On this week’s episode of Left to Our Own Devices, Erica sits down with an old friend and the woman who inspired it all. Ashley Peterson, originally Erica’s Starbucks barista on the Upper West Side and now managing her own Starbucks in Midtown, was the catalyst for Erica’s first book, Bring Your Human to Work, after the two shared a very intentional, “human” moment one morning. Ashley just gets it. From getting to know her patrons, their kids, their orders, and even their nannies, to empowering her partners to make a “commitment” each shift (like learn five customer’s names), Ashley embodies what it means to “bring your human” to work and to life. Erica and Ashley catch up on what it’s like managing a Starbucks in a pandemic, the rituals that Ashley incorporates at her store, and how a passion for people drives everything she does.