388: Bridging Our Virtual Distance: Reconnecting in the Age of AI
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Release Date: 11/11/2025
407: Why Might the Arts Teach the Holocaust More Powerfully Than History Alone?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest Karen Berman, Ph.D., Chaired the Department of Theatre and Dance at Georgia College and previously taught for 15 years at Georgetown University. She is Dean Emerita, College of Fellows of the American Theatre; Past President of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education; Director of 150 Holocaust and other theatre productions; and winner of the Georgia Governor’s Award for the Arts and the Hillel Heroes Award. Karen is co-Artistic Director of Washington Women in Theatre. She is the co-author with Dr. Gail Humphries of the two-volume work, Stories of the Holocaust: Art for Healing...
info_outline
406: "Attack!" How Do the Complexities of Character and Context Converge to Shape History?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest Bill Whiteside abandoned a 30-year career in software sales to devote his time to a story that he started researching to keep his mind engaged during his business travels. Intrigued by a little-known incident from early in Winston Churchill’s first term as Britain’s Prime Minister, this diversion evolved into an obsession as he dug into the story of a controversial and catastrophic clash between the British and French Navies from multiple angles. The more he learned, the more it became a book he just had to write. That book, Operation Catapult: Winston Churchill and the British...
info_outline
405: What Can Standing in Awe of the Natural World Teach Us?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest Tom Reed studied photography at Rutgers while studying Geography. Ansel Adams, Edgar Payne, and the Hudson River School are major influencers. Zen sensibilities profoundly influence his compositions and writings, as he is a student of Japanese martial arts and aesthetics (chado). His photographs and writing center on the experience of awe at the sight of a landscape. He hopes this leads to considering nature itself divine and sacred, and that stewardship, rather than the dominant utilitarian view, is the only sane attitude. Summary In this episode, Jeff speaks with...
info_outline
404: How Do the Experiences of War Echo Across Generations?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest Matthew Collins is a writer, speaker, and voice coach whose career spans British television, travel writing, prison education, and Shakespeare. A former BBC presenter, he now leads voice and public speaking workshops and teaches Shakespeare to students ranging from ex-prisoners to members of the Women's Institute. His approach is non-academic. He encourages students to explore Shakespearean texts using spoken voice exercises - and to feel the effects they can have on the mind and body. (And soul...) Matthew also gives entertaining talks. And last year, he launched...
info_outline
403: What Do Artifacts Explain About the History of the West?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest Paul Knowles has not followed a conventional path. Originally from Texas, he worked in Downtown Dallas as a financial advisor for the world’s largest private wealth manager. He then served as marketing director for a highly successful Colorado regional bank and later for one of the nation’s top real estate offices. However, it was after stepping away for a year and a half that Paul stumbled onto his true calling, and for the past ten years, he has been the Assistant Director of the Museum of Northwest Colorado, located in Craig, Colorado Summary In this episode, I visit with Paul to...
info_outline
402: How Does Animal-Assisted Education Improve Student Focus and Mental Health?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest Barbara Vokatis is a professor at the State University of New York an Oneonta, keynote speaker, award-winning author, and therapy dog partner. She is an author of books in dog therapy in educational settings (“Teachers and Therapy Dog Teams: Innovative Collaborations to Make a Difference for Children”) and a children’s book (“Carmel Goes to School”) with the therapy dog theme. Her latest book is titled “Unshakable: Parenting through Autism with Love, Courage, and Purpose.” Summary In this episode, Jeff Ikler speaks with Dr. Barb Vokatis about the role of animal-assisted...
info_outline
401: How Do Writer Friendships Make the Creative Journey More Sustainable?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest Hurley Winkler is a writer and editor from Jacksonville, FL. Her newsletter, “Lonely Victories,” is among the top Substack publications in the Literature category. She teaches creative writing at Flagler College. Summary In this episode, I speak with writer and teacher Hurley Winkler about journaling, creative practice, and building a sustainable writing life. Hurley traces her path to writing back to childhood anxiety and early journaling inspired by Harriet the Spy, and describes how writing eventually became her preferred independent art form after early interests in...
info_outline
400: How Do Observing and Deep Listening Help Shape Strong Writing?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest Heather Lende is the author of four books centered on her life in Haines, Alaska: If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name, Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs, Find the Good: Life Lessons from a Small-town Obituary Writer, and, most recently, Of Bears and Ballots, about her adventures in local politics. Heather served as Alaska Writer Laureate from 2021-2023, has an honorary Ph.D in Humane Letters from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and is the recipient of the Middlebury College Alumni Award. Summary In this, my 400th episode, I sit down with writer Heather Lende...
info_outline
399: Why Do Public Lands Remain a Source of Controversy?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest Adam Bronstein grew up exploring the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and knew from a young age that he wanted to work to protect wild places. He received a BS from SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry in Environmental Studies and Geographic Information Technologies. Adam first joined the Western Watershed Project staff in 2020. Outside his capacity at WWP, Adam hosts and produces Our Public Lands podcast, advocates for Wilderness, and is a dedicated public lands hunter and angler—always looking for that elusive cow-free habitat. Summary In...
info_outline
398: Why Do Internal Customers Matter as Much as External Ones?
Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity
Guest April Obersteller is a people-centered leader, operator, and founder of And Not Or, a community and leadership platform built around the belief that we don’t have to choose. She has led customer and employee experience across iconic consumer brands, including YETI and woom, and now leads community and experience at Recess. April also hosts The AND Podcast, where she shares real conversations about leadership, growth, and humanity. Summary In this episode, Jeff talks with April Obersteller, co-founder and CEO of And, about what it really takes to build companies that succeed by...
info_outlineGuest
Dr. Karen Sobel-Lojeski is a pioneer in understanding how technology shapes human connection at work and beyond. She created the award-winning framework, Virtual Distance, a proven and practical set of predictive analytics that target problems and predictably strengthen trust, collaboration, and productivity across remote, hybrid, and in-person teams.
As the founder of Virtual Distance International, she has advised Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and institutions, including Coca-Cola, the US Navy, DARPA, and the World Economic Forum. A trusted advisor, former professor and researcher with affiliations at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, Wharton, and the Stockholm School of Economics, she is the author of Uniting the Virtual Workforce, Leading the Virtual Workforce, and The Power of Virtual Distance.
Her insights have been featured in Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and other prominent publications. She is a sought-after speaker, known for energizing audiences worldwide. She holds degrees in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from SUNY Albany and a Ph.D. from Stevens Institute of Technology, where her dissertation, Virtual Distance: A New Model for the Study of Virtual Work, won the Best Dissertation of the Year Award.
Summary
In this follow-up conversation, Dr. Karen Sobel-Lojeski—creator of the concept of “virtual distance”—discusses how technology continues to shape, and often erode, human connection, particularly in education. She defines virtual distance as the measurable sense of separation people feel despite being physically close, a phenomenon driven by technology-mediated communication. The model comprises three layers: physical distance, which has the least impact on outcomes; operational distance, representing the day-to-day barriers to smooth communication; and affinity distance, the emotional and relational disconnect that most strongly undermines trust, learning, and collaboration.
Dr. K and Jeff revisit ideas they first discussed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools shifted to remote learning. While educators solved many operational challenges, they largely ignored the emotional and social costs—students’ inability to connect, play, and learn together. Dr. K likens this to Isaac Asimov’s story “The Fun They Had,” a cautionary tale about robotic education devoid of joy and connection.
The discussion shifts to current policies that restrict cell phone use in schools. Dr. K argues these measures, while well-intentioned, misidentify the real problem. Locking up phones doesn’t undo decades of cultural conditioning around technology. Students’ sense of self and connection has already been rewired; removing the device without addressing underlying social and emotional needs merely produces deprivation, not engagement.
She urges educators to prioritize relationships, empathy, and social learning—what she calls “reconnecting to our direct experience of being human.” AI, she warns, intensifies virtual distance by outsourcing creativity and meaning-making. Ultimately, she calls for a cultural and educational rebalancing that centers human connection in an increasingly digital world.
The Essential Point
Technological fixes—whether online learning, AI, or banning cell phones—cannot mend what they helped fray: our capacity for human connection. True learning and creativity depend on empathy, direct experience, and social bonds.
Social Media
klojeski@virtualdistance.com
www.thepowerofvirtualdistance.com
+1.551.580.6422