Ends with Z

Today, we are experiencing a stagnant, “low hire, low fire” job market that’s making both employers and employees very nervous.  An emerging new trend tells us many people are not happy in their job and yet they are holding on to them because the fear and challenge of not having one is so much greater.  People are simply becoming less hopeful.  We address some of the factors causing it like the increasing impact of artificial intelligence and technology in every aspect of the workforce, and discuss how human plus technology is how we must proceed going forward.  We also acknowledge a major milestone for our very own host, Juan Fernandez, who just celebrated 30 years working at CBS News Los Angeles!  An improbability for most people who are already in the workforce and an inconceivable concept for younger people who are entering it.  Juan reflects upon his professional journey that led him from Miami to Los Angeles, the different positions he’s had at CBS - surviving lay-offs and ownership changes - and how the job market has changed over the years.  

We know that an extrovert is someone who gains energy from people while an introvert typically avoids people all together, but what is an otrovert?  Coined by Dr. Rami Kaminski in 2023, an otrovert is an empathetic, free thinker who feels more comfortable being alone-“an outsider”-rather than feeling a sense of belonging to a group, despite their likeability and well-adjusted social skills.  They value independence and personal meaning over conformity and need time alone to recharge after social events.  In this episode, we do a deep dive into the traits and characteristics otroverts possess and how they differ from extroverts and introverts.  And there was no better way for us to understand it then putting ourselves to the test …“the otherness scale test” to determine which group best describes our personality type and with some surprising results!  Want to know where you fall on the scale?  Take the test for yourself at https://www.othernessinstitute.com/the-otherness-scale/.

Our “why” for creating the Ends With Z podcast was to share life stories and lessons and from them, provide tools and advice that our listeners can take to make sense of things, and hopefully, have a better life of their own.  As we approach the end of another year, and we reflect on all that's happened in 2025 and prepare for a stronger year ahead, it's the perfect time to share and discuss some truly, sage advice from an unexpected but very important community. Dave Zoller is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and owner of Streamline Financial and in his amazing YouTube video, he brings us incredible life lessons from 70-year-olds for people in their 50s and 60s. These universal truths are so relevant that they matter for any age! Dave helps us frame our life into 3 vital areas (health, time & money) and into 3 stages (youth, midlife & after retirement). The mindset is simply brilliant and the advice powerful.  Joins as we explore every stage, and grow and heal from the wisdom his firm has garnered from years of client interviews to show us what we can do now to slow down time, prioritize and maximize health, and leverage our money to experience a richer quality of life at every stage. Wise life lessons that we can apply today so we can live a healthier, happier, more fulfilled tomorrow. 

Many of us have a love/hate relationship with social media, but when we came across Durb Morrison’s thought-provoking Instagram post, “By The Age of 50 You Should Be Wise Enough To Let Go of These 20 Things”, it demanded a podcast.  In this episode, Cecile, Juan, and Shawn get personal reflecting on each of the 20 life lessons and discuss where they still struggle with each.  Is it a lesson learned or one in progress?  Regardless of how old you are, understanding these 20 life truths will bring you wisdom and peace at every stage and step of your life.

Regardless of your sexual orientation, age group, or where you live, dating in 2025 is more of a don’t than a do.  We are swiping left, swiping less, or not at all; many are simply tapping out.  Face-to-face human connection has become so 2000.  It is especially hard for straight women who long for romantic connection, but wind up empty-handed and left asking, “Are men worth the lipstick application?”  In this episode, Cecile leads the discussion sharing her thoughts and personal relationship experiences as we discuss the stats and real-life realities of wanting and dating today. 

Created from conversations among friends during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are proud to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of our Ends With Z podcast! In this milestone episode, Cecile, Juan, and Shawn reflect on their podcast journey, the evolution and impact of the show, the community it's built, and guests we've hosted and introduced.  As the journey proceeds, we will continue to explore how we thrive as individuals, professionals, and members of a community through the lens of relationships, culture, and personal growth. We are so grateful for all of our listeners, at home and abroad, for being part of our Ends With Z community and for listening.  Cheers to you and us!

We had to keep this conversation going and go deeper, because your response was so overwhelming!  Cecile, Juan, and Shawn continue the discussion on toxic positivity, opening up into their own personal and professional experiences, to find the nuanced nature and at times, hard to find places, it lives in personal relationships, corporate culture, American society, and family dynamics.  The reality is that we all have experienced and have displayed toxic positivity at one time or another.  Being conscious of how we show up and being authentic in our intentions, interactions, and responses to the people in our lives is the best way to provide what is truly needed and be supportive in difficult situations, rather than over-used, meaningless platitudes and phrases.

Nobody wants to be, or be around, a “Negative Nancy” or “Davy Downer.”  The benefits of having an optimistic outlook improve our overall well-being as they boost longevity, help us bounce back from stress, and help regulate emotions.  We are often instructed by society to be optimistic and stay positive, especially in American culture.  But there’s a fine line between having positive attitude and toxic positivity.  It becomes toxic when we ignore reality, suppress negative emotions, and try to be overly positive in every situation, regardless of what is really happening.  In this podcast, LA Psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis, joins Cecile, Juan, and Shawn for a deep dive into this topic.  We discuss what toxic positivity is, how to recognize it, and why we display it to others, and even to ourselves.  John gives us tools we can use to give ourselves the space we need to feel our emotions and acknowledge reality, and have a watchful awareness to build resilience and be supportive.

If you feel like you have been holding and hiding out just to get through the long winter days, it’s time to get up, get out, and start to let go.  Spring is here!  We jump start this new season of Ends With Z by setting and resetting intentions to embrace nature’s power of rebirth and awakening new energy within us.  Spring invites us to be in flow with this season’s transformational power.  The signs of change are happening around us.  Embracing these shifts gives us the energy to step outside of our comfort zones, to transform our own lives, and to connect more deeply with nature, ourselves, our intention, and our community.

Why does this Fall feel harder for so many of us?  We know the end of the year is always challenging with the upcoming holidays and family obligations, but this year the elections added to our stressor – no matter who you are.  We either view change as a threat, where we either go in to fight-or-flight mode or we accept change as a part of life and learn to adapt to survive and build resilience.  How do we get from “I just can’t”  to “I can handle this.”  Los Angeles Psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis, joins the podcast to help us better understand our personal relationship with change and gives us ways we can learn to accept and make change work for us, to find our new footing, to recognize our own blind spots, and to not worry about the things that we cannot control.  John gives us useful tools to keep our boundaries, manage difficult conversations and not sound weak, judgmental, dismissive, or harsh. 

Social connection is a basic human need that is essential to our overall health and wellbeing.  But as the world evolves from technological advances and person-to-person contact becomes more limited, those feel-good hormones that we get from simply being together are being replaced by shorter attention spans, irritability, more isolation, and a greater sense of loneliness.  It is up to each of us to find our ikigai, a Japanese word for what we call “a reason to live/to get you out of bed” every single day to create flow in your life.  Flow is the place where your needs, desires, ambitions, and satisfaction meet.  Psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis, is back as we continue our discussion on loneliness and what we can do to stop the actions that leads us down a path to a very sad and unhealthy life.  John shares his professional wisdom and understanding, and leaves us with nuggets of information we can all use every day to help us find a path back to ourselves so we can find our flow.

We all need healthy alone time or “me” time for self-care and quiet, down time.  It’s a good thing, right?  The fact is that too much time alone can lead to loneliness, isolation, and experiencing a lack of connection with others.  The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, in 2018 declared loneliness a global health threat and it has only worsened because of the isolation mandated by the pandemic.  But COVID-19 is not the biggest culprit for why people chose more and more want to be alone and not engage with each other in person.  Technology has revolutionized everything including how we see, experience, value, and prioritize being together – in real life.  When we were asked to isolate for health reasons, the safety and protection that we felt from cocooning at home, withdrawing from others, and living life online for the convenience to communicate, order food/groceries, educate students, and work all have contributed to the massive increase in loneliness.  Psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis, helps us connect the dots between our day-to-day activities, life/situational circumstances, emotions, technology/social media, culture, the environment and the loneliness that we are feeling today.  For many of us, we are not even aware that the heaviness we feel, the insomnia, and “just not feeling the need to go out” is, in fact, loneliness.  Join the conversation where John helps us find ways to decrease our loneliness by incorporating incremental behavioral steps like using good social media hygiene and prioritizing togetherness.

With less than 95 days until the election and all that has happened recently, the race for the presidency has shifted into high gear, already full of monumental, historic events and eliciting heightened negative emotions.  Regardless of your political affiliation, all of it is making us unhappy on top of everything that we are dealing with in our everyday lives.  According to Arthur Brooks, Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School where he teaches course on leadership, happiness, and social entrepreneurship, happiness isn’t a feeling or conditional, it’s a direction anchored in faith, family, friendship, and work that serves others.  Now more than ever, it is so important take into account your mental and physical well-being with everything we do, with every decision we make, with every action we take, and who we support in the voting booth.  Your personal happiness depends on it.

For many of us, the holidays are all about spending time with family. Whether merry, or just plain scary, the emotions and feelings we experience during the holiday season linger far after the decorations are down and resolutions are made. In this episode, Juan shares the almost “life changing moment” he had in how he handles the stress of going back home, his identity, and relationship with his family. Was it a Christmas miracle or the result of the awareness that parents are just people too? Above all, what is important to you is what matters most.

The doctor is in!  But what if the doctor isn't human?  Our favorite psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis, joins the podcast as we discuss the growing impact of AI, and specifically AE (artificial empathy), in the medical field and in the most important aspects of our daily life.  What is Chatbot Therapy?  Can AE make us better humans or is it merely manipulating us?  This technology can be a game changer for providing support for human doctors in assessing actionable treatment and dramatically increasing access to mental healthcare services.  But with all of the progressive promise also comes the potential perils.  The father of AI has sounded the alarm warning us that AI is growing faster than we can control or regulate it.  Global security agreements and regulation must be established and implemented before it's too late to prevent artificial intelligence from outsmarting us all.

With a worldwide box office of $1B, there is no denying the massive appeal and success of Barbie, the movie that has become a movement.  In this episode, Cecile, Juan, and Shawn breakdown Barbie, give their thoughts on the movie and the inter-generational, cross-cultural, and overall appeal of the iconic Mattel brand. They discuss how Director/Writer Greta Gerwig does a brilliant job introducing some heady societal themes in a hyper-visual, colorful, depiction that is entertaining yet nuanced on many levels.

You are as old as you think you are. Studies have shown that we typically perceive ourselves to be from 7 years to 20% younger than our actual chronological age.  This gap is called our subjective age, but are we just living in denial or is there a benefit to this kind of thinking?  Preconceived notions that we each hold on aging may also be a predictor of our eventual, future reality. People who perceive themselves to be younger than they are typically lead healthier lifestyles, engage in more positive self-talk and self-care, and tend to be less depressed. 

You can’t have the life you want if you don’t know what you want from life.  As children, we dream of the lives that we want, imagining our grown-up selves, careers, soulmates/families, and possessions.  It all begins with your thoughts - believing that what you want is possible and attainable.  But that will only get you so far.  To manifest the life of your dreams takes work.  It doesn’t just magically happen.  It requires the right mindset, hard work, planning, pivoting, patience, and perseverance.  Align your thoughts and attitude with your actions to get the results you want.  In this week’s episode, Cecile, Juan, and Shawn share the journey from being a small town kid where nothing ever happens to living a life that they dared to imagined.

You’re not imagining it.  Stress is making us anxious and it is effecting our thoughts, feelings, and physical bodies.  Psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis, is back to explain the importance of identifying/managing stress and understanding how anxiety effects each of us differently.  And, gives us a simple stress test ( a great tool – really) that we can take anytime to tell us the truth about our stress and its affects.  Building emotional resilience is the key to adapting to change and going with the tide.  We must choose to be like to ocean to ride every wave of life.

Stress affects us in different ways.  For some, everyday stress makes it hard to sleep keeping us awake at night.  It makes others eat too much or not at all.  But did you know that stress can cause you to lose your hair?  We breakdown the truth behind stressed-out hair and what we can do to save it.  We welcome Trichologist and Celebrity Hair Care Specialist/Stylist, Shann Christen, to the studio to give us the true science behind hair loss, alopecia, and its connection to unmanaged stress, our diets, ageing, and our actions.  He clears up hair myths and fallacies that are making our hair fall out and educates us step-by-step on simple ways to improve and restore our luscious locks.  Cecile is living proof that it works.  Listen in and start growing healthier hair!

To be human means you will experience stress at points in your life throughout the course of your life.  It is part of the human condition that, if left unmanaged, leaves us gassed.  Whether it’s because of work, family, weather, finances, loss, illness, or even the news and social media, we all experience stress and, it seems like today, we are more stressed out than ever.  Lucky for us, April is Stress Awareness Month.  In this episode, we share some of our own stressors we’re experiencing, discuss the importance of breathing and calming the mind, and emphasize the necessity of finding your own ways to unplug, unwind, and decompress to preserve your mental health and physical well-being.

This week we have the one and only John Tsilimparis, relationship therapist, in the house to sound off on our last 2 dating episodes with Indie and Jai.  We dive into recognizing dating red flags in ourselves and with others, the importance of self-love and awareness, why it’s good to be both velvet and steel, and why doing exactly what you want this Valentine's Day is the healthiest thing you can do for yourself.

The conversation continues with our 2 guests, Independence "Indie" Hall and Jai Pellerin, as we discuss how other generations are seeing dating, singledom, sex, and love. We’re getting deep and talking the real talk. Brace yourself and get ready to take a jump into dating pool!

What do catfishers and your mom have in common? They’re both probably on dating apps. This week, we have 2 guests, Independence "Indie" Hall and Jai Pellerin, who say YES! They’re here to talk to us about how other generations are seeing dating, singledom, sex and love. We’re getting deep and talking the real talk in part 1 of a 2 part episode. Brace yourself and get ready to take a jump into dating pool!

This week, Juan and Cecile sit down for a “friend chat” to discuss their “attractitude,” aka their attitudes and philosophies on attraction, dating, and relationships. They’re diving into their dating history and examining what they’ve learned, what they’re looking for now, and what younger generations have to teach them. Grab a coffee, take a seat, things are about to get a little saucy.

Whether we were ready or not, we’re in 2023! Our kickoff episode to the year surrounds setting goals and intentions, being mindful of our thought processes, the importance of yearly closure, and why it only takes a glass of champagne to make you feel like the luckiest girl (or guy) in the world.

This week is a BIG one for Ends with Z as we celebrate our 50th episode! Cecile, Juan, and Shawn reminisce on the beginnings of the podcast and recall some of their favorite show topics and episodes. This is also the time of year to celebrate the holidays with family and friends. But for some, it can be a time of emotional distress brought on by family triggers, holiday traditions, loss, and loneliness. We bring back our favorite, psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis, to help us navigate the 62-day, holiday season journey and give us tools that we all can use to make the holidays more joyous and less stressful this year.

We all love more of a good thing but are too many friends bad for you? Our favorite psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis, is back to wrap up our friendship series and he's bringing the science and deeply emotional reasons to answer all our questions. From what are the origins and importance of friendship, why it is the very thing that ensures our survival, how to find them and what we look for in a friend, and why you're not alone if you're having trouble getting yourself back out there after COVID. Grab a coffee, and sit with us as we eagerly pick John's brain on how to be a better friend.

What kind of friend are you anyway? Do you have close friends at work or just work acquaintances? Have you ever met a person who tried a little too hard to be your friend to learn later they only cared about your failure? Making and maintaining meaningful friendships is real work! It doesn't just magically happen. Join us for part 3 of our Friendship series where we talk about having friends at work, and ask how, why, and can we make friends at different stages of our life. We dish on what makes good boundaries and how to recognize and navigate the dreaded frenemy trap.

We continue our friendship series and dive deeper into making friends, keeping friends, and breaking up with friends. We talk about platonic love (or friends without those benefits), the modern concept of your soulmate also being your best friend, and why statistics say we’re failing at making friends and how to fix this. Join us as we spill the tea while we dish on our attachment theory in our relationships and debate why there may be a little bit of Colin Farrell in all of us.

This week we dive into an underrated topic: the evolution of friendships. We get personal as we discuss the correlation between how we evolve as people and how our friendships evolve with us. What do you need from friends now versus when you are in your 50s, 30s, 20s, or in high school? Is your BFF today the same one you had 20 years ago? Do you even have a BFF? What friends do we need as our lives change? What purpose do they serve in real life vs. online? Exec. Producer, Shawn Meaux, joins the conversation as we start to explore the importance of friendship to our wellness, discussing what true friendship requires and what it looks like as we grow, why friendship breakups can be healthy, and why it might just be the greatest love of all.

This week’s episode, we have a fan of the show with us, Carlos, a hard-working, financial services professional who recently left his job, having been in the industry 16+ years. He’s listened to every episode, but the recent ones on quiet quitting, grind culture, work/life balance podcasts, and self-advocacy really resonated with him. Carlos is here to talk to us about his own, real life journey in self-realization, what it finally took to get him to make the move, and why quitting is the best thing he’s ever done!

Are you an advocate…for yourself? These days, we’re all about supporting each other, but sometimes we forget to be there for ourselves. Join us this week as Cecile and Juan recap Juan’s recent health scare and why it reminds all of us at Ends with Z how important it is to be our own biggest advocates, when it comes to our health and wellness, and maintaining hope during times of uncertainty. And, in matters of the heart and our health, surrounding ourselves with a good support system, love (and sometimes even tough love) is the path to whole healing.

Do you have a secret sauce to life and are you willing to share it? This episode we talk about Juan's recent trip to Vegas for one of the nation’s biggest journalism conventions. We discuss how media careers and job needs have shifted and how we can make these changes work for all of us. From the younger one-person journalism band to teaching older generations the latest apps necessary to keep up with changing needs, we reveal why it's advantageous for everyone to help each other. We also discuss the dangers of toxic Queen Bee mentality and how to better balance the stresses of a changing workplace. Sometimes the secret isn’t in the sauce, it’s in the sharing.

This week’s episode, we discuss why “the grind” is overrated, how channel surfing can be good for your mental health, and what being a man, woman, and successful whole human looks like in today's world. How do you unwind? Taking just 5 minutes to chill out can help prevent you from being burnt out. Grab your slippers and a glass of wine, you won’t want to miss this one.

The answer may depend on which generation you ask. With older ones having internalized it and younger ones glorifying it, grind or hustle culture has been around for hundreds of years and is embedded in the DNA of American exceptionalism. It is our work culture. For many, modern-day work culture involves working a regular job plus a side hustle, working multiple part-time jobs, or working well past 55+ hours per week in a full-time job. The truth is, left unchecked, grind culture can be harmful to your well-being and physical health, and is unsustainable as individuals and for corporations. But how do we stop grinding, when being overworked is often seen as a badge of honor with 4.2M Instagram posts tagged #riseandgrind, when society views it as a measure of success, or when some of us must work multiple jobs just to survive? With 1440 minutes in a day, the answer may be to take 5 of those minutes each day to make a conscious choice to power down, instead of always knuckling down. Start building your different work culture and get more out of life.

Go with the flow, be like water, embrace change. They all mean the same thing: maintaining flexibility and leaning into change. We’re back this week to discuss what being adaptable means for each person, how to not fear change, and how to access your own flexibility for more happiness this summer season. Sit down, take a listen, and get ready to lean into change!

Summer is here and that means vacay, baby! Yes, we’ve all had the wind knocked out of us lately with ever-increasing prices, especially when we fill up. So how do we get our three R’s: rest, relaxation, and relationship time, when everything is so expensive? The answer is proper planning while adopting a flexible mindset that embrace choices to maximize your experience and minimize the stress and cost. In this episode, we discuss staycations, family bonding, past travels, and current adventuring in a way that won’t break the bank but still allow us to dive into the three R’s with some insightful perspective and helpful tips.

Taking time off shouldn’t be stressful, but it is for many, so much so that millions of vacation days go unused each year. Where is the line between being a hard worker and working all the time? It’s vacation time where the living is easy. Or it should be and can be, if we are flexible and plan properly. Do you take that trip to Europe we’ve put off that last 2 years or do we stay local to save money as gas prices continue to rise? This week’s episode, we dive into the idea of embracing flexibility this summer (and we don’t just mean on the yoga mat), having grace with ourselves and how life now (or what we at Ends with Z like to call Life: 2.0) is an opportunity rethink the idea of working hard, while taking necessary downtime to relax and recharge. How do we attain it? Hint: the answer may be in a 4-day work week and the convergence of traditional European ideals and American work ethic.

While many of us are still trying to figure out what cryptocurrency is, the Metaverse has arrived. What is it exactly? Is it the Sims on steroids? Is it digital communal living? Virtual reality? Is it for socialization? Business? Education? Fitness? Well, if you're a novice like us, still scratching your head to understand the Metaverse, you'll want to tune into this episode where we break down the overall concept of Metaverse. We also discuss the Metaverse’s positive and negative implications for the digital world we're living in, the physical planet we are living on, and our well-being as humans living with both worlds. Hang on tight, folks, the future isn't coming . . . it's here!

What we consume is our world. And in California, we love our detoxes to keep our world healthy--juice cleanses, Keto, intermittent fasting, sweat chambers, sage burning--we love it all! But what about our digital diet? With all that we consume from our devices, it stands to reason that taking an occasional break to detox can be good for our well-being. Do you know how much you take in without thinking? In this week's episode, we discuss how to be more mindful of our digital usage and how we can cultivate healthy digital practices that help us live a better life, not just for ourselves but more importantly, for our children.

Is your phone keeping you from reaching your goals? Iphones, Androids, Tablets and Watches. They’re all so “smart.” You need to keep track of your receipts? There’s an app for that. Need to see what restaurants are nearby? There’s an app for that. Want to “unplug” and calm down from your day? Yeah, there’s even an app for that, and it’s great! However, when does digital usage crossover from being productive to disruptive? The science is in, and it seems the very devices meant to make our lives easier are actually stressing us out and depressing us all. Join Cecile and Juan this week as they discuss this hot-button issue and reflect on what we all did before the internet and social media and how to find a healthy balance between being digitally engaged and humanly present. 

COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated many things in our society. Americans started new small businesses in record numbers during the pandemic, many fueled by being laid off or by just having the time and space to seriously contemplate their work and their personal lives. Now more than any time in history, the path to being an entrepreneur is easier than ever before because of the internet and the digitization of work and life. But there is a cost to being the boss, and that is accountability. In this episode, our producer, Shawn Meaux, joins the podcast where he and Cecile discuss their entrepreneurial boss beginnings and insights they have learned along their journeys. With the right mindset, you can turn your side hustle into the main dance with some hard work, a good plan, good luck, more hard work, more planning, and ultimately, doing and executing.

With everything we have experienced over the past 2 years, It seems we are all trying find more capacity to handle what keeps coming at us. How do we preserve in the face of adversity or constant change? The key is to be more resilient--to heighten our self-awareness of the things we cannot control and our responses to those things. It is the radical acceptance of the highest order. We are all born resilient and we can learn how to be more adaptive and reactive to not just survive but to thrive. This is how we are all hardwired, it is as an innate human ability for self-preservation and protection. Begin and end every day knowing, no matter what, you can get yourself to a place where you know you can handle anything, be it a small, everyday frustration or a full blown, major crisis. Our favorite psychotherapist John Tsilimparis, MFT is back to show us how to keep doing the work that will help us tap into our resilience and thrive.

All of us know at least one person who quit their job within the last year and about twenty others who are really thinking about it.  Many don’t have another job lined up before they quit – the one cardinal rule very few would ever dare to brake. But  almost 9 million people between November and December did exactly that. They were just done.  If you are not thinking about it, should you?  And, if you are, is there a good or smarter way to do it, to make sure you are going to make your life better, feel happier, do more of what you love? In this episode, we help you really think about why you should go and how to make sure the grass is greener on the other side.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/business/quitting-contagious.htmlhttps://link.cnbc.com/public/26473621

We’re age inappropriate and loving it! Thanks to JLO, modern medicine and Botox, people say 50 is the new 30 and turning 40 no longer means doom and gloom. But why is that a good thing? Why are we all chasing youth; don’t you remember the acne, bad decisions and hangovers of your 20s? Because we, at Ends with Z, sure do! Maybe there’s a sweet spot? In this week’s episode, find out why 30 should actually be the new 50 (and why that’s a great thing), what Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway have in common, and how ageism is “so outdated.”

Back to school is always a mixed bag of excitement, nerves, fears and change. Things are a somewhat better – we have vaccines and boosters too – but the tension and confusion, on top of a year and a half of living in a pandemic, has been a steep price for all of us to pay. We wanted to give voice to the human side of the hot-button issue of bringing kids back to school. Ends With Z revisits (from podcasts #13 and #14) two Title 1 School teachers -- Shannon Dunn from Lexington, KY, and Gennevie Deloney from Tucson, AZ-- to hear their experiences, thoughts, and perspectives on bringing children back to school for in-person learning as the Delta variant, mask mandates, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, and vaccination mandates become the focus of and threaten school re-openings nationwide.

With the promise of higher vaccination rates, the U.S. economy continues to reopen. But as unemployment numbers drop, companies are having a hard time figuring out exactly how to get employees back to the office. Doing it safely because we are still in a pandemic is only one factor. While many company leaders prefer a return to the office, many employees want more flexibility in their work schedule, having experienced working in a remote capacity due to pandemic restrictions. A shift happened, and it’s increasing in strength, with employees holding more influence and power. The work itself, how we work, where we work/where we live, and why we go to the office has changed and will continue to evolve. Make no mistake, these changes were already happening and have only been accelerated by the pandemic. Companies, leaders/managers of every company will need to address them on an individual basis and must think differently to imagine a productive, sustainable hybrid/flexible work model that is effective for their company and their employees. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

We continue the discussion on how we adjust and readjust as we emerge from our homes and re-enter society. LA-based Psychotherapist, John Tsilimparis, MFT, joins the conversation to help us navigate the post-pandemic path to a new reality with less restrictions, masks, and mandates in a safer way that nurtures and supports our mental health and well-being.

In this podcast, we’re diving into how many of us are moving forward in the wake of COVID-19 and redefining the new normal. Do we hug again? How about just an elbow bump? We explore what our worlds are looking like now that we’re emerging from COVID-19 and discuss why it’s okay if you’re not okay in part one of this two-part podcast!