What if the best way to prepare kids for an unpredictable future is to teach them how to improvise? In this episode, Jude speaks with Beth Hagenlocker, Executive Director of the Detroit Creativity Project. By bringing improv into schools, their organization helps teens grow more imaginative and emotionally resilient, all while discovering themselves in a space built for creativity and connection.

*Connect with Beth - Detroit Creativity Project, Instagram, YouTube

To learn more about these concepts, check out:

• Improv Training as a School-Based Mental Health Intervention
• Improv experience promotes divergent thinking, uncertainty tolerance, and affective well-being

This podcast is brought to you by Lifestage. Lifestage designs and facilitates experiential workshops, classes, and presentations for professional and personal development. For more information, visit lifestage.me.

*Connect with Jude - Substack, Instagram, LinkedIn

We think we're listening, but are we really? In this episode, Jude speaks with Rick Andrews, Magnet Theater faculty and applied improv facilitator, to explore how listening is an active choice. They unpack how hearing another person's perspective is a powerful act of empathy, and how improv trains us not just to react, but to understand.

*Connect with Rick - Website, LinkedIn, Kornfeld & Andrews show, Kornfeld and Andrews podcast

This podcast is brought to you by Lifestage. Lifestage designs and facilitates experiential workshops, classes, and presentations for professional and personal development. For more information, visit lifestage.me.

*Connect with Jude - Substack, Instagram, LinkedIn

In real life, there's no stage. So how do we learn to play our part with presence? In this episode, Jude speaks with Patricia Ryan Madson, author of Improv Wisdom, about how improvisation teaches us to accept what's given, quiet our inner critic, and appreciate the overlooked gifts of daily life.

*Connect with Patricia - Improv Wisdom, LinkedIn, Facebook. Check out Patricia's book Improv Wisdom.

This podcast is brought to you by Lifestage. Lifestage designs and facilitates experiential workshops, classes, and presentations for professional and personal development. For more information, visit lifestage.me.

*Connect with Jude - Substack, Instagram, LinkedIn

Improv has a way of turning strangers into lifelong connections, often in the span of a single scene. In this episode, Jude speaks with Michelle Gilliam about how improv builds community, fosters belonging, and helps us move from anxiety to connection.

*Connect with Michelle - Improv MKE, Instagram, LinkedIn

This podcast is brought to you by Lifestage. Lifestage designs and facilitates experiential workshops, classes, and presentations for professional and personal development. For more information, visit lifestage.me.

*Connect with Jude - Substack, Instagram, LinkedIn

Many of us second guess what to do in social situations. In this episode, Jude speaks with Caitlin Steitzer - a fellow improviser, therapist, and social worker - who explains how improv's focus on the group can help people overcome social anxiety, shifting attention away from self-criticism and into the present moment.

*Connect with Caitlin - website, Instagram, LinkedIn

To learn more about these concepts, check out:

• The Brilliant Genius: Using Improv Comedy In Social Work Groups by Caitlin Steitzer
• Comedic Improv Therapy For The Treatment Of Social Anxiety Disorder

This podcast is brought to you by Lifestage. Lifestage designs and facilitates experiential workshops, classes, and presentations for professional and personal development. For more information, visit lifestage.me.

*Connect with Jude - Substack, Instagram, LinkedIn

Many of us resist change. In this episode, Jude speaks with Belina Raffy, who uses comedy and improv to help us reframe that mindset. She takes on daunting challenges like climate change and social justice, showing how even the toughest issues can feel approachable and manageable.

*Connect with Belina - Sustainable Stand Up, Giggling with Earth, Maffick, LinkedIn, Instagram, Courses: Clarity and Flow, Complexity, Compassion and Comedy, Sustainable Stand Up

This podcast is brought to you by Lifestage. Lifestage designs and facilitates experiential workshops, classes, and presentations for professional and personal development. For more information, visit lifestage.me.

*Connect with Jude - Substack, Instagram, LinkedIn

Parenting doesn't come with a script, which is why flexibility and a sense of play, the heart of improv, can be a game-changer. In this episode, Jude speaks with improvisers (and parents) Mary Theresa Archbold and Pat Shay who share how the principles of improv can transform family life.

*Connect with Mary & Pat - Funny Parents Podcast,  Website: Home | True Play Improv and Blog | funnyparents, Facebook, LinkedIn: Mary, Pat, Instagram

To learn more about these concepts, check out:

• Yes, and … Clean Your Room

This podcast is brought to you by Lifestage. Lifestage designs and facilitates experiential workshops, classes, and presentations for professional and personal development. For more information, visit lifestage.me.

*Connect with Jude - Substack, Instagram, LinkedIn

Improv isn't just for the stage. It's showing up in hospitals, clinics, and memory care centers. In this episode, Jude speaks with medical improv trailblazer Beth Boynton, who shares how principles like "yes, and" are helping caregivers build connection, reduce stress, and bring more humanity to people with cognitive decline.

*Connect with Beth - website, Facebook, LinkedIn, free workshop, more about Medical Improv. Purchase her book The Medical Improv Toolkit.

To learn more about these concepts, check out:

• "Just Join Them": Improv and Dementia Care
• Pilot of a Communication Program for Dementia Caregivers Using Improvisational Techniques
• Effects of Improv Training on Older Adults in a Long Term Care Facility

This podcast is brought to you by Lifestage. Lifestage designs and facilitates experiential workshops, classes, and presentations for professional and personal development. For more information, visit lifestage.me.

*Connect with Jude - Substack, Instagram, LinkedIn