The Rethinking Work Show

What if the crisis of work and the crisis of mental health are actually one and the same? Kristen Beveridge, founder of phae, explores why finding work that fits who we are is essential to our wellbeing, how traditional career paths are breaking down, and why the future of work must give people greater agency over their careers and lives.

Try Phae! Use the code: RETHINKINGWORK for 20% off of the first three months of phae!  Phae is a work and life design lifelong guide and coach designed by humans for humans. phae helps people of all ages and stages envision who they want to become, the life they want to live, and how work fits into that equation in a world being transformed by AI and automation. Committed to using AI and technology in service of humanity, the team at phae is committed to making this platform available to everyone for $1 a day. 

Kristen is the Founder & CEO of phae™ (phae.com) — the Personal Holistic Advancement Engine — a new kind of lifelong guide for navigating life and work in a rapidly changing world. Phae helps people not just find jobs, but design meaningful, future-ready lives where work truly fits. phae democratizes access to the best life and work guidance ever available, for people of all ages and stages. It's the guide everyone needed – and it's available to everyone for $1 a day.  A product leader, design thinker, and entrepreneur, Kristen has spent over 25 years at the intersection of technology, culture, and human experience. She has co-founded and built multiple companies, with two successful exits, and has led groundbreaking digital platforms for both startups and Fortune 500s. After studying design, culture, and technology at Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, and MIT, she began her career leading the design team for Ameritrade, the first online trading platform. She went on to be a founding team member of BzzAgent, the first-ever word-of-mouth marketing platform (acquired by Dunnhumby), and later served as product and brand lead for Rapid Payer Response, a global pharmaceutical research platform (acquired by Genesis Research). Her portfolio of work spans global brands and causes — from Volkswagen, Ralph Lauren, and Estée Lauder, to Citibank, Pfizer, Audible, Komen, and Bono’s RED. Kristen has deep expertise in digital product strategy, cultural insight, AI-driven design, and building cross-disciplinary teams to tackle complex, human-centered challenges. Today, with phae, she is channeling three decades of experience into solving one of the biggest crises of our time: helping people thrive in the age of AI and automation.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.

As companies retreat from public commitments and corporate values, what are they risking in the process? Haider Nazar, co-founder and CEO of MAHA Global, explores the growing gap between what companies say and what they stand for, why silence can carry a hidden reputational cost, and what the next era of corporate conviction might look like.

Haider Nazar is the Co-Founder & CEO of MAHA Global. With over two decades of expertise in data, enterprise software and organisational transformation, his leadership spans the growth of numerous companies, including four successful exits and securing over $200M in combined equity and debt financing. Nazar has served dozens of Fortune 500 Brands leveraging advanced technology to drive strategic decision-making. Driven by the belief that integrating corporate reputation with profit motives can drive positive social and environmental change, Nazar continues to pioneer innovative solutions that empower organisations worldwide. His commitment to leveraging data-driven insights underscores his mission to enable impactful decision-making and foster sustainable growth.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.

As AI makes work faster and easier, what might we lose along the way? Bala Muthiah explores the hidden cost of convenience, why productive friction strengthens learning and judgment, and how we can use AI without outsourcing our ability to think for ourselves.

Bala Muthiah is a Director of Engineering focused on building real-time, AI-enabled systems at scale. His work sits at the intersection of technology, leadership, and culture—specifically how organizations design environments where AI strengthens human judgment rather than replacing it. An immigrant turned Silicon Valley leader, Bala brings a people-first lens to engineering, emphasizing curiosity, resilience, and decision-making under pressure. Beyond his day-to-day work, he advises startups, mentors founders and engineers, and serves on nonprofit boards. His perspective blends hands-on operating experience with a deep interest in how tools, incentives, and systems quietly shape how people think and work.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.

What if building a bigger business doesn’t require building a bigger team? Tim Huelskamp, co-founder and CEO of 1440, shares how a small, focused team reaches millions of readers, and why staying lean, curious, and intentional can create outsized impact.

Tim Huelskamp spent a decade in private equity helping scale growth businesses before building one of his own. He's the co-founder & CEO of 1440, a community for the knowledge-obsessed. Every day, the 1440 team scours the internet, cuts through the noise, and delivers fact-based, insights that help millions of readers keep learning. Along the way, 1440 has been named one of Inc.’s Best Workplaces three years running, and ranked among the Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies. Before 1440, Tim invested in and helped grow businesses at a $20B private equity fund, serving on the boards of companies across a range of industries. He also co-founded Fifth Star, a philanthropic venture fund providing "friends and family" capital to underrepresented founders. They've backed more than 30 founders to date.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.

How do you keep evolving when the world around you won’t stop changing? Marketing leader Lou Paskalis explores what it takes to reinvent your career, stay relevant through disruption, and embrace change before it’s forced upon you.

Lou Paskalis is CEO and Founder of AJL Advisory, a consultancy focused on helping marketers to improve their business narrative and tech companies to better understand marketers and their needs. He also serves as Chief Strategy Officer of Ad Fontes Media a Public Benefit company that is dedicated to increasing advertisers’ investments to reach audiences in quality news journalism with a unique technology that allows them to measure, mitigate and monitor bias and reliability in a manner consistent with their values and principles. Paskalis sits on the advisory boards of Ebiquity, Nielsen and POSSIBLE, among others and is very active with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in several key areas, including their ongoing efforts in supply path optimization. Previously, Paskalis was President and COO of MMA Global, a trade association focused on architecting the future of marketing. In that role, he was responsible for driving innovation and change across a broad portfolio of functional areas, initiatives and forward-looking activities centered on shaping the future of marketing. Prior to MMA, Paskalis spent three decades of client-side leadership experience, having led Global Communications Planning, Media Investment, Marketing Data Strategy and Brand Safety and Suitability at Bank of America; Media, Content and Mobile Marketing at American Express. He is well-known as an outspoken champion for marketing innovation, governance and the advancement of the art and science of marketing as well as a strong advocate for ad-supported journalism and marketers’ unique responsibility to support news organizations in their valiant efforts to uncover, disseminate and defend truth. He makes his home in Manhattan and is a lifelong F1 fan and enjoys international travel.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.

As AI becomes more capable, what will make humans indispensable? Matt Lewis, founder and CEO of Transformental, explores why the future of work depends not just on smarter technology, but on strengthening human judgment, leadership, and the qualities that AI can't replicate.

Matt Lewis is the Founder and CEO of Transformental, the first AI-enabled consultancy focused entirely on human-centered transformation. Over a career spanning neuroscience, data science, healthcare, and innovation, Matt has helped organizations navigate complex change while keeping people at the center of the equation.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.

How do you find work that aligns with who you are, not just what you can do? William Vanderbloemen, founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group, explores how understanding your strengths, behaviors, and motivations can lead to more fulfilling careers and more effective leadership in a rapidly changing world of work.

William Vanderbloemen, founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group, is a renowned speaker, author and expert on leadership, workplace culture and staffing issues. When William combined his ministry experience as a Senior Pastor with the best practices of executive search, he created a brand new industry: executive search for faith-based organizations. A firm believer in data, William has discovered trends and traits common to the best leaders through more than 3,000 executive searches and 30,000 interviews.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.

Is career success measured by moving up or moving forward? Cliff Maxwell, co-founder and CEO of Vocation, explores the difference between career progression and career progress, why fulfillment matters as much as advancement, and how individuals can take greater ownership of designing meaningful careers in a rapidly changing world of work.

Cliff Maxwell is the Co-founder and CEO of Vocation, an AI-powered career coaching platform for students and professionals to discover their next step. Prior to Vocation, Cliff spent several years investing in early-stage technology startups and was the Chief of Staff to the late Professor Clayton Christensen who developed the theory of 'disruptive innovation'. Cliff's career began as a CPU design engineer. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated from Brigham Young University with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He resides in Salt Lake City where he is busy raising three boys. 

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.

What happens when you leave the career you've spent decades building? Julie Fedele, a Future of Work strategist and portfolio career mentor, explores why career transitions are as much about identity as opportunity, and how more professionals are moving beyond traditional employment to build a body of work that’s truly their own.

Julie Fedele is a Future of Work strategist and portfolio career mentor based in Melbourne, Australia. A former C-suite leader and venture builder across Australian and European startups in HealthTech, ClimateTech, and Media, she works at the intersection of individual career transition and organisational workforce design. Julie helps women in mid-to-senior career stages move from the corporate model to what she calls the Hollywood Model: a shift from employee to talent, where you build a body of work, move between productions, and own your career narrative and income mix. Her methodology blends strategic business frameworks with diagnostic tools for energy and decision-making. She writes rawmaterials, a weekly newsletter on identity, income, and the real work of building something that's yours, and is currently writing Off Script, a book on the structural shift reshaping how we work.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.

In a world overflowing with productivity tools and AI assistants, are we actually working better together? Toby Daniels, co-founder of ON_Discourse and Domain, explores why the future of work depends on better collaboration, stronger networks, and systems that help us think and not just work more effectively.

Toby is the Co-Founder of ON_Discourse, a global network of technology, business and innovation leaders, investors and entrepreneurs and Co-Founder of the (domain), an AI collaboration platform that connects your work to your network. Domain is now available as a free public beta: ondomain.ai Prior to this, he was the Chief Innovation Officer at Adweek, the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem. Toby was also the Founder & Chair of Social Media Week, which Adweek acquired in January 2021. Prior to the acquisition, Social Media Week was owned and operated by Crowdcentric Media, which Toby led as CEO for over ten years. Before Crowdcentric, Daniels led business development in the US for Mint Digital and prior to that was the Managing Director of Online Creative Communications, a London based digital agency that he managed for 7 years. Toby is also an advisor to a number of companies including Adweek, Legends, a confidence-training program for elementary schoolers, building legendary kids in 5 minutes a day, and Simon Data, a SaaS marketing platform that helps clients deliver better customer experiences using data.  He was also an advisor to BOND, which sold to Newell Brands in 2016. As a thought leader in media, marketing and technology, Toby has been featured in mainstream and trade media, including articles on CNN.com, The NY Times, The Next Web, Huffington Post, AdWeek, PSFK and Fast Company. He speaks regularly at conferences and has given talks at PdF Latin America in Chile, Social Media Brazil, The Co-Creation Conference, Phoenix and SXSW. In 2013, The Next Web named Toby as one of New York's 50 NYC Tech Entrepreneurs You Need to Know About. In 2014 Toby co-curated the book On! The Future of Now, with the proceeds going towards supporting clean water projects in the developing world.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

For more actionable insights that inspire subscribe to Rishad Tobaccowala's free weekly substack: The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past.

This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements.

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.