Well-Being and Creative Careers: Interview with Dave Seglins (CBC)

Now available on YouTube and Spotify: my interview with Dave Seglins, Well-Being Champion at the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and fellow at the DART Center for Journalism & Trauma.

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health and well-being in media industries and professions, in this episode I sit down with Dave Seglins, a Canadian investigative journalist and industry mental health educator and advocate. At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Dave works as a "Well-being Champion" focused on research, training and innovation to support the mental health of news professionals.

The conversation is listed here, on YouTube as well as on Spotify.

In 2022, he and Matthew Pearson (Carleton University) published the powerful Taking Care report on mental health, trauma and wellbeing among Canadian media workers. Seglins is also a fellow of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and a member of the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence in Trauma.

Our conversation focuses on the significance of normalizing the conversation about health and well-being in the newsroom, the paradox of bringing your 'whole self' to the job of being a journalist - while reporters are not supposed to feel when doing that job.

We talk about 'truth as passion' for reporters and editors, the link between well-being and diversity, and in the end talk through the four steps of shaping a healthier working environment in the media: creating space for conversation, collectively identify key stressors, educate yourself (and others) about the issues, and determine which practices indeed need to change to make people feel safe and included.

These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out late 2025 with Intellect and in the US with University of Chicago Press) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.

All the interviews in this series are available as a dedicated playlist Well-Being and Creative Careers on my YouTube channel. Interviews include professionals from the New York Times, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Cinemind, Warner Music Group, Guerrilla Games, Help Musicians, and many more.

For the podcast version of this vlog, please check my Deuzevlog on Spotify. Please follow, leave a comment, and check more updates earlier (and future) posts on Substack.