What's actually draining your bottom line? In this host episode, Cristina and Alex take a hard look at what happens when businesses forget the humans behind the numbers. From layoffs that quietly destroy institutional knowledge, to spreadsheets designed to tell whatever story someone needs them to tell, to AI-generated data points that are simply made up — the episode makes a compelling case that the leaks most organizations ignore are the ones costing them the most.

The conversation moves from diagnosis to direction: what does it actually look like to lead with the human experience at the center? Cristina and Alex explore how qualitative measures like cross-team collaboration, trust, and psychological safety show up on the bottom line in ways a P&L statement will never capture — and why investing in humans isn't a soft choice, but the highest-ROI decision a leader can make.

What does a peer-reviewed study on aging have to do with your workplace culture — and what does any of it have to do with a dog coding a video game? In this episode of Uncover the Human, hosts Cristina Amigoni and Alex Cullimore are joined by returning guest Chuck DeVries, a self-described "explorer in the land of whimsy," for a wide-ranging conversation that connects cutting-edge science to everyday leadership. They dive into new research showing that toxic relationships don't just feel bad — they literally accelerate aging at the DNA level, with "hasslers" in your personal and professional life acting as biological risk multipliers. The conversation explores how this plays out on teams, in organizations, and even in our own nervous systems, and what leaders can actually do about it.

From there, the trio turns to AI — its promise, its risks, and the very human questions it forces us to confront. Chuck offers a grounded, nuanced take on how companies should think about integrating AI without hollowing out the human value that makes businesses worth building in the first place. He draws unexpected parallels between AI disruption and the discovery of fire, challenges the idea of universal basic income as a band-aid solution, and makes a compelling case for keeping the customer — not the algorithm — at the center of every decision. And just when you think it can't get any more interesting, the conversation ends with a dog who coded a playable video game using Claude. Seriously.

Links:

Chuck Chats: https://www.youtube.com/@ChuckChatChannel

Studies mentioned:

Dog builds video game : https://www.calebleak.com/posts/dog-game/

Negative social ties as emerging risk factors dor accelerate aging, inflammation, and multimorbidity: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2515331123.

What if the conflict you've been avoiding is costing you more than the conversation itself? In this episode of Uncover the Human, hosts Alex Cullimore and Cristina Amigoni dig into why conflict feels so loaded — and why that fear is often worse than the conflict itself. From the tendency to weight negative experiences more heavily than positive ones, to the hidden costs of saying "yes" when you mean "no," they unpack the psychology behind avoidance and challenge listeners to flip the script: instead of asking "what happens if I speak up?", ask "what happens if I don't?"

Drawing on real stories — including Cristina's memorable moment of telling her boss's boss "no" at 10 p.m. and watching jaws drop — the episode makes the case that conflict isn't something that happens to us, but a muscle we can learn to use. The more we build a "data bucket" of conversations that didn't go as badly as feared, the easier it becomes to step into the next one. Whether you're conflict-avoidant or just looking for tools to navigate hard conversations more skillfully, this episode offers a grounded, relatable starting point.