The Ikigai Podcast

A single ignored greeting can sound small until it becomes the daily signal that you do not belong. We talk with Dorothy Dalton, a global HR leader and inclusive workplace champion, about what gender balance looks like when you have lived through normalized sexism, and why so many organizations still fall short on psychological safety and fair treatment.

Dorothy shares how workplace harm has shifted from overt harassment to ...

A grandmother stops farming and something quietly disappears: her energy, her rhythm, her reason to get up. That single story becomes the thread that ties everything together as we talk with Yuki Ohata, representative director of Sanchi No Mikata in Shizuoka, about Ikigai as a lived practice instead of a business buzzword. Yuki’s work sits right at the intersection of purpose, Japanese agriculture, and community building, and...

Japan can look easy from the outside: huge buying power, world-class retail, and consumers who love quality. Then you try to sell there and discover the real barrier isn’t your product. It’s trust, context, and the unglamorous work most brands skip.

We sit down with Timothy Connor, CEO of Synnovate, a bilingual and bicultural entrepreneur who has called Tokyo home for more than 30 years. Timothy shares how he wen...

On this episode of the Ikigai Podcast, we talk with Olesia Kyrylchuk about what happens to purpose when life gets disrupted, from relocating to Japan after the war in Ukraine to rebuilding belonging through community and work. 

We connect the global engagement slide to a deeper meaning problem and lay out a practical path for HR leaders who want work to feel worth doing.

• Olesia’s move to Japan, cultural adaptation, and c...

One Japanese word can change your life. It did for us, and it’s how we met Kumiko Sugiyama, a Japanese language coach, business Japanese trainer, and ICF Associate Certified Coach who blends language learning with coaching, communication skills, and a deep love of Japanese culture.

We talk through Kumiko’s real-world path across sales, parenting, startups, community work, and finally teaching Japanese to executiv...

On this episode of The Ikigai Podcast, I talk with Chie Sawa, founder of Thrive Life Design, about why all leaders need a sanctuary to pause and reconnect with themselves. 

We also explore reverse culture shock, the power of co-reflection, and how structured tools like Tarot readings for reflection can create clarity without crossing into therapy. 

We explore:

• Chie’s journey from Japan to the US and back 

Caitlin Kight returns again to host the Ikigai Podcast to interview Nick on his new book, A Year of Ikigai.

In this episode, Nick shares how Japanese voices, careful cultural research and daily prompts, helped him write a book that the reader can actually use. 

This epsidoe covers: 

• A 365-day reflective journey built around roles, relationships, rituals, contribution, and belonging  
• How this book differs from We...

What if the feeling you’re most afraid of could become your clearest compass? Our conversation with Mae Yoshikawa begins in the hard places—parental divorce, a mother’s early-onset dementia, and the sudden death of a spouse—and unfolds into a practical path for turning pain into insight. Mae introduces Kizuki, the Japanese idea of an awakening moment of clarity, and shows how these flashes can be invited thr...

What if the problem isn’t workload, but identity? We sit down with coach and HR leader Tina Bagwell to explore how many of us let a single role—the job—define who we are, and why that narrow frame leads to exhaustion, disengagement, and a loss of joy. Tina’s journey starts in Okinawa, where simple rituals, community, and omotenashi left a lasting imprint that later shaped her approach to leadership, culture,...

What if the key to better work and wiser leadership isn’t adding more tools but building a bigger vessel? Shigeki Nishimura—author, cross-cultural leadership coach, and former global executive—joins us to introduce Utsuwa, the Japanese concept of inner capacity. Drawing on two decades in Germany and a career bridging Japanese precision with European efficiency, Shigeki shows how a clay tea bowl can rewire your app...

Nick celebrates the launch of A Year of Ikigai and read the book’s introduction, separating myth from meaning and showing how purpose lives in daily moments. 

Nick shares why Ikigai is felt more than defined, and how small sources of value build a life worth living.

This episode covers:

• what ikigai means in simple, daily terms
• why popular Western takes miss the point
• the problem with the four-circle Venn...

A single fall changed everything. When our guest, life coach and digital nomad Kiki Fukai, crashed into a tree on a routine run, she shattered her skull and—unexpectedly—found a new way to live. What followed wasn’t a quick comeback story. It was a careful rebuild guided by kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending with gold, and a daily practice of acceptance that turned constant pain into a steady reminder to live w...

Anxiety isn’t a malfunction to be silenced; it’s a message asking to be heard. We sit down with therapist and educator Catherine Deeks Gnocchi to rethink fear through the lenses of evolution, mindfulness-based psychotherapy, and Japanese ikigai—revealing how anxiety can guide you back to your values and toward a life that actually fits.

Catherine breaks down the nervous system in plain language: anxiety mob...

Start with a vision, test it in the dojo, and forge it in a studio where code becomes sculpture. That’s the journey we explore with Tokyo-based French-Spanish artist and independent curator Baptiste Tavenir, whose life bridges Japanese martial arts, musicology, and 3D-printed fine art in ways that feel both unexpected and inevitable.

We talk about the leap that changed everything: leaving a Paris lab for Budo Universit...

What if your next trip did more than entertain you—what if it changed you? We sit down with Jake Haupert, founder of the Transformational Travel Council, to unpack how intentional journeys can help you stretch, learn, and grow into new ways of being. Rather than racing through bucket lists, Jake invites us to slow down, clarify our why, and design experiences that align with values, purpose, and community.

We explore a...

What if the words you use could change the way you breathe? We welcome author Saori Okada back to share the heart of her new book, Wisdom of Japan, a collection of 60 concise concepts designed to calm a rushed life and rekindle everyday meaning. Saori opens up about crafting short reflections that still feel true, and the painstaking process of pairing each idea with a ukiyo‑e print so the art deepens the lesson on the page.

On episode 118 of the Ikigai Podcast, Katie Anderson and Nick Kemp reflect on a Katies's Japan Leadership Experience - a week in Japan exploring how kaizen, rolefulness, and community design create real leadership growth. 

Katie and Nick share how relationships open doors, purpose fuels energy, and small rituals like greetings change how teams feel and perform.

On this episode we cover:
• connecting hearts and minds through l...

Ever study hard and still wonder why it feels empty? We dive into academic yarigai—the lived, situational meaning that makes learning feel worth doing—and map out nine practical factors that turn study from grind to growth. With Dr. Yu Kanazawa, associate professor at Osaka University, we explore how a refined approach, adapted from the Ikigai-9 scale, unites engagement, curiosity, flow, social contribution, and purpose...