From Orphan to Berkeley Engineer

Recalibration Is Persistence

What if joy is the most radical tool for change we have? Yana Buhrer Tavanier grew up in communist Bulgaria, where speaking the wrong truth could get you declared mentally ill. After nearly a decade as an award-winning investigative journalist — and after managing to close exactly one of the fifty-plus institutions she exposed — she arrived at a hard truth: Facts alone don’t make people care. Art does. Play does. Joy does. She’s now the co-founder and Executive Director of Fine Acts, a global nonprofit creative studio working at the intersection of art, technology, science, and human rights — and the creator of “Playtivism,” a science-backed methodology that uses creative play as a tool for social change. She is also a TED Fellow. "The collaborations with artists were the things that people remembered, that drove people in, that in some cases grabbed people by the throat and really made them do something about the issue." In this conversation, Yana talks with Dr. Michelle Weise and Rev. Dana Allen Walsh about: * Growing up in a family that was punished for its convictions — including an aunt whose art and spirit were crushed by the communist psychiatric system * What Dr. Stuart Brown’s research on play revealed about burnout and change * How Fine Acts’ LABS format pairs strangers across disciplines for 48-hour creative sprints * “Controlled failure” — her concept for the deliberate leap into something you’re not ready for * Why the word she uses for her career is “recalibration,” not reinvention “Play can prevent very high levels of burnout and depression amongst activists — and it can give us the much-needed feeling that we’ve got this. So we embrace joy as the process. It’s not necessarily that the final result is going to be funny or light. It’s about feeling free, feeling unburdened, while in the process of creation.” Her concept of Playtivism isn't just a theory. It's a methodology built on neuroscience, tested through years of failure, and proven through campaigns that have actually shifted hearts. In a moment when activists are burning out and information is being weaponized, Yana's insistence on joy — not as an afterthought but as a strategy — is both countercultural and essential. Learn more about Fine Acts: fineacts.co 📬 Subscribe to A Life Worth Working 🎙️ Listen wherever you get your podcasts 📩 Email us: hello@alifeworthworking.com About Our Guest Yana Buhrer Tavanier (YAH-nah BOO-rer tah-vahn-YAY) is a TED Senior Fellow and the co-founder and Executive Director of Fine Acts, a global nonprofit creative studio for social impact. Born in communist Bulgaria, she has spent her career at the intersection of journalism, activism, art, technology, and science — developing what she calls “Playtivism”: the radical idea that joy, creativity, and imagination can be more powerful agents of change than facts or fury alone. Fine Acts works across human rights and environmental issues worldwide, producing campaigns and supporting civil society organizations in making people stop, feel, and act. About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise [https://michelleweise.substack.com/], a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh [https://artofflourishing.substack.com/], an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe [https://michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

From Orphan to Berkeley Engineer

Episode: A Life Worth Working | Guest: Chris Atageka | Engineer, Entrepreneur, Author of Return to Human 🎧 Watch a Brief Clip What You’ll Learn in This Episode * Why Chris slept with his US passport and then buried it in his backyard — and what that tells us about the kind of fear that doesn’t leave when the danger does * The “life raft” problem every immigrant and first-generation success story knows: when you finally get out, who do you carry with you, and what does it cost? * What survivor’s remorse actually feels like — and how it has shaped every chapter of his work since * Why he believes “just be yourself” is one of the most privileged sentences in the wellness vocabulary — and what most people get wrong about it * His new book Return to Human — and why he believes we are heading into a global crisis of purpose: “If a robot can do it better, what are humans for?” About Chris Atageka Chris Atageka is an engineer, entrepreneur, and author who was born in a small village in Uganda and orphaned around the age of seven or eight, when both of his parents likely died of AIDS. He spent eight years in survival mode before being discovered by a community member who connected him to Yes Uganda, a nonprofit founded by Kara Adams, a Hawaiian woman who moved to Uganda at age 50 to start an orphanage. A California family sponsored Chris through the program for years, eventually bringing him to the United States. Chris went on to earn two engineering degrees from UC Berkeley, graduating at the top of his class and serving as the student speaker at commencement in front of a stadium of thousands. He has built companies, given a TED Talk, returned to Uganda to give back to kids in circumstances like the one he was born into, and is now the author of several books — most recently Return to Human, a meditation on what it means to be a person in the age of the machine. About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise [https://michelleweise.substack.com/], a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh [https://artofflourishing.substack.com/], an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe [https://michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

She Quit Finance, Climbed Everest, and Picked Up Her Viola.

Episode: A Life Worth Working | Guest: Rebecca Long | Everest Summiteer, Violist & Career Reinventor What You’ll Learn in This Episode The moment Rebecca realized eight years in banking wasn’t a career — it was a slow depression What she gave up when she quit: a salary, a relationship, a plan. What she gained. What it’s actually like inside the Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous section of Everest — including the swinging ladders over crevasses in the dark The fatherly teammate who lent Rebecca his nose shield without a second thought — and didn’t make it back from the acclimatization climb Why “getting to the top is optional, but coming down is mandatory” — and what that teaches you about judgment under pressure About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise [https://michelleweise.substack.com/], a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh [https://artofflourishing.substack.com/], an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe [https://michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

He’s a Pastor. He Went on a Reality Show Called “The Snake.” It Was More Complicated than It Sounds.

Episode: A Life Worth Working | Guest: Jacob Buchholz | Pastor, Deaf Culture & Reality TV Jacob Buchholz is a progressive pastor, a fluent signer in American, Romanian, and Russian sign language, the co-founder of a trans-denominational deaf church — and a cast member on The Snake, now streaming on Hulu. The show cast him because he’s from a profession that uses persuasion. He went because he wanted a nationally televised platform for a more inclusive, progressive version of Christianity. In this episode of A Life Worth Working, Jacob tells the full story: from his childhood in a deaf household where his mother led protests and ran ASL church services, to a transformative trip to Romania and Moldova that redirected his entire career, to the moment he climbed out of a shipping crate in Argentina and found out he was on a game show about manipulation. This is a genuinely surprising episode about identity, calling, courage — and what it means to hold your values in a space that wasn’t built for them. 🎧 Watch/Listen Now About Jacob Buchholz Jacob Buchholz is a senior pastor and reality television contestant currently featured on The Snake, now streaming on Hulu. He has served as a pastor in the United Church of Christ for over a decade and is currently leading a congregation in Claremont, California. About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise [https://michelleweise.substack.com/], a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh [https://artofflourishing.substack.com/], an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe [https://michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

She Won Olympic Gold. Then She Had to Figure out Who She Was without It.

Episode: A Life Worth Working | Guest: Shawn Johnson East | Olympic Champion, Entrepreneur & Mother Shawn Johnson won the gold medal on the balance beam at the 2008 Olympics. She was 16. She had already been told, implicitly and explicitly, that this was the point — the summit of what she had been working toward since before she could remember. What this episode of A Life Worth Working captures, with unusual honesty, is what happened to the person inside all of that achievement. The girl who felt superhuman inside the gym and panicked outside it. The teenager who said yes to every opportunity after retirement because she was too scared to have a quiet moment. The young woman who chased the next title because the last one felt hollow the moment she got it. Shawn’s story speaks to anyone who has organized their identity around performance — in sports, in school, in a career — and then had to reckon with who they are once the performance is over or the goal is reached. That experience is not limited to Olympic athletes. It is one of the most common and least-discussed features of high-achievers. What makes this episode particularly moving is how clearly Shawn can trace her own transformation: from a child who defined success as approval, to a mother who has had to deliberately, painstakingly unlearn that definition one layer at a time. She’s generous about the work it took. And honest about the fact that it’s still ongoing. 🎧 Watch/Listen Now What You’ll Learn in This Episode * What Shawn actually wanted to be before the Olympics took over * The “Hannah Montana effect”: how Shawn felt like a completely different, superhuman inside the gym * What 11 days of Navy SEAL-style training on Special Forces actually felt like — and why smiling through physical pain is not a good idea * The foundational role of her parents About Shawn Johnson East Shawn Johnson East is the 2007 World All-Around Gymnastics Champion and a four-time 2008 Olympic medalist, including the gold medal on the balance beam. She is one of the few American gymnasts ever to win Olympic gold on beam — the event she was drawn to precisely because it terrified everyone else. In the years since, she has competed on Dancing with the Stars, done a season of Special Forces, launched businesses with her husband and former NFL player Andrew East, and become a mother of three. She has also spent considerable time and effort unlearning nearly everything she was taught about what success is supposed to look like. About the Podcast: A Life Worth Working A Life Worth Working is hosted by Michelle Weise [https://michelleweise.substack.com/], a writer on the future of learning and work, and Dana Allen Walsh [https://artofflourishing.substack.com/], an executive coach and pastor. Each week, they talk with guests who open up about the messiness, transformation, and wonder of their work lives — what they call the soul of work. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show. 📩 Email us: alifeworthworking@gmail.com Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Skilling Me Softly | A Life Worth Working at michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe [https://michelleweise.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]