Welcome to Strong Girl Talk, where we dive into the latest in sports science, performance, and well-being—all with a focus on women and girls in sport. This week Molly and Sasha chat about what psychological safety is—and what it isn’t! Molly just wrote about it for True Sport and Sasha used a lot of this research in her PhD dissertation. We share a bunch of resources below, including Sasha’s weekend of research for this episode.
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Key episode topics include: psychological safety, coaching, parenting, sports, play
🎉 Shred Girls Book 4 Launch Week!
Last chance to sign up for Shred Girls Weekend, May 31 at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre, which is Shred Girls Book 4 Launch at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. Both Sasha & Molly will be there, alongside other Strong Girl Publishing authors. Additionally, we’ve partnered with For All Mothers for a Mom Forward Event as part of this event; you can sign up for the Mom Forward event here.
In Shred Girls: Lindsay and The Curse of Gemini Lakes, Lindsay, Ali and Jen are heading to a multi-sport camp in the mountains where they’ll ride bikes, swim, canoe and try out all new sports. But something strange is going on at Gemini Lake. It’s almost like the camp is… cursed!
As tensions rise and weird incidents multiply, the Shred Girls face their biggest challenge yet: Can they put aside their growing conflicts and work together to uncover the truth? With friendship tested and camp chaos mounting, they’ll need all their skills, courage, and teamwork to break the curse before Gemini Lakes is destroyed forever.
One summer. Three friends. An impossible challenge.
Will the Shred Girls save their camp, or will this be the worst summer of their lives?
Get the book here:
CANADA: Indigo.ca | Amazon.ca | McNallyRobinson.com
USA: Amazon.com | Bookshop.org | BarnesAndNoble.com | BetterWorldBooks.com
UK: Waterstones
🧠🦺 Psychological Safety - What it is. What it isn’t. And What we just generally get wrong about it.
We dive into the work of Harvard researcher Amy C. Edmondson to explore what psychological safety truly means—especially in sport. Edmondson defines psychological safety as “an environment where people feel safe to speak up” without fear of embarrassment, rejection, or punishment. We challenge common myths—like equating safety with comfort or kindness with niceness—and highlight how real psychological safety is built through trust and respect to get to belonging in teams; it’s not just about the individual.
It’s not about being nice or always agreeing. It’s about creating a team culture where everyone, athletes, coaches, and officials feel confident to take interpersonal risks, give honest feedback, and show up authentically. Because when we feel like we belong, individual or team sport, we perform at our best.
Drawing from Edmondson’s research and real-life examples in sport, we discuss how psychological safety fuels performance, learning, and well-being—and how leaders can model, message, and mentor this kind of environment every day.
🚵🏻♀️🏃♀️🎾 Sports Highlights
We’re switching things up and moving our sports highlights writing recap to after the main part of our episode.
At the third stop for the UCI Mountain Bike XCC in Nove Mesto the Canadian women swept the podium in the U23 Short Track. Twins Ava and Isabella Holmgren went 1-2, and what should impress me the most is Isabella’s road win earlier in the week, but it’s Isabella celebrating Ava across the line. Cyclocross queen Puck Pieterse returned to mountain bike this weekend and won the elite women’s XCC. In the U23 XCO the same Canadian who finished 3rd in the XCC won the race, Ella MacPhee. Go 🇨🇦 and cyclocross (the Holmgren sisters grew up CX racing!)!
There is always more track and field! It was great to see the Stafford sisters both run so well this weekend. Gabriela (G) ran 4:03.8in Belgium and Lucia (Little Lu) also ran 4:03.5 at the Rabat Diamond League. SoundRunning’s Trackfest was Saturday night. For the best coverage in Women’s Running definitely recommend following along with Fast Women’s coverage. This weekend is the return of Grandslam Track in its updated 2-day format; say whatever you want the organizers are listening to what the fans want.
The French Open is underway in Paris, with the first week and the first rounds wrapping up this weekend. With the men’s final always taking place on Sundays at the majors, is the next step in gender equity for tennis to alternate years of the men’s and women’s wrapping up the tournament? Ons Jabeaur was vocal about her concerns over when women’s tennis is on television, so it might be time for Sasha to go down a rabbit hole of gender equity in tennis!
What other sports did you want us to cover?
🔬🧐 Background Research to this Episode
If you’re interested in learning more, here is the list of podcasts (with links) with Amy C Edmondson that Sasha listened to (in alpha order):
Sasha also listened to the The Rich Roll podcast with Stu McMillan - anyone who is an athlete, a parent, or a coach should really listen to this one. And without talking about it, Stu MacMillan creates psychologically safe spaces for the pinnacle of performance.
Here is the work we referred to:
- What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety by Amy C Edmonsdson and Michaela J Kerrissey in the Harvard Business Review.
- Psychological Safety: The History, Renaissance, and Future of an Interpersonal Construct by Amy C Edmondson and Zhike Lei in the Annual Reviews of Organizational Behaviour.
Other books we referred to in the episode - Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson - “Scarcity is often a choice. Abundance is a decision.” Instead of protecting sport as it is, Abundance challenges us to imagine what it could be if we invested in it as a public good, not just a private pursuit. What if we expanded what sport could look like? What if we stopped fighting over who gets to play and started building systems where everyone belongs?
Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish a practical guide to recognizing and overcoming the mental defaults—emotion, ego, social pressure, and inertia—that cloud our judgment, enabling us to make better decisions and lead more intentional lives.
Follow Along:
Remember you can follow Molly and Sasha on Social Media including:
Molly - @mollyjhurford @stronggirlpublishing
Sasha - @SGollishRuns @Yellow_Running_Shoes
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