Co-designing is an ancient practice, and the world is experiencing a paradigm shift from designing for people to designing with people. We sat down with Dave Dawkins, communication design lead at IDEO.org, to talk about this change and the importance of summoning radical imagination in this time. For so many on the margins, it’s an act of resistance to dream. Dave shares the importance of looking to ancestral knowledge for solutions to all the bad we see unfolding around us and supporting communities most impacted by the system by ensuring their valuable generative ideas are making it to the table. It’s about activating the spiritual discipline of building wonder! We also hear about Dave’s life, work, faith crisis and how failure can be a good thing that leads to the future seeds of something else growing! Wielding beauty for justice and belonging, Dave offers inspiration to our community with the application of human-centered design through an equity lens to address systemic challenges!

Checkout Dave’s open letter to fellow creatives: HERE

With everything happening in the world today in politics, cancel culture, and extreme barriers of division, Leland Melvin is helping to transform these ills by using his life story as an athlete, astronaut, scientist, engineer, photographer, and musician, to help inspire the next generation of explorers to pursue S.T.E.A.M. careers. Leland is the only person drafted into the NFL to have flown in space, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame honored his athletic and academic accomplishments by placing his Detroit Lions jersey under glass in Canton, Ohio. Through these professional experiences working on high stakes teams, he’s developed a deep and nuanced understanding of effective team dynamics. In this episode, we hear an astronaut’s story of the challenges he’s accepted, the opportunities he’s seized, and the changes he’s seeing. Leland talks with us about the power of the blue suit, activating community, breaking bread, and what is possible when you knock down the barriers of division. He also shares why as leaders and people, we all need that  one person who is there for you no matter what and who has your back.

“Being with a community that believes in things that are bigger than your individual self, when you work together as a team, is transformative!” – Leland Melvin

*This episode features mature content.

How do we support the writers, artists, and thinkers in our communities in times of profound change? Andrew Proctor, Executive Director of Literary Arts in Portland Oregon, sat down with us to answer this question and shared how he’s engaged the literary world for over twenty years in the governmental, for profit, and nonprofit sectors. Andrew also talks with us about the beauty of art as a medium to process what’s going on in the world, the importance of modeling rest for your community, and what career resilience and growth really looks like. He also shared an incredibly impactful musical composition from  Gabriel Kahane that’s inspired us immensely!

“Everything doesn’t have to run on fumes because running your career or self on fumes makes you extremely vulnerable. It can seem heroic, but it is what endangers you the most.”

Andrew earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Music at Concordia University in Montreal, and later worked in London for the Cultural Attaché to the Canadian High Commission. In the UK, he also earned an MA in English Literature at the University of East. He’s worked as an editor for HarperCollins in New York City and then as the Membership and Operations Director of the PEN American Center, a global literary and human rights organization focused on the welfare of writers and editors.

How can Christian teachings, sacred text, and prophetic witness be brought to the issues calling for Love and Justice in our world today? Master educator, Rev. Tana Roseboro Marsh, Program Coordinator of Theological Education for Leadership (TEL) at PSR, sits down with us to answer that question through the lens of the TEL program. While actively working on issues concerning the LGBTQIA community and disadvantaged youth, Tana is also passionate about doing work in the area of Spirituality and Women of Southern African American descent. She talks with us about her leadership journey, ‘Healing the WOMBman’, letting spirit guide us, and the gifts in having spiritual children. This episode offers inspiration for clergy, laity, and spiritual seekers from diverse racial/ethnic communities to question everything on their educational and leadership journeys, for the betterment of All!

How can we “sit on the porch” to help others slowly unfold what’s on their hearts and minds? How can we be findable for intergenerational conversations? On this episode, Mo sits down with Phyllis Drennon King Hildreth, VP of Strategy and Chief of Staff at American Baptist College in Nashville, Tennessee, small business owner, community and civic leader, wife, mother, and his beloved sister, to answer these questions more. She talks with us about why it’s critical to have close relationships across the generational scale and about Sankofa, the Ghanaian word that means “to go back and get” that which is at risk of being left behind. We also hear why in leadership it’s not just about being available, but about being found, like the elders on the porch.  This episode is an invitation for leaders to go “visit their own soul, open the windows, roll up the shades, and invite somebody else in to turn on the music and to play in that space!”

Dr. Hildreth’s rich insights spring from service as Chief Counsel in the Office of the Public Defender for the State of Maryland, as Deputy Secretary for the State of Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice, and as Managing Director for the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center. Dr. Hildreth earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a law degree from the University of Maryland, and a master’s degree in conflict management from Lipscomb University.

What we consume, whether it’s the movies that we watch, the books we read, or the short social media videos we scroll through, it all feeds our minds and souls and informs our sense of reality at a very subliminal level. To Payhuan Shiao, Founder and CEO of Immortal Studios, and lineage holder of the 1000-year-old martial arts fantasy genre of Wuxia, content creation is the artform of providing nutrition for the mind and soul. Payhuan talks with us about awakening the xia (Hero) in us all, the changes he’s seeing in the current landscape of global popular culture, and how storytelling is a powerful catalyst to bring optimism and a hope for a better future that’s grounded in the improvement of our internal spiritual and physical condition. Born in the East and raised in the West, navigating both worlds, Payhuan explores the spiritual connection between the two, challenges the notion there’s a deep divide, and shares that there’s more connectivity than separation. Payhuan’s presence in the film and entertainment industry highlights the importance of Asian representation in these spaces,  and this episode challenges leaders to think about the evolved perspectives it takes to bring people closer together.

Former 76ers athletic trainer and author of the Red Rubber Ball series of books, Kevin Carroll, has turned his childhood passion for playing ball into a bestselling franchise. Since leaving Nike to create his own company, Katalyst, Kevin has dedicated his life to advancing sports and play as a vehicle for social change and success. As an expert on creativity and innovation, and drawing wisdom from the playgrounds of his youth, Kevin’s books center the “red rubber ball” as a metaphor for the power of play and the driving force that propels us forward, to achieve our maximum human potential. He talks with us about the most important moments in his childhood, the power of perseverance, reverse mentoring, and staying in beta as a human being, constantly updating and continuously improving! We hear about the beauty in analog making a return and the importance of becoming a CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer) for others in our communities. This episode offers leaders, makers, doers, and dreamers inspiration and tools for sustenance in our life’s work.

“We are the greatest app ever created. There is no app on a device or computer that is more powerful and amazing than us.” – Kevin Carroll

On this episode, Mo King is joined by Dr. Jennifer Madden, the Dean of the School of Business at Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon and the Author of Inter-Organizational Collaboration by Design that examines how collaborations can be designed and leveraged for innovation and rejuvenation, a concept she calls “Rejuvenative Innovation.” As a strategist, researcher, teacher, facilitator, and design thinker, Dr. Madden builds capacity for sustainable development. She talks about the power of the mind and thinking and creating a way out of no way. We find encouragement in what she shares about the importance of protecting your joy, not letting people talk you out of your power, and amplifying one’s ability to be in the spaces where you can be ready for the opportunity. This episode offers inspiration to all people to see themselves as designers, to adopt a new language, in order to see the world differently and visualize a way forward.

On our Season 6 Premiere, new Host, Mo King, talks with award-winning writer, editor, and heart centered nonprofit/social enterprise professional, Dorcas Cheng-Tozun.

Dorcas is the editorial director at Pax, a faith-based nonprofit that seeks to inspire people to be peacemakers and justice-seekers, and is the author of three books, the most recent being Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul, releasing on June 20th. In this captivating conversation, we hear about her passions, the theory of contemplative activism, and how she is changing the world in quiet ways. This episode illustrates pathways for positive social impact for sensitive types and inspires us all to broaden the categories of what we define as social activism. Follow Dorcas at chengtozun.com or on Instagram.

Eun Hye Grace So, Pacific School of Religion

Belonging is a need essential to the human experience, and with the ongoing complex issues we’re all navigating, the question of what “belonging” means in society is extending into our work as it never has before.  Grace So is Visiting Assistant Professor of New Testament and Rhetorical Studies at The Pacific School of Religion, and she has been wrestling with connecting and belonging throughout her entire life. We talk about her journey moving back and forth between Korea + the US, how she’s often been left to feel she’s not Korean or American “enough,” and how that has affected her finding a place and space. Grace shares touching examples of the difference just one person can make in providing a sense of belonging, and where she’s recently discovered it. She beautifully illustrates the importance of finding a place to “belong” and offers our community inspiration in making others feel more than welcome, so we can be empowered to lead others and come into our full potential.