In this season two finale of Talk HR, Harrison Newman and Samantha DiMercurio tackle one of the biggest challenges facing employers today: the rising cost of healthcare. Despite years of cost-shifting, plan redesigns, and annual renewals, employers continue to face increasing expenses while employees experience higher deductibles, reduced affordability, and growing frustration.

Global hiring has never been easier — but building a company that can actually operate globally is a different challenge entirely. In this episode, Harrison and Sam sit down with Barbara Matthews, Chief People Officer at Remote, to dig into what happens when international expansion starts revealing the cracks in a company's infrastructure. From blurred ownership and compliance risk to cultural nuance and asynchronous communication, Barbara unpacks the real complexity behind scaling a workforce across borders.

In this episode of Talk HR, Harrison Newman and Samantha DiMercurio explore one of the most overlooked drivers of employee wellbeing: financial health. While organizations focus on mental and physical well-being, financial stress continues to quietly impact retention, productivity, and engagement across the workforce. They’re joined by Caroline Woodson from Stream, a financial wellbeing platform designed to help everyday workers manage money with confidence. Caroline shares how financial stress shows up at work — and why traditional benefits often fail employees who are living paycheck to paycheck.

In this episode of Talk HR, Harrison Newman and Samantha DiMercurio welcome Angela Finlay — HR executive, consultant, professor, and author — for a timely conversation about the future of work and why “skill stacking” may be the most important strategy for navigating it.

In this episode of Talk HR, the conversation turns to one of the biggest compliance challenges facing HR leaders in 2026: expanded pay data reporting and workforce disclosure requirements. With new federal filings, evolving state mandates, and New York City’s upcoming reporting rules, HR teams are navigating a level of complexity that demands early preparation and cross-functional coordination.

Talk HR kicks off 2026 with a timely conversation on how HR leaders can keep up with the accelerating pace of change — especially as AI evolves month-to-month and expectations around data fluency, technology, and business acumen continue to rise. Hosts Harrison Newman and Samantha DeMar Curio welcome Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory and author of Artificial Intelligence for HR, to help HR leaders cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters this year.

Hosts Harrison Newman and Sam DeMario welcome Victoria Rivera, LCSW, a corporate wellness psychotherapist who specializes in working with HR professionals and employee populations. Rivera offers insight into why mental health leave has surged 300%, where HR’s role begins and ends, and why self-care is not optional for those tasked with caring for others.

Prescription drug costs aren’t just a budget line — they’re a business risk and an equity issue. In this episode, Harrison Newman and co-host Sam DiMercurio break down why pharmacy spend keeps climbing and what HR leaders can practically do about it.

In this episode of Talk HR, hosts Harrison Newman and Sam DiMercurio sit down with Peter Doran, SVP at Pareto Health, to explore how group captives and self-funding models are reshaping the future of employer healthcare. Peter breaks down why the standard fully insured model no longer works, how data transparency empowers smarter decision-making, and why more companies are shifting to self-funding to save costs and improve employee experience. Plus, the team chats with Claudia O’Leary from Beyond Med, who shares how employers can expand their benefits offerings — including access to services like fertility treatments, mental health counseling, and even massages — without increasing costs.

After a summer break, Talk HR is back — and this episode is worth the wait. Harrison and Sam are joined by Steve Cadigan, LinkedIn’s first Chief HR Officer, author of Workquake, and one of the world’s most respected voices on the future of work. Steve helped scale LinkedIn from 400 to 4,000 employees in just three and a half years, building a culture so distinctive it’s still studied at Stanford today.