Raw and Real at Work: An Experiment to Find Authenticity and Connection

Growing up in Mumbai, Natasha was surrounded by constant noise—millions of people, endless activity, expectations, and responsibilities. Finding the quiet to hear her own voice wasn’t easy. Then, while she was still in college studying engineering, her father was diagnosed with cancer and died just a year and a half later. Overnight she found herself navigating grief, adulthood, and the realizationthat life cannot be controlled.

Searching for a new purpose, Natasha left India to pursue graduate school in the United States, where she faced the challenges of adapting to a new culture, building a career, and navigating years of visa uncertainty before eventually joiningGilead. Later came another transition she couldn’t fully prepare for: becoming both a scientist and a mother.

Throughout each chapter of her life—from losing her father to immigrating across the world, from building confidence as a professional to balancing career and family—one simple message from a mentor became an anchor: “You’ll figure it out.”

In this conversation, Natasha reflects on grief, identity, motherhood, leadership, vulnerability, and why the people who believe in us often change our lives more than they realize.

In this episode of Raw and Real at Work, Sean sits down with Adam for a deeply human conversation about parenting, identity, legacy, and how our personal histories quietly shape how we show up at work.

Adam, a chemist and father of a 2-year-old and 6-year-old, shares the unfiltered reality of modern parenting: relentless, exhausting, and profoundly transformative.

Their conversation expands beyond day-to-day parenting into generational legacy. Adam opens up about his family’s Holocaust history, the weight of inherited trauma, and the responsibility—and uncertainty—of carrying a story shaped by survival without passing down fear or hate. Together, Sean and Adam explore how vulnerability, intention, and empathy can bridge divides—at home, at work, and across the “tribes” we belong to.

This episode is a reminder that our stories don’t exist in isolation. When shared honestly, they become connective tissue—helping us understand each other more fully and work together more humanely.

Jamie Moore, now a Gilead executive, gave birth during grad school and kept going. She was propelled by teachers who spotted her spark, a boss who saved a leadership role for her when she felt ready, and a spouse who took on caregiving so she could step into the lab and the boardroom.

Her reflections echo across our series: how early champions, stretch assignments, and shared family responsibility create the scaffolding for talent to thrive. She also shares how thriving inside supportive systems can blind us to the struggles others face

Jamie thought she didn’t have much of a story. Yet in her journey, we see the universal truth: drive + support = impact. And it raises the question—what breakthroughs could we see if those conditions were available to everyone?

In this episode, my colleague grapples with finding connection and belonging in the U.S.—alone, without family. He longs for Guatemala, especially the loved ones he left behind, and begins to regret his decision to come. As the saying goes, ‘You are the company you keep,’ and when he falls in with the wrong crowd, one mistake nearly costs him his life. But in that moment of crisis, he finds a turning point—one that will change everything.

In this episode, my colleague shares his journey of attempting to enter the U.S. at just 18 years old—guided by a coyote. He recounts, in vivid detail, the many failed attempts and the risks he faced at the border. But crossing was only the beginning. After finally making it to the U.S., he reunites with his mother for the first time in 13 years—only to find that their long-awaited moment is not what either had imagined. The journey to freedom hasn’t ended. It has just begun.

This deeply personal and difficult story captures my colleague’s journey from growing up in a Guatemalan junkyard to building a new life in the U.S. After hearing his story, I understand why he works so hard and fights for every inch in life. His resilience, determination, and unbreakable spirit are a testament to the power of perseverance.

Damai was only ten years old when his mother died. His father was overwhelmed caring for his two younger siblings, so Damai left his childhood home—a mud hut with a straw roof in the hills of Nepal. He set off alone in search of work, shelter, and food. Alone. Hungry. Without guidance or comfort, he became a dishwasher in a tea house for five cents a month, sleeping where strangers let him, surviving moment to moment. At age ten!

This episode traces the extraordinary life of a boy who became an adult far too soon. From being sent to school in Nepal by kindhearted European tourists who noticed this young boy living alone on the streets to working as a Sherpa to Everest Base Camp in his twenties, to receiving a fiancé visa from an American woman he spent two weeks with on the mountain. From one impossible moment to the next. One chance encounter to the next shepherded Damai to building a new life in the United States. Damai’s story is one of unimaginable hardship, surprising kindness from strangers, and unbelievable grit.

Now a father to a college graduate, he reflects on a life without role models, love, or safety—and the steady peace he continues to seek with that absence.

In this deeply personal and thought-provoking episode, Sean sits down with Rankin, a Filipino-American biotech professional and former entomologist, to explore what it means to belong, connect, and follow your gut—both inside and outside the workplace. From growing up between cultures, to studying invasive ants in Australia, to navigating disconnection in post-COVID America, Rankin shares how identity, friendship vs friends, and deep self-reflection have shaped his journey. Together, he and Sean reflect on the courage it takes to be real in corporate America, and why, in an age of AI, human connection is more vital than ever.

In this honest and powerful conversation, Sean—a process chemist at Gilead—shares her experience growing up as the child of Taiwanese immigrants. From a young age, she felt unseen in her own home: a tomboy who loved skateboarding and climbing, but who was handed frilly, feminine clothes by a mother trying to mold her into the “ideal” Chinese daughter.

Through therapy with her mom as an adult, Sean began to break the cycle of generational trauma. She set boundaries, showed her parents who she truly is, and learned that love remains—even when expectations aren’t met.

Sean opens up about the pressures growing up in a culture that prizes docility, whiteness, thinness, and perfection. She reflects on body image, beauty standards, sometimes being underestimated as a woman in science, and finding her voice in spaces that often overlook women—especially Asian women.

She also shares touching stories of her bond with her grandmother, her evolving relationship with cultural identity, and how she’s finally learning to feel at home in her own skin. One powerful moment: wearing a traditional Asian dress for her city hall wedding—something she wouldn’t have done five years ago

In this powerful interview, a Salvadoran immigrant shares his extraordinary journey—growing up amid a brutal civil war and rebuilding his life after arriving in the U.S. alone at age 18 in 1989. Taken by the government twice as a teenager, he describes living in a constant state of alert. Soldiers patrolled every corner. Guerrilla fighters disguised themselves as civilians. At one point, he was held hostage in his own home by armed rebels, who forced him to dig escape tunnels through the walls to neighboring houses.

Despite years of trauma that lingered in dreams and flashbacks, he held onto a future-oriented mindset. He began working at Gilead cleaning laboratory beakers and flasks. It was there that life began to shift: a scientist he befriended encouraged him to invest in company stock—eventually allowing him to buy a home.

His story is one of resilience, survival instinct, and quiet inner strength. Calm, grounded, and always willing to help others, rather than channeling his past into bitterness, he channeled it into caring—for himself and those around him.