Adjust Your Lenses

We are back!! Budgeting if often misunderstood as something that's difficult to do and maintain. Dr. Beshon Smith joins us to talk about this critical strategy to financial peace and freedom. In this two part episode, we discuss the benefits of budgeting and how to make it actionable for everybody.

This final wrap-up of season 1 brings to a close the ways in which we adapt to the seasons as they are changing in our lives. I provide salient examples of how a lack of discipline in one season can affect another, and how inspiration is often birthed out of a season of difficulty. 

In some ways, we've been in an 18 month long season. For some, the season resembles others in their lives, so it has all blended together. For others, the season opened doors and created a portal to new dispensation. And yet for others, its has been a seesaw of sorts, with peaks and valleys. As the season changes from Summer to Fall, I wrap up the FIRST SEASON of the Adjust Your Lenses podcast discussing the impact and influence of seasons in and on our lives.

This episode digs deeper into the ways we display and receive love, to help us understand God's love. The purity of God's love is often misunderstood, causing many of us to operate as though it is severely limited.

As the buzz on Critical Race Theory (CRT) continues, I explain from my lens what Critical Race Theory is and isn't, and how we dispel the ongoing contradictions buzzing through media in an attempt to eliminate CRT. I also explore Dr. Tony Evans new Kingdom Race Theology, to further expand on the ways in which Critical Race Theory addresses issues beyond what is being shared in the news.

In this episode, I start sharing how God's unconditional love has saved me from myself a number of times. I share just how I began to accept God's love, and what I want people to know about God's varying expressions of his love in their lives.

This episode goes where others haven't to address root causes, and give strategies and solutions to the issues of financial literacy, due to systemic and institutional racism. Beko gives us truths about why we need to get aggressive about finances as the great equalizer. 

This episode features financial expert Beko Mantein. Beko and I leave no stones unturned, as we discuss how financial literacy is the great equalizer to achieve greater equity for black people and other minorities in the United States.

This episode delved deep into the current state of "alternative spaces" in education for black and brown youth as Kristen Hopkins and I discuss the students we've already left behind. Kristen and I talk culturally responsive social-emotional learning and why now is the time to diversify the landscape. No child should indeed be left behind.

What happens to a dream deferred? When Langston Hughes penned "A Dream Deferred" he inspired the minds of millions of people who would take their cues from the poem for generations to come. Racism in the form of the justice system and police brutality continues to steal the dreams of young black and brown people, creating a vacuum in an attempt to stagnate and stifle this generation. Listen as we explore the topic.

As police brutality against black men continues to rage on in the nation, another encounter turns deadly when a white officer kills unarmed black man Daunte Wright. This happens only 10 miles from where George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, who is currently on trial for Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. The trial sets the stage for what has become a now well-known pandemic, of the continued hunting down of black men by law enforcement.

A year ago, our lives stood still. For a lot of us, life was put on pause, and rightly so. The year came and went and the seasons have changed, so it's time to rediscover our purpose if we've lost our way. I am doing the same.

This episode features Beau McCoy Founder & CEO of Solcademy. Beau and I discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic inspired him to start his own company, due to the disparities he witnessed between students of color and white students in his California community. The pandemic has severely exacerbated the educational access gap for many Black, Latin X & Indigenous students, as systemic racism continues to play a huge role in the educational landscape.  

Depression is normal. Destigmatizing depression is critical to removing its effects, particularly on black people and other communities of color. In this present time, the effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic has exacerbated the way in which it manifests itself, as many are trying to deal with death tolls, loss of industries, and isolation. Normalizing depression will ensure that the conversation around it goes from taboo to regular discourse.

This episode breaks down how the one thing we all had in common last year was the global pandemic. However, 2020 affected all of us differently depending on your race and socio-economic status. We also discuss how this pandemic amplified the social injustice issues we are currently facing, providing self-care tips to us sustain.

This episode was inspired by Amanda Gorman's poem, "The Hill We Climb." The way she commanded the space left a lasting memory in my mind, as I saw her as a collision of the present and the future. Using her poem, we will discuss how her impact gives us hope for the work that lies ahead.

Welcome to the Adjust Your Lenses Podcast!! I am excited to have you listening and taking part in this journey. This episode will introduce the concept of adjusting your lenses, why I chose the name, what it means, and what we're going to be doing as a part of this process. I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!