In this conversation, Dr. Trent Williams explains why the loss of a company can produce grief comparable to losing someone you love, particularly when a founder's identity has become intertwined with the venture.

He describes the three paths founders tend to follow after failure, why the ones who blame only themselves or only others rarely learn from it and the impact of silence from investors once the shutdown.

The discussion also examines what the startup ecosystem would need to build to take entrepreneurial grief seriously and what a founder in the middle of it can do to make sense of the experience.

In this conversation, Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer explains why startup culture treats long hours as a badge of honor and what the research says that costs founders in health, sleep and relationships.

He describes why founders push themselves harder than any boss would, how ego and comparison keep them in situations they know are hurting them and why a better question is how wisely hours are spent.

The discussion also examines why stress and burnout spread through households and companies, what investors should be monitoring alongside burn rate and how a founder can tell when work is making them sick.

In this conversation, Dr. Kristen Jennings Black explains why struggling in silence carries its own risk, drawing on her research with soldiers, healthcare workers and attorneys.

She describes how the fear of being judged can lead people to handle everything alone, why self-reliance becomes a problem when it's misapplied and how founders shape what feels safe to say.

The discussion also examines what co-founders lose when they avoid hard conversations, why no one can meditate their way out of a 60-hour work week and how friends and family can help.