Boss Talks Episodes

If an organization is progressive and cares about its staff, then workers don’t need a union, right? Employee survey says: Nope. Unions are taking off in all sorts of mission-driven non-profits and small businesses. Management can work with the union or against it, stagnate in defensive mode, or ultimately see it as an opportunity for the organization to get stronger. That’s what Melissa Weiler Gerber, President and CEO of Access Matters, found out when some of her nonpro...

How do we build worlds of interdependence, regeneration, and care? Sarah Ryhanen, founder of Saipua and Worlds End School of Thought, Agriculture, and Craft joins Kate to talk about dreaming, and most importantly, doing the work of building new worlds when the ones we exist in no longer serve us. Learn more about Sarah Ryhanen: Saipua Worlds End School of Thought, Agriculture and Craft Instagram: @saipua Featured Music by Billy Dufala: Instagram: @bdufala Thinkers and Books mentioned: Donna Ha...

The rules of how we interact with restaurants and the service industry at large are changing. But not without significant confusion, pushback, and sometimes outright belligerence. The restaurant industry as we know it is fundamentally broken and inequitable, a fact made all too clear during the pandemic when restaurant and service workers were hailed as essential, while simultaneously being chronically underpaid and overworked. Jenny Zavala, chef-owner of Philly’s Juana Tamale, joins Kate to d...

For so many of us, grief is a near constant companion in our lives. And that loss and accompanying grief show up whether we have the space to deal or not. As I've been exploring failure, business closures, and endings during the Summer of Failure series I've been writing these past few months, I knew I wanted to close with a conversation about grief. Today, I discuss navigating loss and grief with Sebene Selassie and Jennifer Patterson. Sebene Selassie is a writer, teacher, and speaker who ex...

Part 2 of Kate's conversation with Heather Thomason of Primal Supply Meats. You might want to listen to Part 1 of our conversation before you listen to this episode. We left off with Heather finally coming to terms with her need to exit her business. Part 2 is what happened next, including the weird double identity issues involved in orchestrating a graceful wind down, and the complicated answers to the questions “what happened?” and “what’s next?” To learn more about Whiskey Fridays and read...

Part 1 of Kate's conversation with Heather Thomason, founder of Primal Supply Meats, the Philadelphia based butchery she closed in May of this year after seven years in business. This is Heather's first public conversation since the closure. Heather and Kate talk about the past few years of pandemic turmoil, the toll leading the business took on her, and how she got to the point of realizing she couldn't do it anymore. Show Notes: Enough is Enough, a Summer of Failure on Kate's Substack The ...