The Reinventors

Barry's decision to leave his corporate job to work for a health nonprofit was deeply personal.

When you’re having one of those tough days at work, it helps to focus on the big picture. To remind ourselves why we do what we do. That sense of perspective is what motivated Barry Greene. 

Barry started out working as an accountant in corporate tax. And then an opportunity came up to join the Global Fund, which is a nonprofit that fi...

Sometimes our career plans are taken out of our hands. That’s what happened to Stephanie Wolf. She was a ballet dancer, performing with companies across the US, including Wonderbound (formerly Ballet Nouveau Colorado), the Metropolitan Opera, James Sewell Ballet and Minnesota Ballet. Stephanie thought she’d be dancing until she was 40. But a serious leg injury changed her plans completely. She started from scratch as a public radio...

Will is quite the reinventor. He's been an actor, executive, therapist, and personal trainer. Now he's a life coach examining people's dreams. 

A few years back, a palliative nurse who cared for patients as they were dying, recorded the most common regrets we have at the end of our lives. Number one on the list? "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me." 

Th...

When the pandemic hit, many of us had this desire to help in whatever way we could. Aki Naito took that to the next level. Aki had worked in technology for years. She was really good at taking these complicated ideas and tools, and explaining them to people. Then March 2020 came along. Aki saw an opportunity to take what she’d learned in tech, and apply it on the frontline of the crisis, helping families and communities who are mos...

When James Murgatroyd was 18, he had his whole life mapped out. He was going to meet a girl, get married at 25, own a BMW by the time he was 30. But he became a dad when he was 20. That wasn’t in the plan.  

Priorities shifted, and he went to work for a bank, then in local government and social enterprise, before becoming a construction manager. Those jobs paid the bills, but they weren’t his dream gig. Facing down his 50th birthday...

Maha Bodhi escaped a brutal childhood and forced marriage in Yemen. When the pandemic threatened her career, she had to transform her life again.

Maha grew up in Yemen, where she endured a brutal upbringing and was forced into two violent arranged marriages. She managed to escape and set up a life for herself in the US, working initially in human resources. She quickly realised that teaching yoga was what she really wanted to do.

But...

For the final episode in our first season, I’m excited to share the incredible story of Elena Joy Thurston. Elena grew up in a really turbulent home, and joined the Mormon church in her teens. She did what good Mormon women do: got married and had kids. But deep down, she knew something wasn't right. She began to develop feelings for a female friend, which in the Mormon church of course, is not allowed. She decided to confess t...

When Stephanie Erazo worked as a news producer at CNN, she was basically on call, and eventually the stress really wore her down. So she decided to take a trip to India, where she had a literal epiphany, under a waterfall in the Himalayas. She knew she was in the wrong job and decided to follow her passion of health and wellness. 

When she came back to LA, she decided to launch a company. It's called Prana Wellness, and it offer...

Amanda Blumenthal was working as a sex and relationship coach, when she saw that the HBO show Euphoria was hiring an intimacy coordinator. This was back in 2018, when no one really knew what an intimacy coordinator was. But Amanda thought she could do it — and when she went for the interview, she was hired on the spot. 

Amanda is now LA’s first intimacy coordinator for film and TV. An intimacy coordinator is someone who choreographs...

A quick note: this episode of The Reinventors was recorded before the global uprisings sparked by the killing of George Floyd and the swell of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. I want to take this moment to acknowledge my own unknowing complicity in systemic racism, and recognize that I need to do much more to use my privilege to amplify and support Black voices - now and in the long-term.

This episode I’m speaking to eve...

Josh Klooz was an infantry officer in the US army, serving in Afghanistan in 2011. He loved the volatility and intensity of combat. But because he was starting a family, he made the tough decision to leave the army.  

Like many veterans, for Josh, finding a calling outside the military was really difficult. The path wasn’t straightforward. Now, Josh works as a wealth planning associate at UBS, and is training to become a financial ...

Pamela Joy worked in Silicon Valley for more than a decade. But difficulties she was having in her sex life prompted her on to go on a journey of self discovery (that word is overused but this really was a journey). She left her job as a data scientist at Facebook to retrain as a sex coach. Now, she helps people who are struggling with their own sex lives. 

We talked about desire, open relationships, different expressions of sexuali...

This episode I’m excited to be talking with Jen Mattiola. Jen worked in the fashion industry for over 15 years, starting out as a fashion stylist, and then launching her own sustainable handbag company. But stress piled up and eventually she hit rock bottom. The job went from something that gave her joy, to the source of her stress and anxiety. 

These days, Jen is a mindset and leadership coach, helping people find real fulfillment ...

I’m so excited to share this episode: an interview with the wonderful Marlina Moreno. 

Growing up, Mar always felt like she was in two different camps: the nature nerds and the cheerleaders. That led to a really unusual career path. 

She started out as an NFL cheerleader and dancer, but then retrained as a conservation biologist and filmmaker. Mar now spends her time out in the wild, filming projects and raising awareness. We talked ...

This episode I'm chatting to Anna Mortimer. Anna began her career as a journalist, working as the Moscow correspondent for The Times. Her father had been a journalist too, reporting from war zones in far-off places. But then, when Anna was 19, her father was murdered. That set off a chain of events that led to Anna retraining as a therapist. She went on to co-found The Mind Field, which offers video therapy for journalists and ...

Saffron Finch worked as a corporate lawyer in London for 10 years. The job got more and more stressful and in her early 30s, it became overwhelming and she had to quit. After a whole lot of soul searching, she is now setting up a luxury furniture and interior design business. 

We chatted about how Saffron dealt with burnout, how she found a community of like-minded career changers, and why it’s so important to figure out who you are...

This episode I’m speaking to the seriously ambitious and ever-curious entrepreneur, Jake Lau. In high school, Jake wanted to be a fighter pilot, a race car driver, or an investment banker on Wall Street... really, anything that would bring him white-knuckle adventure. 

But a twist of fate meant he ended up becoming an accountant. Within days, he knew that wasn’t the right path for him and knew he needed a course-correction. After ro...

This episode I’m so excited to be talking to Allie and Trent. Just a couple of years back, this amazing couple were working desk jobs — Allie in healthcare and Trent in sales. Every weekend they would take trips in their van, but they quickly realised they wanted to be in the van for longer than just short trips. 

Now, they’re living full time in the van (the fantastically-named Pamela Vanderson). They’ve been to 14 countries, and e...