The Spirit Collective

Ariane interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly.

The Spirit Collective is a society podcast hosted by Ariane de Bonvoisin, with 14 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Ariane de Bonvoisin hosts The Spirit Collective, a society show with 14 episodes published.

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  Episode #15

  How to Be Spiritual AND Successful in Business | Tami Simon

  Sep 30, 20261h 10mS1

  What does someone who has spent 40 years publishing the world’s leading spiritual teachers know about success? Sounds True founder Tami Simon shares what she has learned about leadership, money, purpose and creating a values-driven business. The Spirit Collective Podcast host Ariane de Bonvoisin and Tami explore how to build genuine trust at work, why Tami asks leadership teams “What’s under the table?”, what colleagues taught her about her own blind spots, how to make difficult business decisions without abandoning your values, and why financial security can actually help us give more. Tami reflects on stepping away from the CEO identity she held for four decades and the deeper lesson she has taken from a lifetime spent in conversation with spiritual teachers: a growth in love and trust. What We Cover: 00:00 Preview: Tami Simon on Spiritual Wisdom & Success 01:21 Tami Simon: Four Decades of Spiritual Wisdom 02:39 Leaving College for a 10-Day Vipassana Retreat 07:20 Belonging, the Body & Fully Incarnating 09:34 Stop Waiting for the Whole Roadmap 10:47 The “Bloodhound” Test for Knowing What You Want 12:35 What Brings You Outrageous Joy? 15:25 Who Are You Without Your Company? 19:36 Learning to Trust the In-Between 21:57 The Support You’re Already Receiving 25:08 Where Are We Spiritually Right Now? 28:24 How 40 Years of Spiritual Work Changed Tami 32:55 Why No Teacher Can Give You the Recipe 36:25 Getting Out of Your Head and Into Your Body 38:25 Male vs. Female Spiritual Teachers 39:37 How Tami Knows When a Teacher Is the Real Thing 41:37 “When I Met My Wife…” 44:45 Can Spirituality and Business Coexist? 48:44 Work as an Enlightenment Engine 52:08 How to Get Your Team to Say the Unsayable 55:28 Values, Downsizing & Difficult Business Decisions 58:28 Is Wanting Money Unspiritual? 1:00:30 Tami’s Prayer for Flourishing 1:03:13 Is Earth a School? 1:06:41 Love, Trust & the Mystery of Life About Tami Simon She is the founder and publisher of Sounds True, a multimedia company she started at age 22 with a dream and a tape recorder. Over its 41-year history, Sounds True has produced over 6,000 titles and become North America's leading publisher of spoken-word spiritual teachings. Tami hosts the long-running podcast Insights at the Edge, which has surpassed 20 million downloads, and founded the Sounds True Foundation, dedicated to making spiritual education accessible to all. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, and British Columbia with her wife, Julie Kramer, and their two spoodles, Raspberry and Bula. Connect With Tami Insights at the Edge Podcast https://www.soundstrue.com/a/resources/podcast/ Sounds True One - Sounds True's membership community https://join.soundstrue.com/free-month-trial-membership/ New Online Courses - including Wild World, Steady Mind with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche launching in early October https://www.soundstrue.com/collections/online-courses/ Resources S.N. Goenka , teacher 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat Pema Chödrön , Buddhist teacher & author Robert Thurman , Buddhist philosopher & writer The Tibetan Book of the Dead Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose , David B Wolfe, Jagdish Sheth, Rajendra Sisodia Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values , Fred Kofman Inner MBA , Sounds True Caroline Myss & Spiritual Home Base program with Sounds True About Ariane de Bonvoisin She is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. FAQs How do you know what your next step in life should be? Tami Simon believes most people already receive some guidance about their next step, even when they cannot see the whole path. Rather than waiting for certainty, she suggests noticing the people, ideas and possibilities you feel drawn toward and asking whether you have the courage to act on what you are already hearing. What is embodied awareness? For Tami Simon, embodied awareness means locating your center of experience somewhere beyond the narrating voice in your head. She describes “embodied immediacy” as tracking sensations arising inside the body while talking, reading, walking and making decisions, rather than reserving embodiment for practices such as yoga or qigong. How do you find purpose when you don't know what you want? Tami suggests beginning with desire rather than trying to construct a complete life plan. She asks what you genuinely want, what inspires you and what makes you feel more alive, comparing the process to a bloodhound getting close to the ground and following a scent. How do you handle losing your identity after a career transition? After stepping down as CEO and selling part of Sounds True, Tami had to release an identity she describes as “Tami Simon equals Sounds True.” She experienced grief before becoming excited about the next phase, and says the transition ultimately gave her a greater sense of being without needing an identity to define that being. How can you deal with uncertainty during a major life transition? Tami describes major transitions as “in-between” spaces in which the old identity or life has ended before the next one is available. Her approach is to recognize the state rather than rush out of it, trust that she has navigated uncertainty before, and allow the next phase to emerge. Can spirituality and business work together? Tami does not see spirituality and business as opposing forces. At Sounds True, she describes a values-driven approach that considers the flourishing of customers, employees, vendors and even competitors, while still acknowledging that a sustainable business has to make money. Can work help you grow spiritually? Tami describes work as a powerful environment for personal development because colleagues see how you behave under pressure and can identify patterns you cannot see yourself. Feedback from her own team taught her that qualities that made her effective could also make her difficult to work with, forcing her to become more self-aware, listen more and make room for other people's contributions. Is wanting financial security incompatible with spirituality? Tami says financial security enables her to be more creative, take risks and give her gifts more fully. She describes giving and receiving as reciprocal rather than oppositional, and says that for people who bring “big hearts” to their work, receiving more can enable them to give more. How can leaders create more trust at work? Tami says leaders can set the depth of honesty by modeling it themselves. She describes sharing genuine personal difficulty during leadership-team check-ins and asking “what's under the table?” to surface subjects people may be afraid to discuss, even experimenting with a courageous-feedback award to encourage candor. How can a company handle layoffs without destroying trust? Tami argues that downsizing does not automatically have to destroy relationships. She emphasizes sharing business realities before a crisis, giving employees advance warning when possible, offering generous severance and treating the sadness created by job loss as legitimate rather than something leadership should dismiss. What has Tami Simon learned after decades of spiritual practice? Tami ultimately describes her own path as “a growth in love and trust.” Although decades of spiritual study exposed her to many perspectives, she says she is increasingly comfortable with mystery and with asking what feels true from the center of her own experience rather than needing a definitive explanation for life. Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.com Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisin Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFU Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4Tkcpk Follow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisin Learn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

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  Episode #14

  Never Too Late to Follow Your Dreams and Make a Difference! | Loubna Freih

  Sep 23, 20261h 13mS1

  It's never too late to follow your dream and make a difference. Loubna Freih is living proof: decades into a career on the human rights frontlines, she discovered endurance sport in her forties and became an Ironman World Champion in her age group. She's since led the first all-women team across the entire Alps, on bike, ski, and foot, in 54 days. But as she'll tell you, none of it was really about the medals. It's about listening to the small voice inside, telling you that something still has your name on it, and trusting that life hasn't given up on you as you get older. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Ariane de Bonvoisin sits down with Loubna to explore what it looks like to keep saying yes to yourself in your 40s, 50s, and beyond: through a divorce, through self-doubt, through a body and a life that don't always cooperate. They talk about luck, prayer, the belief that a higher force is helping you along the way, and why business leaders resist the same mental tools elite athletes rely on. What We Cover 00:00 – Intro 3:30 – Growing Up Scared: Self-Esteem, Grandmother, and a Single Mother's Strength 6:03 – Inside an Ironman: What Happens When Every Part of You Wants to Quit 8:40 – Faith, Power, and a Catholic-Muslim Upbringing 10:00 – The Inward Journey to Becoming Herself 12:08 – What She Unlearned to Become an Elite Athlete at 50+ 13:06 – Silencing the Voices That Call You Crazy 17:09 – Her Pre-Race Ritual: Meditation and "This Is My Day" 21:44 – Crossing the Alps: The Alpine Quest Story 23:22 – The Mountains Are Screaming: Witnessing Climate Change Up Close 26:03 – What Helps When Things Go Wrong and Don't Go as Planned 28:57 – Presence Over Mind: What Takes Over When Thinking Stops 31:18 – Why Doing It With an All-Women Team Changed Everything 33:57 – Her Complicated Relationship With Luck 37:01 – On Her Knees: Prayer, Divorce, and Motherhood 39:19 – Trusting Intuition 41:37 – What Replaces Striving 43:54 – The Transmission: What She Wants Everyone to Know 46:47 – Her Message to the Next Generation 48:45 – Why Business Leaders Resist What Elite Athletes Already Know 54:00 – Staying Present in the Face of Human Rights Atrocities 55:26 – Her Hardest Test: Choosing Between the UN and Her Children 1:00:45 – Why She Trains Harder Than She Races 1:03:19 – Her Real Source of Energy 1:06:04 – What's Next: Night Ski Mountaineering, a New Cycling Record, and Returning to the Alps About Loubna Freih: Loubna Freih is a human rights advocate, endurance athlete, and mental performance coach based in Verbier, Switzerland. She spent decades working on the frontlines of human rights, including as a director at Human Rights Watch, advocating for refugees, women, and children through some of the world's most complex conflicts. In 2003, while working at the UN during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, she navigated one of the defining tensions of her life: her passion for human rights work against the pull of being present for her own children. Loubna discovered endurance sport later in life, after having two children, and went on to become an Ironman World Champion in her age group, competing at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. Most recently, she led the first-ever all-women team across the entire Alps by bike, ski, and trail running, covering 2,000 kilometers, 80,000 meters of elevation, and five countries in 54 days, a journey documented in the film Alpine Quest. She now coaches elite athletes, including sailing teams and alpine skiers, alongside “regular humans,” on the mental and spiritual tools behind high performance: presence, breathwork, meditation, and intuition. Connect With Loubna: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alpinequest_2026/ https://www.instagram.com/loubna_freih/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alpine-quest-2025/ Websites: https://loubnafreih.com/ www.alpinequest.org Documentary Film Alpine Quest on Amazon, produced by Alpine Media House, Loubna Freih & Annika Horn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjrM_1ddDcA Working on a book "Women Breaking Barriers past 50”. (For the next ITW) About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. FAQs How Do Elite Endurance Athletes Mentally Prepare for Extreme Races? Loubna Freih says her mental preparation is more consistent than her physical training in the weeks before a big race, particularly meditation. She relies on one or two words that shift depending on the season of her life, past examples include “I am enough” and “This is my day,” along with mental images of people or places that ground her. She says meditation gives her the space to make clear decisions and manage stress both before and during a race. What Does Spirituality Look Like in Professional Endurance Sports? For Loubna Freih, spirituality in sport isn't tied to a specific religion or external force. She describes her power as something she “latches onto within” rather than calling on a higher force outside herself, though she credits the memory of her grandmother and great-aunt, and her connection to nature, as sources of strength. She considers presence itself, being fully in the moment without thinking ahead or behind, to be one of the most spiritual states available to her. How Do You Become an Elite Athlete Later in Life? Loubna Freih didn't discover endurance sport until after having two children, and became an Ironman World Champion in her age group in her fifties. She says the shift required her to “unlearn” some of her formal education and instead trust her own instincts and curiosity, competing against much younger women in five-year age brackets. She's candid that self-doubt didn't disappear, she simply decided not to let outside voices calling her “crazy” stop her from trying. Why Should Business Leaders Learn From Elite Athletes? Loubna Freih, who now coaches both elite athletes and business leaders, says companies are quick to borrow tactics from the military but slow to adopt the mental tools elite athletes already use, including breathwork, visualization, and meditation. She suspects the resistance comes down to leaders not taking these tools seriously enough, or feeling they don't have time for them. Her coaching starts the same way with a CEO as it does with an athlete: asking why they're doing what they're doing, and checking whether their values actually align with it. How Do You Learn to Trust Your Intuition? Loubna Freih describes intuition as something acquired through years of formal learning that eventually has to be set aside to be useful in the moment, she rarely reviews notes anymore and instead trusts what she calls an acquired instinct. She says people lose touch with this instinct over time and need to consciously reconnect with it, referring to it at one point as reconnecting with “the little girl” inside who already knew how to trust herself. What Does Human Rights Work Teach About Resilience? Loubna Freih spent decades in human rights work, including time at the UN during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, while raising young children. She says the same principle that carries her through an Ironman applies to facing atrocity: don't look away, stay present, and do what you can without expecting to be able to do everything. She describes the hardest test of her life as navigating the tension between her commitment to human rights work and her commitment to her children. Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.com Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisin Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFU Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4Tkcpk Follow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisin Learn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

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  Episode #13

  Army Ranger, AI CEO & Shaman: Leadership in the Age of AI | Jack Swift

  Sep 15, 20261h 9mS1

  What does an Army Ranger turned AI CEO actually know about leading through fear? Jack Swift built and sold companies from first pitch to IPO, served as a U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, and now writes about leadership in the age of AI. But Jack will tell you the hardest work he's ever done wasn't on a battlefield or in a boardroom, it was with himself. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Ariane de Bonvoisin sits down with Jack, a friend and fellow member of the Liminal Collective, to go past the resume into the decades-long, mostly private spiritual unfolding underneath it: a meditation practice, teachers he studied under quietly while running boardrooms, and the slow dismantling of his identity as "the fixer" or "the guy who always had the answer." They talk about what West Point and Army Ranger School taught him about leading under extreme pressure, the belief that once drove him to keep chasing the next mountain, learning self-love as an adult, and what spirituality actually looks like inside a real boardroom and what happens to the human in the age of AI. Jack is the author of Level 7 Leadership: The Blueprint for the Human + Machine Era, and co-founder of Sangha.one, a peer-facilitated wisdom circle for leaders. What We Cover: 00:00 – Intro 2:45 – From West Point to the Battlefield 8:01 – Head, Heart, and Gut: Lessons from Ranger School 9:45 – The Art of Sensing 10:58 – The Hidden Driver Behind Two Decades of Success 15:56 – Redefining Help vs. Service 18:45 – The Hardest Lesson: Learning Self-Love 25:54 – Merging the CEO and the Mystic 29:23 – His Non-Negotiable Spiritual Practice 35:22 – Redefining Success and the "Messy Middle" 37:20 – How to Lead Without Fear 42:47 – Sovereign Soul Expression in the Age of AI 44:59 – Inside Level 7 Leadership and His AI Agent, L7 48:56 – Why So Many Leaders Feel Lost Right Now 49:59 – Is Spirituality the Next Leadership Frontier? 54:39 – What Spirituality Looks Like in the Boardroom 56:50 – Why We Can't Outwork AI 58:28 – The Real Reason We Resist Change 1:01:10 – From Fixer to Witness 1:03:23 – On Fatherhood and Letting Kids Have Their Pain 1:03:54 – His Unfinished Prayer and a Fear He Still Carries 1:06:42 – How His Belief in God Has Evolved About Jack Swift: Jack Swift is an experienced CEO, founder, board member, advisor, and author whose work sits at the intersection of leadership, AI, and spiritual development. He is a co-founder of Sangha.one, a modern, peer-facilitated wisdom circle for leaders devoted to spiritual practice, inner growth, and bringing that growth into their work, families, and communities. Jack previously served as CEO of TIFIN, an AI-native fintech platform that grew to more than 300 employees and approached a $1 billion valuation in its first 36 months, and as CEO of Liminal Collective, a company focused on human potential and performance; earlier, he co-founded Pacific Current Group and subsequently took it public on the ASX and sold another company to Shopify. Today, he serves on the boards of Bow River Capital and Lockton Companies, is the author of Level 7 Leadership: The Blueprint for the Human+Machine Era, and focuses on the question: What happens to the human in the age of AI? A West Point graduate and former U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, Jack brings a rare combination of leadership under pressure, spiritual inquiry, and lived experience exploring how the inner path shapes the way we live, decide, and lead. Connect With Jack: Website LinkedIn Resources: Free access to the L7 AI Agent at L7leadership.com Free access to Field Sessions in person in Boulder, CO; email me at jack@jackcswift.com Sangha , community co-founded by Jack Swift Patrick Connor, spiritual teacher Jeremy Utley on psychological safety Liminal Collective Book: Level 7 Leadership: The Blueprint for the Human + Machine Era About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. FAQs How to Lead Without Fear Jack Swift, a former Army Ranger turned AI-era CEO, says operating from fear leads to reactive, defensive decisions that fall apart under pressure. Instead of avoiding fear, he asks it directly what lesson it's there to teach him, then acts from that place of clarity rather than urgency. He credits this practice, along with a habit of returning to breath, with letting him stay calm and think clearly even in genuinely high-stakes situations, from combat to failing companies. Spiritual Leadership in the Age of AI Jack Swift believes that as AI takes over execution, speed, and scale, self-awareness becomes the real differentiator between leaders who thrive and those who don't. In his book Level 7 Leadership, he argues that machines are suited for precision and data, while humans need to bring creativity, imagination, and adaptability, qualities strengthened, not replaced, by inner spiritual work. For Jack, daily meditation and time in nature aren't a break from leadership, they're the foundation of it. What Does Spirituality Look Like in the Boardroom? According to Jack Swift, spirituality in the boardroom starts with letting go of the need to be right. When leaders stop operating from judgment and fear of being wrong, the room shifts into genuine listening rather than competing to be correct, and better ideas emerge as a result. He calls this a kind of energetic entrainment: when one person shows up open and non-judgmental, others in the room tend to follow. How to Stop Operating From Fear as a CEO Jack Swift says the first step is recognizing that fear-based decisions almost always fall apart, whether you're facing a health scare, a shrinking runway, or a lost client. Rather than suppressing fear or pretending it isn't there, he asks it what it's trying to teach him, which he says almost always reveals something useful. He's candid that this doesn't mean fear disappears, plenty of things still bring it up for him, but he's learned not to let it drive his decisions. Military Leadership Lessons for Business Jack Swift, a West Point graduate and former Army Airborne Ranger, says the military taught him three lessons he still relies on: adaptability, resilience, and the ability to perform under real pressure. He learned to regulate his nervous system under extreme physical and mental stress long before he had language like "parasympathetic" for what he was doing, and to sense a situation before he could fully know it. He carries that same grounded, less reactive instinct into boardrooms today. Self-Awareness for Executives For Jack Swift, self-awareness isn't a soft skill, it's what allows an executive to actually use everything AI now offers. He says executives operating purely from intellect, without dropping into their heart and gut, often end up successful but hollow, chasing the next achievement without ever feeling fulfilled by it. His own daily practice starts with meditation and time in nature specifically to build that self-awareness before he steps into any decision. Conscious Leadership Podcast This episode of The Spirit Collective features Jack Swift, a CEO, author, and co-founder of the leadership community Sangha.one, in conversation with host Ariane de Bonvoisin about the hidden spiritual work behind decades of public business success. They talk about leading without fear, learning self-love as an adult, and what it actually looks like to bring consciousness into a boardroom instead of leaving it at the door. Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.com Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisin Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFU Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4Tkcpk Follow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisin Learn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

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  Episode #12

  Dr Shiv Rao: Purpose and the Human Side of Building a Healthcare Unicorn

  Sep 2, 20261h 11mS1

  Ever wondered about the human side of top-performing Unicorn CEO’s? What do these leaders think, believe, do, focus on, and how do they handle the really big challenges? Dr. Shiv Rao is a practicing cardiologist and the Founder and CEO of Abridge, a leading platform in AI in healthcare innovation. Valued at over $5 billion, Abridge sits at the intersection of AI and medicine, supporting millions of doctor-patient conversations each year across 300 of the largest health systems in the US. Shiv has been named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI and Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, two years running. But Shiv will tell you it was never really about any of that. In this episode, Ariane de Bonvoisin, who has coached Shiv and his leadership team for several years, goes past the headlines into the roots: the values his parents instilled, the subcultures that shaped him as a teenager, and the beliefs that quietly shape how he leads today. Shiv shares what it takes to build a generational company in medical AI, why purpose is his North Star, and what keeps him grounded under pressure. This is a conversation about service, sacrifice, humility, and what it really means to build something that matters for the future of healthcare. What We Cover: 00:00 – Intro 2:29 – Growing Up Between Pittsburgh and India, and the Values His Parents Instilled 5:35 – Service, Spirituality, and the Idea of "Being Human" 6:19 – Straight Edge Punk Rock, Skateboarding, Music, and Finding His Identity 11:23 – The Lecture That Changed His Path and Led Him Toward Medicine and Impact 13:38 – Why Contribution, Growth, and Purpose Have Always Driven Him 18:03 – Living by Values in Healthcare and the Principle of Leaving Things Better Than You Found Them 24:41 – Spirituality, Meditation, Karma, and the "Do Something" vs. "Be Somebody" Mindset 29:12 – How Personal Loss Deepened His Search for Meaning and Purpose 32:07 – Why Work, Music, Focus, and Flow Have Become His Forms of Meditation 35:28 – What Cardiology Taught Him About Presence, Humility, and the Human Side of Medicine 39:02 – What Medicine and AI Can Teach Each Other About Pressure, Resilience, and Innovation 41:28 – Surviving the Early Startup Years With Hope, Grit, and Resilience 43:18 – Building Abridge With Humility, Ambition, Service, and Purpose 1:03:50 – Raising Children in the Age of AI and Finding Balance Between Technology, Agency, and Family About Shiv Rao: Shiv Rao, MD, is the Founder and CEO of Abridge, the leading AI platform for healthcare. Abridge is projected to support more than 100 million patient-clinician encounters in 2026 across 300 of the largest and most complex health systems in the US. The company developed the first AI native clinical intelligence platform, built for clinicians and designed to help health systems coordinate the clinical, financial, and evidence-based decisions that shape every moment of care. A practicing cardiologist turned entrepreneur, Dr. Rao brings clinical rigor, enterprise-scale leadership, and AI product innovation to the transformation of healthcare delivery. Dr. Rao continues to practice cardiology. He studied at Carnegie Mellon University and completed his medical education and training at the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Abridge has been recognized by Forbes AI 50, Fortune AI 50, Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, and TIME's Best Inventions of 2024 and 2025. Connect With Dr. Rao: Website: abridge.com LinkedIn: @shivdevrao YouTube: @Abridge-Studios X: @ShivdevRao People & Frameworks Referenced: Colonel John Boyd, military strategist Louis von Ahn, founder of Duolingo Andy Weissman, investor at Union Square Ventures William McDonough, architecture professor at Carnegie Mellon Noble, a peer community for physician executives About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin Substack: https://substack.com/@arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #AIinHealthcare #PurposeDrivenLeadership #Spirituality Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.com Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisin Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFU Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4Tkcpk Follow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisin Learn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

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  Episode #11

  From the Red Carpet to the Chemo Ward: How Grief Led to A Beautiful Life | Vashti Whitfield

  Aug 25, 20261h 18mS1

  She held her husband as he took his last breath. He was 39, and their children were young. Andy Whitfield — the man cast as Spartacus, the picture of health and power on screen — was gone eighteen months after his cancer diagnosis. His wife, Vashti Whitfield, then had to figure out how to keep going. Her greatest teacher was her greatest loss. She didn't just survive. She became one of the most alive humans Ariane has ever known. Vashti Whitfield is a world-renowned transformational coach, the creator of the award-winning documentary Be Here Now, the author of Spartacus and Me, and the host of the Radical Reframe Podcast. She works with some of the highest-performing leaders, creatives, and individuals on the planet — helping them turn grit into gold and pain into purpose. In this episode of The Spirit Collective, Ariane sits down with Vashti to explore the spiritual path underneath all of it — where God was during the hardest 18 months of her life, what grief and spirituality have to do with each other, and how she came to see being a widow not as a wound, but as an invitation. What We Cover: 00:00 – Intro 6:56 – Vashti's Wildly Unconventional Childhood 12:52 – Colliding Into Andy Backpacking in Indonesia, and the Motorway Moment 16:21 – Why She Believes in Synchronicity 19:43 – Moving to Australia, Shedding Their Layers, and Vedic Meditation 24:39 – What She Actually Calls God, and Why She Turns "Should" Into "Could" 27:34 – What It Felt Like to Be Present During Andy's Illness 30:17 – The Moment "Be Here Now" Stopped Being a Tattoo and Became the Only Thing Keeping Her Sane 33:16 – The Meaning of Life According to Vashti 40:53 – The Sailboat and the Speedboat 45:15 – What She Says to People Who Are Furious at Life, Furious at God 50:14 – Holding Someone as They Die 59:20 – How She Raised Two Children Through Grief 1:07:18 – The Four-Finger Exercise She Uses With Her Son Jesse 1:08:03 – Why the World Is at a Critical Spiritual Turning Point 1:12:31 – What's Coming Next: A Book and a Men's Program 1:12:54 – Andy's Message, Through Vashti, to Close the Episode: Don't Fear What You Don't Know About Vashti Whitfield: Raised across countries and cultures in a wildly unconventional childhood, Vashti Whitfield's life has been shaped by adventure, resilience, love, loss, and reinvention. She is a transformational facilitator and executive coach, the creator of the 8-Week Radical Reframe Program, and a founding voice at Wiser & Worth. Above all, she is a passionate mother to her two extraordinary cubs, a role that continues to shape both her life and work. Connect With Vashti: Website: vashti-whitfield.com Instagram: @vashtiwhitfield LinkedIn: vashtiwhitfield Watch the Film Be Here Now on Kanopy | beherenowfilm.com Read the Book Spartacus and Me: Life, Love and Everything In Between — Order here https://amzn.to/4cJ0FRB Listen to the Podcast Radical Reframe with Vashti Whitfield on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Work With Vashti 8-Week Radical Reframe Program: vashti-whitfield.com Wiser & Worth: wiserandworth.com Recommended Book: Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way https://amzn.to/4xjf27x About Ariane de Bonvoisin: Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder of The Spirit Collective, a podcast at the intersection of success and spirituality. A former media and venture capital executive, she left the corporate world to integrate her own external success and inner path — and now interviews remarkable people from business, finance, sport, music, and beyond about a side of their lives they rarely discuss: their spiritual path. Honest conversations about spirituality, purpose, and personal growth, with people you wouldn't expect. New episodes weekly. Connect With The Spirit Collective: Website: spiritcollective.com YouTube: @ariane-de-bonvoisin Instagram: @arianedebonvoisin LinkedIn: /arianed1 X: @clickariane TikTok: @arianedebonvoisin If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe for weekly conversations at the intersection of success and spirit. #SpiritCollectivePodcast #VashtiWhitfield #GriefAndHealing Connect with Ariane: Visit spiritcollective.com Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@ariane-de-bonvoisin Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4nRJrFU Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033oE4kP6X0ekQoU4Tkcpk Follow Ariane on Instagram: instagram.com/arianedebonvoisin Learn more about Ariane: https://arianedebonvoisin.com

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