Tim Tamashiro is a jazz singer, radio broadcaster and the author of How to Ikigai: Lessons for Finding Happiness and Living Your Life's Purpose. On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Tim joins Leah to explore the concept of Ikigai, an ancient Japanese philosophy that encourages us to live our “life’s worth.” After explaining what his Ikigai is and how he discovered it, Tim guides Leah through the process of uncovering her own. He also shares his perspective on how to achieve lasting happiness, and offers tips for when you get stuck in the process of identifying your own Ikigai. Follow Leah Smart on LinkedIn. Follow Tim Tamashiro on LinkedIn. To learn more about Ikigai, check out Tim’s book, How to Ikigai. And, don’t forget to sign up for Leah’s weekly newsletter to get practical tips on how to level up with small steps every day.

Dr. Wendy Suzuki is a professor of neural science and psychology at New York University and the author of Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion. In 2022, she was appointed Dean of NYU's College of Arts & Science. On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Wendy joins Leah to discuss strategies for turning our anxiety from a weakness into a superpower. She digs into the evolutionary purpose of anxiety and explains why the feelings of anxiousness we all experience don’t have to hold us back from achieving success. Follow Leah Smart on LinkedIn. Follow Wendy Suzuki on LinkedIn. For more anxiety-transforming techniques, check out Wendy’s book, Good Anxiety.   And, don’t forget to sign up for Leah’s weekly newsletter to get practical tips on how to level up with small steps every day.

Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author. In his third book, Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, he explores the science behind good communication and offers strategies for connecting more deeply with others. On this episode of Everyday Better, Charles joins Leah to explain why communicating effectively is the key to deepening our interpersonal connections, whether at home or in the workplace. Charles discusses strategies for asking more thoughtful questions, being a better listener and discussing controversial topics. He also explains the science behind effective communication and why it’s so important for our mental and physical well-being to connect with the people around us. Follow Leah Smart on LinkedIn. Follow Charles Duhigg on LinkedIn. To learn more about improving your communication skills, check out Charles’s book Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection. Don’t forget to sign up for Leah’s weekly newsletter to get practical tips on how to level up with small steps every day.

This week In the Arena: Dr. Jennifer Freed, psychological astrologer and author of the new book A Map to Your Soul: Using the Astrology of Fire, Earth, Air, and Water to Live Deeply and Fully. Dr. Freed joins Leah to dig into the birth chart, and how using the “mystery art” of astrology combined with psychological analysis can help you define your purpose and your goals. (And then, of course, that’s when your own choices and actions come into play to get you to the good stuff.) Follow Jennifer on Instagram Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week: a very special episode from our friends and colleagues at our LinkedIn sister podcast, Hello Monday. Leah takes the host chair to interview Jessi Hempel, the show’s usual host, about Jessi’s beautiful new memoir, The Family Outing, how she and her family made the authentic choices to come out of their closets, why we are all unreliable narrators of our stories and what it means to live the truest expression of yourself.  Follow Jessi and Hello Monday on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung are the co-founders of accessible, whimsical design company Poketo, but when it comes to their own home, they want a clean canvas. Although they focus more on home goods than home design, they’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how people arrange their living spaces to bring the most joy and productivity: they co-authored the book Creative Spaces, featuring beautiful photographs and interviews with artists about how they’ve designed their homes and workspaces. They joined Leah to dig into the idea of home, and why having a place that expresses who you are – and leaves room for who you will become – is so important. Follow Ted and Angie on Instagram Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Kicking off Season 5 of In the Arena: Leah’s conversation with bestselling author and columnist Lori Gottlieb, whose 2019 memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed was on just about every best-of list that year. She and Leah dig in to why it’s as important to focus on mental health as physical health, and what “setting boundaries” actually means. Follow Lori on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, we’re re-airing a favorite episode from the archives: Leah’s conversation with Calm's Head of Mindfulness, Tamara Levitt, about how meditation and mindfulness can change your life. In the United States, meditation has historically lived on the fringes of the mainstream. But with anxiety and burnout at all-time highs, many people are looking for tools to feel better, calm down, get more sleep and clear their heads. Tamara has narrated the Calm App's guided meditations that have supported millions of people in improving their lives and she wants you to know why you should give it a try. Follow Tamara on Linkedin Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, we’re re-airing a favorite episode from the archives: Leah’s conversation with Daron K. Roberts, LinkedIn's #1 Top Voice in Sports in 2020. He's a former NFL & college coach and the founding director of the Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation at the University of Texas. In this conversation Leah and Daron talk about the abundant opportunity in the emerging creator economy and embracing discomfort as a professional growth tactic. Follow Daron on Linkedin Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week In the Arena: Journalist James Nestor, author of the bestselling book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. Leah and James dig into how breathing better can help us in all areas of our health and wellbeing, and how following curiosity can lead us to more interesting places than problem-solving alone. Follow James on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Be honest: when you saw the topic of this episode, did you cringe a little? It makes sense — money is often a taboo topic. But this week, Leah invites her own accountant, Karen Bahn, into the arena to get to the bottom of why our relationships with the green stuff can be so fraught, and how we can re-write our money stories. Follow Karen on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

The last two and a half years saw all of us navigating connections and alone time in different ways. Adam Smiley Poswolsky, author of Friendship in the Age of Loneliness, joins Leah to talk about how to make friends and the difference between “alone” and “lonely.” Follow Smiley on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

In the chaos of everyday life, we sometimes forget to stop and take stock of how we’re doing in all facets of our life. Listen in to a real coaching session, as Leah uses the Wheel of Life to help producer Michele O’Brien get clarity on how and where to make a change.  Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn Check out the Wheel of Life HERE

Known as “Nurse Hadley” to her nearly 2 million followers on TikTok, Hadley Vlahos is a hospice nurse, content creator and New York Times bestselling author. Her first book, The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments, is a collection of stories and lessons she’s learned from 12 patients she cared for in their final months on earth. On today’s episode of Everyday Better, Hadley reflects on how an unexpected life pivot led her to her dream career as a hospice care nurse. While hospice care nursing is viewed as a tough job by many outside of the profession, Hadley shares lighthearted, poignant, humorous and mystical experiences she’s had caring for patients in hospice. She discusses the importance of getting comfortable talking about death, and offers advice for how to get better at having those conversations. She also shares what she’s learned about what it means to live a meaningful life, and how work can play such an essential role in making life meaningful, no matter what kind of work you do. Follow Leah Smart on LinkedIn. Follow Hadley Vlahos on LinkedIn. To learn more, check out Hadley’s book The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments. And don’t forget to sign up for Leah’s weekly newsletter to get practical tips on how to level up with small steps every day.

We live in a head-based world, where we prioritize the information our brains get – sometimes at the expense of listening to our bodies. So how can we start getting more into all the goodness our bodies have to give us? Join Leah as she talks to Alexander Technique and Somatic Experiencing practitioner Ariel Carson. They dig in to the mind-body connection and work through some simple exercises you can do at home. Check out Ariel’s work at Wave Somatics  Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, Leah sits down with Nathan and Susannah Furr, co-authors of The Upside of Uncertainty. They discuss what uncertainty is really about, uncover the possibilities that come from embracing it, and how we can better equip ourselves to be resilient in the face of the unknown using their four-armed framework. Follow Nathan on Linkedin and check out Nathan and Susannah’s work at www.uncertaintypossibility.com Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, we’re re-airing a favorite episode from the archives: Leah’s LinkedIn Speaker Series interview with Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn founder and author of Masters of Scale and The Startup of You. They dig into the “why” of starting something that matters and how to know when an idea is a good one. Follow Reid on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, Leah sits down with Amy Chan, author of Breakup Bootcamp: The Science of Rewiring Your Heart and creator of the first weekend retreat for working through heartbreak. They dig into why we get our hearts broken, and the science behind cultivating a healthier relationship with our circumstances, ourselves and other people. Follow Amy on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week in the arena: author, speaker, and founder of Good Life Project, Jonathan Fields. Jonathan and Leah have a wide-ranging conversation about the differences between beliefs and values, the versions of ourselves we present to the world, and their own experiences sharing stories.  Follow Jonathan on LinkedIn, and check out his show Sparked on the LinkedIn Podcast Network Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Let Leah guide you through a meditation practice meant to help you tap into radical empathy. Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, acclaimed cookbook author, podcaster, and cooking teacher Julia Turshen joins Leah to talk about how embodied experiences like cooking soothe anxiety, and how food can be a form of caretaking. Follow Julia on Instagram Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

In the Arena this week: Reggie Fils-Aimé, former COO of Nintendo and author of the book Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo. Reggie gets into his five life principles – originally delivered as part of a commencement address – and how being methodical helped him in his storied career. Follow Reggie on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week In the Arena: Meditation coach and founder of The Big Quiet, Jesse Israel. He joins Leah to talk about how his highest career high came crashing down, and how meditation has helped him be the person he wants to be in the world. Follow Jesse on LinkedIn and check out The Big Quiet Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re re-releasing an old favorite: Leah’s conversation with Dr. Lisa Orbé-Austin on how to confront impostor syndrome head-on.  Follow Lisa on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week on Everyday Better, we’re featuring an episode from a new bonus series from our sister podcast Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel. “Hello Monday Master Class” is a distillation of hundreds of Hello Monday conversations, broken down into five essential rules for navigating and thriving in an ever-changing professional landscape. The first episode in the series is all about defining your values.  Tune in each Thursday through the end of June for more actionable insights and collaborative exercises to elevate your career. And for more from Jessi, join the Hello Monday Group on LinkedIn by clicking here.

This week in the arena: men’s healing advocate Sean Harvey, leadership coach and founder of Warrior Compassion. He and Leah talk about his focus on men’s healing in particular and why getting into community is always the answer. Follow Sean on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Leah sits down to talk with beloved Peloton instructor Tunde Oyeneyin about trusting that everything that’s for you will come exactly when it’s supposed to, how to keep showing up when life doesn’t go you way, and the internal “drumbeat” we can all follow.  Follow Tunde on Instagram Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week In the Arena: author of Digital Body Language, Erica Dhawan. Leah and Erica talk about rethinking communication (and how we care for each other) in this new hybrid age, and an astonishing statistic about how often we just misinterpret each other. Follow Erica on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week In the Arena: influencer, artist, poet, and author Morgan Harper Nichols. Morgan shares how she got comfortable being creative, why your dream matters and the ways her community and curiosity drive her work. Follow Morgan on LinkedIn and check out her beautiful art on Instagram. Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, Leah sits down with Eve Rodsky, speaker and author of Fair Play and Find Your Unicorn Space. They get into the delicious possibilities that can present themselves when we’re able to set aside our roles as someone else’s parent, colleague or partner and step into our own passions. Follow Eve on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Leah sat down in the studio with global spiritual leader Deepak Chopra to talk about his new book Abundance and how peace and joy can come out of tough times.  Follow Deepak on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Leah sits down with world-renowned speaker and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham to talk about harnessing the power of your own uniqueness and making sure that you can find the moments of flow in your work. Follow Marcus Buckingham on Linkedin Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, Leah talks with clinical psychologist, podcast host, and author Sherry Walling about mental health, grief, and how entrepreneurs in particular can go all-out towards pursuing their passions while also avoiding burnout. Follow Sherry on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, Leah dives deep with mental fitness expert Marc Champagne, author of Personal Socrates. Marc explains how a well-timed question can get to the heart of what you need, and why we should be aiming to be just 1% better every day. Follow Marc on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, Leah talks with Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code and the Marshall Plan for Moms. They dive into why it’s so important for people – particularly women – to find their purpose, and how to empower yourself even as you fight for systemic change. Follow Reshma on LinkedIn Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

Thomas Curran is a Professor of Psychology at the London School of Economics. His first book, The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough, charts the recent rise in perfectionism among young people, exposes the paradoxical effects of perfectionism on everything from work performance to relationships and argues for a “good enough” approach to work that prioritizes sustainability over growth. On this episode of Everyday Better, Thomas joins Leah to talk about where perfectionism comes from, why it’s so harmful and how to break free from the internal and external pressures we feel to be perfect. They also take a critical look at the “growth mindset” and reflect on their own journeys towards overcoming perfectionism in their professional and personal lives. Follow Leah Smart on LinkedIn. Follow Thomas Curran on LinkedIn. For more on perfectionism, check out Thomas’s book The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough. Sign up for Leah’s weekly newsletter to get practical tips on how to level up with small steps every day.

This week, Leah talks with neurosurgeon andbestselling author Jim Doty, author of Into the Magic Shop and founder of Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, CCARE. Dr. Doty’s work proves that compassion is more than just good to talk about, it can actually improve your health and lengthen your life. Follow Dr. Doty on Linkedin Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week, Leah talks with bestselling author and podcast host Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project to get to the bottom of happiness – and why who you truly are may be your most important clue to how to be happier. Follow Gretchen on LinkedIn and check out her work at https://gretchenrubin.com/ Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

This week in the arena, illustrator and bestselling coauthor Liz Fosslien joins Leah to talk about some of our Big Feelings, the subject of the book she co-authored with Mollie West Duffy. Liz and Leah get into the feelings we're not “supposed” to show – Uncertainty, Anger, Comparison, and Regret – and dig into why it’s important to work through, rather than ignore them, so you can show up better for yourself and those who matter. Follow Liz on LinkedIn and check out her work with Mollie West Duffy at https://www.lizandmollie.com Follow Leah and In The Arena on LinkedIn

In an episode from the Hello Monday archives, Jessi Hempel talks with Amelia and Emily Nagoski, authors of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle about emotional exhaustion and how to fix burnout.

While we focus on a revamp of sorts at In the Arena, we're sharing a few episodes from the Hello Monday archives. Today, Jessi Hempel talks with Morra Aarons-Mele, host of the HBR podcast The Anxious Achiever about (what else?!) anxiety.

This week in the arena, bestselling author of The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier is sharing how to start doing something that matters to you. In his new book, How To Begin, Michael blends coaching, motivation, and accountability to help you align with a goal that has the 3 characteristics he calls essential- important, daunting, and thrilling. No matter your vision, this formula will get you there.

Join Leah Smart in the arena with Calm's Head of Mindfulness, Tamara Levitt to talk about how meditation and mindfulness can change your life. In the United States, meditation has historically lived on the fringes of the mainstream. But with anxiety and burnout at all-time highs, many people are looking for tools to feel better, calm down, get more sleep and clear their heads. Tamara has narrated the Calm App's guided meditations that have supported millions of people in improving their lives and she wants you to know why you should give it a try.

In the Arena is taking a break in December and will be back in January. Tune in to listen to a simple way to reflect on the year you've had and get ready for 2022.

Are you curious about The Enneagram? This week in the arena, global Enneagram thought leaders Beatrice Chestnut and Uranio Paes join Leah Smart and Head of Learning & Culture at Airtable, Jess Amortergui. The Enneagram system has recently been regaining popularity at work and in the human development space. But a lot of what's out there doesn't scratch the surface of this life-changing roadmap to self-development. Listen in to hear more about each type 1-9, get hints on your personality pitfalls, and find out how to use this system to become a better version of yourself.

Join psychologist and author Lisa Orbe-Austin and Leah Smart in the arena to talk about Lisa's area of expertise- impostor syndrome. You'll hear not only what it is, but what research shows about where it comes from. And most important, how to become aware and conscious of your impostor syndrome triggers, so you can overcome it.

Myisha Cherry is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at UC Riverside and a self-proclaimed “public defender of anger and proud withholder of forgiveness.” In her second book, Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better, she argues that forgiveness – a much-lauded moral good in American culture – rarely achieves what we think it does, and that in reality, forgiveness often does more harm than good. She puts forth her own, broader definition of forgiveness that holds space for anger, repair and accountability for the wrongdoer. On today’s show, Myisha and Leah dive deep into forgiveness to understand its role at work and in society, as well as how race and gender complicate the act of forgiving. Myisha explains why withholding forgiveness can actually be a moral good, both for the wronged and for the wrongdoer. She also shares her revised definition of forgiveness and explains how to get better at asking for and receiving it. For more on forgiveness, check out Myisha’s book Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better. Sign up for Leah’s weekly newsletter to get practical tips on how to level up with small steps every day.

LinkedIn's Chief Economist, Karin Kimbrough gets in the arena this week to talk all about The Great Reshuffle. This period of unprecedented professional change and upheaval is being driven by people everywhere asking simple but meaningful questions about not just where they want to work and how they want to work, but why they work. The Great Reshuffle marks a moment in time where we all get to rethink how to spend our 40+ hours every week.

Award-winning staff writer at the Atlantic and author, Olga Khazan gets in the arena this week to talk about her research on the experience of being "weird". Through dozens of interviews and research she set out to learn and share what it means to be an outsider and what the upsides are. From building your resilience to true self-acceptance, being a bit different in a society that praises conformity can and often does win.

This week in the arena, author of seven New York Times bestsellers and thought leader on contemporary life, Bruce Feiler joins to talk about his most recent book, Life is In the Transitions. Based on thousands of hours of research, this book reveals that most people's lives are inconsistent with the expected linear path of success at work, in relationships, at home, and everywhere else. In fact, adults experience life disruptors every 12-18 months. And the big ones are called lifequakes. Bruce's work both reevaluates expectations of contemporary life and shares how to make meaning and magic after a lifequake.