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Neuroscientist, author, actress, and Convening Leaders closing Main Stage speaker Mayim Bialik works to erase the stigma of mental health issues.
Mental wellness is a vital but commonly overlooked issue for event professionals, who work in one of the most high-pressure, stressful occupations in the world. You race to address the needs of attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, your bosses, and teams when designing your events, often pushing your own wellbeing off to the side.
Neuroscientist, author, and actress Mayim Bialik will close out PCMA Convening Leaders 2024 today with a keynote that brings your mental health to the fore. Since the pandemic, Bialik has been hosting a podcast — “Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown” — focused on busting myths and misunderstandings about emotional wellbeing.
The former star of TV’s “Blossom,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and former host of “Jeopardy” — who earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience — will help Convening Leaders attendees explore new tactics to infuse wellness into their daily routines during her 10:30 a.m. keynote, “More Than a Luxury — Why the Path to Professional Fulfillment Starts with Your Mental Health.”
“The [events] industry has gotten better at addressing mental wellness,” said Carrie Johnson, DES, PCMA’s senior director, education. “But unless there is buy-in from all levels, and leaders put programs in place for their teams, it’s just a buzzword.”
Bialik and her partner, Jonathan Cohen, have been on a mission to erase the stigma of mental health issues since the COVID-19 pandemic. “We no longer have to live in shame about needing help,” Bialik wrote in an essay for The Pew Charitable Trusts. “The notion that we all need and deserve more is no longer a fantasy — it’s the reality we are all living in and helping to create.”
The pair launched the “Breakdown” podcast in January 2021 to learn how their guests were handling the stress of the pandemic and approaching their own mental wellbeing. Since then, Bialik has welcomed more than 160 guests including doctors, scientists, and psychologists who discuss mindfulness, meditation, and mental health, as well as celebrities who talk about their personal wellness journeys.
Last July, Harvard Medical School psychologist Susan David, Ph.D., discussed the dangers of toxic positivity and offered ways to avoid emotional burnout. Television news correspondent Matt Gutman broke down the difference between panic and anxiety attacks in a September episode. In November, comedian and actor Whitney Cummings talked about how scheduling when to worry about something eased her anxiety and the science behind manifesting.
Insights Bialik gained from these many conversations — combined with her own background as a neuroscientist — promise to make this a can’t-miss session.
Curt Wagner is digital editor of Convene.