A Life Worth Working – Finding Purpose & Overcoming Setbacks

Dr. Michelle Weise & Rev. Dana Allen Walsh - Personal Development & Resilience Specialists
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A Life Worth Working — Finding Purpose & Overcoming Setbacks is a podcast hosted by Dr. Michelle Weise and the Rev. Dana Allen Walsh, personal development & resilience specialists. Our guests illuminate the scraps, screw-ups, and detours of our work lives as living proof that nothing is ever wasted in these spaghetti pathways of our careers. The hardest moments we endure, from epic failures to employment gaps and crushing disappointments, all become fertile ground for new growth and endless possibilities. As we navigate the winding, messy pathways of life, perhaps the truest calling is simply this: to stay open to wonder, courageous in release, faithful in response—and to trust that, step by step, we are shaping a life worth working. michelleweise.substack.com

  1. 5d ago

    Recalibration Is Persistence

    What if joy is the most radical tool for change we have? Yana Buhrer Tavanier grew up in communist Bulgaria, where speaking the wrong truth could get you declared mentally ill. After nearly a decade as an award-winning investigative journalist — and after managing to close exactly one of the fifty-plus institutions she exposed — she arrived at a hard truth: Facts alone don’t make people care. Art does. Play does. Joy does. She’s now the co-founder and Executive Director of Fine Acts, a global nonprofit creative studio working at the intersection of art, technology, science, and human rights — and the creator of “Playtivism,” a science-backed methodology that uses creative play as a tool for social change. She is also a TED Fellow. "The collaborations with artists were the things that people remembered, that drove people in, that in some cases grabbed people by the throat and really made them do something about the issue." In this conversation, Yana talks with Dr. Michelle Weise and Rev. Dana Allen Walsh about: * Growing up in a family that was punished for its convictions — including an aunt whose art and spirit were crushed by the communist psychiatric system * What Dr. Stuart Brown’s research on play revealed about burnout and change * How Fine Acts’ LABS format pairs strangers across disciplines for 48-hour creative sprints * “Controlled failure” — her concept for the deliberate leap into something you’re not ready for * Why the word she uses for her career is “recalibration,” not reinvention “Play can prevent very high levels of burnout and depression amongst activists — and it can give us the much-needed feeling that we’ve got this. So we embrace joy as the process. It’s not necessarily that the final result is going to be funny or light. It’s about feeling free, feeling unburdened, while in the process of creation.” Her concept of Playtivism isn't just a theory. It's a methodology built on neuroscience, tested through years of failure, and proven through campaigns that have actually shifted hearts. In a moment when activists are burning out and information is being weaponized, Yana's insistence on joy — not as an afterthought but as a strategy — is both countercultural and essential. Learn more about Fine Acts: fineacts.co 📬 Subscribe to A Life Worth Working 🎙️ Listen wherever you get your podcasts 📩 Email us: hello@alifeworthworking.com About Our Guest Yana Buhrer Tavanier (YAH-nah BOO-rer tah-vahn-YAY) is a TED Senior Fellow and the co-founder and Executive Director of Fine Acts, a global nonprofit creative studio for social impact. Born in communist Bulgaria, she has spent her career at the intersection of journalism, activism, art, technology, and science — developing what she calls “Playtivism”: the radical idea that joy, creativity, and imagination can be more powerful agents of change than facts or fury alone. Fine Acts works across human rights and environmental issues worldwide, producing campaigns and supporting civil society organizations in making people stop, feel, and act. About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise, a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh, an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe

    37 min

  2. May 18

    From Orphan to Berkeley Engineer

    Episode: A Life Worth Working | Guest: Chris Atageka | Engineer, Entrepreneur, Author of Return to Human 🎧 Watch a Brief Clip What You’ll Learn in This Episode * Why Chris slept with his US passport and then buried it in his backyard — and what that tells us about the kind of fear that doesn’t leave when the danger does * The “life raft” problem every immigrant and first-generation success story knows: when you finally get out, who do you carry with you, and what does it cost? * What survivor’s remorse actually feels like — and how it has shaped every chapter of his work since * Why he believes “just be yourself” is one of the most privileged sentences in the wellness vocabulary — and what most people get wrong about it * His new book Return to Human — and why he believes we are heading into a global crisis of purpose: “If a robot can do it better, what are humans for?” About Chris Atageka Chris Atageka is an engineer, entrepreneur, and author who was born in a small village in Uganda and orphaned around the age of seven or eight, when both of his parents likely died of AIDS. He spent eight years in survival mode before being discovered by a community member who connected him to Yes Uganda, a nonprofit founded by Kara Adams, a Hawaiian woman who moved to Uganda at age 50 to start an orphanage. A California family sponsored Chris through the program for years, eventually bringing him to the United States. Chris went on to earn two engineering degrees from UC Berkeley, graduating at the top of his class and serving as the student speaker at commencement in front of a stadium of thousands. He has built companies, given a TED Talk, returned to Uganda to give back to kids in circumstances like the one he was born into, and is now the author of several books — most recently Return to Human, a meditation on what it means to be a person in the age of the machine. About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise, a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh, an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe

    34 min

  3. May 12

    She Quit Finance, Climbed Everest, and Picked Up Her Viola.

    Episode: A Life Worth Working | Guest: Rebecca Long | Everest Summiteer, Violist & Career Reinventor What You’ll Learn in This Episode The moment Rebecca realized eight years in banking wasn’t a career — it was a slow depression What she gave up when she quit: a salary, a relationship, a plan. What she gained. What it’s actually like inside the Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous section of Everest — including the swinging ladders over crevasses in the dark The fatherly teammate who lent Rebecca his nose shield without a second thought — and didn’t make it back from the acclimatization climb Why “getting to the top is optional, but coming down is mandatory” — and what that teaches you about judgment under pressure About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise, a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh, an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe

    38 min

  4. May 5

    He’s a Pastor. He Went on a Reality Show Called “The Snake.” It Was More Complicated than It Sounds.

    Episode: A Life Worth Working | Guest: Jacob Buchholz | Pastor, Deaf Culture & Reality TV Jacob Buchholz is a progressive pastor, a fluent signer in American, Romanian, and Russian sign language, the co-founder of a trans-denominational deaf church — and a cast member on The Snake, now streaming on Hulu. The show cast him because he’s from a profession that uses persuasion. He went because he wanted a nationally televised platform for a more inclusive, progressive version of Christianity. In this episode of A Life Worth Working, Jacob tells the full story: from his childhood in a deaf household where his mother led protests and ran ASL church services, to a transformative trip to Romania and Moldova that redirected his entire career, to the moment he climbed out of a shipping crate in Argentina and found out he was on a game show about manipulation. This is a genuinely surprising episode about identity, calling, courage — and what it means to hold your values in a space that wasn’t built for them. 🎧 Watch/Listen Now About Jacob Buchholz Jacob Buchholz is a senior pastor and reality television contestant currently featured on The Snake, now streaming on Hulu. He has served as a pastor in the United Church of Christ for over a decade and is currently leading a congregation in Claremont, California. About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise, a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh, an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe

    33 min

  5. Apr 28

    She Won Olympic Gold. Then She Had to Figure out Who She Was without It.

    Episode: A Life Worth Working | Guest: Shawn Johnson East | Olympic Champion, Entrepreneur & Mother Shawn Johnson won the gold medal on the balance beam at the 2008 Olympics. She was 16. She had already been told, implicitly and explicitly, that this was the point — the summit of what she had been working toward since before she could remember. What this episode of A Life Worth Working captures, with unusual honesty, is what happened to the person inside all of that achievement. The girl who felt superhuman inside the gym and panicked outside it. The teenager who said yes to every opportunity after retirement because she was too scared to have a quiet moment. The young woman who chased the next title because the last one felt hollow the moment she got it. Shawn’s story speaks to anyone who has organized their identity around performance — in sports, in school, in a career — and then had to reckon with who they are once the performance is over or the goal is reached. That experience is not limited to Olympic athletes. It is one of the most common and least-discussed features of high-achievers. What makes this episode particularly moving is how clearly Shawn can trace her own transformation: from a child who defined success as approval, to a mother who has had to deliberately, painstakingly unlearn that definition one layer at a time. She’s generous about the work it took. And honest about the fact that it’s still ongoing. 🎧 Watch/Listen Now What You’ll Learn in This Episode * What Shawn actually wanted to be before the Olympics took over * The “Hannah Montana effect”: how Shawn felt like a completely different, superhuman inside the gym * What 11 days of Navy SEAL-style training on Special Forces actually felt like — and why smiling through physical pain is not a good idea * The foundational role of her parents About Shawn Johnson East Shawn Johnson East is the 2007 World All-Around Gymnastics Champion and a four-time 2008 Olympic medalist, including the gold medal on the balance beam. She is one of the few American gymnasts ever to win Olympic gold on beam — the event she was drawn to precisely because it terrified everyone else. In the years since, she has competed on Dancing with the Stars, done a season of Special Forces, launched businesses with her husband and former NFL player Andrew East, and become a mother of three. She has also spent considerable time and effort unlearning nearly everything she was taught about what success is supposed to look like. About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise, a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh, an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe

    24 min

  6. Apr 21

    Older + Younger = Better

    Episode of A Life Worth Working | Guest: Marc Freedman | Co-Generation, Mentorship & the Multigenerational Future We talk about loneliness as if it’s a personal failing. We talk about polarization as if it’s simply political. But Marc’s life work points to a structural cause hiding in plain sight: We have built an entire society that keeps old and young apart. “We all come from divorce. This is an age of divorce. Things that belong together have been taken apart. And you can’t put it all back together again. What you can do, is the only thing that you can do. You take two things that ought to be together and you put them together. Two things! Not all things.” —Wendell Berry Marc’s story is also a quiet lesson in how calling evolves. He started out thinking older people could help younger people. He spent decades learning that what’s really possible — and necessary — is something richer: genuine co-creation, co-leadership, co-mentoring. A meeting of different kinds of wisdom. Two things that belong together, put back. What You’ll Learn in This Episode * Why Marc started his career focused on low-income youth — and how a landmark study of Big Brothers Big Sisters changed everything * How a wise college dean (who also kept Robert Putnam from dropping out) became the unlikely seed of three decades of mentorship work * What Marc means by “co-generation” — and why it’s fundamentally different from older people helping younger people * Why age segregation is “utterly against the grain of all of human history” — and what we can do about it * What Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs, and Brandi Carlisle and Joni Mitchell all have in common — and what Marc is building from that insight About Marc Freedman Marc Freedman is the founder and Co-CEO of CoGenerate and the founding Faculty Director of the Yale Experienced Leaders Initiative (Yale ELI Fellows). He is one of the nation’s leading voices on the multigenerational future and the originator of the concept of the encore career — the idea of linking second acts in life to the greater good. About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise, a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh, an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe

    39 min

  7. Apr 14

    He Had a Film at Sundance. He Chose a Cookbook Instead.

    Episode: A Life Worth Working | Guest: Pete Lee | Award-Winning Photographer, Director & Accidental Archivist of San Francisco Chinatown “I wasn’t taking photos with my eyes. It was more with my feet and my bus pass.” What You’ll Learn in This Episode * How a Jackie Chan DVD given to a teenager who wasn’t allowed to watch TV launched an entire creative career * How Pete became a photographer by accident * The single insight about the directionality of light that unlocked everything — and why Pete learned it years later than he should have * Why Pete thinks the myth of quitting everything to pursue your passion is mostly wrong — and what he believes actually works About Pete Lee Pete Lee is an award-winning photographer and director based in San Francisco. He is the photographer behind Mr. Jiu’s in Chinatown, the cookbook from James Beard Award-winning chef Brandon Jew, which captured San Francisco’s Chinatown with the intimacy of a neighborhood documentary — and won a James Beard Award. Make sure you read my longer blog all about Pete Lee in my post: “Your Word Is Your Bond: Moral Courage in the Detours.” About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise, a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh, an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe

    29 min

  8. Apr 7

    He Signed a Multi-Million Dollar NFL Contract — Then Got Cut after 3 Months

    A Life Worth Working | Guest: Andrew East | Former NFL Long Snapper, YouTube Creator & Family Media Entrepreneur What You’ll Learn in This Episode * How getting released from the Kansas City Chiefs after 3 months — while his wife Shawn Johnson was selling out arenas — became the most transformative moment of his life * Why Andrew turned a humiliating rock bottom into what he now calls an “unshakable confidence” * What his father’s day-long rites of passage ceremonies taught him about raising boys — and what modern fatherhood is missing * What it means to redefine success when you’re married to an Olympic gold medalist About Andrew East Andrew East is a former NFL long snapper who played for the Kansas City Chiefs and several other teams over a five-year professional career. He studied civil engineering at Vanderbilt University, where he was a two-time captain of the football team. He is married to Olympic gold medal gymnast Shawn Johnson East, with whom he has built Family Made — a wholesome, intentional family media network reaching over 10 million followers across platforms. He is also nearly finished with his PhD in psychology and co-hosts the podcast Couple Things with Shawn. The Kid Who Wanted His Name in Lights Andrew East grew up with a simple dream: play professional football and be the hero of the team. He was “footloose, fancy-free, rolling with the punches.” At Vanderbilt, he showed up as the worst player on the team by a mile. He almost transferred. Instead, he stayed — and eventually became a two-time captain. He wasn’t going to be the quarterback. He wasn’t going to be the star. He was going to be the person who made the star’s job possible. He found his niche in one of the most specialized, invisible positions in all of sports: long snapper. The guy who snaps the ball through his legs on field goals and punts. The guy nobody knows until he messes up. That lesson — finding and maximizing your specific niche even if it’s not the glamorous one — turned out to be a blueprint for the rest of his life. The Humiliation that Changed Everything Andrew signed a multi-year contract with the Kansas City Chiefs as a rookie. He remembers the moment vividly: he thought he had done it. Mission complete. He was in the NFL. Three months later, he was cut. Ten thousand dollars in his pocket instead of millions. Meanwhile, his now-wife Shawn Johnson — whom he had just started dating — was on a nationwide gymnastics tour, performing in sold-out arenas for tens of thousands of fans every night. Standing ovations. Screaming crowds. Andrew was home alone on the couch. Unemployed. Nobody quite knowing what to say to him at family events. “I felt useless and desperate. For about three months, I was just like a sad guy on a couch.” But on the other side of those three months, something shifted. With the help of people who stuck with him and spoke encouragement into him, he started to slowly rebuild a confidence that felt, this time, like it was truly his own. “Once I made it through that and realized I can contribute more to the world than just football — or just the one thing — I unlocked a new door. I shifted from self-doubt and pity to eager curiosity. Wait, there’s so much more to life. I just have to go look.” Andrew East’s story is about what happens after the dream doesn’t go the way you planned — and what you find on the other side of that failure if you’re willing to sit in it long enough to learn from it. It’s also a rare public conversation about intentional fatherhood, the crisis of male direction and belonging, and what it looks like to build a family media enterprise not as a brand exercise but as a genuine act of service. 🎧 Listen Now on A Life Worth Working Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe

    26 min
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About

A Life Worth Working — Finding Purpose & Overcoming Setbacks is a podcast hosted by Dr. Michelle Weise and the Rev. Dana Allen Walsh, personal development & resilience specialists. Our guests illuminate the scraps, screw-ups, and detours of our work lives as living proof that nothing is ever wasted in these spaghetti pathways of our careers. The hardest moments we endure, from epic failures to employment gaps and crushing disappointments, all become fertile ground for new growth and endless possibilities. As we navigate the winding, messy pathways of life, perhaps the truest calling is simply this: to stay open to wonder, courageous in release, faithful in response—and to trust that, step by step, we are shaping a life worth working. michelleweise.substack.com

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