The Top CultureCon® Podcast Episodes of 2025
- Nick Lombardino
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Leadership, culture, and the conversations shaping how we work
Every year gives us a chance to pause and reflect on the conversations that actually mattered.
In 2025, the CultureCon® Podcast featured dozens of discussions on leadership, workplace culture, communication and what it really takes to build better organizations. Some episodes sparked debate. Others offered clarity. A few became conversations our community returned to again and again.
This list highlights the top CultureCon podcast episodes of 2025 curated based on audience engagement, relevance and lasting impact. If you’re new to the podcast, this is a great place to start. If you’ve been listening all year, consider this a look back at the episodes that resonated most.
1. Culture Starts Here: One Thing Your C-Suite Absolutely Can’t Delegate
Leadership accountability and company culture
In this episode of Culture Starts Here, Heather Haas and BJ McKay of ADVISA explore one of the most important realities of organizational culture: culture cannot be delegated.
Culture doesn’t live in posters, perks, or mission statements. It lives in leadership behavior.
“Culture starts at the top, but it’s not just about declaring values. It’s about modeling the mindsets and behaviors every single day.”
The conversation reframes culture as a core leadership responsibility, not an HR initiative, making it essential listening for executives, founders and senior leaders.
2. WorkPossible: Authentic Communication Beats Corporate Spin
Trust, transparency, and leadership communication
In this episode of WorkPossible, Hattie Roche of Fauna and Elaine Page, joined by Martin Fitzpatrick, make the case for authentic leadership communication emphasizing that trust is built through real conversations, not carefully scripted ones.
“Let’s treat people like people we want to keep — not people we’re preparing to manage out.”
In a time of polished messaging and internal communications overload, this conversation cuts through the noise and resonates strongly with leaders navigating change, growth or uncertainty.
3. Who Are You? Not What You’ve Done
Identity, potential, and redefining leadership
Recorded live at CultureCon® 2025, this episode with Natasha Nuytten (CEO of CLARA) challenges how leaders define success, talent, and value in the workplace.
Rather than focusing on titles or résumés, the conversation centers on identity, growth, and human potential — and the need to unlearn outdated definitions of “fit” and “qualification.”
“We don’t live in the same world we did ten years ago — so why are we still using the same definitions of value?”
It’s a powerful listen for leaders rethinking hiring, development, and how they evaluate people beyond past accomplishments.
4. Making Work Suck Less: The Birth of CultureCon®
The origin story behind the CultureCon community
Before CultureCon® became a conference and media platform, it started with a simple question: How do we make work more human?
In this episode, CultureCon founders Zach Blumenfeld and Nick Lombardino share the story behind CultureCon®, from early conversations to building a community centered on connection, curiosity and shared learning.
“What we’ve learned is like the magic of it is really kind of like these wild synchronicities and connections that happen among attendees and even attendees to speakers.”
For anyone curious about the why behind CultureCon®, this episode remains one of the most meaningful listens in the podcast’s history.
5. Why Culture Needs a Plan
Turning values into systems and action
In this episode, Greg Livings and Pete Savage of CultureShape explore why successful organizations treat culture like a business function — planned, resourced, and executed with discipline.
Good intentions alone don’t scale. Systems do.
“You have to map it, budget for it, de-risk it and execute on it. Just like anything else that matters.”
This conversation is especially relevant for leaders looking to move beyond culture talk and into sustainable, repeatable action.
Bonus Episode: Hiring for Heart, Not Just Skill
Values-based hiring and culture alignment
Recorded live at CultureCon 2025, this conversation with Eliza Jackson of ButcherBox explores values-driven hiring and what it looks like when culture is truly built into everyday decisions.
From non-traditional career paths to coaching and self-reflection, the episode offers a grounded look at how organizations can hire — and lead — more intentionally.
“If values only show up on a poster, they’re not really values.”
Top CultureCon Podcast Episodes of 2025: Final Thoughts
The conversations that resonated most in 2025 shared a common theme: culture is not
abstract, optional, or someone else’s responsibility.
From leadership accountability to communication, identity and systems, these episodes reflect how expectations of leaders — and workplaces — continue to evolve.
Whether you’re discovering the CultureCon® Podcast for the first time or revisiting key conversations, this list offers a place to begin.
About CultureCon®:
CultureCon®, a Certified B Corporation®, is on a mission to inspire positive change around organizational culture. Through large conferences, online courses, consulting services, and certification programs, we deliver experiences that provide practical tools and motivation for our customers to become cultural change agents within their organizations. Our customers include business owners, CxOs, HR leaders, senior management, individual contributors, and anyone who wants to build more uplifting, inspiring, and healthy workplaces.
Learn more about our upcoming events.