Wes Adams, Founder and CEO of SV Consulting Group, teams up with Tamara Myles, an esteemed consultant and professor, to discuss their book on igniting passion in the workplace. They dive into the significance of trust as the lubricant for teamwork and how storytelling fosters connection. Micromanagement emerges as a productivity killer, while vulnerability is highlighted as essential for a meaningful work culture. With anecdotes from their careers, they inspire listeners to embrace 'yes, and' in their professional lives.

Join Jenny Wood, a former Google executive and author of "Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It," as she shares insights on embracing courage in career development. She emphasizes that success comes from a mindset of determination and the power of serendipity. Jenny narrates a charming subway encounter that transformed her life, explores the duality of being 'weird' as both an asset and a challenge, and underlines the importance of attentive listening in communication. Her inspiring stories encourage listeners to redefine norms and pursue their true passions.

Kelly talks with Dr. Sandy Jo MacArthur and Dr. Luanne Pannell from the University of Chicago Crime Lab and Second City’s Tyler Dean Kempf about the work we’re doing together bringing improvisation into the Policing Leadership Academy.  https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7324916/Dr_Sandy_Jo_MacArthur_Dr_Luann_Pannell_and_Tyler_Dean_Kempf__2025-03-17-035416.64kmono.mp3 “Cops are dropped into a scene and they have to improv every single thing they do in the field.” “This is what the police have to do every day. We just don’t call it improv.” “Communication is everything.” Recent Posts Second City Works presents “Getting to Yes, And” Getting to Yes, And… | Wes Adams & Tamara Myles – ‘Meaningful Work’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Getting to Yes, And… | Jenny Wood – ‘Wild Courage’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Improv and the Policing Leadership Academy .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} The Science and Promise of Personality Change .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Martha Jones – ‘The Trouble of Color’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Click for more

Kelly connects with The Atlantic journalist Olga Khazan whose new book, “Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change,” follows her as she attempts to change her own personality including taking improv classes in order to boost her extroversion.  https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7316603/Olga_Khazan_2025-03-11-033203.64kmono.mp3 “Improv taught me I can rely on others to supply their side of the interaction.” “Behaving against our natures doesn’t bother us as much as we fear it might.”  “In improv, as in life, sometimes it helps to just make a choice, weird though it might be.”  Recent Posts Second City Works presents “Getting to Yes, And” Getting to Yes, And… | Wes Adams & Tamara Myles – ‘Meaningful Work’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Getting to Yes, And… | Jenny Wood – ‘Wild Courage’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Improv and the Policing Leadership Academy .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} The Science and Promise of Personality Change .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Martha Jones – ‘The Trouble of Color’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Click for more

Kelly welcomes Martha Jones back to the podcast. She is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and professor of history at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. We spoke to her last about her book “Vanguard.” Her new book is called “The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir.”  https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7304343/Martha_Jones_2025-03-03-041943.64kmono.mp3 “So much of the historical record was written with silence.”  “I discovered my faith in the capacity of words to help me know myself and the people who made me.” “This book is a dialogue with my family. It is also a dialogue with those who write about the past in which my family made its way.”  Recent Posts Second City Works presents “Getting to Yes, And” Getting to Yes, And… | Wes Adams & Tamara Myles – ‘Meaningful Work’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Getting to Yes, And… | Jenny Wood – ‘Wild Courage’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Improv and the Policing Leadership Academy .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} The Science and Promise of Personality Change .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Martha Jones – ‘The Trouble of Color’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Click for more

Kelly connects with Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Delaware. Her research interests include political media effects, public opinion, political satire and the psychology of political humor. Her books include Irony and Outrage and Wrong. She’s also an improviser.  https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7296404/Dannagal_Young_2025-02-25-161504.64kmono.mp3 “First rule of comedy: know your audience.”  “We – all of us – are wrong about lots of things.”  “Confident humility is a corrective lens.”  Recent Posts Second City Works presents “Getting to Yes, And” Getting to Yes, And… | Wes Adams & Tamara Myles – ‘Meaningful Work’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Getting to Yes, And… | Jenny Wood – ‘Wild Courage’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Improv and the Policing Leadership Academy .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} The Science and Promise of Personality Change .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Martha Jones – ‘The Trouble of Color’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Click for more

Kelly talks to University of Michigan Professor Ethan Kross about his new book: “Shift: Managing Your Emotions – So They Don’t Manage You.” https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7290662/Ethan_Kross_2025-02-20-195902.64kmono.mp3 “Emotions aren’t good or bad; they are just information.”  “There are things you can control and things you can’t. Emotions are both.”  “The effect music has on our emotions feels like magic.”  Recent Posts Second City Works presents “Getting to Yes, And” Getting to Yes, And… | Wes Adams & Tamara Myles – ‘Meaningful Work’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Getting to Yes, And… | Jenny Wood – ‘Wild Courage’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Improv and the Policing Leadership Academy .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} The Science and Promise of Personality Change .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Martha Jones – ‘The Trouble of Color’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Click for more

Kelly goes behind the scenes of Alzheimer’s research with science writer Charles Piller whose new book is called “Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s.”  https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7286575/charles_Piller_2025-02-18-161415.64kmono.mp3 “Disproving someone else’s experiment can be a death wish in science.”  “Most academic bio-scientists depend on the National Institute of Health to keep the lights on.”  “Eleven of sixteen FDA medical examiners who worked on twenty-eight drug approvals left the agency to become employees or consultants for the companies they recently regulated.” Recent Posts Second City Works presents “Getting to Yes, And” Getting to Yes, And… | Wes Adams & Tamara Myles – ‘Meaningful Work’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Getting to Yes, And… | Jenny Wood – ‘Wild Courage’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Improv and the Policing Leadership Academy .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} The Science and Promise of Personality Change .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Martha Jones – ‘The Trouble of Color’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Click for more

Kelly hosts a special Valentine’s Day Bonus Pod with professors Eli Finkel and Paul Eastwick who host the “Love Factually” podcast. Eli and Paul are relationship scientists at Northwestern and The University of California, Davis. Their podcast looks at a modern romantic comedy each week through the lens of the science of relationships.  https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7282392/Eli_Finkel_and_Paul_Eastwick_2025-02-14-045832.64kmono.mp3 “Relationship outcomes depend not only on the specific qualities of each partner but also on the unique patterns that emerge when the partners’ qualities intersect.”  “There isn’t just one true and proper way to love, to relate, to bond, to touch.” “Motivated reasoning is a cognitive process where people use reason to support their existing beliefs or desires and lay at the heart of ‘When Harry Met Sally.’” Recent Posts The Chicago Way with John Kass Kass: Anatomy of conspiracy .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Kass: Mayor Brandon ‘Harold Washington’ Johnson .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Chicago Way w/John Kass: Why safety on the streets starts in the courtroom .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Kass: Lipson on the truth about ‘free speech’ on campus .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Kass: When fools rush in…and out .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Click for more

Kelly connects with Dr. Steven J. Heine, Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology at the University of British Columbia. They discuss his new book, “Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times.” https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7275982/Dr_Steven_J_Heine_-_Start_Making_Sense_2025-02-11-061822.64kmono.mp3 “The world seems confusing, and people no longer seem to agree on the basic facts of what is happening around them.”  “In many ways our learning is facilitated through stories.”  “We risk a lot if we’re unable to weave all the different threads of our self together.” Recent Posts Second City Works presents “Getting to Yes, And” Getting to Yes, And… | Wes Adams & Tamara Myles – ‘Meaningful Work’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Getting to Yes, And… | Jenny Wood – ‘Wild Courage’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Improv and the Policing Leadership Academy .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} The Science and Promise of Personality Change .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Martha Jones – ‘The Trouble of Color’ .cls-7{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd} Click for more