A few months have passed since we concluded Season 2 of the Working On Wellbeing podcast, and I’ve been reflecting on the invaluable conversations and insights shared by our expert guests throughout the recording process.

I’m so grateful to all our speakers – wellbeing experts from across the globe who carved out their time to share their wisdom with our audience.

Just over two years on from starting as Managing Director of the World Wellbeing Movement, it’s still not lost on me how privileged I am to regularly meet, work alongside, and learn from global leaders in wellbeing science. I am so proud of the podcast’s success, and our listenership demonstrates that people really do want to be a fly on the wall for these important conversations.

I always like to ask our podcast guests for actionable tips and practical tools that our audience can take away with them, into their everyday lives. Here are some important takeaways that have stuck with me from Season 2…

I’m a big fan of Prof Ethan Kross, whose work investigates how we can all harness our inner voice to quiet our ‘chatter’ (negative thought loops). His focus on straight-forward, practical, and proven tools has transformed the way I use my own inner voice, and I was delighted when he agreed to kickstart Season 2 of the Working on Wellbeing podcast. When I first invited him to become a guest, I mentioned that I wished I could travel back in time and hand a copy of his best-selling book, ‘Chatter’, which I have personally found invaluable, to my 20-year-old self who was struggling with crippling panic attacks. But since I don’t have a DeLorean, I did the next best thing by inviting him to share his tips and tools for taming our negative inner voice with our listeners, so they can help as many others as possible. And that’s exactly what he did in this episode. And while he doesn’t have a time machine either, he did share a time-travelling secret with me – but you’ll have to tune in to hear the secret!

Another of Ethan’s tools that Sarah has personally found helpful, particularly because it is powerful yet so easy to implement, is distanced self-talk. Using your own name (silently or otherwise) as a tool when advising yourself can shift your perspective and allow you to relate to yourself in the way you would relate to a friend. This creates psychological distance, and can help us think more objectively and soundly about our personal circumstances. Oh, and see what Sarah did there 😉

Our next guest, Dr Diana Han, Unilever’s Chief Health & Wellbeing Officer, provided invaluable insights into how organisations can prioritise employee wellbeing at scale.

As a senior leader herself, Diana stressed the importance of equipping people managers with the knowledge, skills and conditions necessary to foster a culture of psychological safety, where employees feel safe to take risks, voice their opinions, and make mistakes without fear of negative consequences. She noted that this complex but critical balance often comes down to nuanced moment-to-moment interactions in the workplace. She also stressed the importance of organisations investing in training sessions, and equipping not only people managers, but all employees with the evidence-based tools required to nurture a psychologically safe workplace – including listening skills, speaking up, and showing vulnerability and humanness. Diana, who has worked with the world’s leading authority in this domain, and season one podcast guest, Prof Amy Edmondson, went on to stress the importance of measuring the impact of this training through all-employee surveys.

Next up was Lord Gus O’Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the UK Civil Service, and proud wellbeing public policy advocate. Gus called for governments across the world to redefine their measure of success, shifting focus from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to prioritising the wellbeing of people. He stressed that the well-established wellbeing science should be being used as a tool for global leaders to create policy agenda. One particular quote really stuck out to me: “Success should be about something more fundamental. How do we feel about our lives? Do we feel that we are making a difference?”.

I then met with UK Member of Parliament (MP), Kim Leadbeater. Kim’s recently published ‘Healthy Britain report’ is a fantastic toolkit full of recommendations for putting wellbeing first in public policy. The report’s content aligns with the World Wellbeing Movement’s recommendation that governments should consider all policies through a health and wellbeing lens, just as they do through a green lens today.  My chat with Kim was eye-opening, as we discussed how truly far-reaching applying a wellbeing lens to policy decisions can be. This goes far beyond essential healthcare investments to also encompass preventative services: from encouraging grass-roots sports amongst children, to designing housing and transport systems that facilitate social connection, to enhancing mental health services, supporting social prescribing, ensuring healthy workplaces, and so much more.

Kim also shared a Call to Action for our listeners. She encouraged each of us to ‘go back to basics’ and find time to reconnect as human beings in our fast-paced world. Whilst policy of course has a massive part to play in that, Kim highlighted that everyone can work to advance the wellbeing agenda, and it can start with joining and building strong communities in your local area!

Prof Robert Waldinger, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is the current Director of the 85-year-long Harvard Study of Adult Development: a groundbreaking research project exploring what makes a good life. He is also the co-author of the best-selling book ‘The Good Life’, and joined us to share insights from his research and provide life-improving tips.

The Harvard Study, which has tracked the same individuals and their families for nearly nine decades, reveals that strong social connections are crucial for a happy life. Or, as Robert so succinctly puts it in his book: “Good relationships keep us healthier and happier. Period.” But Robert stressed that the true value of these connections comes from their quality, over their quantity: it’s not about how many friends you have, but the quality of those friendships that truly matters. We all benefit immensely from having one or two people in our lives that we can truly rely on. Beyond that, the number of social connections we need is a highly individual matter.

In my conversation with Dame Tracey Crouch, I was touched by her willingness to open up about her own journey with anxiety and depression, and explain how that fed into her work as (former) MP for Chatham and Aylesford.  She takes pride in talking about mental health openly, something I feel is important in all leaders and particularly valuable in the world of politics – provided they become part of the solution, as Tracey has done. Tracey was the world’s first Minister for Loneliness, and the work she did in that pivotal role helped change perceptions of what loneliness is, who it affects, and what we need to do as a society to address it. There is a common misconception that loneliness predominantly impacts elderly people, whereas it actually affects all age groups and stages of life. She shared details of the work she did to reduce loneliness and its impacts, as well as the work she did in her former roles as Minister for Sport and Civil Society. Having chaired several All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) in the UK, Tracey also emphasised the importance of cross-party collaboration on critical policy issues, such as prioritising population wellbeing.

After appearing on Rachel Fellowes’ podcast a few months earlier, I was so pleased to be able to sit down with her in our studio and learn more about her work as Aon’s Chief Wellbeing Officer. In this role, she is responsible for supporting the work wellbeing needs of Aon’s 50,000 employees across 120 countries, as well as external-facing responsibilities to support clients of Aon’s Human Sustainability Index (HSI) – a tool designed to measure and enhance wellbeing, resilience, and sustainability at individual, team, and organisational levels.

We discussed the definition of ‘Human Sustainability, how she approaches supporting the wellbeing of such a vast number of employees, and her own personal journey. During the conversation she remarked on how difficult it can be to design an effective daily routine in our fast-paced work culture, and stressed the importance of calling out burnout behaviours, before posing the question: “Are we rewarding our high performers for burning out?”. I urge all business leaders to ask themselves this important question, because quite worryingly, the answer in far too many cases is likely to be yes. Rachel shared some practical ways we can combat this – though you’ll need to tune in to the episode to hear them!

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing a few Chief Wellbeing Officers for the podcast, but this season I had the opportunity to interview my first Chief Purpose Officer: Dimitra Manis from S&P Global. Dimitra demystified her uniquely titled role for us, and shared how she guides a ‘People and Purpose first’ culture within the organisation.

Dimitra shared a wealth of actionable tips for improving employee wellbeing. She provided advice to people managers, emphasising the importance of asking the right questions, and genuinely listening to the answers to drive meaningful changes. With the rise of AI, she predicted that the future of work will become more human centric, where soft skills become ‘power’ skills that set leaders apart. Dimitra encouraged nurturing these skills, like clear communication and emotional intelligence, in our day-to-day work. She also offered leadership advice on managing teams across different geographies, time zones, and cultures, as well as advancing diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

This season we were lucky enough to squeeze in a bonus ninth episode to celebrate the UN’s International Day of Happiness on March 20^th. We were thrilled to snag backstage access to the World Happiness Summit in London, setting the stage for a very special episode with Karen Guggenheim, CEO of WOHASU, Founder of the World Happiness Summit and author of ‘Cultivating Happiness: Overcome trauma and positively transform your life’.

Long-time listeners might remember Karen from our very first episode. Back then, she introduced the concept of the World Happiness Summit to a very nervous rookie podcast host (yours truly!). It was wonderful to invite her back to give us a behind-the-scenes tour of the first London-based World Happiness Summit and to celebrate the launch of her new book. Getting an insider’s look at the summit was a blast, and Karen’s insights made it even more memorable. She also bravely shared lessons she has learned from her own journey of post-traumatic growth, and her study of happiness and wellbeing science.

After all, as I always say: Wellbeing is a science. It can be measured, and, importantly, it can be improved. That’s exactly why I host this podcast – to bring you the latest insights and practical advice from experts like this season’s incredible guests. Whether you’re looking to boost your own wellbeing or support others, there’s something here for everyone. But remember, if you or someone you know is struggling, please seek professional support, as I have done myself during challenging times.

You can watch full episodes on the World Wellbeing Movement YouTube channel, or listen to the Working on Wellbeing podcast wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Acast.

We can’t wait to bring you the next Season, but in the meantime please do dive into the episodes from Season One and Two, and share with your networks – let’s put wellbeing first!