The Unfolding Thought Podcast

In this episode, Eric talks with Kelly Monahan, organizational psychologist and author of Essential: How Distributed Teams, Generative AI, and Global Shifts Are Creating a New Human-Powered Leadership, about a reality many organizations are still struggling to face: the workplace changed faster than leadership practices did.

For decades, leadership relied on proximity. You could see who was working, overhear conversations, and step ...

In this episode, Eric talks with Kari Schneider, performance coach and co-author of The Human Algorithm, about a question that is becoming harder to ignore: what happens when technology advances faster than our ability to lead ourselves?

Kari began her career coaching Olympic and professional athletes, where performance was measurable and the margin for error was small. Over time, she discovered that physical training alone was neve...

In this episode, Eric talks with Chris Dyer, leadership expert and author of Moments That Matter, about a simple idea that most leaders miss: not every moment carries the same weight.

Organizations often try to treat everything as urgent. Every meeting matters. Every email matters. Every interaction matters. The result is exhaustion and noise. Yet when people look back on their careers, their teams, or their leaders, they rarely rem...

In this episode, Eric talks with Lindsay McGregor, co-founder of Factor, about why most performance problems are not caused by individuals, but by the systems surrounding them.

Lindsay has spent years studying motivation, culture, and performance inside organizations ranging from startups to global enterprises. Her work challenges a deeply ingrained instinct in leadership: the tendency to attribute failure to character rather than c...

In this episode, Eric talks with Lee Cockerell, former Executive Vice President of Operations for Walt Disney World, about what leadership actually requires when the stakes are high and the pressure never stops.

Lee’s path to running one of the most complex organizations in the world did not begin at Disney. He grew up on a farm in Oklahoma, worked as a banquet waiter, got fired, had his furniture confiscated by the sheriff, and spe...

In this episode, Eric talks with Bob Pritchett, founder of Logos Bible Software and longtime CEO of Faithlife, about what it actually takes to build something that lasts.

Bob started writing and selling software in high school, launched Logos at 19 while working at Microsoft, and helped grow the company over nearly three decades before bringing in outside investors. Along the way, he navigated financial crises, rewrote the entire so...

In this episode, Eric talks with Coach Hill, founder of Financial Footwork and author of Train Your Money, about the hidden beliefs and behavioral patterns that shape our financial lives.

Coach Hill approaches money the way a coach approaches movement: most problems are not about information, they are about habits. Drawing from her work as a financial coach, she explains why budgeting apps and spreadsheets rarely solve the deeper is...

In this episode, Eric talks with Barbara Wittmann, founder of the Digital Wisdom Collective, about why digital transformation so often fails despite good intentions, smart leaders, and expensive technology.

Barbara argues that most change initiatives don’t collapse at the top or the bottom of organizations. They collapse in what she calls “the juicy middle” — the layer where strategy meets execution, where quiet experts carry instit...

In this episode, Eric talks with Jesse Sprague, founder of EchoSpectra, about why wildfire risk isn’t primarily a firefighting problem, but a data, process, and decision-making problem.

Jesse’s work sits at the intersection of geospatial science, field investigation, and real-world accountability. What begins as a conversation about wildfire mapping quickly expands into a deeper examination of how organizations handle risk, why more...

In this episode, Eric talks with Bill Blankschaen, founder of StoryBuilders and author of Your Story Advantage, about why so many capable people feel called to do more, yet never take responsibility for acting on it.

Bill shares his own transition from running a thriving private school to stepping into the uncertainty of writing, storytelling, and building a message-driven business. What looks like a career shift on the surface is r...

In this episode, Eric talks with Paul Slater, author of The AI Ready Human, about what it actually takes to stay valuable as AI quietly reshapes how work gets done.

Paul has spent three decades at the intersection of humans and technology, from teaching people how to use their very first computers to writing more than twenty technical books at Microsoft. Today, his focus is on a harder question: what happens when technology changes ...

In this episode, Eric talks with Kyle McDowell, bestselling author of Begin With WE and former Fortune 10 executive, about why most culture initiatives fail long before they reach execution.

Kyle argues that culture doesn’t break down because leaders lack frameworks, values statements, or motivation. It breaks down because real change requires personal cost. Political capital. Short-term discomfort. The willingness to be exposed.

The...

In this episode, Eric talks with Allen Thornburgh, a longtime marketing and fundraising leader who works with purpose-driven organizations to help them create experiences people actually care about.

Allen shares why so many organizations plateau despite doing everything “right,” and how over-reliance on data can quietly suffocate imagination. Drawing on his work across Fortune 500 companies, faith-based nonprofits, and global humani...

In this episode, Eric talks with Matthew Powell, fourth-generation steward of Century Companies, about what it means to build a business designed to last for decades rather than quarters.

Matthew shares his path from Wall Street and investment banking into a 100+ year family enterprise, and how that transition reshaped how he thinks about leadership, success, and responsibility. At the center of the conversation is stewardship: the ...

In this episode, Eric talks with Annalee Kruger, founder of CareRight Inc., longtime senior care consultant, and author of The Invisible Patient. Their conversation explores what family caregiving really looks like behind the scenes and why the people providing care often become the most overlooked ones in the system.

Annalee draws from decades of experience working with families in crisis to explain how denial, lack of planning, an...

In this episode, Eric talks with Axel Burlin, author of Beyond Brain Rot, about internet addiction, algorithmic feeds, and why so many well-intentioned attempts to “use your phone less” quietly fail.

Axel shares his own experience growing up online, from video games and forums to endless scrolling, and how a breaking point during college led him to rethink not just his habits but the assumptions behind them. Rather than relying on w...

In this episode, Eric talks with Ken Boynton—storyteller, communication consultant, former actor and voiceover artist, and co-founder of Message Glue. Ken has spent decades helping leaders, teams, and organizations communicate more clearly and more humanly across stages, screens, meetings, and moments that matter.

The conversation explores what “storytelling” actually means in real organizational life, why most communication fails b...

In this episode, Eric talks with Peter Greer—President & CEO of HOPE International, longtime practitioner in global poverty alleviation, and author/co-author of eighteen books including Mission Drift, Rooting for Rivals, and How Leaders Lose Their Way. The conversation goes deep into what poverty really is, why traditional aid often fails to produce lasting change, and how dignity-centered development can transform individuals ...

In this episode, Eric talks with Tamsen Webster—message designer, strategist, speaker, and author of Find Your Red Thread and Say What They Can’t Unhear. The conversation explores how ideas spread, why so many messages fail at the point of first explanation, and what it takes to create understanding and lasting change without coercion.

Tamsen explains her work as an “English-to-English translator,” helping leaders, founders, and thi...