have the wonderful Tess Gunty: An award-winning author whose first published novel, The Rabbit Hutch , received the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction. She holds a BA in English with Honors in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame, and an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU. Tess joins Emily to discuss intentionality behind focus and attention, the journey behi...

In this bonus episode, Emily is interviewed by her boyfriend, Arnie Niekamp (Writer / Director at Jackbox Games & Host of Hello From the Magic Tavern ). Arnie joins Emily to discuss how the start of this podcast coincided with one of the darkest times of her life, and how she was able to find her way back to joy.