The Stories Future Generations Need to Hear (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Mike O'Krent)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Release Date: 04/07/2026
What the Best Leaders Can't See About Themselves (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Brian Vogel)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Picture your ideal Tuesday. You come in with a clear head, a short list of things that actually matter, and a couple of hours of uninterrupted time to think strategically about where you're taking this thing. Now picture your actual Tuesday. Six fires before noon. Three decisions that landed on your desk that someone else should have made. A calendar that left no room for anything except reacting. And somewhere around four in the afternoon, the quiet feeling that you've been incredibly busy and somehow accomplished nothing. If that second picture is more familiar, this episode is...
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You Were Creative Once. Find Your Way Back. (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Maria Gatling)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
When was the last time you made something? A drawing, a photo, a collage, a doodle in the margin of a notebook. Something you made with your hands because something in you wanted to. Most of us have to think about it. And the longer we think, the further back the answer goes. Somewhere along the way, we handed our creative lives back. Not all at once, and not on purpose. Just gradually, between the jobs and the responsibilities and the screens and the schedules, the things we used to make got quietly set aside. And we told ourselves we’d get back to them. And then we didn’t. And eventually...
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The One Thing Your Competition Can Never Buy or Copy (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Joe Fusco)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Here's a question I want you to think about before you hit play. When was the last time you felt like the work you were doing actually mattered? Not mattered as in the numbers went up or the boss was happy. Mattered in that way where you finished a day and felt genuinely full rather than just done. Most of us have forgotten what that feels like. Or maybe we never had it to begin with. This conversation goes deep on that. My guest Joe Fusco and I got into what actually makes a company great, why people don't fit in a spreadsheet no matter how hard we try to make them, and what it really...
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Hurricane Katrina at 21: The Story the Media Never Fully Told featuring Sandy Rosenthal
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Most of us have been there in some form or another. You know the truth. You can see it. You can feel it. And everywhere you look, the official version of events tells a completely different story. The institutions say one thing. The media repeats it. Slowly, the narrative everyone keeps hearing becomes the narrative everyone starts to believe, even when it is wrong. Sandy Rosenthal refused to let that happen. Twenty-one years ago, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the floodwaters rose and swallowed whole neighborhoods and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, the country...
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Pressure-Proof Leadership with Claire Hayek (The Ripple Effect Podcast)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Be honest. When’s the last time you actually felt calm, not just looked calm? Because those are two very different things, and most of us have gotten so good at faking the second one that we forget what the first one even feels like. You handle the hard conversation. You keep your voice steady in the meeting that’s falling apart. You hold it together for everyone else in the room. And then later, alone in your car or lying awake at night, it all comes flooding back. That gap between performing calm and actually being calm is something my guest today has spent her entire life studying,...
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Is Your Survival Brain Leading Your Team? (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Dr. Annie Campanile)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Most of us have spent years learning how to communicate better. Better words, better models, better frameworks. And yet somehow the same conflicts keep happening, the same conversations keep getting avoided, and the same people keep making the room tense the moment they walk in. Dr. Annie Campanile has a different theory about why, and it starts somewhere most leadership training never goes. Watch to learn what's actually driving workplace conflict beneath the surface, why the protective patterns you developed as a kid are probably still showing up in your leadership today, and what your...
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Honest Thoughts on Surviving Online Hate (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Ileana Garcia: Part Two)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
If you listened to Part 1, you already know Ileana Garcia doesn’t hold back. Part 2 goes somewhere I honestly didn’t expect when we sat down to record it. We start with something that still visibly stings a little: the Wall Street Journal feature that was supposed to be a proud moment for her and instead turned into something else entirely. Ileana walks me through what actually happened behind that headline, and by the end of that story, I understood exactly what her brother meant when he called it “engagement by enragement.” Ileana tells me about the anonymous accounts that stitched...
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What Dating Looks Like After 50 (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Ileana Garcia)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
Have you ever had that moment where you realize the life you built isn’t actually the one you want anymore? Today’s guest knows that feeling better than almost anyone I’ve talked to on this show. Ileana Garcia (you probably know her as Illy in the Streets on TikTok) has spent the last few years turning her gray divorce and everything that followed into some of the most honest and funniest content out there. If you’ve ever gone through a divorce after 50, or you’re staring down starting over at 50 and wondering if you have it in you, this conversation is going to feel like sitting...
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An AI That Answers Leads Before You Even Wake Up (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Austin Willman)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
If you run a business and have ever lost a customer because you didn’t call them back fast enough, this one is going to sting. A lead comes in, life happens, and by the time someone picks up the phone, that customer has already booked with whoever responded first. My guest, Austin Willman, built his entire business around fixing that exact problem. He started in door-to-door solar sales, learned the home services world from the ground up, and turned that experience into an AI voice agent that helps contractors and roofers respond to leads the moment they come in, rather than 2 days later. ...
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Your Phone Is Making You Lonely (The Ripple Effect Podcast ft. Julie Sands)
The Ripple Effect Podcast with Steve Harper
You already know the feeling. You put your phone down after an hour of scrolling and somehow feel more drained than before you picked it up. Maybe you’re in a room full of people you love, and everyone’s looking at their screen instead of each other. Maybe you’ve been quietly wondering if the way you’ve been living and connecting is actually working for you anymore. If any of that sounds familiar, this conversation is going to feel like coming up for air. I brought Julie Sands back into The Ripple Effect Podcast, and I’ll be honest with you: time completely disappeared during this...
info_outlineThis episode is something special.
Our special guest is none other than Mike O’Krent, founder of LifeStories Alive, a company devoted to helping families preserve the voices, memories, and life lessons of the people they love most. Mike’s journey is incredible: from interviewing Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation to building a business that turns family stories into lasting video heirlooms for future generations. And trust me, once you hear why he does this work, it’s going to hit you right in the heart.
You’ll hear why stories matter more than ever, how the simple act of listening can change a relationship, and why capturing someone’s voice, wisdom, and legacy before it’s too late may be one of the greatest gifts you ever give. Mike also shares practical gems on asking better questions, handling emotional conversations with grace, and becoming the kind of person people truly open up to.
And hang with us all the way to the end, because Mike drops powerful advice on how to become a better conversationalist and listener. It's the kind of insight that can transform the way you show up at home, at work, and in every relationship that matters.
This one is heartfelt, eye-opening, and full of Ripples that can last for generations.
Ripple with Mike O’Krent:
Website: https://www.lifestoriesalive.com
Ripple with Steve Harper:
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