Intersections Podcast Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa

How can we nurture hope in the face of deep loss and convert our pain into meaningful purpose? What wisdom can we gain about our own lives, purpose and happiness when we perform an audit of our own values? How can leaders light a fire in the hearts of people across the enterprise, and create a virtuous cycle of excellence, both at the individual and collective level?
Find out from Niren Chaudhary, Chairman of Panera Brands, exclusively in conversation with Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa on Intersections Podcast.
Niren Chaudhary is the Chairman of the Board of Panera Brands, one of the world’s largest fast casual restaurant companies with nearly 4,000 locations in 10 countries. In his previous roles, Niren has served as CEO of Panera Brands and Panera Bread, COO and President of Krispy Kreme, and spent 23 years at Yum! Brands serving in global leadership positions including Global President of KFC and President of Yum! India. Niren is guided by his deep passion for serving others and building future leaders. He spends his personal time sharing his personal and professional journey with students and professionals, often wielding a guitar to sing about his life or even a new Panera menu item; serves on the Tufts Medical Centre Board and as an advocate for DKMS, a leading non-profit with the world’s largest stem cell donor registry. Niren also holds a black belt in Shotokan karate and is an avid golfer, tennis player and musician with his own rock band.
In this episode, Niren reveals:
- The wisdom we can gain about our own lives, purpose and happiness when we perform an audit of our own values
- How to create a virtuous cycle of excellence at the individual and collective level
- Three values that can inspire us to live fully and meaningfully, even through our most difficult times

How can leaders better track their people's well-being, and foster a culture that supports open discussions about mental health? As the cultivation of their people’s well-being emerges as a crucial requirement for organizations, how can we equip managers to support their teams’ well-being? What scientific methods can we adopt to transcend our personal circumstances and become stewards of our own well-being? And how can we become agents of inspiration and support those around us on their well-being journey?
Find out from Jen Fisher, a leading voice on the intersection of work, well-being, and purpose, exclusively in conversation with Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa on Intersections Podcast.
Jen Fisher is a sought-after speaker, bestselling author, podcast host, and serves as Human Sustainability Leader for Deloitte US. She has previously served as the first-ever Chief Well-being Officer for Deloitte, and has built and led the creation and execution of a pioneering holistic and inclusive well-being strategy that has received wide acclaim. Jen frequently writes on issues impacting the workplace today, including mental health, social connection, resilience, happiness and productivity, and has been featured in leading media including CNN, CNBC, Fast Company, Fortune and HBR. She’s the co-author of the bestselling book, Work Better Together: How to Cultivate Strong Relationships to Maximize Well-Being and Boost Bottom Lines, a TEDx speaker, Editor-at-large for Thrive Global, Host of the “WorkWell” podcast series, and has just started a brand new Substack Newsletter called Thoughts on Being Well.
In this episode, Jen reveals:
- Three tangible ways to scale well-being in the workplace
- Science-proven methods we can adopt to become stewards of our own well-being
- How leaders can learn to better evaluate their people's well-being, and foster a culture that supports open discussions about mental health

How can we turn polarizing conversations into beautiful moments of self-discovery, mutual kinship and deep connection? What changes in us and in our relationships when we stop labeling others? Can our ego manipulate and stop us from being open to new perspectives, and how do we overcome it? What are the five skills of moral courage, and how can we use them to win hearts and minds?
Find out from the recipient of Oprah’s “Chutzpah Award” for boldness, Irshad Manji, in conversation with Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa on Intersections Podcast.
Irshad Manji is the founder of Moral Courage College, which equips people to turn polarizing issues into productive conversations and solutions-driven teamwork. The recipient of Oprah’s "Chutzpah Award" for boldness, Irshad is also a New York Times bestselling author. Her first book, an international blockbuster, is The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith. Irshad’s latest is Don't Label Me: How to Do Diversity Without Inflaming the Culture Wars. (Fun fact: the entertainer Chris Rock calls this book “genius.”) A professor of leadership at New York University for many years, Irshad now teaches with the Oxford Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights.
In this episode, Irshad reveals:
- The five skills of moral courage, and how we can use them to win hearts and minds
- The opportunities we miss when we label others and put them into buckets
- The truth about human nature, how our ego can stop us from gaining new perspectives and how to overcome it

Is it possible to reform those that fell wayward? Can gang members, if treated with dignity and tenderness over punishment and incarceration, be transformed into loving human beings? And what fundamental principles can we adopt to move society, from a culture of judgment and denunciation, to mutual kinship and appreciation?
Find out from Father Gregory Boyle SJ, a Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries, as he reveals his extraordinary journey of mass human transformation and why serving at the margins is powerful and replenishing, exclusively in conversation with Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa on Intersections Podcast.
Father Gregory Boyle SJ is a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest and most successful gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world, offering an “exit ramp” for those stuck in a cycle of violence and incarceration. In the early 1990s, Father Boyle served as the pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights, then the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles that also had the highest concentration of gang activity in the city. Having witnessed the devastating impact of gang violence on his community, Father Boyle and parish and community members adopted what was a radical approach at the time: treat gang members as human beings. For his service to humanity, Father Boyle has received the California Peace Prize and has been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2014, President Obama named Father Boyle a Champion of Change. Father Boyle is also the author of several books including Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship, and the New York Times-bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.
In this episode, Father Boyle reveals:
- Why our quest for morality only fuels division and polarization
- A radical approach to transforming anyone, even gang members, into loving human beings
- Two fundamental principles for moving society from a culture of judgment and denunciation to mutual kinship and appreciation

In a world teeming with division and discord, can emotional and social intelligence, sown early in the fertile minds of children, grow into a force strong enough to unite the world while dismantling past prejudices? Is it possible that our greatest teachers could be the youngest among us, those whose innocence and capacity for love remain pure? What drove a celebrated filmmaker to abandon a successful career, take on a fresh new challenge of pioneering reform in global education, and seek to create positive life outcomes for all future generations?
This episode of Intersections Podcast invites you on a journey with Leslee Udwin, from the depths of suffering and personal adversity, sparking global movements through powerful, cinematic storytelling, to the forefront of a movement aimed at transforming early childhood education on a global scale, exclusively in conversation with Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa.
Leslee Udwin is a BAFTA and multi-award winning filmmaker, actress, director, producer and a human rights activist. Her documentary India’s Daughter has been critically acclaimed around the globe, winning 32 awards (including the Peabody Award and the Amnesty International Media Award) and sparked a global movement to end violence against women and girls. The searing insights yielded by the two and a half year journey of making this film led Leslee to shift her focus from filmmaking and devote herself to Think Equal, a non-profit organization she has founded to introduce social and emotional intelligence learning to children between the ages of 3–6 years. For her humanitarian work, Leslee has received many prestigious awards including Activism in Arts and Education award from the UN Women for Peace Association, The Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award, and was voted by the New York Times the. No 2 Most Impactful Woman of 2015, second to Hillary Clinton.
In this episode, Leslee reveals:
- One fundamental competency that sticks like glue with all others to co-create a more unified and compassionate world
- Stories that illuminate how the youngest among us can become agents of positive change and transform outcomes for adults
- Pivotal experiences that compelled her to abandon a successful career in filmmaking and take on the challenge of pioneering reform in global education

How can we translate life’s worst setbacks into miraculous comebacks? Can prison inmates and the formerly incarcerated be role models for those on the outside? How can we cultivate a single-pointed focus for personal growth despite the cards we have been dealt with in life, and the choices we may have made in the past? And what can someone’s twenty years in prison teach us about life’s possibilities?
Find out from Jason Bryant’s incredible story of redemption and societal transformation, as recounted in conversation with Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa on Intersections Podcast.
Jason Bryant is the Director of Programs at CROP (Creating Restorative Opportunities & Programs), a non-profit dedicated to reforming California’s criminal justice landscape. With 20 years of lived experience within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation center, Jason has dedicated his term of incarceration to higher education and serving other people through thoughtful conversations and coaching about new possibilities for people’s lives. While incarcerated, Jason earned a master's degree, two bachelor's degrees, an associate degree, a paralegal certificate, became a certified alcohol and drug counselor and has participated in extensive self-help programming. In 2020, Jason’s sentence was commuted along with his immediate release from prison due to his remarkable contributions in transformative and rehabilitative work while incarcerated. He has also co-authored, Men Built for Others: Life Lessons from Those Serving Life Sentences, a powerful book that shows how one can transform life's worst setbacks into miraculous comebacks and be happy regardless of where they are.
In this episode, Jason reveals:
- What 20 years of prison time can teach us about life’s possibilities
- How we can translate life’s worst setbacks into miraculous comebacks
- How to create a virtuous cycle of paying our gratitude forward