The Catastrophe Café

What started as Friday morning coffee conversations during our executive coaching education at IMD has evolved into a podcast for leaders, coaches, and anyone navigating the complexities of modern life. Fabio Duma and I pour meaning into the beautiful mess of work, life and everything in between.

Real dialogues. Honest conversations. The permission to be human in our work and lives.

In season 2 we explore: Getting Serious about Joy, Living More with Less, On Speaking Up and Getting Heard, Care - Dare - Share - Secure Base Leadership, Leading Yourself First - Self-Leadership, Reflection and the Good Life

Episode 13 (Part 2) — Care, Dare & Share with Dr. Susan Goldsworthy OLY

The deepest illusion of our time is believing we are separate. In Part 2, Susan Goldsworthy introduces the third element she deliberately added to the original framework: Share — not as information-passing, but as vulnerability, interdependence, and the courage to let others hold you too. We talk about what it means to co-create secure bases rather than simply be one, how befriending your autonomic nervous system is a leadership skill, and why presence may be the most underrated thing a leader can offer. We also close with one of the most honest moments in the Café so far: what Susan herself still finds hardest, and a quiet tribute to the original secure base in her life.

Episode 12 (Part 1) — Care, Dare & Share with Dr. Susan Goldsworthy OLY

Care doesn’t mean being nice. Dare isn’t just about pushing harder. And the two are inseparable — you can only truly challenge someone to grow if they feel genuinely cared for first. In Part 1 of our conversation with Susan Goldsworthy — Olympic finalist, affiliate professor at IMD, and co-creator of the Secure Base Leadership framework — we explore where Care and Dare come from, what they look like in practice, and why most leaders get stuck between them. Susan’s story moves from a grandfather who shaped her belief in herself as a swimmer, through 23 years in corporate multinationals, to the research that gave a name to something she had been living all along.

Episode 11: On Speaking Up and Getting Heard with Nina Rossiana

It's not about comfort. It's about whether speaking up is worth the risk. In our first guest episode, we sat down with Nina Rossiana, who researched voice and silence in multinational organizations. We talk about why silence is often a rational, intelligent response rather than a personality trait, how labels quietly become self-fulfilling, why fluency gets mistaken for competence, and how distance from headquarters shapes who gets heard — and who doesn't.

Episode 10: Living More with Less

Money doesn’t hug you when you come home. In this episode, Anita and Fabio get honest about their own relationships with money — and what they’ve each chosen instead. They explore what it means to measure success in impact rather than income, the hidden costs of a growth-at-all-costs mindset for people and the planet, and what we actually make space for when we dare to choose less.

Episode 9: Getting Serious about Joy

What if joy isn't something you earn, but something you give yourself permission to feel? In Episode 9, Fabio and Anita get serious about joy — and why that's less of a paradox than it sounds.

Episode 8: In Praise of Curiosity and Courage

Curiosity asks the question. Courage acts on the answer. Fabio and I explore why these two forces are incomplete without each other — from the childhood sense of wonder we forget to carry into adulthood, to philosopher Laurie Ann Paul's invitation to choose not the safest path, but the one we're most interested in discovering.

Episode 7: Navigating Relationships

Relationships aren't accidents — they are actively and consciously built. Fabio and I explore how to build, sustain and repair the relationships that shape our lives, from social fitness and the hidden cost of resentment to relationship audits and the power of kindness.

Episode 6: Habits — Stability or Stagnation?

Habits run 70% of our decisions on autopilot — that's both a superpower and a trap. Fabio and I explore how habits and identity shape each other, why childhood patterns quietly follow us into our professional lives, and how self-awareness and courage are often the real keys to change. Because breaking a habit isn't just a behavioural challenge — sometimes it's a choice about who we want to become.

Episode 5: Choosing your Reality

What if the reality you're living in is one you've chosen — and can choose differently? Fabio and I explore how becoming aware of our lenses helps us shift from "what is happening to me" to "how can this shape my future." We also draw on Kierkegaard's insight: life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.

Episode 4: Trust Issues & Tissues

"Do you trust me?" Fabio asks at the start of this episode. The answer reveals everything about what makes trust possible: authenticity, openness, and vulnerability. We explore trust as both a warm feeling and a hard skill — the kind that makes organisations faster and stronger. When leaders trust their people and ask powerful questions instead of having all the answers, they unlock expertise and avoid costly mistakes.

Episode 3: Navigating Change

Picture a beautifully wrapped gift somewhere in the middle of your change process. You can't see it yet — maybe don't even believe it exists when you're in the thick of resistance or grief. But it's there. Fabio and I explore the natural phases of change and what matters most: our attitude in facing it. When we find meaning in what's happening, we can navigate change with dignity and discover unexpected opportunities.

Episode 2: The Art of Slow Living

We explore living at a pace closer to our natural rhythm — not as a retreat from ambition, but as a deliberate act of resistance against the constant rush that defines modern life. We talk about the courage it takes to step off the highway when everyone around you is speeding past. About the German concept of Innehalten — consciously pausing to turn your attention inward. And why strength really does lie in composure.

Episode 1: Balance

We explore what balance really means — not as an achievement, but as the art of surfing the wave between opposites. The courage it takes to step away from what's expected, how to sense when you're running on empty before burnout hits, and practical tools to find your centre in a world obsessed with productivity.

This is a heart project — honest conversations, practical insights, and the permission to be human.

Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.