I met this week’s guest, Derrick N. Ashong, earlier this year in Nairobi at the Charter Cities Institute, 2025 New Cities Summit. At the summit, we connected as storytellers that share Ghanaian heritage and formative years spent in Brooklyn, New York. In a glocal citizenship twist, we later came to find that we met virtually years prior through mutual connections in the media and arts spaces. Derrick’s work leverages his international upbringing which informs his company’s vision for Turning Culture into Currency for creators and fans worldwide. He does this as founder and CEO of TBTM, a media fintech that uses content to onboard global audiences to inclusive financial solutions, with partners like Mastercard. While still a student at Harvard, he played a supporting role in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, and went on to top charts with his band, winning a Billboard Songwriting Award. As a host and producer, he pioneered multi-platform interactive content with Oprah Winfrey, and major media platforms including ABC-Disney and Univision, earning three Emmy nods and a Royal Television Society Award. His original Take Back the Mic television series has won seven major international awards and achieved 1.1 Billion media impressions worldwide. He has delivered electrifying speeches on issues of Youth Culture and Tech for UK Parliament, the United Nations, and the world’s most elite business schools, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Wharton, Cambridge and London School of Economics. He has interviewed celebrities and global luminaries ranging from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Kofi Annan, to Zoe Saldaña, Kevin Hart and Steven Wozniak, among others. Most recently, he has delivered keynote speeches for Mastercard, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and Kigali, as well as SuperReturn Africa--the continent’s top investment forum. In this conversation we get to know even more about the next phase of Derrick’s vision for flipping the script on creative industry infrastructure in Africa. #Listenandlearn more!

Where to find Derrick?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On YouTube

What’s Derrick reading?
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series
Lord of the Rings by J.J.R Tolkien

Other topics of interest:
About Larteh in Ghana
Where are Dansoman and Adabraka in Accra?
What was music streaming like in the early 2000’s?
Soulfege performs Sweet Remix
About Uechi-Ryū Martial Arts

Special Guest: Derrick N. Ashong.

This week’s interview was recorded while my guest and I were on the same time zone in Western Europe--she in Portugal and the UK for me. My guest, Serene Lewis Lyles spent most of her 30-year career making complex things simple. She was on the forefront of launching technologies that, today, are foundational to our lives including digital video recording (the predecessor to streaming content), the Internet of Things (now known as “Smart tech”), and high-design vape tech (much to her embarrassment).

Fun fact, our paths crossed while we were both based in New York City in the aughts, and we share Colorado and Northern California as places we’ve also called home. After living and working in the States and the UK, she finished her career in San Francisco, as a Senior Director at Meta, leading the content design team behind Facebook and Instagram’s billion-dollar ads business. At Meta, she was also a leader of the employee resource group Black@ Design and founder of the Black@ Content Design Leads group.

Since retiring last year, She has now turned her experience of leading people in solving hard problems into a career coaching people through the challenging process of planning for retirement. Her super powers as a coach are being comfortable talking about money, being excited about other people’s dreams, and creating systems that drive action.

Where to find Serene?
serenelewis.coach
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On the Experts & Expats Podcast

What’s Serene reading and listening to?
A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Portuguese Lab Podcast
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend

Other topics of interest:
About Golden Visa Programs
More about international living in Uruguay
San Francisco’s de Young Art Museum
About the Forty Acres and a Mule
Blue Man Group
About Serene’s Mindset Hack @ 56:43

Special Guest: Serene Lewis Lyles.

This week Hélène Himmer, a French national with roots in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, now based in Portugal joins me in conversation about her current work at African Futures Lab (AfaLab) leading a project on climate reparations. I met Hélène last November at FORGE: Harnessing Creative Arts for Reparatory Justice, a convening of artists, media, cultural workers, civil society, and government leaders across Africa, Europe and the U.S. to further the movement for reparations. The event took place in Accra, Ghana and featured Glocal Citizens Esther Armah, Makmid Kamara, and Nyamal Tutdeal as facilitators. In addition to meeting so many dynamic diasporans I was introduced to organizations like AfaLab, an international non-profit organization supporting racial justice movements in Europe and Africa through conducting research and developing policy and legal strategies to empower civil society actors and public and private institutions in their fight for justice and reparations. Currently the Policy and Advocacy Officer at AfaLab, Hélène is a committed activist and professional with a diverse background in human rights law, corporate social responsibility and international development.

Her activism began in her early teens with a youth organization focused on education, youth rights and inclusion. She then spent several years working for racial justice in France. Moving to the corporate sector, Hélène worked in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in start-ups and technology companies. However, her passion for social impact led her to international organizations where she specialized in advocacy, project management and partnerships. Her work has focused on climate justice, peacebuilding, anti-corruption, women's empowerment, youth cooperation and inclusive societies across Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region.

Where to find Hélène?
AfaLab Policy Paper "Unlocking Climate Reparations: Key Obstacles in the Emergence of a Climate Reparations Framework"
Listen in on AfaLab’s Season 3 Podcast Future Perfect | futur antérieur on Climate Reparations
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Hélène reading?
REDD-Monitor

Other topics of interest:
[Brittany, France](linkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany)
A bit about Guadeloupe
Who is Dr. Farhana Sultana?
About the Loss and Damage Fund
Center for International Environmental Law

Special Guest: Hélène Himmer.

For this 111th IWD and in the spirit of advocacy and empowerment, my guest is, and continues to be a woman to watch. She's a thought leader in international development with a passion for young people, health and innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ekua Yankah, an Afro-German was born in Germany to Ghanaian parents; after living in cities across the globe, she is now based in Portugal. Ekua, a polyglot has 20+ years of international experience working for UN agencies such as UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast & Central Asia and the German Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) as part of the European Expert Group on Sexuality Education in Europe.

She is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Centre for Social Research in Health at University of New South Wales in Sydney where she has authored/co-authored five book chapters, numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, research reports, training manuals and curricula on education, sexual and reproductive health and health innovation.

Ekua also has a passion for contemporary art and cinema and is an active supporter and funder of various initiatives in the art world.

Be sure to catch both episodes of this two-part conversation as Ekua offers expansive insights into her ability to overlay her professional and passion pursuits for wide benefit.

Where to find Ekua?
On Linkedin
On Instagram
On Facebook

What's Ekua reading?
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

What's Ekua watching?
Our Madness
The Underground Railroad

Other topics of interest:
PSI.org
Peter Aggelton
The American of Journal Sexuality Education
The Clue app and Hormonal Podcast
Nana Oforiatta Ayim
ANO Institute of Art and Knowledge
We Are Born Free Online Radio
On Renee Mboya
HANGAR and Monica de Miranda
Savvy Contemporary
John Akomfrah
Kwesi Owusu
Kuukua Eshun
Shaolin Qi Gong Kung Fu Meditation online

Special Guest: Ekua Yankah.

For this 111th IWD and in the spirit of advocacy and empowerment, my guest is, and continues to be a woman to watch. She's a thought leader in international development with a passion for young people, health and innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ekua Yankah, an Afro-German was born in Germany to Ghanaian parents; after living in cities across the globe, she is now based in Portugal. Ekua, a polyglot has 20+ years of international experience working for UN agencies such as UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast & Central Asia and the German Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) as part of the European Expert Group on Sexuality Education in Europe.

She is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Centre for Social Research in Health at University of New South Wales in Sydney where she has authored/co-authored five book chapters, numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, research reports, training manuals and curricula on education, sexual and reproductive health and health innovation.

Ekua also has a passion for contemporary art and cinema and is an active supporter and funder of various initiatives in the art world.

Be sure to catch both episodes of this two-part conversation as Ekua offers expansive insights into her ability to overlay her professional and passion pursuits for wide benefit.

Where to find Ekua?
On Linkedin
On Instagram
On Facebook

What's Ekua reading?
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

What's Ekua watching?
Our Madness
The Underground Railroad

Other topics of interest:
PSI.org
Peter Aggelton
The American of Journal Sexuality Education
The Clue app and Hormonal Podcast
Nana Oforiatta Ayim
ANO Institute of Art and Knowledge
We Are Born Free Online Radio
On Renee Mboya
HANGAR and Monica de Miranda
Savvy Contemporary
John Akomfrah
Kwesi Owusu
Kuukua Eshun
Shaolin Qi Gong Kung Fu Meditation online

Special Guest: Ekua Yankah.