Hello, I'm Sarah Ellis and this is the Squiggly Careers podcast. On today's podcast, you're going to hear two

conversations that Helen and I have had over the past couple of weeks, all about the topic of

humour and laughter at work. This is a topic that I've been keen for us to explore for a while

and I don't know about everybody else listening, but certainly since the start of lockdown, I've been keen for us to explore for a while and I don't know about everybody else

listening but certainly since the start of lockdown I felt that being able to laugh and smile

and just have some fun has just felt even more important in what has been tough and hard times

and actually the research reinforces this so it shows that actually when we laugh at work,

it relieves stress. It helps to increase our engagement. And even things like laughing at

yourself signals to those around you that actually you're probably okay. So today's episode starts

with Helen and I interviewing Naomi Bagdonus and Jennifer Arka, who together they lead a course at

Stanford at the business school there called Humour Serious Business. And they're also the authors

of a book coming out called Humour Seriously. And they're both really fun and smart to talk to,

really insightful.

And then the second half of the episode, you're going to hear me interviewing Lynn Parker,

who is the founder of a company called Funny Women, and Deb Leary, who is the founder and CEO of a company called Forensic Pathways.

And Deb, as well as having an OBE, her and her business have won a whole host of awards.

And both Lynn and Deb are really fascinating people to talk to.

They are both kind of practitioners of a lot of things that we're going to talk about in terms of humor at work, real advocates for the difference it can make.

And so it's just really interesting to kind of hear their live experiences.

And as a reminder, every Thursday at

nine o'clock, you can join us for a free live 30 minute workshop, which is on the podcast

topic for that week. If you head over to www.com, you can catch up with previous sessions.

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