Stories by ssentially

A reflective narrative exploring what it means to be a woman in September 2025, as Epstein survivors break their silence and demand justice while navigating an increasingly challenging political landscape. Through the lens of a man imagining life in a woman's shoes, this piece examines the daily calculations of safety, the erosion of rights, and the fierce resilience that persists despite systemic obstacles. It captures both the ex...

I take you back into the red-carpeted hush of a TED stage, where Dan Pallotta walked out in sneakers and shifted the way an entire room thought about leadership, charity, and scale. You’ll hear the laughter when he joked about his triplets, the breathless silence when he called philanthropy “the market for love,” and the uneasy recognition when he dismantled the myth of overhead. With exact words from his talk, we step inside that ...

Marcus Chen thought moving from Nebraska to San Francisco would finally let him breathe freely as a gay man in tech. Instead, he found himself unable to breathe at all—trapped in a vaping addiction that started with his first boyfriend and nearly killed him during the pandemic.

In this raw and deeply personal episode, we follow Marcus’s harrowing journey through nicotine dependency, exploring how modern vaping products contain nic...

Are you tired of proving you can make money while hiding who you really are? In this episode, we explore the radical shift from optimizing for paychecks to optimizing for principles. We dive into why the best work of your life happens when you stop compartmentalizing your values and start integrating them into everything you do. Discover how to recognize truly important work, why authenticity has become the scarcest commodity in th...

They never told us about the teenagers sleeping in San Francisco doorways in the 1950s, or the lovers denied hospital visits during the plague years. From Harvey Milk's hope to the forgotten Compton's Cafeteria riot, from Ward 5B to marriage equality—this is the American history they don't teach. A story of resilience, loss, and the long fight for dignity that shaped a movement and a city. �...

A theatrical meditation on design as resistance, fluidity as freedom, and why the future of DEI might have really great hair.

In a 2025 world scrubbing rainbows from corporate windows, one logo refuses to simplify. She transforms herself—keeping her professional front while letting gorgeous, feminine waves cascade down her back—becoming a living parad...

Walker & Dunlop saved $6M annually. Dropbox Sign went from weeks to minutes for page launches. Dell's design team eliminated developer bottlenecks. What do they have in common? They ditched traditional CMS for visual development. Here's the research that explains why.

Note to listener: I provide services for Webflow quick-turn websites, landing pages, you name it. Head on over to ssentially.com/build-quote for a quick-turn esti...

From startup garages to Fortune 500 boardrooms, product management has transformed from a 1931 marketing memo into one of tech's most influential roles. Join us as we explore how modern PMs navigate between Silicon Valley's 'move fast and break things' philosophy and enterprise scale, why salaries now reach $232K+, and how AI is reshaping everything from daily workflows to career trajectories. Whether you're considering PM bootcamp...

Veteran correspondent Eleanor Hartwell, 81, delivers a haunting firsthand account of the Trump-South Korean President Lee Jae-myung meeting that left her shaken to her core. Broadcasting through a dust storm at Burning Man (where she was inexplicably sent to cover "political resistance art"), Hartwell breaks from traditional diplomatic reporting to share the visceral dread she experienced watching democracy bend to autocracy in rea...

A farmer's journey toward sustainable agriculture is guided by an unlikely companion—a paper straw scarecrow. Through a devastating flood, the scarecrow sacrifices itself to save the farmer, becoming a powerful metaphor for temporary solutions that bridge us to more sustainable practices. The story weaves together themes of environmental stewardship, cradle-to-cradle manufacturing, and the importance of mindful choices in farming a...

Meet Koa TallChief, a groundbreaking Two-Spirit product leader whose journey bridges Indigenous wisdom and modern technology. As a respected figure in Silicon Valley, Koa transformed traditional product management by embracing both masculine and feminine energies, creating inclusive spaces where innovation flourishes. Their story challenges industry norms, particularly during crucial moments like their influential AI Ethics Summit ...

This story follows Brian Chesky's leadership journey at Airbnb during the pandemic, when the company faced an 80% drop in business. His first-principles leadership approach guided Airbnb through crisis to transformation. The company adapted its business model while maintaining its social impact through Airbnb.org. It shows how principles and adaptability, combined with meaningful social contribution can generate organizational resi...

Emma, a perceptive 13-year-old, navigates the instability of modern America—a nation that operates like a corporation, making promises only to break them, hiring and firing without warning. She watches as her world shifts unpredictably, from the deportation of her best friend, Maria, to her father’s sudden layoff from the FBI. The story explores America's inconsistency, not just in employment but also in its commitments to its citi...