{"podcast":{"title":"Moonshot Mentor with Laverne McKinnon","slug":"moonshot-mentor-with-laverne-mckinnon-6611026","podcast_index_feed_id":6611026,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/1415401.rss","website_url":"https://moonshotmentor.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/1415401/d406f56ac228835c4e2954e879efae37.jpg","author":"Laverne McKinnon","episode_count":141,"summary":"Practical wisdom for reimagining your career after professional loss.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/moonshot-mentor-with-laverne-mckinnon-6611026"},"episode":{"title":"What Do You Owe a Difficult Boss?","slug":"what-do-you-owe-a-difficult-boss","published_at":"2026-04-20T12:03:15+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/moonshot-mentor-with-laverne-mckinnon-6611026/what-do-you-owe-a-difficult-boss","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/moonshot-mentor-with-laverne-mckinnon-6611026","url":"https://moonshotmentor.substack.com/p/what-do-you-owe-a-difficult-boss","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/194638889/6cd4ea4cf919d41b3c8befc1b8104c55.mp3","summary":"This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.com I was having lunch on the patio at Kiwami with a long-time colleague — we'd served together on the board of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment — and we were debating whether to order the Kiwami tray or go à la carte. And then, I felt the energy around me shift. I didn’t turn my head, but I could see her outline in my peripheral vision. The boss who fired me. OMG, she was seated close enough to hear us order, and I was close enough I could smell her perfume. My first instinct: pretend she doesn't exist. Keep smiling. Keep chatting. Keep still. But the light-hearted parley about omakase was now nausea inducing and there was a buzzing in my ears. My boss, no, my ex -boss flagged a waiter and asked to move inside. I can't remember anything that happened after that. Here's what I know now that I didn't know then: what happened in my body had a name. My nervous system registered a perceived threat and responded accordingly — heart rate, shallow breath, the works. I was in a fight / flight / freeze / fawn moment — and caught between freezing and fawning. Why not do both when I’m under threat? What's interesting is that the threat wasn't real. I wasn't in danger. But my nervous system treated my ex-boss’ arrival as if something horrible was about to happen and I would be blind-sided all over again. Reader Question: Should I Reach Out to a Former (Not Awesome) Boss for a Job? I was reminded of this Kiwami experience recently when a reader sent me a question I suspect a lot of other people have too. He'd just learned that a former boss had landed a senior role at a new company. This was someone who had been skilled at managing up and promoting himself, but less focused on deve…","meta_description":"This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.com I was having lunch on the patio at Kiwami with a long-time colle…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":448,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/moonshot-mentor-with-laverne-mckinnon-6611026/episodes/what-do-you-owe-a-difficult-boss/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/moonshot-mentor-with-laverne-mckinnon-6611026/what-do-you-owe-a-difficult-boss.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}