In this conversation, Dr. Kristen Jennings Black explains why struggling in silence carries its own risk, drawing on her research with soldiers, healthcare workers and attorneys.

She describes how the fear of being judged can lead people to handle everything alone, why self-reliance becomes a problem when it's misapplied and how founders shape what feels safe to say.

The discussion also examines what co-founders lose when they avoid hard conversations, why no one can meditate their way out of a 60-hour work week and how friends or family can help.

In this conversation, Dr. Trent Williams explains why the loss of a company can produce grief comparable to losing someone you love, particularly when a founder's identity has become intertwined with the venture.

He describes the three paths founders tend to follow after failure, why the ones who blame only themselves or only others rarely learn from it and the impact of silence from investors once the shutdown.

The discussion also examines what the startup ecosystem would need to build to take entrepreneurial grief seriously and what a founder in the middle of it can do to make sense of the experience.

In this conversation, Dr. Michelle Barton explains why adversity is a normal part of building a company and why teaching founders to handle it is still treated as optional, drawing on her research with wildland firefighters, expedition racers and military units.

She describes how dysfunctional momentum keeps teams on a failing course, the questions that interrupt it and what a relational pause looks like when anxiety hits a team.

The discussion also examines why strain belongs to the whole team, how a two-person startup can still spread it and why wellness programs built around self-care can leave people believing they are the problem.