The Walk That Changed Everything - Part 2 of A Talk With Tim Perreira

The Book Was Never The Point - A Conversation With Melanie Bates

Podcast Season 2, Episode 7 - with Melanie Bates - 06/30/2026 Melanie Bates came onto the podcast to talk about writing.  That was our plan. Instead, we ended up talking about grief, belonging, shadow work, recovery, criticism, creativity, and what happens when life finally becomes too painful to keep living from the outside in. For more than a decade, Melanie helped authors write bestselling books. What she eventually realized was that the book itself was rarely the most important thing. The transformation was. This conversation felt less like an interview and more like two people comparing notes on the long journey of becoming themselves. We explored Jung's idea that creativity emerges from somewhere deeper than conscious effort - and what transforms when we learn to listen - and trust. We talked about the fear of being seen, the pressure to belong, the wounds that shape us, and the surprising freedom that comes when we stop trying to force the river and simply learn to work with its flow. By the end, I wasn't thinking about books at all. I was thinking about the people writing them - including Melanie and me. And perhaps that's exactly the point. Connect with Melanie: https://melaniebates.com/ Melanie's Substack: https://melaniembates.substack.com/?r=525vww&utm_campaign=subscribe-page-share-screen&utm_medium=web Engineering Your Life: https://www.engineeringyourlife.net/

Nice Doesn't Win - On Boundaries, Big Systems, and Being Yourself

I met Kelli Boyden in the weird corner of LinkedIn and knew within five minutes I needed to have her on the show. Kelli spent 25 years as an attorney fighting for people being pushed out of their homes and denied insurance coverage by systems that were never designed to let them in. Then she walked away, went to Cornell, got an MS in pharmaceutical science, and built something entirely new. In this conversation we talk about fighting big systems, the cost of being nice for too long, and finding your people by simply being yourself. And somewhere in the middle of it all, Kelli asks me if I know anyone who teaches a workshop on boundaries. I might have mentioned one - join us June 19 and 26.  Here is the link to register: http://www.engineeringyourlife.net/boundaries-workshop  Engineering Your Life: https://www.engineeringyourlife.com Connect with Kelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelliboyden/ Kelli's website: https://kelliboyden.com

I Care About People That Care About People

Podcast Season 2, Episode 5 - with Amber Hubert - 4/14/2026 I met Ambra Hubert because she put out an idea in the Weird LinkedIn community. A spontaneous, creative, truly wonderful idea to publish a Zine for and about and BY the community. I had no idea what a "Zine" was - I had never even seen one! But Ambra was so warm and generous and enthusiastic, and the contributions poured in. At the last minute, I felt the call of inspiration and submitted a hand drawn sketch drawn on Engineering Computation pad. And now I can call myself a published artist. That experience introduced me to Ambra, and, in doing so, made it clear to me that I wanted to meet her, so I instigated a coffee chat. (This is often how I end up meeting podcast guests!) 5 minutes into our chat about life, survived trauma, and creativity I knew I was not going to accept "No" to my podcast invitation. Luckily, she didn't put up a fight! Ambra is a lifelong creative who made a sharp turn into business - working in corporate communications, heading up community at a startup, co-founded a poetry press, started and edited a zine, and is now running a weekly newsletter that helps people tell the stories of personal transformation and taking their own sharp turns. She has lived in five countries, speaks three languages, and brings all of herself into everything she does. In this conversation, we talk about what it means to show up as yourself in a space that was never designed for that. We talk about Weird LinkedIn - not as a hashtag, but as a genuine act of rebellion against performative connection. We talk about the Weird Professional Zine, and Permission Slips newsletter and how community became Ambra’s drug of choice. We talk about the things that just pop into your head. About the side quests that felt like detours but turned out to be preparation. About why people don’t answer the hard questions about themselves - and what community has to do with finally being willing to show up authentically. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, we both realized that what we’re each doing - in our own ways - is very much related at its core: Helping people feel safe enough to be real. Connect with Ambra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambra-hubert/ Permission Slips: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/permission-slips-7419778664252338176/ Weird Professional : https://lnkd.in/g6a34bJF Engineering Your Life: https://www.engineeringyourlife.net

The Journey, Not The Destination - A Conversation With Jason Koster

Podcast Season 2, Episode 4 - with Jason Koster - 2/27/2026 Jason Koster is a friend I've known for many years. We used to hike and backpack all over Arizona. He joined me for more stretches of the Arizona Trail than anyone else. And when I decided to gear up for a 23-day traverse of the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Jason said yes to joining me, lugging a high resolution camera and tripod to take epic photos of the sights on the highest altitude scenic trail in the US. It is my pleasure to introduce my listeners to Jason - who embodies both the soul of an artist and the engineering ingenuity involved in solving problems as they arise. Jason is a photographic artist. And what started as a way to share beautiful places with his parents became something much larger - panoramic landscape photography that doesn’t just capture a scene, each image tells a story. A conversation between light and shadow, rock and water, the left side and the right side of a world that doesn’t fully fit in a frame. This conversation is ostensibly about his panoramic landscape photography project. But it became something else entirely - something bigger and more meaningful. We talked about what 23 days in the wilderness does to a person. About the songs that get stuck in your head when fear creeps in. About filtering water and how it somehow feels like cheating death. About broken spoons, blown-out boot laces, and duct tape as a life philosophy. We talk very seriously about how life (and the trail) is truly about the journey and not the destination - and how the landmarks you spend months anticipating can't quite compare to the quiet miracle of just being out in nature and wonder. And we talk about what it means to be an engineer learning to live more like an artist. To plan enough to survive - and be open enough to for transformation. This episode is an adventure in and of itself. Buckle up and enjoy! Connect with Jason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-koster-photography/ Jason's website: www.kosterart.net Engineering Your Life: www.engineeringyourlife.net

The Wisdom Is Already Within You - On Coaching, Recovery, And Coming Home

Podcast Season 2, Episode 3 - with Darren Lyons - 2/11/2026 I’m really glad to welcome Darren Lyons back to Design Review. And I knew when we started talking again that this conversation was going to go somewhere good. Darren and I met through our Jungian life coaching program at CreativeMind University - where we got to know each other deeply, coached each other, and discovered just how much our paths overlapped. He is such a grounded and quietly wise man. And what he’s building with Lyons Life Coaching (LLC, LLC ;-)) is something the world genuinely needs right now. In this episode, we talk about the people Darren works with - high performing professionals who have achieved much on the outside, but are quietly running on empty on the inside. People who know they want more, but feel like there is nothing left in the tank to get there. We talk about slowing down in a world that only rewards speeding up. About the difference between doing and being. About addiction - not just to substances, but to work, to screens, and to busyness itself - as a way of avoiding the present. We talk about trees. About yin and yang. About Winnie the Pooh and Taoism - and about why, if you could have figured it out yourself, you already would have. This episode is truly a conversation between two people who have done the work and are still doing it. I think you’ll feel that. Connect with Darren: www.linkedin.com/in/darren-lyons-54584891/ Engineering Your Life: www.engineeringyourlife.net