Holly Howard: Work Practices, Relationships, and Capitalism

Holly Howard: Work Practices, Relationships, and Capitalism

AFH: Season 2, Episode 15 Featuring Holly Howard About the Guest: Holly Howard is the founder and CEO of Pyramid.Work, an AI-powered strategic growth engine for the entrepreneurial economy. Pyramid is the culmination of Holly’s lifelong pursuit: integrating artist, scientist, healer, business builder, and teacher—and using that integration to create technology that helps people realize their own visions. Holly’s journey began in 1996 at the Joffrey Ballet Training Program. At 18, she danced with the Ruth Page Ballet’s Nutcracker and joined the American Guild of Musical Artists. In 1999, she entered Berklee College of Music to study Music Therapy and Bassoon, where she discovered neuroscience and neuroplasticity—that creativity can literally rewire the brain. She created an internship at the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function under Dr. Concetta Tomaino, longtime collaborator of Oliver Sacks. That experience taught her how to invent what doesn’t exist. After three years as a Board-Certified Music Therapist in New York, Holly took a detour into Brooklyn’s restaurant scene—working at Marlow & Sons, where she was photographed by Roe Ethridge (now in ICA Boston and MOCA). She also recorded on bassoon with The Pierces. Later, she managed egg restaurant that she made profitable enough to offer PTO and health insurance to every employee in 2009. That work led to a congressional briefing for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and influenced the Healthy Families Act. During those years, Holly earned her premedical certificate at Columbia University while conducting orthopedic research at Lenox Hill Hospital. After publishing in the Journal of Arthroplasty, she chose not to pursue medicine and pivoted back to creativity. In 2012, Holly founded Ask Holly How, her consulting practice. By 2014, her programs were sponsored by JPMorgan Chase and economic development corporations. She has since worked with over 1,000 small businesses, become a professor at Pratt Institute, joined the faculty at RISD, and launched the podcast Cultures Within Capitalism. Her work has been cited in the New York Times, The Cut, Fast Company, and Bustle. In 2023, Holly completed her Master’s Certificate in Religions of the World at Harvard, integrating the spiritual and philosophical roots of everything she builds. Through Pyramid, Holly is uniting all of these disciplines—art, science, service, and spirit—to help entrepreneurs build from their own foundations, not someone else’s framework. Guest Info: * https://www.pyramid.work/about [https://www.priestessfrancesca.com/podcast-review] Follow Me: * Instagram: @afinehuman [https://www.instagram.com/afinehuman/]  * Shop Dame: dame.com [https://dame.com/]  This podcast was produced by aurielle sayeh, [https://instagram.com/auriellesayeh] filmed by @thetellychannel [https://instagram.com/thetellychannel], and powered by @dameproducts [https://instagram.com/dameproducts].

Priestess Francesca: Desires, Taboo, and Psyche

AFH: Season 2, Episode 14 Featuring Priestess Francesca About the Guest: Priestess Francesca is a Somatic Sexologist, Professional Dominatrix, and Ordained Priestess. In an age where algorithms and digital echo chambers attempt to sanitize the human experience, Francesca works exclusively in the trenches of flesh, blood, and the psyche. She refuses to deal in dry theory.  Her practice spans the absolute extremes of the human condition: she has shepherded 18-year-olds into their first taboo encounter, facilitated the darkest, edgiest BDSM desires for high-functioning professionals, and served pleasure at the hospice beds of 98-year-old clients navigating the final, ultimate surrender of the body. As a professional dominatrix and somatic ethicist for wellness brands, Francesca’s expertise lies in what actually holds up when power, desire, and pressure collide. She teaches individuals and organizations how to navigate high-stakes dynamics, proving that exploring our deepest taboos and darkest edges requires the highest levels of reverence, care, and structural integrity. Francesca is the host of the Gutter Wisdom [https://www.priestessfrancesca.com/podcast-review] podcast. Her insights on kink, power, and somatic protocols have been featured in Cosmopolitan, Business Insider, Health Magazine, and Gothamist. She has lectured at institutions including Sarah Lawrence and Salve Regina, and spoken on stages from DomCon to the Envision Festival. Guest Info: * Instagram: instagram.com/gutterwisdompod [https://www.instagram.com/gutterwisdompod] * Gutter Wisdom Podcast [https://www.priestessfrancesca.com/podcast-review] Follow Me: * Instagram: @afinehuman [https://www.instagram.com/afinehuman/]  * Shop Dame: dame.com [https://dame.com/]  This podcast was produced by aurielle sayeh, [https://instagram.com/auriellesayeh] filmed by @thetellychannel [https://instagram.com/thetellychannel], and powered by @dameproducts [https://instagram.com/dameproducts].

Alex Fine on Motherhood

Al speaks to the complexities of Motherhood with a very special guest this Mother's Day. Follow Me: * Instagram: @afinehuman [https://www.instagram.com/afinehuman/]  * Shop Dame: dame.com [https://dame.com/]  This podcast was produced by aurielle sayeh, [https://instagram.com/auriellesayeh] filmed by @thetellychannel [https://instagram.com/thetellychannel], and powered by @dameproducts [https://instagram.com/dameproducts].

Cyndi Darnell: Intimacy, Spontaneity, and Drive

AFH: Season 2, Episode 12 Featuring Cyndi Darnell About the Guest: Cyndi Darnell is an internationally recognized sex and relationship therapist, educator, and author who helps people have better sex and way better conversations about it. With warmth, wit, and a refreshingly shame-free approach, she works with individuals, couples, and  non-monogamous relationship partners navigating desire differences, intimacy challenges, communication breakdowns, and the complexities of modern love. Cyndi is known for blending evidence-based therapy, somatic awareness, and real-world practicality—because insight is great, but it has to work in your actual body and relationships. Her work centers on attunement, erotic intelligence, and helping people move beyond “What’s wrong with me/us?” toward “What’s possible now?” She’s the creator of popular online courses, a sought-after media expert, and the author of Sex When You Don’t Feel Like It: The Truth About Mismatched Libido and Rediscovering Desire. When she’s not talking about sex (which is often), she’s probably talking about relationships, power, death or why most of us were never taught the skills we’re expected to magically master. And rescue dogs. Guest Info: * Instagram: instagram.com/cyndi_darnell * www.cyndidarnell.com [http://www.cyndidarnell.com/] Follow Me: * Instagram: @afinehuman [https://www.instagram.com/afinehuman/]  * Shop Dame: dame.com [https://dame.com/]  This podcast was produced by aurielle sayeh, [https://instagram.com/auriellesayeh] filmed by @thetellychannel [https://instagram.com/thetellychannel], and powered by @dameproducts [https://instagram.com/dameproducts].

Greta Meyer- Women's Health, Tampons, and Access

AFH: Season 2, Episode 11 Featuring Greta Meyer About the Guest: Greta Meyer is the CEO and co-founder of Sequel, a women’s health company focused on product innovation addressing unmet needs of women. The company’s first product, a redesign of the tampon the Sequel Spiral™ Tampon, is FDA cleared as a medical device. The product features a proprietary spiral design that is engineered to be more fluid mechanically efficient, meaning it is designed to absorb more evenly and not leak before it’s full. Greta was recently named to the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 List. Greta studied Engineering Product Design at Stanford University, where she was awarded the highest honor in the department alongside Sequel co-founder Amanda Calabrese for their work developing a redesigned tampon. Guest Info: * Instagram: instagram.com/trysequel Follow Me: * Instagram: @afinehuman [https://www.instagram.com/afinehuman/]  * Shop Dame: dame.com [https://dame.com/]  This podcast was produced by aurielle sayeh, [https://instagram.com/auriellesayeh] filmed by @thetellychannel [https://instagram.com/thetellychannel], and powered by @dameproducts [https://instagram.com/dameproducts].