Dr. Amy Cabrera Rasmussen has as her guest today Shanice Webb, a learning experience designer, facilitator, community builder, and founder of Transcend Thought, who bridges ambition and wellbeing through sustainable, aligned success.

Webb shares her early entrepreneurial instincts, first formal job as a teen, and how Stanford’s Life Design Lab helped prepare her for full-time entrepreneurship.

She explains learning experience design as a practice of creating play-based, hands-on environments that support curiosity and varied learning styles.

We get a glimpse of this form of good work via an example of Webb's facilitation of a design-thinking workshop for Stanford’s Center for Just Environmental Futures, including a puzzle activity that made clear the need for collaboration on complex problems like climate justice.

The two reflect on imposter syndrome, creating safe spaces, saying no for sustainability's sake, and suggest ways to utilize active engagement and the ikigai framework. Webb also shares the adult "play dates” she designed as part of her work in the Bay Area.

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The Good Work Podcast is part of The Good Work Project.

To keep up with the pod and the project, follow Dr. Amy Cabrera Rasmussen on Linked In or Instagram.

You also can sign up for the weekly Good Work Newsletter.

Episodes can be found here or on your favorite podcast platform.

If you would like to suggest yourself or someone else to be a guest on the podcast, please fill out the form here.

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Dr. Amy Cabrera Rasmussen chats with Amanda Mendoza, currently senior research and campaign coordinator at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP), a nonprofit watchdog examining private equity’s impacts across climate and energy, workers and jobs, housing, healthcare, and detention and surveillance.

Mendoza explains private equity in clear terms: as multi-trillion-dollar investment firms funded largely by institutional investors like public pension funds and focused on extracting profit over a handful of years.

The two go on to examine her unique dual research-and-campaign role, including leading the Private Equity Climate Risks Consortium to build public-facing data and scorecards on private equity ownership of fossil fuel assets, information not readily disclosed.

Mendoza shares her nontraditional path from community college and political science through an internship-turned-research-analyst job, a COVID layoff, and climate justice work inspired by Standing Rock.

We also learn about how the efforts by Mendoza and her colleagues to unionize PESP are helping to reduce burnout and improve work conditions.

Throughout, the two discuss building community, leveraging the support of one's professors, and how doing internships can be an important pathway toward one's good work career.

Support the show

The Good Work Podcast is part of The Good Work Project.

To keep up with the pod and the project, follow Dr. Amy Cabrera Rasmussen on Linked In or Instagram.

You also can sign up for the weekly Good Work Newsletter.

Episodes can be found here or on your favorite podcast platform.

If you would like to suggest yourself or someone else to be a guest on the podcast, please fill out the form here.

Thanks for listening!

Dr. Amy Cabrera Rasmussen introduces The Good Work Podcast, a show offering insights, how-tos, and inspiration for doing meaningful work in ways that are sustainable and supportive of well-being. Aimed at students, early-career professionals, and experienced purpose-driven workers who may feel stretched thin, disillusioned, or tired, the podcast explores how not fitting in can become leverage for asking better questions, seeing what others miss, and finding a way forward. Each week features interviews and stories from people doing good work locally and globally, along with researchers, thinkers, and leaders redefining what good work is amid rapid changes in the world of work. The show emphasizes support, community, practical examples, and actionable guidance, and invites listeners to follow on major platforms.

Support the show

The Good Work Podcast is part of The Good Work Project.

To keep up with the pod and the project, follow Dr. Amy Cabrera Rasmussen on Linked In or Instagram.

You also can sign up for the weekly Good Work Newsletter.

Episodes can be found here or on your favorite podcast platform.

If you would like to suggest yourself or someone else to be a guest on the podcast, please fill out the form here.

Thanks for listening!