PiZetta Media: Podcast with a Cause

Michael VanZetta
  • 5.0 (2)
  • MENTAL HEALTH
  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY

PiZetta Media CEO Michael VanZetta talks with people on the frontlines, nonprofit leaders, and mental health stories. Hear what amazing people are doing in communities nationwide.

  1. Rewiring the Mind for Confidence

    1D AGO

    Rewiring the Mind for Confidence

    Licensed psychologist and PeakMind co-founder Dr. Ashley Smith shares how her personal experience with vision loss and social anxiety shaped a career dedicated to helping others overcome fear and self-doubt. In this conversation, she explains how the mind often creates misleading narratives that hold people back, why confidence grows through discomfort, and how mindfulness, self-compassion, and real-world action can quiet anxiety. Dr. Smith also discusses burnout, attention control, and practical ways anyone can retrain their thinking to live a more confident and meaningful life.

    20 min
  2. Team Human: AI, Innovation and the Future of Medicine

    2D AGO

    Team Human: AI, Innovation and the Future of Medicine

    In this episode, Acto co-founder and CEO Parth Khanna joins Michael VanZetta to discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming the life sciences industry and reshaping the future of work. From accelerating drug discovery to supporting pharmaceutical professionals in bringing therapies to patients faster, Khanna explains why the real opportunity isn’t replacing people with AI — but empowering them. He shares lessons from scaling a company, overcoming leadership bottlenecks, and how entrepreneurs and innovators can use agentic AI to compete, grow, and unlock human potential in a rapidly changing world.

    21 min
  3. Three the Hard Way: Turning Obstacles Into Opportunity

    5D AGO

    Three the Hard Way: Turning Obstacles Into Opportunity

    Jason A. Jones shares how growing up with three fingers on his right hand shaped a lifelong mindset of resilience, long before career setbacks and a serious car accident tested him even further. From relearning everyday skills and rebuilding professional confidence to confronting vulnerability through writing his book Three the Hard Way: Overcoming Obstacles and Making It Happen, Jones reflects on how adversity became a catalyst for growth. Now the founder of Positive Pieces LLC, he explains how mental, spiritual and physical “pieces” work together to create real progress—and why affirmations, accountability and action can help anyone reclaim their momentum and define their own outcome.

    16 min
  4. Unmasking the Mind: Late Diagnoses, Lived Experience & Real Hope

    6D AGO

    Unmasking the Mind: Late Diagnoses, Lived Experience & Real Hope

    School and clinical psychologist Christal Castagnozzi shares her deeply personal journey from high-achieving, anxious teen to receiving ADHD and autism diagnoses in adulthood — and how those discoveries transformed both her life and her clinical work. As a first-generation Canadian raised in a culture where mental health wasn’t openly discussed, Christal explains the impact of masking, burnout, perfectionism, and the emotional waves that can come with finally having language for your experience. She breaks down how thoughtful, person-centered assessments work, why lived experience matters in therapy, and how the right diagnosis isn’t a label — it’s a pathway to understanding, support, and sustainable mental health.

    32 min
  5. Engineering the Mind: Building Ethical AI for Mental Health

    6D AGO

    Engineering the Mind: Building Ethical AI for Mental Health

    Sam Blumberg’s journey into mental health started with his own search for identity as a teenager, when therapy helped him discover music and photography as powerful tools for healing. Though he began college studying engineering, his fascination with how people think led him to psychology — what he calls “engineering of the brain” — and ultimately to becoming a licensed marriage and family therapist with a clinical doctorate. In this episode, Sam shares how that clinical foundation shaped the creation of Couchloop, a mental health wellness ecosystem built with ethics, safety, and real human connection at its core. Rather than replacing therapy, Couchloop is designed to challenge thinking, build insight, detect crises, and guide users back to licensed clinicians — proving that when built responsibly, technology can expand access to care without losing the humanity at the heart of healing.

    21 min
  6. Life, Liberty & Mental Health: Turning Grief Into a Movement

    FEB 19

    Life, Liberty & Mental Health: Turning Grief Into a Movement

    After losing his father to suicide following a late-life bipolar disorder diagnosis, Jono Wilde, Executive Director of the Good Life Movement, turned unimaginable grief into action. In this powerful conversation, he shares how watching his father struggle to access affordable care, navigate stigma, and face systemic barriers inspired a bold vision: a Mental Health Civil Rights Bill that treats mental health with the same urgency and respect as physical health. From decriminalizing mental illness to nationalizing proven community programs, Wilde outlines a plan to break down fragmented systems, reduce stigma, and normalize open conversations. This episode explores loss, lived experience, policy reform, and the belief that a mental health diagnosis is not a death sentence — but a call to build a better future.

    30 min
  7. From PMDD to Financial Therapy: Rewriting the Story of Self-Worth

    FEB 19

    From PMDD to Financial Therapy: Rewriting the Story of Self-Worth

    As a teenager, Kiki Jacobson silently battled depression, confused by deep hopelessness despite a loving childhood and no clear reason for her pain. Medication didn’t help, and without open conversations around mental health, she carried the weight alone—until years later, when discovering she had premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) gave her clarity, language, and self-compassion. That understanding reshaped her life and inspired her to become the therapist she once needed. Today, Kiki specializes in the powerful connection between finances and mental health, helping clients unpack how money represents safety, identity, and self-worth. Through a trauma-informed approach rooted in safety and choice, she guides people from shame and avoidance to empowerment—proving confidence isn’t about having it all figured out, but about believing, “I can face this.”

    15 min
  8. Turning Family Struggle Into National Impact: Jeff Fladen’s NAMI Journey

    FEB 17

    Turning Family Struggle Into National Impact: Jeff Fladen’s NAMI Journey

    Jeff Fladen’s life in mental health advocacy began at home, growing up with a father living with bipolar disorder and a mother who experienced depression—both of whom required hospitalization at different times. What started as a plan to become an electrical engineer shifted after discovering psychology, ultimately leading him into counseling, nonprofit leadership, and national advocacy. From serving as executive director of NAMI Tennessee to becoming president of the National Board of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Fladen has helped expand one of the country’s largest grassroots mental health organizations. In this episode, he shares how lived experience, professional training, and leadership intersect—and why he believes recovery is possible, community changes lives, and no one facing mental health challenges should feel alone.

    28 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

PiZetta Media CEO Michael VanZetta talks with people on the frontlines, nonprofit leaders, and mental health stories. Hear what amazing people are doing in communities nationwide.

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