What does it take to design a hospital — and how is AI changing that work?

In this episode, I sit down with Francisco "Paco" Ortega, architect and Founder & CEO of Enero Arquitectura, a Spain-based studio specializing in healthcare design.

We cover:

- Designing hospitals and other high-stakes spaces

- What genuine AI literacy actually looks like

- How different parts of the world are approaching AI

- The human side of technology and what comes next

🔗 Connect with Paco: https://lnkd.in/evnTSgg6

🏢 Enero Arquitectura: https://lnkd.in/ervr4Rth

Subscribe for new episodes every week.

#TheCalmTechLife #AI #Architecture #FutureOfWork #Podcast

Some jobs teach you what you want. Others teach you what you'll never put up with again.

Emily Lee spent years in property management before making the leap to public service. Today she's an Administrative Analyst with the City of Sacramento — and she has a lot to say about what it took to get there.

In this episode, we get real about toxic work environments, the fear of leaving, and what happens when you finally bet on yourself. We also talk AI, raising kids in a tech-saturated world, and what working inside local government has shown her about the real world.

📌 Chapters:[0:39] Working for an Independent Owner

[8:17] Hitting the Breaking Point to Leave a Job

[14:29] Making the Leap: Realizing You Are Not Your Job

[24:15] What is Calm Tech?

[28:20] Modern Technology & The Impact of AI

[40:07] What Working for the Government Taught Me About the Real World

[45:31] Advice for My Younger Self

🔗 Connect with Emily on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-lee/

🎙️ The Calm Tech Life is a podcast about how technology shapes the way we work and live — and how to stay human in the middle of it.

Subscribe for new episodes every week: https://lnkd.in/eExydzt7

What happens when a psychology expert becomes a product designer? You get someone who understands exactly why people behave the way they do — and how design can either help or exploit that.

Matt O'Connor is a Senior Advanced UX Designer at Honeywell who has spent his career designing products that touch millions of people across sports, healthcare, payments, and enterprise. He didn't come up through art school. He studied psychology — and it changed everything about how he works.

In this episode, we get into the ethics of design, dark patterns, what it costs users when business goals win, how AI is reshaping the field, and what it's like to raise young kids in a world you helped build.

📌 Chapters:0:00

Intro2:38

How Psychology Applies to Visual Design

7:25 The Pros & Cons of Modern Connection

11:52 Advocating for the User: The Responsibility Gap

18:11 The Dark Side of Design

20:24 Raising Humans in a Tech World

24:24 The Impact of AI: Critical Thinking, Jobs and the Climate

39:23 What is Calm Tech?

🔗 Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewaoconnor/

🎙️ The Calm Tech Life is a podcast about how technology shapes the way we work and live — and how to stay human in the middle of it.

Subscribe for new episodes every week: https://lnkd.in/g5s44Fz9

Emily Griffith has navigated more loss than most — her grandma, her dad, her sister, her mom — one in each decade of her life. Instead of pushing through it and moving on, she built a coaching practice around it.

Felt Write is where grief meets writing, and where people finally get to feel what they've been holding.In this episode, Emily talks about what grief coaching actually is, why writing works when talking doesn't, and what it costs people — and workplaces — when loss gets ignored. We also get into the role technology plays in all of it: whether our phones are helping us cope or just helping us avoid.

0:00 Intro

4:02 What is Grief Coaching?

10:00 Emily’s Story

18:58 The Pain of Anticipatory Grief

22:59 Navigating Grief in the Corporate World

30:34 Writing as a Healing Tool

37:16 Grief and Technology

39:52 What is Calm Tech?

44:22 Advice for Grievers

🔔 Learn more about Emily's work at meetfeltwrite.com or connect with her on LinkedIn

🎙️ The Calm Tech Life is a podcast about how technology shapes the way we work and live — and how to stay human in the middle of it.

Subscribe for new episodes every week: https://lnkd.in/eExydzt7

Darren Hood has spent decades in UX — and he has a lot to say about where the industry went wrong.

As a UX champion, TEDx speaker, adjunct professor, and host of The World of UX podcast (300+ episodes), he's one of the few people in the field willing to say out loud what most people only think.In this episode, we get into how UX became something it was never supposed to be, why the people leading UX so often don't understand it, and what it actually takes to do the work well.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

5:13 How UX Has Changed (and Not for the Better)

10:10 Why So Few UX Leaders Actually Know UX

19:15 When Ego Overrules the Research

28:43 The UX Gold Rush and What It Broke

32:15 What High UX Maturity Actually Looks Like

39:35 Why Darren Started The World of UX — and Kept Going

44:41 AI and the Future of Research

46:17 What Is Calm Tech?

🔔 Learn more about Darren's work and The World of UX podcast at theworldofux.com or connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwhood/

🎙️ The Calm Tech Life is a podcast about how technology shapes the way we work and live — and how to stay human in the middle of it.Subscribe for new episodes every week: https://lnkd.in/eExydzt7

Tiana Veldwisch left a corporate career to build her own consulting practice — and she never stopped doing the work that matters to her. Now, as a fractional product leader and team effectiveness coach, she works at the intersection of tech and climate every day.

In this episode, we talk about what it actually takes to go independent, what fractional product management really is, and how she builds trust inside organizations as an outsider on a temporary basis. We also get into one of the more honest conversations I've had on this show: can AI actually help solve climate change — or is it making us worse at thinking for ourselves?

🔔 You can learn more about Tiana's work at https://TianaV.com or reach out on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/tianav

In this episode:

Why she left corporate (and what surprised her most)

What coaching and fractional work actually look like in practice

AI as a climate tool — and its cost to independent thought

What calm tech means when your work is urgent by nature

0:00 Intro

4:13 Leaving Corporate to Go Solo

11:14 The Power of Accountability: Why Coaching Works

19:38 Fractional Work, Explained

27:24 AI: Tool or Threat to the Climate?

39:37 What is Calm Tech?

🎙️ The Calm Tech Life is a podcast about how technology shapes the way we work and live — and how to stay human in the middle of it.

Subscribe for new episodes every week: https://lnkd.in/eExydzt7

On this episode, I’m joined by Arthur Bom Conselho, CFP®, First Vice President and Private Wealth Advisor at Merrill Lynch, for a conversation about The Power of Financial Planning.💥

We explore:

• Why financial planning is about more than investments

• How AI is changing wealth management

• What technology can (and can’t) do when it comes to your money

• Why having a plan matters more than trying to predict the future

If you’ve ever wondered how AI will shape the future of financial advice, you won’t want to miss this conversation.✨

0:00 Intro

3:22 What a Private Wealth Advisor Actually Does

9:51 The Art of the Money Conversation

18:18 Technology, Trust, and Your Financial Future

28:52 Protecting What You've Built: Cybersecurity

35:46 How AI is Transforming Wealth Management

42:41 Goals, Accountability and What I'd Tell my Younger Self

What does it actually take to design an app that millions of people use every day? In this episode, I sit down with Lauren Young, Lead Product Designer at FanDuel, to talk about what thoughtful design really looks like — and what most people never see.

We cover how designers experience apps differently once they know what's behind them, what it means to design for real users (not assumptions), how AI is changing the design process, and the advice Lauren wishes she'd had earlier in her career.

Whether you work in tech or just use it every day, this conversation will change how you think about the apps in your life.

0:00 Intro

4:17 Designers' Eye for Apps

20:29 Staying Calm in Tech

32:25 Will AI Replace People?

35:26 Relationship with Technology

40:22 Advice for New Designers

Liz Freeman has spent 20+ years studying how people actually use technology, not how they say they do. In this episode, we talk about what AI is really changing in research, why the human element still can't be replaced, and what it looks like to stay grounded when everything keeps speeding up.For researchers, designers, product people...and anyone trying to find their footing in a fast-moving world.

0:00 Intro

0:40 The Path to UX Research

5:15 From Insights to Impact

15:07 AI and the Future

29:35 AI and it's Role in Research

39:13 Breaking into UX Research