Good Ancestor Podcast

In this episode, I speak with advocate, storyteller, and minimalist, Christine Platt.

Christine Platt is a passionate advocate for social justice and policy reform. From serving as an advocate for policy reform to using the power of storytelling as a tool for social change, Christine’s work reflects her practice of living with intention. She holds a B.A. in Africana Studies, M.A. in African-American Studies, and a J.D. in General Law.

Christine has written over two dozen literary works for people of all ages. When she’s not writing, Christine spends her time curating The Afrominimalist—a creative platform chronicling her journey to intentional living.

Christine is a member of the Association of Black Women Historians, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and serves as an Ambassador for Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is also a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Christine regularly partners organizations on educational initiatives including Teaching for Change, Turning the Page, An Open Book Foundation, First Book, Eaton Workshop, PEN/Faulkner Foundation, and Writers and Artists Across the Country.

She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Lee Montessori Public Charter School in Washington, DC.

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In this episode, I speak with Yoga Practitioner, Author, and Founder, Susanna Barkataki.

An Indian yoga practitioner in the Shankaracharya tradition, Susanna Barkataki supports practitioners to lead with equity, diversity and yogic values while growing thriving practices and businesses with confidence. She is the author of the 2020 book Embrace Yoga’s Roots: Courageous Ways to Deepen Your Yoga Practice, for people who want to teach or learn yoga and are unsure about integrating their values into their practice without disrespecting ancient yoga philosophy.

Susanna is founder of Ignite Yoga and Wellness Institute and runs 200/500 Yoga Teacher Training programs. She is an E-RYT 500, Certified Yoga Therapist with International Association of Yoga Therapists (C-IAYT).

With an Honors degree in Philosophy from UC Berkeley and a Masters in Education from Cambridge College, Susanna is a diversity, accessibility, inclusivity, and equity (DAIE) yoga unity educator who created the ground-breaking Honor {Don’t Appropriate} Yoga Summit with over 10,000 participants.

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In this episode, I speak with counseling psychologist and educator, Dr. Mariel Buquè.

Dr. Mariel Buquè is an Afro-Dominican counseling psychologist and educator. She provides clinical care and teaches courses at Columbia University and Columbia University Medical Center in the areas of culturally-responsive delivery of mental health care and the decolonization of eurocentric therapeutic practices. Her clinical work focuses on healing the wounds of intergenerational trauma for Black, Indigenous, People of Color.

Dr. Buquè focuses on delivering racial healing therapeutic practices and workshops and conducting mental health and anti-racism workshops across the United States in the areas of structural racism, cultural competency, implicit bias, and microaggressions, as she believes in the liberation of our minds and of oppressive systems as necessary qualities of our overall wellness.

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In this episode, I speak with journalist, author, and academic, Ruby Hamad.

In 2018, Ruby Hamad's Guardian article, ‘How White Women Use Strategic Tears to Silence Women of Color’ became a global flashpoint for discussions of white feminism and racism and inspired her debut book, White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color. White Tears/Brown Scars has received critical acclaim in Australia and overseas where it has just been published in the US, Canada and the UK.

Ruby was a long-time columnist for former Fairfax Media's feminist flagship Daily Life and her writing has also featured in The New York Times, Prospect Magazine, The New Arab, and more.

The sixth of seventh children of Lebanese-Syrian parents who fled to Australia at the height of the Lebanese Civil War, Ruby now splits her time between Sydney and New York. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in media studies at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia.

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In this episode, I speak with writer, speaker, consultant, and brand strategist, Tayo Rockson.

Tayo Rockson is a writer, speaker, consultant, podcaster, professor, and brand strategist who runs UYD Management - a strategic consulting firm that helps organizations incorporate sustainable diversity and inclusion practices.

As the son of a diplomat, Tayo grew up understanding the nuances of multicultural diversity while living on 4 continents. He has leveraged his experiences to establish himself as an authority in communicating effectively across cultures and personal branding by gracing various stages including TEDx, the prestigious Chautauqua Institution as well as the United Nations.

Tayo's most recent accomplishments include writing the bestseller Use Your Difference To Make A Difference and launching the national anti-racism campaign called #LetsTalkBias.

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In this episode, I speak with author, screenwriter, and actress, Reema Zaman.

Reema Zaman is a Bangladeshi-American author, screenwriter, and actress. She is the author of the memoir I Am Yours and the dystopian novel Paramita. I Am Yours was adopted into the curriculum of several high schools through an innovation grant by the Oregon Department of Education, and is currently in development to become a movie.

Reema's essays have been published in Vogue, The Guardian, Salon, and other major outlets. She writes about family, relationships, love, sex, politics, science, social justice, feminism, and anti-racism. Reema was born in Bangladesh, raised in Thailand, and currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with her rescue teacup chihuahua, Fia the Fierce.

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In this episode, I speak with a freedom worker, author, speaker, poet and youth mentor, Dr. Jaiya John.

Dr. Jaiya John was born into foster care in New Mexico, and is an internationally recognized freedom worker, author, speaker, poet, and youth mentor. Dr. Jaiya is the founder of Soul Water Rising, a global rehumanizing mission that has donated thousands of Dr. Jaiya’s books in support of social healing, and offers scholarships to displaced and vulnerable youth. Dr. Jaiya writes, narrates, and produces, the I Will Read for You podcast, and is the founder of Freedom Project, a global initiative reviving traditional gathering and storytelling practices to fertilize social healing and liberation.

He is a former professor of social psychology at Howard University, has authored numerous books, and has spoken to over a million people worldwide and audiences as large as several thousand, including national and international conferences, schools, Indigenous reservations and communities, prisons and detention centers, shelters, and colleges.

Dr. Jaiya is a National Science Foundation fellow, and holds doctorate and master’s degrees in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a focus on intergroup relations and identity development. As an undergraduate, he attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and lived in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he studied Tibetan Holistic Medicine through independent research with Tibetan doctors.

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In this episode, I speak with anti-racism campaigner, Tedx speaker and writer, Nova Reid.

Often described as a force to be reckoned with, Nova Reid is an anti-racism campaigner, Tedx speaker and writer. Nova uses her background in mental health to support people to be the change they want to see in the world by unlearning their racism from the inside out.

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In this episode, I speak with writer, speaker and spiritual teacher, Yasmine Cheyenne.

Yasmine Cheyenne is a writer and spiritual teacher who helps people create their self-healing practices. Through speaking, her workbooks and courses, she helps her students navigate the sometimes tougher parts of self-healing work and integrate it into all areas of their lives.

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In this episode, I speak with artist, author, activist, and transformational leader, Sonya Renee Taylor.

Sonya Renee Taylor is a National and International award-winning writer and performer, best-selling author of two books The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self Love and Celebrate Your Body and Its Changes Too, and founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology (TBINAA), an international digital media and education company committed to radical self-love as the foundational tool of social justice, whose content reaches over 1 million people monthly.

She has shared her work and activism across the US, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Brazil, and the Netherlands. Sonya has been seen, heard, and read on HBO, BET, MTV, TV One, NPR, PBS, CNN, Oxygen Network, The New York Times, New York Magazine, MSNBC.com, Today.com, Huffington Post, Vogue Australia, Shape.com, Ms. Magazine and many more.

She has shared stages with such luminaries as the late Amiri Baraka, Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez, and others. In 2016, Sonya was a guest of the Obama White House, where she spoke about TBINAA’s work at the intersection of LGBTQIAA+ issues and disability justice. Sonya currently resides in New Zealand where she is an inaugural fellow in the Edmund Hilary Fellowship for global impact change makers.

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