Deb and I can’t wait for this one. Every time we get in a room together it feels like magic. A podcast together felt like a gift to ourselves. We would love it if you joined us live. The entire intent of this show is to keep it free-flowing and with minimal editing so doing it live makes sense. We will see how it goes as this is definitely a learn out loud moment for both of us.

The transcript…..sort of:Hey friends -

If you’ve ever looked at corporate life and thought, “This can NOT be the best we’ve got”…here’s your Friday feel-good present.

You’re going to want to come hang out with me and Deb Haas on our podcast, Rails Optional, this coming Monday - January 12 - live on Substack at 1 PM Eastern, 9 AM Pacific.

And just so we’re clear: this isn’t a podcast where we talk at you.

It’s two friends hanging out and exploring the stuff corporate life makes complicated in the strangest way…HR, work, systems, AI implementation, “transformation,” and all the invisible rules we’re apparently supposed to accept without question.

It’s ADHD entrepreneurship, corporate recovery, AI without the hype, and building a life that doesn’t drain you.

Neither one of us is especially good at leaving “taboo” topics alone…so we’ve officially given ourselves permission not to stay on the rails.

Between us, we’ve got over 30 years in HR and HR-adjacent worlds. We’ve seen behind the curtain…and we’re willing to talk about the pile of weird things that are back there.

You will never catch us complimenting the emperor’s lovely new clothes.

We also laugh a lot, go deep fast, and occasionally take a sharp left turn or throw in a random song lyric or movie quote because…ADHD.

Here’s how these lives will work:

Each episode starts with a topic. And because it’s live, it’s going to wander. It’ll be shaped by what shows up in the chat, what stories people bring, what we’ve been seeing on our socials, and where our brains decide the real thread actually is.

Also - we finally nailed down the timing and topic for the first one, which honestly took a minute…because literally every time we get in the same room, our brains light up with ideas and we have the best conversations…

…and then we end the call going, “Wait. We didn’t make any decisions.”

So. Episode 1.

We’re starting with that lovely trope that gets passed around like deep wisdom:

“HR is not your friend.”

Is it true?Why does that phrase get repeated so much?Is it fair to the actual humans in HR?How does system design and history play tug o’ war with individual intention?How could it be different?What gets in the way of making it different?

And because the rails are optional, let me just say: does anyone remember that Arby’s slogan used to be “Different is good”…and then they briefly tried to adult with “Now That Your Tastes Have Grown Up”…and now they’re potentially throwing shade at competitors who may or may not have meat in their food?

See? I told you. Rails optional.

If you want to join live, bring questions - especially the ones you’ve been carrying around like, “Is it me…or is the system just structured like a haunted house?”

Or honestly, come laugh with us when the tech shenanigans inevitably happen…because Substack doesn’t give you a practice run, so who knows what madness we’re in for.

This is the first (and so far only) rails optional episode where we’ve left the entirety in from beginning to end, including the chatter. No intro, no theme music, just us, talking and hanging out with our friends. The rails are optional and we don’t follow fake rules. Like most of our episodes ideas it started with an article that sounded interesting and we just sort of followed threads, I did some research in advance, Deb brought her experience and we talked. Some people chimed in through the chat (we LOVE it when people are in the chat!!) and we just went where the spirit took us. We normally cut out the post episode chatter, but every once in a while it’s nice to break the rules. This simpler format (with the beginning and ending trimmed a bit) is our plan for the next several episodes. We are learning and experimenting and we love that you’re here for the journey with us!

Thank you to everyone who tuned in live, subscribe so you get the calendar invites for the next one!btw yes, yes I DID dig through 8 months of chats to find the tiktoks I was talking about:

https://www.tiktok.com/@disneyparkington/video/7557084187237354783?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7546661028311877150

In Episode 5, Deb and I follow the money through the HR conference ecosystem — Transform, UNLEASH, SHRM, ATD, the whole alphabet soup — and ask a question that turns out to be more interesting than it should have to be: when the future of work gets defined on a stage, who paid for that stage, and what do they need the future to look like?

We also get into why HR keeps being handed finance’s ruler and told to measure things that don’t have length, what IO psychology has to do with any of this, and why the most valuable thing at any conference has nothing to do with the speakers.

There are also Yeti coolers and Monopoly.

We film these live, make a few minor edits. Today’s episode includes a few pieces of the chatter after we thought we were done but kept hanging out for twenty minutes.

As always, the rails are optional.Quick note: when I referenced YETI I had VC on the brain, but they were bought by PE (which creates the same dynamics, sometimes even more aggressive, so my point still stands) but wanted to call that out.

If you're interested in the VIA character strengths you can take that assessment free at: https://www.viacharacter.orgAlso The Good Project has the values sort I was talking about: https://www.thegoodproject.org/value-sort.....and if you're a woman over 40 and you're looking for a fun way to explore AI and learn without pressure or shame, I HIGHLY recommend Deb's Joy Prompt Club, you can sign up at www.joypromptclub.com. It's hosted on the Heartbeat App.

In episode 2 of Rails Optional, we start with the HR trends decks everyone’s waving around right now and ask what they actually say about trust, leadership, and how wrecked the social contract at work has become. We unpack Edelman’s trust numbers, “the great stay,” and the new top drivers of engagement, then tie it to how AI is being dropped onto haunted‑house systems, bad data, and years of underinvestment in the infrastructure HR has begged for. From cheating‑spouse energy in employer behavior to moral injury, Sunday dread, and managers quietly siding with their teams, we map the lived reality underneath the glossy reports.What do you think, are community and cooperative small businesses the future of the economy? Or are we going to have more of the same bureaucratic, hierarchical gigantic scale at all costs corporations and is that just the future we all have to look forward to?