Bountifull Podcast

“Sometimes not knowing the rules is the thing that lets you see what’s possible.”
Mallun Yen’s life and career have been shaped by not quite fitting the mould — and learning to see that as an advantage.
Growing up as the daughter of immigrants, Mallun often felt like an outsider. She spent years trying to blend in, to understand the unspoken rules around her. But over time, she realised that being on the edges gave her a different perspective — one that allowed her to observe more closely, spot patterns, and see opportunities others might miss.
Her career reflects that same thinking. From starting as a lawyer, to leading intellectual property at Cisco, to building a company from zero to public in just three years, Mallun has consistently taken paths that didn’t quite follow the traditional route. Not having the “right” background became a strength — freeing her from assumptions about how things are supposed to be done, and allowing her to think differently.
In this conversation, we explore the deeper lessons behind that journey — from the importance of relationships and feedback, to the courage it takes to speak openly about things that are often left unsaid.
Mallun shares candid reflections on identity, grief, mental health, and menopause — and the power of talking about experiences that many people carry quietly. Her perspective is grounded and thoughtful, offering a reminder that connection often starts with honesty.
We also explore her work with Operator Collective, a venture fund built around community, bringing together experienced operators to support founders based on real-world experiences with people who have been there, done that, and are currently doing it.
This is a conversation about perspective, courage, and rethinking where value comes from — and a reminder that not fitting the mould might be the very thing that allows you to build something meaningful.

Episode Highlights
Why being an outsider can become a powerful advantage

The freedom that comes from not knowing “the rules”

How feedback can shape better decisions and relationships

Rethinking what it means to be “political” at work

The role of community in building companies and careers

Why sharing personal stories creates connection

The reality of grief, mental health, and high performance

Opening up conversations around menopause and women’s health

Building a different kind of venture capital model

What it means to live a bountiful life

Chapters:
00:00 – Thinking differently by not knowing the rules03:00 – Growing up as an outsider and trying to fit in10:00 – Observation, pattern recognition, and advantage15:00 – Learning relationship building and feedback20:00 – Sharing stories, grief, and mental health25:00 – Menopause, identity, and workplace realities30:00 – Career journey from law to founder to VC35:00 – Building Operator Collective40:00 – Feedback, naysayers, and decision-making44:00 – What it means to live a bountiful life

Guest Bio:
Mallun Yen is the Founder and CEO of Operator Collective, a venture capital fund and community designed to bring experienced operators into startup investing. The fund manages over $150 million and brings together operators from leading technology companies including Salesforce, Stripe, and Slack.
With more than two decades of experience across law, technology, and venture, Mallun has built and scaled organisations from startups to Fortune 100 companies. She previously served as Vice President of Worldwide Intellectual Property at Cisco, where she led global strategy and played a key role in major acquisitions.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallun/

About Bountifull:
Bountifull is a podcast where we explore what it means to live a bountiful life in a world that often feels fast, noisy, and complicated. Through thoughtful conversations with interesting people from diverse backgrounds, we explore the ideas and experiences that shape how we live, and how we can have more joy in our lives, every day.

“Notice the nature around you — and take time to just be.”
In this conversation, Holli-Anne Passmore explores the powerful relationship between nature, wellbeing, and meaning in life. Her work focuses on how small, everyday interactions with the natural world can shift how we feel, think, and experience our lives.
We often think of nature as something we have to travel to — mountains, oceans, national parks. But what if the real shift comes from simply paying attention to what’s already around us?
Holli-Anne shares that it’s not just time in nature that matters — it’s the quality of attention we bring to it. Noticing the sky, the trees, the small details in everyday life can create a measurable impact on wellbeing, helping us feel more connected, calm, and alive.
The conversation also explores the difference between feeling good and living a meaningful life, why boredom is essential for creativity, and how slowing down can help us understand what truly matters.
This is a grounded, practical conversation about how to live more fully — not by doing more, but by noticing more.

Episode Highlights
Why nature is not “out there” — it’s all around us

The science of nature and its impact on wellbeing

Why noticing nature matters more than time spent outdoors

The emotion of “elevation” and feeling deeply connected

Meaning vs feeling good — what actually matters

Why boredom is essential for creativity

Living at “human speed” instead of constant hustle

How nature can reduce loneliness and increase connection

Understanding the environments where you feel most alive

The concept of “enough” and letting go of more

Chapters
00:00 — How nature impacts wellbeing03:00 — What makes life feel meaningful09:50 — What a bountiful life really is11:20 — Why boredom matters19:20 — What is nature connectedness24:20 — Nature prescriptions and mental health29:00 — Cognitive benefits of nature33:30 — Meaning vs feeling good36:00 — Nature, time, and “enough”39:20 — Finding environments that suit you46:00 — Nature in cities and everyday life54:40 — What people misunderstand about nature58:50 — Tools for tough days01:03:30 — Final reflections on living well

Guest Bio
Holli-Anne Passmore is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Concordia University of Edmonton and a leading researcher in nature connectedness, wellbeing, and meaning in life. She is the Director of the Nature-Meaning in Life Research Lab and her work focuses on practical, everyday interventions that help people improve mental health, reduce loneliness, and live more meaningful lives through their relationship with the natural world.

The Bountifull Podcast explores what it means to live a bountiful life through thoughtful, honest conversations with interesting people from diverse backgrounds. Each episode weaves together real stories, practical ideas, and personal reflections on topics like well-being, resilience, connection, creativity, and meaning. In a world that can often feel noisy and disconnected, Bountifull offers a space to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what matters, helping listeners find more joy in their lives, every day.
https://www.bountifullworld.com/weekly-question/

When full-time work ends, the daily structure and identity that came with it shifts, sometimes in ways people don’t anticipate. In this conversation, Klay Williams shares what he’s learned from coaching people through this transition, including insights from a documentary series following three individuals navigating retirement.
Klay’s background is unusual. He began as a purpose coach working with Fortune 500 executives at companies such as Google and Airbnb. During the pandemic, he noticed older adults increasingly reaching out — not for career advancement, but for something else entirely. That pattern led him to shift his practice and create The Just Beginning Project, focused on retirement transitions.
This conversation explores both the practical and personal dimensions of retirement: how routine, relevance, and daily rhythm change when work structure falls away. We discuss why financial planning addresses only part of the picture, how long-standing patterns can resurface, and what Klay has observed about loneliness, identity, purpose and contribution during this stage of life.
Topics explored:
The shift in routine, identity, and daily structure in retirement
Why people often feel unfulfilled even after careful planning
How the loneliness epidemic shows up for older adults- The difference between following inherited expectations versus your own path
What happens emotionally when people feel replaced after leaving work
Practical approaches to retirement that go beyond finances
This is a thoughtful exploration of a life phase that many plan for financially but few prepare for emotionally, and what Klay has learned from working directly with people moving through it.
Watch the docuseries here: www.justbeginning.info/
Chapters:
00:00 – Life beyond full-time work
05:12 – Klay’s shift from executive coaching to retirement transitions
12:45 – What changes when work structure disappears
20:30 – Planning financially versus preparing personally
29:10 – Loneliness, relevance, and contribution
38:25 – Inherited expectations and identity
47:50 – Feeling replaced after leaving work
56:40 – What carries forward into life beyond career

Guest Bio – Klay Williams
Klay Williams is the founder of The Just Beginning Project, an initiative focused on supporting people as they move beyond traditional careers and into retirement. He began his career as a purpose coach working with Fortune 500 executives at companies including Google and Airbnb. During the pandemic, he noticed a growing number of older adults seeking guidance not about career progression, but about life after work. That shift led him to refocus his practice and create a documentary series following three individuals navigating retirement in real time. His work centres on the practical and personal realities of this transition.
Learn more about Klay here: www.klayswilliams.com/
Bountifull Podcast:
The Bountifull Podcast explores what it means to live a bountiful life through thoughtful conversations about personal growth, purpose, health, money, and connection. Featuring scientists, creatives, entrepreneurs, and experts from diverse fields, the show looks at the practical and human side of building a meaningful life.
Explore our podcast episodes here: www.bountifullworld.com/podcast/
Follow us on Instagram here:
www.instagram.com/bountifullpodcast/

We talk a lot about women’s cycles — hormonal, emotional, seasonal — but rarely about men’s. In this episode, Jed Diamond helps bring men into the conversation.
With over 50 years of experience working with men and families, Jed explains how men move through powerful biological and emotional rhythms across their lives. From daily and seasonal hormonal shifts to the deeper transition of male menopause, these cycles influence mood, energy, libido, relationships, and identity — often without men or their partners realising what’s happening.
Rather than framing midlife as a crisis, Jed offers a different lens: a threshold. A moment where the first half of life gives way to a second mountain — one shaped less by proving and producing, and more by purpose, connection, and contribution.
We also explore Irritable Male Syndrome, unpacking why irritability, anger, withdrawal, and low mood can emerge at any age, and how stress, diet, isolation, and unresolved trauma interact with male biology. Throughout the conversation, the emphasis is practical and compassionate, grounded in real-life patterns rather than blame or stigma.
This episode is an invitation to build literacy around men’s inner lives — for men themselves, and for anyone who lives, works, or loves alongside them.

In This Episode, We Explore
How men’s hormones fluctuate and influence mood, energy, and behaviour

What male menopause is — and why it’s often misunderstood

The relationship between testosterone, irritability, depression, and withdrawal

Irritable Male Syndrome and its biological, psychological, and cultural roots

How stress, diet, sleep, and connection affect men’s emotional wellbeing

Why midlife can be a transition rather than a crisis

The role of friendship, vulnerability, and emotional awareness in men’s health

Chapters:
00:00 – Midlife, hormones, and men’s health
02:25 – Jed Diamond’s story and why this work matters
09:30 – Do men have cycles?
18:40 – Male menopause and midlife change
29:20 – Irritable Male Syndrome
39:15 – Relationships and emotional wellbeing
50:20 – Purpose, ageing, and the second half of life

Guest Bio: Jed Diamond
Jed Diamond, PhD, is a leading voice in men’s health, hormones, and emotional wellbeing. He is the founder of MenAlive and the author of 17 books, including Surviving Male Menopause and The Irritable Male Syndrome. For more than five decades, his work has focused on helping men understand life transitions, emotional health, and relationships.
https://menalive.com/

About the Bountifull Podcast
The Bountifull Podcast is where we explore what it means to live a bountiful life. Through thoughtful, honest conversations with interesting people from diverse backgrounds, the podcast explores joy, resilience, health, purpose, and the small choices that shape how we live every day — especially in a world that often rewards more, faster, and louder.

Over on email every week we share a question for reflection and conversation — you’re welcome to join if that feels useful, sign up here.

In this episode of the Bountifull Podcast, we explore the often-hidden role of shame and stigma in shaping how we live, relate, and see ourselves — and why understanding them is essential to living a truly bountiful life. Through a thoughtful, grounded conversation with clinical psychologist Magenta Silberman, we unpack how shame differs from guilt, how it quietly embeds itself into identity and self-worth, and how it can limit joy, connection, and meaning when left unexamined.
Shame is an internal and deeply personal experience — less about what we’ve done and more about who we believe we are. Unlike guilt, which can motivate repair and help us grow, shame tends to drive silence, withdrawal, and disconnection. We explore how shame can be adaptive in small doses, helping guide behaviour and social belonging, but becomes harmful when internalised or amplified by stigma, cultural expectations, or environments that clash with our values.
The conversation looks closely at where shame shows up: in relationships, work, achievement, identity, parenting, mental health, and especially during the vulnerable transition into adulthood. We also examine how stigma — around mental illness, therapy, trauma, substance use, or identity — compounds shame and prevents people from seeking support, particularly in rural or conservative communities.
Importantly, the discussion moves beyond theory into lived experience, including the gap between performance and self-worth, the pressure of “shoulds,” and the quiet shame of feeling unfulfilled even when life looks successful on paper. We explore the body–mind connection through the lens of trauma and the nervous system, highlighting how shame can be felt viscerally and why avoidance so often becomes a coping strategy.
Ultimately, this episode offers a compassionate reframe: naming shame is the first step to loosening its grip. By bringing shame into awareness — rather than silence — we create space for connection, self-trust, and a more expansive, bountiful way of living.

Episode Highlights:
The difference between shame and guilt — and why it matters

How shame shows up in work, relationships, identity, and achievement

Why shame thrives in silence and isolation

The role of stigma in mental health and help-seeking

How shame lives in the body and nervous system

The pressure of “shoulds” and performance-based self-worth

Why naming shame is a powerful step toward freedom and connection

Timestamps:
00:00 – Why we avoid naming shame
05:00 – Identity, achievement, and living a bountiful life
11:30 – Shame vs guilt and why the difference matters
17:40 – When shame helps us — and when it harms us
25:45 – Performance, “shoulds,” and self-worth
30:40 – Stigma, silence, and asking for help
34:10 – Shame in the body and nervous system
45:30 – Naming shame and choosing connection

Guest Bio:
Magenta Silberman is a clinical psychologist based in Utah who works across assessment and therapy, supporting people through a wide range of mental health experiences. Her work is grounded in a trauma-informed approach, with a particular interest in identity, self-worth, and how shame and stigma shape our lives.

About the Bountifull Podcast:
The Bountifull Podcast explores what it means to live a bountiful life through thoughtful conversations focused on personal growth, mental health, and everyday self-improvement. Each episode offers practical insights and reflective “how-to” ideas to help listeners build more joyful, resilient, and meaningful lives.
https://bountifullworld.com/