The Science of Laughter Yoga (with Cathy Nesbitt)
Release Date: 02/15/2026
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info_outlinePicture about a hundred picketers at a Toronto garbage strike, a private investigator filming the scene in case of trouble, and one woman walking straight into the middle of it wearing a homemade "Worm Away Your Garbage" T-shirt. That's Cathy Nesbitt, and it's just one chapter in twenty-three years of building a worm-composting business nobody asked for. By the end of our conversation, she'll also have taught me the actual science behind laughter yoga (yes, it's a real thing, and no, it doesn't involve any actual yoga).
Cathy is the founder of Cathy's Crawly Composters, Cathy's Sprouters, and Cathy's Laughter Club, a two-time TEDx speaker, and a health and wellness advocate with a psych degree who's endlessly curious about why people react to her ideas the way they do. We talk about the "ew, worms" comment she heard for the ten thousandth time in 2012, right before discovering laughter yoga changed how she thought about stress for good, and why she believes failure will always feel better than regret.
If you've ever sat on an idea because you were scared of what people would say, or you're just looking for a legitimate, science-backed way to defuse road rage, this one's for you.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGJIpfOcbPc
In this episode
- Why Cathy believes "failure will always feel better than regret," and how that mantra carried her through 23 years of a business people said was "gross"
- The wild story of confronting a union picket line to launch her worm-composting business, and the newspaper interview that came out of it
- What laughter yoga actually is (hint: it's not yoga), and the "DOSE" of feel-good brain chemicals it triggers
- Why you physically cannot be stressed and laughing at the same moment, and how Cathy uses laughter yoga behind the wheel to defuse road rage
- The boundary she wishes she'd set sooner: saying no to unpaid "exposure" events that drained her time for nothing
- Her advice for anyone sitting on a business idea because of what people might think
Timestamps
- (00:01) Welcome and meet Cathy Nesbitt, worm composting and Laughter Club founder
- (01:36) Twenty-three years of Cathy's Crawly Composters: the origin story
- (03:45) The real obstacle of a worm business (hint: it's not the worms)
- (11:21) The magic of worms: turning a ton of garbage into "black gold"
- (12:19) Quitting her job to write a six-month business plan
- (14:52) Confronting a Toronto garbage-strike picket line in her "Worm Away Your Garbage" shirt
- (18:14) Her first newspaper feature, and the same-day news that her husband was downsized
- (19:50) "Failure will always feel better than regret"
- (26:47) 2012: the "ew, worms" comment that nearly ended her mission, and discovering laughter yoga the very next day
- (28:19) What laughter yoga actually is, and the DOSE of feel-good brain chemicals it triggers
- (31:32) Using laughter yoga to defuse road rage
- (32:51) The boundary lesson: saying no to events that weren't the right fit
About Cathy Nesbitt
Cathy Nesbitt is a health and wellness advocate, the founder of Cathy's Crawly Composters (started in 2002), Cathy's Sprouters, and Cathy's Laughter Club, and a multi-award-winning environmental innovator and two-time TEDx speaker who's introduced worm composting and laughter yoga to more than 100,000 students through her workshops.
Connect with her on LinkedIn, or visit Cathy's Club to join her free Laughter Club, Tuesday mornings at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.
Favorite quotes
"Failure is always going to feel better than regret." —Cathy Nesbitt
"We're literally in charge of our own pharma. We get to decide happy, happy chemicals or stress hormones." —Cathy Nesbitt
"Don't let people tell you what you're going to like it or dislike. Try it for yourself. You don't know." —Cathy Nesbitt
Resources mentioned
- CathysClub.com: home to Cathy's free Laughter Club, Tuesday mornings 9:30 a.m. Eastern
- Cathy Nesbitt on LinkedIn
Related episodes
- Are You Avoiding Failure or Guaranteeing It?: dives deeper into the exact "failure vs. regret" tension Cathy lived out for 23 years.
- Entrepreneurial Success: Habits of a Maverick: another entrepreneur's take on pushing an unconventional idea forward.
- Overcoming Burnout, Hustle Culture, and Redefining Success: more on stress relief and redefining what success actually costs.
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Curious where your own boundaries stand? Take my free Work Boundaries Quiz: danaskaggs.com/quiz