In Episode 64, Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Founder of Active Voice, joins Melinda in a discussion on how pandemic-related trauma affects leaders’ abilities to manage their teams. Sara provides practical tips on how we can regain access to our critical thinking and work through the trauma without harming people around us. She also touches on what organizations, managers, and allies can do to build trust and create a safe space for courageous conversations in the workplace.


About Sara

Sara Wachter-Boettcher is an author, speaker, coach, and strategist dedicated to changing design and tech for good. She’s the founder of Active Voice, a coaching and training company helping organizations build radical, courageous leadership practices.

Her most recent book, Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech, was named one of the best tech books of the year by Wired. She also wrote Design for Real Life (with Eric Meyer) and Content Everywhere, and has been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, and McSweeney’s. Find her at home in Philly, on Twitter @sara_ann_marie or at sarawb.com.


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Production Team

Creator & Host: Melinda Briana Epler

Project Manager: Emilie Maas

Finance & Operations: Renzo Santos

Marketing Communications Coordinator: Christina Swindlehurst Chan

Creative Director @ Podcast Rocket: Rob Scheerbarth


[Image description: Leading With Empathy & AllyShip promo with the Empovia logo and photos of Sara Wachter-Boettcher, a White woman with short black hair who’s wearing a black denim jacket paired with a white top, and host Melinda Briana Epler, a White woman with red hair, glasses, and orange shirt holding a white mug behind a laptop.]

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