Getting Under The Skin

Mariquel Waingarten co-founded Hickies, the no-tie shoelace brand now in over 50 countries, and built Argentina's first boutique hotel, Tailor Made Hotel, a four year TripAdvisor top performer. She's now the founder of Portal Bosque, a community built on a more conscious, human way of living. But it took losing both her parents before 25, and twenty years of running her life from fear, before she got there. In this conversation, Mariquel and Topaz talk about the "samurai" she became to survive, what her father's last words to her actually meant, and the ayahuasca journey where she finally gave that survival mode back and started building from love instead. Chapters 00:00 Intro 1:52 Meet Mariquel Waingarten 2:08 The samurai she became to survive 16:25 Building from your wound versus your gift 23:15 Hickies, the hotel, and how Portal Bosque began 33:06 The ayahuasca journey and giving back the katana 45:18 What her kids have taught her 49:18 How fear shaped Portal Bosque 53:47 Leaving the katana behind and becoming "the dancer" 59:18 {THE AND} Self Edition question | Try the game: https://shop.theskindeep.com/products/the-and-self-deck?variant=43647547605170 Listen & Follow GUTS: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GSiahH3NYTiFKZ4mIGQnJ?si=fce013635cfa4947 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-under-the-skin/id1821276933 Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com #gutspodcast #topazadizes #mariquelwaingarten #womeninbusiness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you spend months building real friendships with people you're about to send to prison? In this episode of GUTS, we sit down with Tegan Broadwater, decorated undercover operative, author of Life in the Fishbowl, and founder of a private security firm, who burned out as a jazz musician, cut his hair and became a cop, then spent nearly two years deep undercover infiltrating a Crips gang in his own city. The same city where his wife and son were waiting at home. In this episode: - Burning out as a jazz musician and becoming a cop overnight - Going deep undercover in a gang in his own city - Building real friendships with people he was about to arrest, and the emotional crash when it was all over - Why perspective is his greatest gift Welcome to Getting Under The Skin, where genuine curiosity guides honest, human to human exchanges about how we are shaped by the lives we've lived. Deepening Minds with Tegan Broadwater | Getting Under the Skin. Listen now: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GSiahH3NYTiFKZ4mIGQnJ?si=fce013635cfa4947 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-under-the-skin/id1821276933 Follow GUTS: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you say yes to everything life offers, even when it nearly destroys you? In this episode of GUTS, we sit down with aSantiago Cumplido, multidisciplinary artist, composer and healer from Guadalajara, Mexico, who left home at 16 heartbroken, nearly deaf from an explosion he set off himself, and made a conscious decision to turn his heart to stone so he would never feel pain again. What followed was five degrees across four countries, singing for European royalty, and a slow, painful, beautiful unraveling of everything he built to protect himself. In this episode: - Growing up as a deeply sensitive kid in a family that loved music but had no words for what he felt - Leaving home at 16 with a broken heart, damaged ears and a decision to never cry again - How saying yes to everything took him from Mexico to London to Barcelona to Holland - The moment a therapist told him meditating his face off would change nothing - What happened when he finally stopped running from his shadow - Why being truly vulnerable is something this society will punish you for Welcome to Getting Under The Skin, where genuine curiosity guides honest, human to human exchanges about how we are shaped by the lives we've lived. Saying Yes to It All with Santiago Cumplido | Getting Under the Skin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the key to navigating technology, AI and modern life is just knowing where to look for the imbalance? In this episode of GUTS, we sit down with Lauren Celenza, software designer and navigator of the relationship between humans and technology, who helped redesign Google Maps for communities across Indonesia, India, Nigeria and Brazil, and built the free tax filing tool that saved Americans over $90 million. But the conversation goes much deeper than tech. In this episode: - Growing up with a dad shaped by de-industrialization and what that taught her about work - Why it's a radical act to love family members with different political views - The biggest imbalances she sees in AI right now and who holds the power - What it means to be part of the last generation that remembers life before the internet - Independence vs interdependence and why that distinction matters more than ever - What her dad told her about finding a career that won't consume you Welcome to Getting Under The Skin, where genuine curiosity guides honest, human to human exchanges about how we are shaped by the lives we've lived. 👉 Mentioned in this episode: • Monika Jiang’s “Sharing Our Loneliness” — https://www.monikajiang.org/sharing-our-loneliness • Inside the beloved IRS Direct File tool — and why it’s under threat — https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/06/direct-file-beloved-its-users-internal-irs-report-says/405883/?oref=ng-homepage-riverand • Why Direct File is now open-source (and what that means) — https://www.404media.co/directfile-open-source-irs-tax-filing-software-turbotax-is-trying-to-kil/ • On deindustrialisation and its lasting impact on working-class communities — https://inthesetimes.com/article/deindustrialization-offshoring-manufacturing-factory-factories-unemployment-layoff-work-labor-workers-working-people-working-class-industry-ohio-michigan-south-carolina-pepsi-gm Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@guts.podcast LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if your life’s purpose was to break the silence that held your family together? In this episode of Getting Under the Skin, Topaz sits down with artist and filmmaker Tracey Arcabasso Smith (she/her), whose documentary Relative explores the generational trauma of sexual abuse in her family, and the healing that followed. Tracey shares: - The spiritual shifts that helped her redefine “mother” - Why the courage to speak out didn’t feel like a choice - How she balances her corporate leadership with a deep commitment to inner truth - The tension between healing, parenting, and staying clear in a world full of pain From vulnerability to visionary leadership, Tracey invites us to look within and reflect on what we’re really here to do. What has life designed you for? Welcome to Getting Under The Skin, where genuine curiosity guides honest, human to human exchanges about how we are shaped by the lives we've lived. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the life you've been building has been quietly asking you to slow down and find out who you actually are? In this episode of GUTS, we sit down with Ashley Wick, transformational coach and founder of Fertile Ground, who spent her childhood shapeshifting between groups she never quite belonged to, 15 years in PR and fashion helping brands find their essence while losing her own, and then at 30, made a phone call that changed everything. In this episode: Growing up as a floater, never quite belonging to any one group Fifteen years in PR learning to shape narratives and what that cost her The phone call she made at 30 to the person who abused her in childhood Handing her three-day-old daughter over for open heart surgery and finding pure surrender How moving to Uruguay is teaching her to shed everything she leaned on Why the question is never "can I do it?" but "who am I becoming if I do?" Welcome to Getting Under The Skin, where genuine curiosity guides honest, human to human exchanges about how we are shaped by the lives we've lived. 🎙️ Resist Much, Obey Little with Joseph Gerstandt, out now on GUTS: Getting Under the Skin. Listen now: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GSiahH3NYTiFKZ4mIGQnJ?si=fce013635cfa4947 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-under-the-skin/id1821276933 Follow GUTS: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it cost to spend a lifetime doing what you believe in, while the world decides whether it agrees? In this episode of GUTS, we sit down with Joseph Gerstandt, Desert Storm veteran, poet, and one of America's most trusted voices on diversity and inclusion, who grew up on a farm in Iowa convinced that emotions were a distraction. He spent years in corporate America lying awake at night dreading work, certain the problem was him. It wasn't. In this episode: - Growing up stoic on a farm and spending decades emotionally behind the curve - How working in HIV prevention cracked his world open and changed everything - What it's like being a white man doing DEI work for 18 years as the field gets politicized - Why he believes the world needs better questions more than better answers - The quiet admission that he still struggles to feel worthy of love Welcome to Getting Under The Skin, where genuine curiosity guides honest, human to human exchanges about how we are shaped by the lives we've lived. 🎙️ Resist Much, Obey Little with Joseph Gerstandt, out now on GUTS: Getting Under the Skin. Listen now: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GSiahH3NYTiFKZ4mIGQnJ?si=fce013635cfa4947 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-under-the-skin/id1821276933 Follow GUTS: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you win the thing you've been working toward your whole life and it terrifies you? In this episode of GUTS, we sit down with Jess Russ, Grammy award-winning songwriter, creative, and athlete, who grew up in Alabama with Goodwill clothes and $5 to everyone else's hundred. She learned early how to show up and show out. But at 27, she's asking a harder question: what happens when showing up starts to cost you everything?In this episode: - Growing up Black in the South, showing up in rooms she was never handed access to - How winning a Grammy at 27 became a double-edged sword - Why her biggest failures have been relational, not professional - The fear of being considered but never chosen - What it really means to give yourself permission before anyone else does Listen to GUTS: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GSiahH3NYTiFKZ4mIGQnJ?si=fce013635cfa4947 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-under-the-skin/id1821276933 Follow GUTS: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if your greatest strength came from your deepest wound?In this unscripted and deeply human conversation, Dr. Ichak Adizes, one of the world's most influential business thinkers, opens up to his son, filmmaker and host Topaz Adizes, in a raw dialogue about love, aging, grief, legacy, and healing. In this conversation, we explore: - What he regrets passing down to his children and what he's proud to have given - How a childhood without love became the fuel for global impact - Why success was never about achievement, but about being loved - What aging feels like when time no longer feels endless - The paradox of gaining wisdom while losing memory 🔗 Learn more about Dr. Adizes and his work https://www.adizes.com/ 📖 Read his autobiography, The Accordion Player https://publications.adizes.com/products/the-accordion-player-english __________________________________________________________________________ 👉 Follow us on social media: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@guts.podcast LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the worst thing that could happen to you isn't death, but stopping your growth? What if the worst thing that could happen to you isn't death, but stopping your growth? In this episode of GUTS, host Topaz Adizes sits down with Daryn Reicherter, Stanford professor of psychiatry and the man courts call when they need to put a dollar value on human suffering. From his grandfather escaping a Nazi work camp in Holland to briefing the UN Security Council on trauma and ISIS, Daryn has spent decades translating the language of human suffering into something courts and governments can actually act on. In this episode: - The grandfather who survived a Nazi work camp and never spoke about it - Why trauma psychology was invisible in courts until 2011 - The moment all ego disappeared saving his best friend from drowning - The camel, the lion, and the dragon you have to slay to become yourself - What happens when you take Stanford freshmen to Leland Stanford's grave - Why the worst thing that could happen isn't death Follow GUTS: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you've spent 20 years fighting for what's yours, and then realize that was never even the game? In this episode of GUTS, host Topaz Adizes sits down with Kristen V. Carter, fifth-generation creative, executive producer, TV show runner turned educator, who hit a moment of total honesty at 38 and said something she had never said before: I am not happy. What followed was a complete reorientation, guided by one rule: if the joy isn't on 10, it's out. In this episode, we explore: - Fifth generation roots and the ancestors she carried with her - A boarding school year that nearly broke her - Fighting for your seat vs. living from joy - The joy-on-10 litmus test - Generational healing before you pass anything down Since recording, Kristen has tripled enrollment at the Hofstra LA Semester Program, now bringing 35 students to Hollywood in 2027, and is launching The Activation Collective, her 8-week professional accelerator for creatives ready to level up. Follow Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/kristenvcarter/reels/ Follow her podcast 'Trust Your Magic': https://www.instagram.com/trustyourmagic/ www.kristenvcarter.com _____________________________________________________________________ Follow GUTS: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when the body breaks down but the spirit refuses to follow? In this episode of GUTS, host Topaz Adizes sits down with Aaron Lazar, Broadway star, actor, and division one athlete, who was diagnosed with ALS and chose to face it not with force or fear, but with radical joy and presence. Through stories from his career, his recovery, and his daily 20 foot walks between a wheelchair and a chair, Aaron reveals what it really means to show up for yourself from a place of love instead of will. In this episode, we explore: - Growing up with a Jewish mother who taught him the power of a handwritten note - Navigating hundreds of rejections in Hollywood while losing his heart for the craft - What ALS forced him to confront about patterns, energy and self-abandonment - The difference between hammering through life and moving from joy - How shifting your inner state changes your physical reality - What it means to find magic in washing your own hands Listen to GUTS: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1GSiahH3NYTiFKZ4mIGQnJ?si=fce013635cfa4947 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-under-the-skin/id1821276933 Follow GUTS: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com #gutspodcast #aaronlazar #topazadizes #ALSawareness #healingjourney #mindsetshift #radicalacceptance #purposedriven #deepconversationpodcast #joyandfear #selfhealing #presenceoverperformance #Broadway #neuraldisease #unlockinghealing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when the person who makes everyone feel seen has never felt it himself? In this episode of GUTS, host Topaz Adizes sits down with Gary Su, known as Sugary, a cultural curator who built a community of 30,000 people in New York City and nearly lost his life doing it. After a health crisis landed him in the ICU last August, Sugary had to confront the one person he had never really shown up for: himself. In this episode, we explore: - Growing up as the only child of Taiwanese immigrants - How bullying became the birthplace of a superpower - Building a city's community while practicing self-abandonment - The ICU moment that forced a hard reset - What it means to finally feel seen from the inside out - Connection, healing, and learning to receive what you give Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the story you're telling about someone else is the wall keeping you from ever reaching them? In this episode of GUTS, Topaz Adizes sits down with Lue Kraltchev, culture strategist, polyglot, and doctoral researcher who spent 30 years in corporate hospitality studying what actually breaks people apart at work and at the table. Her answer? The narratives we carry about each other, mostly without knowing it. In this episode: The lavender moment that made her go back and get the girl she left behind Why the stories leaders tell about their people create divides no training can fix How warmth isn't something you perform, it's something you design What hospitality taught her about the biology of belonging Why AI always lands in the danger zone of storytelling Gathering people around stories of meaning Follow GUTS: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/guts.podcast/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/topazadizes/ Subscribe for updates: topazadizes.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when the person who makes everyone feel seen has never felt it himself?In this episode of GUTS, host Topaz Adizes sits down with Gary Su, known as Sugary, a cultural curator who built a community of 30,000 people in New York City and nearly lost his life doing it. After a health crisis landed him in the ICU last August, Sugary had to confront the one person he had never really shown up for: himself.In this episode, we explore:- Growing up as the only child of Taiwanese immigrants- How bullying became the birthplace of a superpower- Building a city's community while practicing self-abandonment- The ICU moment that forced a hard reset- What it means to finally feel seen from the inside out- Connection, healing, and learning to receive what you give Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.