The final stretch of 2025 is upon us and along with winding down our year-long Glocal Citizens @5 commemoration, this flashback forward episode is right on time for many reasons. In her new book, Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us, my returning guest, Anna Malaika Tubbs not only prompts readers (and listeners) to connect the many dots that encircle the systems and institutions that animate the current Administration of the United States, she also proposes a vision for how we collectively flash forward and overcome the inherent limitations to patriarchy, in the US and globally. The solution--people power.

Anna is a two-time New York Times bestselling author and multidisciplinary expert on current and historical understandings of race, gender, and equity. With a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Masters in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge in addition to a Bachelors in Medical Anthropology from Stanford University, Anna translates her academic knowledge into stories that are clear and engaging. Her articles have been published by TIME Magazine, New York Magazine, Newsweek, The Guardian, and others. She first joined us to talk about her first book, The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation, which came out in 2021. Anna’s storytelling also takes form in her talks, including her TED Talk that has been viewed 2 million times, as well as the scripted and unscripted screen projects she has in development which she hints at in our conversation. #Listenandlearn more!

Where to find Anna?
www.annamalaikatubbs.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Anna reading and watching?
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
The Amazing Race
All Her Fault

Other topics of interest:
Anna on The View
The Reecie Colbert Show
Higher Learning Podcast with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay
The 19th News
About Modo Yoga
About Bikram Yoga

Special Guest: Anna Malaika Tubbs.

We’re talking about the business of teaching and learning from a design thinking perspective with my guest, fellow Stanford University alum, visionary educational leader and the founder and CEO of Roundtrip Ticket Home, an organization dedicated to helping educators reimagine school systems through design thinking, Kalimah Fergus Ayele. With almost 30 years of experience in education, her journey began as a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching Chemistry in East Africa. Her career has spanned five countries, enriching her global perspective on learning, and bringing a deep understanding of urban educational landscapes to her transformative work.

Most recently, she served as the Head of NYC Campus for The Winchendon School where she led an innovative educational oasis in Manhattan, guiding high school students through real-world learning and a unique city-wide field study program designed to connect them with their passions. In this conversation we truly experience the roundtrip journey of a little girl growing up in Brooklyn and St. Croix, building on Pan-African rooting from an early age, who manifested her new and now as a global citizen ready for her next adventure.

Where to find Kalimah?
@roundtrip Ticket Home
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Kalimah reading?
All the Way to the River by Eizabeth Gilbert

What’s Kalimah watching?
aka Charlie Sheen on Netflix
Orgasm Inc: The Story of One Taste on Netflix

Other topics of Interest:
About St. Croix
Sleepy Hollow, New York
About the United States Peace Corps
About Brooklyn’s African Street Fair and International African Arts Festival
Courageous Conversation + Glenn Singleton
About the American University in Cairo
On Montessori Education
On Friends or Quaker Schools

Special Guest: Kalimah Fergus Ayele.

This week’s conversation comes in two parts. Like it’s geographical spread, northern hemisphere to southern hemisphere, think of this two part discussion as a way of engaging both hemispheres of your brain--the creative and the analytic. My guest is fellow Stanford alum and founder of The Jazz & Democracy Project® (J&D), Wesley “Dr. Wes” J. Watkins. After several years working in the education sector, Dr. Wes launched the program in November 2009 at Rosa Parks Elementary School, located in San Francisco's historic Fillmore District. J&D is a music integrated curriculum that utilizes jazz as a metaphor to bring democracy to life, enrich the study and teaching of history, government, civics and culture, and inspire youth to become active, positive contributors to their communities. He first proposed the curriculum as part of his undergraduate honors program at Stanford’s School of Education and later conducted research for his undergraduate honors thesis at Oxford University where he engaged and learned from music educators at both local elementary schools and world renowned secondary institutions. Now based in Sydney, Australia, J&D has traveled to countries all over the world and, in these times of global social transition, Dr. Wes anticipates continued opportunities to feature and further innovate using tools that will leave lasting impact on the ways that youth and educators approach building and living in their communities and beyond.

Where to find Wesley?
On LinkedIn
On Facebook
On Instagram
On YouTube

Who’s Wesley listening to?
Joseph Solomon

Other topics of interest:
Activist Oakland, CA
Northern Beaches, Sydney Lifestyle
United States Studies Center
Crikey! or Kriky!
Flat White vs Latte
Geechi Taylor
Find Rachelle Farrell, Meshell N’Degeocello, on J&D
Ledisi
Christian McBride
Betty Carter + Ray Charles
Episode 47 featuring Wynton Marsalis
Jazz for Young People @ Lincoln Center
Check out the Chris Botti SF Show
About Robert, Bobby and Madison McFerrin

Special Guest: Wesley J. Watkins.

This week’s conversation comes in two parts. Like it’s geographical spread, northern hemisphere to southern hemisphere, think of this two part discussion as a way of engaging both hemispheres of your brain--the creative and the analytic. My guest is fellow Stanford alum and founder of The Jazz & Democracy Project® (J&D), Wesley “Dr. Wes” J. Watkins. After several years working in the education sector, Dr. Wes launched the program in November 2009 at Rosa Parks Elementary School, located in San Francisco's historic Fillmore District. J&D is a music integrated curriculum that utilizes jazz as a metaphor to bring democracy to life, enrich the study and teaching of history, government, civics and culture, and inspire youth to become active, positive contributors to their communities. He first proposed the curriculum as part of his undergraduate honors program at Stanford’s School of Education and later conducted research for his undergraduate honors thesis at Oxford University where he engaged and learned from music educators at both local elementary schools and world renowned secondary institutions. Now based in Sydney, Australia, J&D has traveled to countries all over the world and, in these times of global social transition, Dr. Wes anticipates continued opportunities to feature and further innovate using tools that will leave lasting impact on the ways that youth and educators approach building and living in their communities and beyond.

Where to find Wesley?
On LinkedIn
On Facebook
On Instagram
On YouTube

Who’s Wesley listening to?
Joseph Solomon

Other topics of interest:
Activist Oakland, CA
Northern Beaches, Sydney Lifestyle
United States Studies Center
Crikey! or Kriky!
Flat White vs Latte
Geechi Taylor
Find Rachelle Farrell, Meshell N’Degeocello, on J&D
Ledisi
Christian McBride
Betty Carter + Ray Charles
Episode 47 featuring Wynton Marsalis
Jazz for Young People @ Lincoln Center
Check out the Chris Botti SF Show
About Robert, Bobby and Madison McFerrin

Special Guest: Wesley J. Watkins.

This week we’re visiting the US’s Golden State in a back-to-the-future kind of moment. A New York native, my guest, Kaigani Turner and I both honed our “tech cred” during our years on the Stanford University campus somehow laying the foundation, plotting, programming and piecing together a present in the media space. Now a digital media innovator with over 25 years of experience most of which was spent living and working in London, Kai has been active in the NFT space since 2017 and is a thought leader in defining #Media3 as the intersection between web3 and media and entertainment. He is an Executive Producer of I'm New Here – a documentary film chronicling over 90 key artists and personalities in the NFT space. While at Sony Pictures Entertainment, he filed three patents related to blockchain and NFT technologies, after which he worked in Emerging Experiences and Product Content Innovation at Netflix where his projects included Love, Death and Robots and Martin Scorsese's The Irishman as well as the new Netflix Games Platform initiative, all while maintaining a focus on how to discover and promote Franchise IP on the service.

In 2021 he left Netflix to join the Web3 space full-time and is an advisor to multiple web3 companies including Doodles, National Lampoon and NFT42 (Avastars, VeeFriends, Sotheby's). He created MeebitsDAO and helped to launch a number of successful NFT projects (like Savage Droids, Boss Beauties, Super Geisha, and Lobby3).

Also a generative artist with multiple art ‘drops' and collaborations on Art Blocks--his first Art Blocks collection went for auction at Sotheby's, Kai’s latest entrepreneurial endeavor is as founder at the artist incubator, mxtter.art. Mxtter (pronounced “matter”) helps accelerate the careers of artists around the world, showcasing up and coming artists from diverse communities and is host to collaborative, experimental and generative art collection.

Where to find Kai?
On LinkedIn
On Twitter
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Kai reading?
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

What’s Kai watching?
Babble Bop!

Other topics of interest:
Lake Arrowhead, California
Sapient today
About Moo
Words on Bespoke
Art Blocks
CryptoKitties Decoded

Special Guest: Kaigani Turner .