the uplift

… stay for entertaining and honest conversations and stories about the hard work of meaningful connections in the workplace hierarchies, with a dash of neuroscience for good measure. Chabries is a refreshing voice, always positive without making unrealistic promises. Give The Uplift a listen—you won’t be sorry.

The Uplift is one of my favorite podcasts. Each time I listen I feel like I’m sitting down with a cup of coffee having a personal conversation with Carole Chabries. Carole integrates research, best practices, and personal examples to give context to the topic. And, in each episode Carole incorporates actionable strategies and tools to put content into practice.

Carole Chabries focuses her podcast on the experiences and challenges of women leaders in higher education. Carole, of course, is one of those leaders, and in her tightly edited episodes (too many podcasts have no editing at all) she draws on a useful blend of her own experiences and insights from other experts on leadership and administration. Many episodes address issues of race, class, and gender; as with all her subjects, Carole speaks about those in a warm and nurturing tone, all the while acknowledging and putting in its proper (and sometimes uncomfortable) place her own privilege as a white woman. I know she likes to have guests on the show; but the episodes I like best are the ones with just Carole. Unlike too many podcasters who think the sound of their voice alone is enough to engage listeners, Carole respects her audience’s time and attention and gets right to her subject—no self-performative preambles, bad jokes, and (so not) hot takes. And from the technical side, the sound quality is good—strangely, a vastly underappreciated dimension of podcasts. (And did I mention the tight editing? Listen up, podcasters!) I highly recommend this podcast if you work in higher education or the corporate world or are searching for a model for your own podcast.

Carole Chabries is asking important questions and providing super helpful conversations with her insightful wit, care, and creativity. I love the book recommendations. I love the things we can be doing now. This is the leadership we need in higher education. It’s about helping uplift women — but I think men should be tuning in, too.