In the first half, author and leadership expert Amy Leneker discussed the pervasive issue of stress and burnout and its effects on people's lives. She noted that stress itself is a physiological reaction to change, and not inherently negative. "There's really good stress. There's stress that helps you meet a deadline, or stress that helps you reach a goal," she explained. However, her focus is on chronic stress-- the kind that "lingers, wears on you and has really detrimental outcomes for our health." Her approach to stress management emerged through trial and error, supplemented by extensive conversations with leaders and teams worldwide. She reported that "seven out of 10 American workers say that they're experiencing high amounts of stress," and "two-thirds of people say they're burnt out."
Stress exists across all industries, but the level of chronic stress varies, with healthcare and first responders facing particularly high risks. Leneker advocates for a "joyful rebellion" against the current culture of burnout (chronically unmanaged stress). Her "unstressing" method has three simple steps. "First, we have to see it. We've got to figure out what really is contributing to all of our stress. Then, secondly, we have to sort it. And there are five distinct kinds of work stress. So once we sort it into those actionable categories, then we can move on to step number three, which is to solve it...So no matter where your stressor lands, you've got a next action item of what you can do," she detailed.
A fourth step is to celebrate, because when you start shifting out of a constant stress mode, everything feels a little better and lighter, she said. Leneker also touched on the impact of technology, agreeing with recommendations against giving smartphones to children under 12 due to mental health risks, and urging adults to be mindful of their own tech use. Regarding gender and stress, she observed no significant difference in stress levels but noted variations in stress causes, with women often reporting family-work balance challenges.
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In the latter half, advocate, researcher, and ufologist Daniel Sheehan provided accounts of the U.S. government's long-standing engagement with extraterrestrial and UFO phenomena. He described his early involvement when President Jimmy Carter tasked the Congressional Research Service to investigate UFO evidence, including classified access to Project Blue Book's files. He stated, "I saw in the classified portions of Project Blue Book, actual photographs of crash retrieval going on by the United States Air Force," confirming his conviction that extraterrestrial contact was real.
Sheehan also recounted his communication with the Vatican, where officials were said to acknowledge the existence of a "highly intelligent and highly technologically developed but distinctly non-human species" in the Milky Way, urging public discourse on its theological implications. Additionally, he highlighted revelations from the recent documentary "The Age of Disclosure," which featured 34 former government officials affirming the 1947 Roswell crash and recovery of alien bodies. He further discussed his current legal work with Luis Elizondo, the former Pentagon official featured in the new documentary, who led a covert UFO investigation program, as well as outlined legislative efforts led by Congressman Eric Burlison regarding a "UFO ET Disclosure Act."
Citing a 1964 event at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico where "a UFO landed and was met on the tarmac by two high-ranking U.S. Air Force officials and CIA representatives," Sheehan characterized this as the first explicit official recognition of this reality. Stressing the importance of citizen diplomacy with ETs, he argued that "we cannot rely on the people who come from deep inside the national security state" for full disclosure, as they tend to "conceal as much of the...information as they can."
News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, Seth Shostak