The Kindness Podcast

Have you ever been around someone who makes you feel like you could say anything and it would be okay? Romaine Waller is one of those people. She's the woman who says hi first at the grocery store, the friend whose confidence is "a vault," and the leader who reminds her clinical research teams that at the end of every piece of paper is a patient. In this conversation, Romaine shares why kindness currency is unlimited, how she stays kind and direct at the same time in a highly regulated corporate world, and what it takes to become a safe, judgment free person for the people in your life.
In This Episode
Why Romaine always says hi first at the grocery store, and the lesson from her mother that shaped everything: "It doesn't cost you anything to be nice"
Kindness currency is unlimited. You never run out, and it costs you nothing to spend it
"At the end of everything we do is a patient." Keeping compassion at the center of data driven clinical research, and remembering there's a human on the other end of every email
Kindness isn't soft, it's a strategy: how curiosity and listening open the door with teams set in their ways
What it means to be a vault friend, and how to become a safer, judgment free person for others
A first look at FIND T-squared: the Feeling Inside No one Dares To Talk about
Romaine's challenge to dig deeper: are your relationships authentic and meaningful, or surface level and exhausting?
About Romaine
Romaine Waller is a U.S. Army veteran, an operations and strategy leader in clinical research and clinical systems, and a self-described connector of people. She holds a steadfast belief that knowledge and information become truly transformative only when shared, and that the most powerful technology in any room is still human compassion. Her CliftonStrengths of Positivity, Developer, Connectedness, Belief, and Maximizer are basically a fancy way of saying she's going to hype you up, help you grow, and refuse to leave potential on the table. Whether she's leading teams or mentoring the next generation of leaders, Romaine is proof that kindness isn't soft, it's a strategy.
Connect
Connect with Romaine on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Nicole and The Kindness Podcast at nicolejphillips.com.

A note before you listen: this conversation includes references to childhood sexual abuse and trauma. Please take care of yourself as you listen.
EJ and Tarah Kerwin were two therapists already barely keeping up: twins conceived on their honeymoon, four kids under five, a new counseling business. Then a medically supervised ketamine session surfaced repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse Tarah had no idea existed, and overnight her nervous system went from calm to chaos. No diagnosis, no doctor's note, no roadmap. Just EJ, feeling like he got it wrong every day. They talk with Nicole about what he finally said out loud, why kindness here looks like curiosity instead of solutions, and what it takes to stay when you can't fix what's hurting the person you love.
In this episode:
What medically supervised ketamine therapy actually is, and what happened when Tarah's memories surfaced
Why anyone would choose to unearth pain their body spent decades hiding, and what freedom on the other side feels like
The difference between supporting a partner through something visible, like chemo, and something invisible
The two sentences EJ said out loud that shifted everything, including "whatever level of connection I have with you now, that's enough"
Why kindness in a healing season has to include boundaries and honesty about your own needs
How intimacy gets rebuilt without pressure, and why "you'll be fine in eight weeks" is not an answer
EJ's kindness story about a moment between Tarah and his son he had waited years to see
The tool they give every couple: daily check-ins and real curiosity about someone you think you know
Naming lost intimacy as shared grief instead of rejection, and why that reframe matters
About EJ and Tarah Kerwin
EJ and Tarah Kerwin are the founders of Relationship Renovation and creators of the Relationship Renovation Model, as well as hosts of the Relationship Renovation Podcast. Tarah is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and EJ is a Licensed Professional Counselor, and together they run the Relationship Renovation Counseling Center in Tucson, Arizona. They blend raw honesty, humor, and decades of experience to help couples deepen intimacy and build emotional safety, drawing on attachment science and nervous system regulation. EJ also founded Men Who Do the Work, a group helping thousands of men show up more intentionally in their relationships. Their work includes a top 1% podcast, the Relationship Renovation @ Home manual, an online community, and private coaching.
Connect with EJ and Tarah
Website: https://relationshiprenovation.com/
Coaching: https://relationshiprenovation.com/relationship-coaching/
The Relationship Renovation At Home Manual: https://a.co/d/080cziw4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/relationship_renovation/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/relationshiprenovationcounseling/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@relationshiprenovation
The Relationship Renovation Podcast, wherever you listen

Amanda Fornal was on a panel at SXSW when someone asked her a simple question: what gets you up in the morning? "To do good," she said, and then she said the rest of it out loud. A few days earlier she had heard a venture capitalist argue that the smart money goes to sociopathic founders, not kind ones. It did not sit right with her logically or emotionally. So on that stage she said, "I'm kind, and I'm proud of it. If you don't want to invest in kindness, that's on you."
A few days later she had a name for her next project. She built the website, started interviewing, and talked with more than 100 leaders, founders, and investors across more than 35 countries about one question: does kindness actually work in business?
Here is what I appreciated about this conversation. Amanda is not asking us to be nice. She went and checked. She read the academic research before she trusted her own instincts, and she is direct about the fact that a business has a bottom line and kindness has to hold up against it. What she found is that it does, through loyalty and innovation and the kind of psychological safety that lets a team say the half-formed idea out loud.
We also got honest about something I do not always admit on this show. I told her that kindness does not sell. Companies hire me for resilience and burnout and mindset, almost never for the word itself. Her answer to that is worth the listen on its own.
Connect with Amanda and dig into the research
Investing in Kindness: investinginkindnessproject.com
Be interviewed for the project. Amanda is still taking interviews and invited you directly: forms.gle/o4gMVQWdFLfmugXY8
Take the survey: forms.gle/Tt3THNeyTUu9Qd968
Hypatia Leadership (her executive coaching work): hypatialeadership.com
Elephari (the story preservation platform): elephari.com
Women in Exploration: womeninexploration.org
Founder Buddies: founderbuddies.com
Love Is, the documentary: loveisthedocumentary.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amandadfornal
Instagram: @TheOrangeExplorer
Kindness Pays: The Business Case for Prosocial Leadership: https://www.investinginkindnessproject.com/blog/kindness-pays-the-business-case-for-pro-social-leadership
Kindness and Retention: What the Research Says About Why Employees Stay: https://www.investinginkindnessproject.com/blog/kindness-and-retention

On October 16, 2016, Mickey Z. started walking the streets of New York City with food, supplies, and gift cards to hand to homeless women. He noticed something first: homeless men will often walk right up and ask for a dollar, while women, already pushed to the margins, tend to sit quietly with a sign and wait. Those women became his teachers. They told him what they needed, what size to buy, what actually helped. Nearly ten years later, Cheerful Giver NYC has grown into a seven days a week mission serving anyone who asks, and Mickey has stopped calling it a project. He calls it a calling.
This one got personal for Nicole. She admits on air that she used to be braver, that she once struck up a conversation with a homeless woman in Chicago about the book she was reading, and that somewhere along the way she lost the entry point. So instead of interviewing Mickey, she asks him for help. What follows is a practical, grace filled conversation about the first words to say, why gift cards work, what to do when you get it wrong, and how to stop separating the person with the sign from everyone else you meet all day long.
In this episode:
Why Mickey started with homeless women, and what nearly ten years of hands on giving has taught him about earning trust
How a sign functions as an invitation, and why he will not approach someone who has not extended one
Nicole's honest confession about losing her courage, and Mickey's response to the question of where a person even begins
The Carnegie Hall regular who told him that one person's eye contact erases the thousand people who walked past
Why a fifteen dollar fast food gift card buys far more than a meal: a bathroom, a phone charge, a seat indoors, and the dignity of blending in
The mythology around giving cash, and the double standard we apply to how vulnerable people spend money
About Mickey Z.
Mickey Z. is a writer, longtime New Yorker, and the founder of Cheerful Giver NYC, a street level mission providing food, supplies, and gift cards to homeless people and other vulnerable souls across New York City. Born and raised in Queens, he began the work in October 2016 with a focus on homeless women, then expanded during the pandemic lockdowns to serve anyone within walking distance of his Astoria neighborhood who asks for help. He is the author of multiple books, has written for and volunteered with the homeless produced newspaper Street News, and writes regularly about giving, faith, and compassion on his Substack. He was named a Queens Person of the Week by NY1 for his work. He would like you to know he is not an expert.
Links
Cheerful Giver NYC: https://cheerfulgivernyc.wordpress.com/ (mission information and all donation links in one place, including PayPal, Venmo, Patreon, GoFundMe, Amazon wishlist, and mail)
Mickey's Substack: https://mickeyz.substack.com/ (every post closes with how to support the mission)

Dr. Robyn Graham spent years being praised for the very habits that were quietly wearing her down: the perfectionism, the need to control, the instinct to keep everyone else okay. She was a pharmacist, a high achiever, and, underneath it, anxious. It took real work to see that some of what looked like strength was actually anxiety wearing strength's clothes.
Now Robyn is an Anxiety Breakthrough Strategist who blends neuroscience with real-life coaching to help high-achieving leaders spot those hidden patterns before they lead to burnout. In this conversation, she and Nicole talk about why perfectionism and people-pleasing are so hard to catch in ourselves, what it takes to interrupt a reactive cycle in the moment, and what kindness toward yourself actually looks like when the pressure is on.
In this episode:
Robyn's path from pharmacist to Anxiety Breakthrough Strategist, and the life circumstances that pulled her there
Why anxiety-driven patterns like perfectionism and overcontrol are so easy to mistake for strengths, especially in high achievers
How to tell a genuine strength apart from an anxiety-driven habit wearing a strength's disguise
What self-kindness looks like in the middle of real pressure, not just in theory
The difference between caring for someone and managing your own anxiety through them
How to interrupt the cycle of reactive leadership in an ordinary, everyday moment
One small shift listeners can make this week to lead from calm instead of fear
About Robyn Graham Robyn Graham is an Anxiety Breakthrough Strategist, keynote speaker, and the creator of The CCC Method, a framework that helps leaders break free from anxiety-driven behavior so they can lead with calm, confidence, and consistency. She draws on her background as a pharmacist, a certified neuroscience coach, and a Master Certified Life Coach, and combines neuroscience with real-life experience to help high-achieving leaders recognize the patterns, like overcontrol, perfectionism, and people-pleasing, that quietly undermine their leadership. She hosts the globally ranked Robyn Graham Show and is the author of "You, Me, and Anxiety: Take Action Over Anxiety to Enjoy Being You."
Connect with Robyn
Website: https://therobyngraham.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therobyngraham
Listen to The Robyn Graham Show wherever you get your podcasts
Book: "You, Me, and Anxiety: Take Action Over Anxiety to Enjoy Being You"