How Do We Manage?

Sue Deagle was living a happy life in northern Virginia. She had a high-flying career and a beautiful home that she shared with her husband, son and daughter. But one day she woke up to find her husband unresponsive in bed, by the time he got to the hospital, he had sadly passed away. Sue suddenly found herself on a new path, juggling motherhood and work while navigating her own grief and her childrens’.

Following up from our episode on the neuroscience behind grief, in this episode we delve into what that looks like in practice. Stephanie speaks to Sue about how the experience of losing her husband changed her life in all sorts of unexpected ways, the hope she could take from that, the surprising places she found solace and understanding, and how we manage being a parent of grieving children.

Resources & Links 

Order ‘Do Loss’ by Sue Deagle:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.eu/d/0f1B9clE

Amazon US: https://a.co/d/07ABxOhI

Read Sue’s Substack ‘The Luminist’

Host: Stephanie von Bismarck 

Guest: Sue Deagle

Producer: Holly Fisher

Production Manager: Angela Crago 

Executive Producer: Ellie Di Martino 

The series was recorded and edited at Pod Shop studios. 

Follow @HowDoWeManage

Grief is something we will all experience in some shape or form in our lives, not just through the death of loved ones but also in the breakdown of relationships, the loss of jobs and for the lives we thought we might lead that have taken a different path.

When we grieve our brain is battling a lot of conflicting information, and on this episode of How Do We Manage we invite in Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor - a psychologist who has written two books on how grief affects both our brains and our bodies - to tell us how understanding the science behind the grieving process can help us deal with the complex and difficult feelings around loss. 

Resources & Links 

Books by Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor:

The Grieving Body 

The Grieving Brain

Dr O’Connor’s website: https://maryfrancesoconnor.org/

Host: Stephanie von Bismarck 

Guest: Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor, professor of psychology at the University of Arizona

Producer: Holly Fisher

Production Manager: Angela Crago 

Executive Producer: Ellie Di Martino 

The series was recorded and edited at Pod Shop studios. 

Follow @HowDoWeManage

As cyber crimes make up an increasing amount of overall reported crimes worldwide we need to be in the best position possible to protect ourselves, and this week’s guest has plenty of advice. Chris Kubecka has been hacking computers since she was a child, which landed her in hot water when she was arrested for getting into the Department of Justice from her school library. These days she is using her skills ethically; she has had networks back up and running again after some of the most devastating large-scale cyberattacks in the world.

In this episode Chris tells us the things we can do on a daily basis to keep ourselves safe from online criminals, she also widens the picture to look at cyberwarfare and what governments and businesses need to do to stay safe, and as new generations become increasingly hacking-literate she tells us how to keep our kids safe from being recruited by hackers online.

Host: Stephanie von Bismarck 

Guest: Chris Kubecka

Producer: Holly Fisher

Production Manager: Angela Crago 

Executive Producer: Ellie Di Martino 

The series was recorded and edited at Pod Shop studios. 

Follow @HowDoWeManage

We learn a lot at school and university, but are we taught enough about how to have agency over our own mental health? One professor in the US didn’t think so and so created ‘Stoked Lab’. It’s a module at California’s Stanford University that teaches students how to find happiness and positivity in life. Through practical skills and life philosophies that the students can apply to their own journeys in order to carve out the path that is right for them.

It was co-founded by Daryn Reicherter, director of the Human Rights in Trauma Mental Health Laboratory at Stanford. He’s a clinical professor who specialises in cross-cultural trauma psychiatry with patients who have experienced extremes like displacement or warzones. 

Daryn joins Stephanie to talk about how the Stoked Lab evolved, what it teaches, and how it has helped him manage the more difficult sides of his own work.

Host: Stephanie von Bismarck 

Guest: Daryn Reicherter

Producer: Holly Fisher

Production Manager: Angela Crago 

Executive Producer: Ellie Di Martino 

The series was recorded and edited at Pod Shop studios. 

Follow @HowDoWeManage

In the year 2000 the UN Security Council launched Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security - the first commitment to recognise the importance of women’s roles in conflict prevention and resolution. But more than 25 years on how much progress have we made?

While the number of women at negotiation tables is going up, there is still a way to go. Fawzia Koofi is an Afghan politician, writer and activist. During her years in parliament she was a fervent activist for women’s rights and drafted the Elimination of Violence Against Women law. She was the first female Deputy Speaker of Parliament in the history of Afghanistan, and was a member of the Afghan delegation during peace talks with the Taliban in 2020. However since the Taliban took back power in 2021, being a woman in Afghanistan is extremely difficult, and Fawzia’s been living in exile in London watching from afar as the progress she made for women in her country is reversed.

In today’s episode Fawzia and Stephanie discuss what peace really means after a war has ended, the difference that women can make to peace negotiations, and why Afghanistan is currently one of the hardest places in the world to be a woman.

Host: Stephanie von Bismarck 

Guest: Fawzia Koofi

Producer: Holly Fisher

Production Manager: Angela Crago 

Executive Producer: Ellie Di Martino 

The series was recorded and edited at Pod Shop studios. Follow @HowDoWeManage