Are our educational systems actually built for the people who need them most? For students who are also parents, caregivers, veterans, and full-time workers, the traditional model of higher education was never designed with them in mind. And in the Black community, where those layers of responsibility are often even more pronounced. The gap between who the system was built for and who it needs to serve has real consequences.

In this conversation I sit down with Dr. Alvin McLean, clinical psychologist and dean of psychology at National University, and Cherina Shaw, PhD candidate in psychology, doula, mother of six, and homeschool parent.

We cover a lot of ground in this one, from why psychology training pipelines produce so few Black therapists, to what culturally responsive care actually looks like in practice, to one of the most important insights I have heard about worldview and how it shapes the kind of advice a person can actually receive. We also talk about where integrated physical and mental healthcare is headed and why it matters more than most people realize.

This conversation is for HR leaders, healthcare providers, therapists in training, and anyone thinking about what it means to really see the people they are trying to help.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• What is actually driving the shortage of Black therapists and what flexible institutions like National University are doing about it
• What "culturally responsive care" looks like in daily clinical practice
• Why collective worldview is not the same as personal preference and why missing that distinction derails treatment
• Why humility, not expertise, is the most important thing a healthcare provider or leader can bring to any conversation
• How integrated physical and mental healthcare is already reducing costs and improving outcomes

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS:

00:37 Dr. McLean on why he focused his career on Black mental health

04:10 Cherina's path to a psychology PhD

07:50 Why psychology programs produce so few Black therapists and what the system gets wrong

08:09 HBCUs, state-by-state licensing, and the structural gap in the pipeline

11:16 National University's flexible model and why 70% of their students are people of color

13:22 Starting the pipeline earlier: building toward psychology careers at the elementary level

14:36 The problem with taking one multicultural competency class and calling it done

16:00 How the doctoral program at National University structures a full year of multicultural training

17:27 Implicit bias training in hospitals and why it matters for patient outcomes

18:59 Gen Z and therapy: more acceptance, but are they doing the work?

20:44 The Amazon generation and the demand for instant results

21:41 Young Black men being open about emotions on reality TV and what that signals

22:24 The gap between checking the therapy box and real internal change

23:25 The future of integrated physical and mental healthcare

25:38 Why integrated care is gaining momentum: cost data and long-term outcomes

26:11 How technology is reshaping mental health needs across generations

27:14 Intentional technology use and reclaiming mental downtime

30:38 What does culturally responsive care actually look like in practice?

31:03 Preparation, listening, partnership over task completion

33:02 Collective worldview: why prioritizing yourself can feel like betrayal

35:02 How to recognize a collective worldview through observation and conversation

38:13 Humility as the foundation of culturally competent care

39:14 Imposter syndrome, the pressure to have all the answers, and learning to let go of it

41:23 Acknowledging intersecting identities in coaching and clinical work

43:41 Prison reform: rehabilitation, for-profit prisons, and what actually works

44:50 Peer support specialists and preparing people to return to community

51:05 Final takeaways from both guests

51:25 Healing is incremental, ongoing, and that is okay

52:25 Collaborative care and leading with humility

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I had no idea anything was wrong. They seemed fine and then they just quit.

This is the most common thing I hear from managers and HR leaders right now. And here is what I need you to understand:

The silence is not the problem. The silence is the symptom.

In this solo episode, I break down exactly what is happening psychologically when a Gen Z employee goes quiet, why this generation responds to stress by withdrawing rather than speaking up, and what you can do to catch it before it becomes a resignation letter you never saw coming.

I walk through the neuroscience behind this pattern, including neuroscientist Stephen Porges' polyvagal theory and why the nervous system's freeze response gets misread by managers as contentment. I also draw on developmental psychologist Jean Twenge's research on Gen Z's anxiety levels and psychologist Wendy Mogul's work on the parenting patterns that left this generation without the tools to navigate interpersonal friction at work.

And I give you three specific behavioral signals to watch for, plus two questions you can ask in your next one on one that change the entire dynamic.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why silence from a Gen Z employee is data, not contentment
• The neuroscience of the freeze response and why it gets misread as low drama
• How Gen Z's upbringing left many of them without tools for navigating conflict at work
• Three specific behavioral signals that a Gen Z employee is disengaging
• Two questions to ask in your next one on one that actually give permission for honesty

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS:

00:01 Opening hook: the resignation that came out of nowhere

00:40 Why silence surprises us: managers are trained to look for the wrong signals

01:45 What Gen Z gives you instead: quiet, gradual withdrawal

02:18 Jean Twenge's research on Gen Z's anxiety and nervous system development

03:20 The heightened threat detection response this generation developed

03:50 Stephen Porges: polyvagal theory and the freeze response

04:42 Wendy Mogul: parenting patterns and the lack of tools for interpersonal friction

05:45 Signal 1: They stop asking questions

06:10 Signal 2: Responses get shorter and more transactional

06:35 Signal 3: They stop bringing problems to you (the most dangerous signal)

07:06 Client story: the 25-year-old who stopped speaking in meetings

07:50 What to do: one concrete thing to try this week

08:30 Two specific questions to ask in your next one on one

09:33 Closing and call to action

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In this episode, I sit down with Laura McDonald, co-founder of Flora Fertility, the first individually owned insurance solution for fertility and women's health. Laura is a bestselling author, former financial media personality, and the founder of Canada's largest financial media company focused on women and wealth, which she built, scaled, and sold. Now she is tackling one of the most urgent and under-discussed financial crises facing the next generation: the cost of fertility care.

We talk about why 72% of Gen Z women are already thinking about fertility anxiety before they are even trying to conceive, why the current group benefits model is failing most employees, how Flora Fertility is changing that with individually owned coverage starting at $15 a month, and what HR leaders and parents can actually do right now.

If you manage Gen Z employees, have a young adult daughter, or are a young woman thinking about your own options, this conversation will change the way you look at reproductive health as a financial planning issue.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why Gen Z women are thinking about fertility earlier than any generation before them
• The data behind the fertility financial crisis (and why the existing employer model isn't solving it)
• How Flora Fertility works and why individual ownership changes everything
• Why the average Gen Z employee's 12-job career makes employer-tied benefits a broken model
• What HR leaders should be doing right now, and what parents can do too

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction and guest bio

01:04 Laura's origin story: from financial media to fertility insurance

07:20 Why Gen Z women are thinking about fertility by age 23: the data

10:24 Tess's theory on how Gen Z women approach life differently than Gen X

12:41 Laura's own daughters and the reality of Gen Z's mindset around family

14:35 Birth rates, delayed motherhood, and what the data actually shows

16:31 Why women are finally being honest about what parenthood really looks like

19:18 The conversation parents need to be having with their 22-24 year old daughters

20:34 How Flora Fertility works: pricing, coverage, and the set-it-and-forget-it model

23:23 The financial reality: 80% of people pay for IVF on credit cards

25:32 How financial stress directly affects fertility outcomes

26:06 Why Fortune 500 fertility benefits are not the solution most people think they are

31:12 Emotional intelligence, pet insurance, and why Flora resonates differently

33:37 How Flora is earning trust with a generation skeptical of insurance

37:54 Why Flora may be the first financial product Gen Z women ever actually buy

40:25 The gig economy, 12 jobs, and why benefits have to travel with you

41:45 What HR leaders should be doing right now

43:55 Parents as policyholders: gifting coverage to adult children

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When a Gen Z employee says they don't feel safe at work, most leaders have one of two reactions. They either panic, thinking they have a legal problem on their hands, or they get quietly frustrated, assuming they're dealing with an overdramatic employee. In this episode, Tess Brigham, licensed therapist and certified coach, breakd down why both of those reactions miss what's actually happening and what to do instead.

Tracing the psychological and generational roots of Gen Z's emotional vocabulary through the work of Dan Siegel on interpersonal neurobiology and the yes brain concept, John Bowlby's attachment theory as extended to the workplace by Cindy Hazen and Philip Shaver, and Stanford researcher Jeff Cohen's research on belonging uncertainty, you'll also hear three real examples from Tess's practice that demonstrate exactly what this looks like in day-to-day workplace moments.

If you manage Gen Z employees or lead teams that do, this episode will change the way you hear this phrase and give you one concrete, immediately usable response.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why "I don't feel safe" means something completely different to Gen Z than it does to leaders over 45
• The psychological and generational roots of Gen Z's emotional vocabulary
• Three real client examples that show what this phrase actually looks like at work
• Why belonging uncertainty is not a soft concern, it is a performance issue
• The one question that shifts everything when a Gen Z employee brings this to you

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS:

00:01 Introduction and opening hook

01:10 Why this phrase creates so much confusion across generations

02:28 Where Gen Z's emotional language comes from: Dan Siegel and the yes brain

04:44 Attachment theory at work: Bowlby, Hazan, and Shaver

05:30 Three real client examples from Tess's practice

07:04 Why belonging is non-negotiable: Jeff Cohen's belonging uncertainty research

09:18 The single most important shift: get curious instead of defensive

10:20 Carl Rogers and the power of being genuinely heard

Follow The Gen Mess for weekly content on generational workplace dynamics, and visit tessbrigham.com to learn more.

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Most managers walk into their first role thinking the job is to tell people what to do and hold them accountable when they don't do it. Jon Dario spent 30 years in retail leadership (Macy's, Gap, Travelex, and Bank of America) learning why that instinct is exactly wrong. Out of that experience came AIM: Action Item Management. This system gives frontline managers the structure, follow-through, and daily accountability that actually gets results. He has written it all down in his new book, AIM: How Managers Get Radically Reliable Results.

Jon and Tess get into what great management actually looks like, how to lead Gen Z specifically, and the one thing every first-time manager should understand before they ever give a single direction.

• What retail teaches about people skills and prioritization that most industries simply do not
• The origin story of AIM: one sporting goods store, six department supervisors, and a woman named Regina
• The three types of action items every manager needs to track: routines, tasks, and projects
• Why progress meetings work best when the employee owns the agenda
• What Gen Z actually wants from a manager (and why it is not that different from everyone else)
• The GPS analogy: why giving a precise destination and flexible routes is the key to managing younger workers
• The Gallup statistic that should stop every manager in their tracks: 70% of employee engagement is directly driven by the manager
• Why influence cannot be faked, and why character matters more than the authority box on an org chart

Jon's book AIM: How Managers Get Radically Reliable Results is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, audio, and ebook. Find Jon at jondario.com.

Follow The Gen Mess with Tess for more weekly episodes about fixing the generational mess and learning how to live in it.

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Every generation has faced a broken world. Wars, poverty, injustice, economic collapse. None of that is new. So why does this generation feel more hopeless than any that came before?

In this episode, Tess makes the case that it is not the world that got worse. It is the exposure. And for the first time in history, there is nowhere to look that is not the world.

Tess walks through what the research actually says about why this is happening, why it hits Gen Z harder than any other generation, and one reframe that genuinely changes how you relate to all of it in this psychologically grounded episode.

• Why the generation that grew up with everything at their fingertips also grew up with no off switch
• What a magazine had 50 years ago that a smartphone still cannot offer
• Martin Seligman's learned helplessness research and how it maps directly onto the Gen Z experience
• Why 79% of Gen Zers believe their lives will be harder than their parents, and why they are not wrong to think so
• The difference between learned helplessness and learned hopefulness, and how to move from one to the other
• What leaders and managers often misread as apathy or laziness in their Gen Z employees
• The one thing organizations can do that functions as a direct psychological antidote

Follow The Gen Mess with Tess, and find free resources at tessbrigham.com

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Never before have so many generations shared a workplace at the same time. And never before has the opportunity for both collaboration and conflict been this high.

This week, Tess sits down with Meagan Johnson, generational keynote speaker and co-author of the bestselling book Generations, Inc.: Managing the Friction Between Generations at Work, written with her father Larry Johnson. Meagan has spent over 30 years helping organizations from Harley-Davidson to Boeing to the CIA navigate the very conflicts most leaders are still trying to figure out.

The conversation covers every generation in the workforce right now, what leaders keep getting wrong about each one, why the same story keeps repeating, and where we might actually be headed.

In this episode:

• The single biggest myth about Baby Boomers and technology
• Why Gen X deserves far more credit than it gets, including being the original remote work pioneers
• What Millennial managers are actually getting right that nobody is talking about
• Why Gen Z is not just a younger Millennial (and why that assumption creates real problems)
• The corporate ladder versus the corporate lattice, and why Gen Z plays by entirely different rules
• The root of almost every generational conflict at work
• The seat belt analogy: what Meagan tells resistant managers who refuse to adapt
• Why Gen Z's approach to mental health at work may become the new standard, just like mentorship did
• Where five generations, AI, and a changing economy are taking the workplace next

Find Meagan at meaganjohnson.com. Generations, Inc. is available now. Meagan's podcast launches this summer.

00:00: Welcome and Meagan Johnson introduction

01:15: How Meagan became a generational speaker, starting at Quaker Oats in 1993

03:40: The story that repeats every generation: why 20-somethings have always been "too difficult"

05:45: How the work evolved from Gen X-focused to covering all five generations

07:00: Writing Generations, Inc. with her father, and planning a wedding at the same time

09:10: The biggest myth about Baby Boomers and technology

11:10: Gen X: the forgotten generation that pioneered working from home

13:00: Millennial managers: turning into exactly what was said about them

15:10: What Millennials got right that previous generations missed: championing mentorship

17:30: The most common Gen Z misconception (hint: they are not just a younger Millennial)

19:00: Gen Z as true digital natives: no dial-up, no cursive, no idea how to sign a lease

21:00: AI in the workplace and why blocking it is exactly like blocking Facebook in 2008

23:30: The root of almost every generational conflict: "when I was that age..."

26:00: Technical skills versus personal skills: what has changed with new graduates

28:30: Why managers resist giving the next generation advantages they never had

30:00: The questions every manager should be asking about their own expectations

32:00: The seat belt analogy for resistant leaders: new information, better results

34:00: The Gen Z office myth: they do want to come in, just with the option not to

35:30: Gen Z sees Zoom as face-to-face contact (and why that matters)

37:00: Corporate ladder versus corporate lattice: the Gen Z employee who called the CEO for lunch

39:30: Why we dim Gen Z's lights when they are just trying to figure it out

40:30: Where we are headed: five generations, AI, and the future of the workplace

43:00: Mental health at work becoming the new standard, just like mentorship did

44:30: Emotional intelligence as the new baseline requirement for leadership

46:00: Where to find Meagan and her upcoming podcast

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Last episode, Tess told you why the toxic workplace pattern repeats, and identified each of the patterns: avoidance, disconnection, and measuring the environment instead of looking inward. This follow up episode provide 3 exercises to disrupt those patterns.

These exercises are designed to go to the root of where you actually get stuck.

If you haven't listened to Episode 60 yet, start there first. This episode will make a lot more sense once you've identified which pattern is yours.

In this episode:

• Why avoidance is an anxiety problem, not a communication problem, and why that distinction changes everything
• Stephen Hayes's avoidance trap from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: why avoidance works in the short term and costs you everything long term
• The exposure therapy approach that actually rewires the pattern, starting with one small moment this week
• Why disconnection from your own feelings is a survival strategy, not a character flaw
• Antonio Damasio's research on how the body sends signals your brain needs to hear, and how to start listening again
• The one question to ask yourself at the end of each day that rebuilds your internal compass
• Why most people measure opportunities by the wrong things not because they weren't taught better, but because the right questions are scarier to answer
• Kristin Neff's research on self-compassion and the fear of honest self-assessment
• Three questions to ask before your next interview, your next career decision, or your current job right now

Researcher credits:

Stephen Hayes, developer of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)

Antonio Damasio, neuroscientist, research on somatic signals and decision-making

Kristin Neff, self-compassion researcher, University of Texas Austin

Follow The Gen Mess with Tess for weekly episodes. Visit tessbrigham.com to learn more.

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You left. You reflected. You did the work. You asked better questions, watched for red flags, and turned down offers that didn't feel right. And then six months into the new job, the same feeling came back.

This isn't bad luck. And it isn't a failure of effort. It's psychology. In Part 1 of this two-part series, licensed therapist and certified coach, Tess Brigham, breaks down the real reason so many people, especially Gen Z workers entering or re-entering the workforce, end up repeating the same patterns at work even when they're actively trying to avoid it.

The answer is uncomfortable but important: most people do a thorough post-mortem on the wrong thing. They autopsy the job. They never examine themselves.

In this episode:

• How to identify a toxic workplace
• Why leaving a toxic workplace and doing all the right things still isn't enough
• The three patterns that follow people from one difficult job to the next: avoidance, disconnection, and measuring the wrong things
• What years inside a difficult work environment does to your beliefs about yourself, and how those beliefs travel with you
• Why salary, title, and company reputation are the wrong filters for evaluating a new opportunity
• The questions that actually predict whether you'll thrive somewhere, and why no one ever taught you to ask them
• Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety, and why it's the most important thing almost no organization measures
• Why Gen Z's willingness to say "this doesn't feel right" isn't a weakness. It's the question every generation should have been asking.

Researcher credit: Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School, psychological safety research

00:00: Opening story: the client who did everything right and still ended up back in the same place

01:40: The hard truth: she solved the right problem the wrong way

02:00: You autopsied the job. The job isn't what repeated. You repeated.

02:25: The three patterns that follow people from one workplace to the next

02:35: Pattern 1: Avoidance and what making yourself smaller to survive actually costs you

03:30: How avoidance rewrites your beliefs about whether it's safe to speak up

04:10: Pattern 2: Disconnection and losing touch with how you actually feel at work

04:35: Pattern 3: Measuring the wrong things, salary, title, and the cold brew on tap

05:15: The questions that actually predict whether you'll thrive somewhere

05:40: Why most people were never taught those questions were valid to ask

06:00: Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety and why organizations don't teach it

06:55: Gen Z is not the problem. They're the first ones saying what everyone should have been asking.

07:45: What to ask yourself if you've repeated the pattern

08:30: The bottom line: you were handed the wrong checklist

09:00: Preview of Episode 61: three exercises that go to the root of each pattern

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You did everything right. The school, the job, the hustle. You followed the path, and you're good at it! So why does it still feel like something's missing?

This week, Tess sits down with Malaika Smyth, a coach for high achievers who have checked every box and still find themselves asking a surprisingly hard question: what do I actually want for myself?

Malaika brings a rare combination of experience as a Division I athlete background, nearly eight years scaling coaching operations at BetterUp from 50 to over 3,500 coaches, and her own winding path through quarter-life crisis, identity shifts, and a gift box business detour. She helps people build success that actually feels like theirs.

This conversation goes deep on the psychology of high achievement, what Silicon Valley's performance culture does to young people, and why so many accomplished professionals have never once stopped to ask what they actually want.

In this episode:

• Why high achievers often tie their entire self-worth to how hard they work
• The Silicon Valley "duck effect" — calm on the surface, paddling furiously underneath
• What a Gen Z employee taught Malaika about a kind of career maturity she'd never seen before
• Why age doesn't automatically equal wisdom — and what actually does
• The sunk cost trap that keeps high achievers stuck on the wrong path
• What every client ultimately wants at their core (it's always the same thing)
• The 75-year-old exercise that cuts through all the noise and gets to what actually matters
• Where AI fits in the future of coaching — and where it absolutely doesn't

To connect with Malaika Smyth, visit malaikasmyth.com or find her on LinkedIn.

00:00 — Welcome & Malaika Smyth introduction

01:20 — When Malaika first questioned whether being a high achiever was actually working for her

02:43 — Where the drive came from — internal wiring or outside pressure?

04:10 — Growing up in Silicon Valley: the unspoken assumption that you had to do something "big"

07:00 — The duck metaphor: calm on the surface, paddling furiously underneath

08:40 — College as non-negotiable — and how environment sets a path without anyone saying a word

09:50 — Graduating in 2014: a Bay Area overflowing with opportunity and equity dreams

11:00 — Following her brother into product management — and realizing it wasn't right

11:40 — Quarter-life crisis at year two: the moment she knew something had to change

12:40 — Designing Your Life — the book that opened a new door

13:50 — Joining BetterUp and discovering what coaching actually was

14:55 — The question Malaika asks clients who are rewarded for hustle

16:00 — "My only value is that I work hard" — and why coaching helped her see beyond it

17:00 — The decision to leave BetterUp and what came next

18:30 — The gift box business detour — and the important lesson it taught

20:25 — The sunk cost trap: why people stay on the wrong path long after they know better

23:40 — Selling yourself vs. selling a product: the vulnerability of a coaching business

24:35 — "I don't really care if you work with me. I care that you work on yourself."

28:45 — The power of silence — and celebration — in a coaching session

32:00 — Learning to trust your instincts and why being wrong can still be useful

37:30 — What every client ultimately wants at their core

39:50 — Managing both younger and older employees at BetterUp

41:10 — The Gen Z employee who floored Malaika with an unexpected kind of maturity

43:00 — Age does not equal wisdom — a lesson that changed how Malaika leads

46:45 — "I've been talking to ChatGPT all morning and I need to talk to a human"

48:00 — Tess on AI: the real hope, the real fear, and what's actually at stake

54:15 — The first question to ask when you've done everything right and it still feels off

55:00 — The 75-year-old exercise: what do you want your life to have been about?

57:00 — How to connect with Malaika + closing thoughts

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