Mind Middleware is a series of honest conversations with people from the tech world about the mental and emotional journey behind their careers. Hosted by Diego Nievas, in Aotearoa New Zealand.
In tech, the pressure is real. Burnout. Anxiety. Isolation. The constant demand to perform takes a serious toll — and most of it happens in silence.
The interval at which someone, somewhere in the world, dies by suicide.
World Health Organization
of tech workers report mental health symptoms in any given year.
Industry surveys, multiple sources
of those workers actually receive treatment or professional support.
Industry surveys, multiple sources
Every guest is asked the same opening question: tell me about your human doing — what you do, why you do it. Then we get to the human being underneath.
A long-time executive leader on the three-legged stool of health, career and relationships — and how "who are you?" became the question that broke him open. On vulnerable leadership, the 3am moments of self-doubt, and why the next job should scare you.
Watch on YouTubeOn choosing to be unapologetically Māori in corporate spaces, the masks we wear to survive, and a daily water ritual that resets everything. Identity, connection, and the waka as a metaphor for work.
Watch on YouTubeFifteen years in tech sales. On the physical signs of stress, being talked over as the only woman in the room, and the discipline of touching grass.
Watch on YouTubeA career as a cork on the ocean — IBM, bullying after, the psychotherapy that pulled him out, and a late-life realisation about neurodiversity. On mental fitness, the drift, and why leadership now means actually caring.
Watch on YouTubeOn ownership, whole-brain thinking, and the uncomfortable truth that the people propping everyone else up eventually collapse too.
Watch on YouTubeOn leading through COVID, becoming a Mental Health First Aider, and learning to lean into vulnerability as a leader who'd rather be tough.
Watch on YouTubeAn aeronautical engineer reinvents himself in tech, in a second country. On imposter syndrome, fingiendo demencia, and the support that gets you through twelve months of "unfortunately…".
Watch on YouTube
I've spent the better part of two decades in tech — across engineering, sales and leadership — in Argentina, and now in Aotearoa New Zealand. I'm not a clinician. I'm not a therapist. I've said it on every episode and I'll say it here: I have no academic qualification in mental health beyond a Mental Health First Aid accreditation.
What I do have is years of being on both sides of this — the person needing help, and the person other people end up talking to. I've lived through serious depression, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, and the slow climb back. I started Mind Middleware because the conversations I needed weren't happening loudly enough in our industry, and the ones that were happening too often stopped at "we should talk about this" without anyone doing anything.
The same conversations that happen on the podcast — translated for live audiences. For tech companies, leadership programmes, conferences, and corporate offsites in New Zealand, Australia, and remote.
The frame that runs through every episode of the podcast, built for high-performing audiences who confuse their job title with their identity. Drawn from real conversations with engineers, sales leaders, founders, and the people quietly burning out beside them.
A practical playbook for tech teams who are tired of awareness posters. Built on the critique that the industry over-talks and under-acts: how to embed Mental Health First Aiders, what good manager check-ins actually sound like, and where EAPs fall short.
For leaders, HR partners, and the "strong ones" everyone else leans on. The people holding the team up are the ones nobody notices collapsing. How vulnerability shifts that, what it costs, and why it's a leadership skill — not a soft one.
For speaking enquiries, podcast guest pitches, or just to say hello — drop me a line. I read every message myself. If you're reaching out about something heavy, please also see the support resources at the bottom of this page.
Or email directly: diego.nievas@icloud.com
Mind Middleware