Podcasts about Spelman

Education is the foundation of innovation. As cosmetic science becomes more sophisticated and industry regulations more rigorous, the schools where students learn about beauty, biology, chemistry, and material science are more vital to the future success of our industry than ever.  This week on the CosmoFactory podcast, we learn about cosmetic science education. Our guest is Dr. Leyte Winfield, Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Cosmetic Science Program at Spelman College. Established in 1881 and located in Georgia (US), Spelman added cosmetic science to their academic offerings at the start of 2023. And already the College's multidisciplinary program is swiftly gaining a reputation for advancing women in STEM fields and championing research on textured hair and melanated skin. If you enjoy this episode, SHARE it with a friend, FOLLOW the CosmoFactory podcast & please LEAVE A REVIEW today. With your help, even more cosmetic industry professionals can discover the inspiring interviews we share on CosmoFactory! ABOUT CosmoFactoryBeauty industry stakeholders listen to the CosmoFactory podcast for inspiration and for up-to-date information on concepts, tactics, and solutions that move business forward. CosmoFactory – Ideas to Innovation is a weekly interview series for cosmetics and personal care suppliers, finished product brand leaders, retailers, buyers, importers, and distributors. Each Tuesday, CosmoFactory guests share experiences, insights, and exclusive behind-the-scenes details—which makes this not only a must-listen B2B podcast but an ongoing case study of our dynamic industry. Guests are actively working in hands-on innovation roles along the beauty industry supply chain; they specialize in raw materials, ingredients, manufacturing, packaging, and more. They are designers, R&D or R&I pros, technical experts, product developers, key decision makers, visionary executives. HOST Deanna UtroskeCosmetics and personal care industry observer Deanna Utroske hosts the CosmoFactory podcast. She brings an editorial perspective and over a decade of industry expertise to every interview. Deanna is also Editor of the Beauty Insights newsletter and a supply-side positioning consultant. She writes the Global Perspectives column for EuroCosmetics magazine, is a former Editor of CosmeticsDesign, and is known globally for her ability to identify emerging trends, novel technologies, and true innovation in beauty. A PRODUCTION OF Cosmoprof Worldwide BolognaCosmoFactory is the first podcast from Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna, taking its place among the best B2B podcasts serving the global beauty industry.   Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna is the most important beauty trade show in the world. Dedicated to all sectors of the industry, Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna welcomes over 250,000 visitors from 150 countries and regions and nearly 3,000 exhibitors to Bologna, Italy, each year. It's where our diverse and international industry comes together to build business relationships and to discover the best brands and newest innovations across consumer beauty, professional beauty, and the entire supply chain. The trade show includes a robust program of exclusive educational content, featuring  executives and key opinion leaders from every sector of the cosmetics, fragrance, and personal care industry. Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna is the most important event of the Cosmoprof international network, with exhibitions in Asia (Hong Kong), the US (Las Vegas and Miami), India (Mumbai) and Thailand (Bangkok). Thanks to its global exhibitions Cosmoprof connects a community of more than 500,000 beauty stakeholders and 10,000 companies from 190 countries and regions. Learn more today at Cosmoprof.com    

This is a fan fav episdoe. Welcome back to part 2 with Dr. Becky Spelman! If you are highly empathetic, always have an excuse for your partner's poor behavior, and find yourself dismissing how badly you feel over how bad they've had it, this episode is a Must for you!  You'll learn about confusing patterns of emotional highs and lows, the insidious tactic of gaslighting, and how narcissists often target strong, beautiful individuals, only to gradually erode their confidence and sense of self. But don't worry, ladies - it's not all doom and gloom. We're also talking about reclaiming your power, rebuilding your confidence, and rediscovering the amazing person you were before that narcissistic lover came into your life. Original air date: 9-21-2023 Follow Dr. Becky Spelman: Website: ⁠https://www.drbecky.co.uk/⁠  YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@PrivateTherapyClinic⁠  Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/drbeckyspelman⁠  Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/drbeckyspelman/⁠  Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/DrBeckySpelman⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spelman College receives $38 million in funding to expand scholarships and upgrade technology infrastructure. The college allocates a significant portion of the funds to increase financial aid and attract students from diverse backgrounds. Remaining funds support the modernization of classrooms and digital resources, enabling hybrid learning and preparing students for workforce demands. The investment aligns with trends in higher education focused on accessibility and innovation.Learn more on this news by visiting us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a fan fav episode. I've got another incredible 2 part episode of Women of Impact, where we're taking a deep dive into a topic that's plagued too many women with confusion and pain - dealing with narcissistic partners. Psychologist and mental health advocate, Dr. Becky Spelman joins me to spin a new twist on narcissistic behaviors that trip women up in the bedroom. We're talking about the complex dynamics of sleeping with a narcissist - an experience that can destroy your confidence, your sanity, and your self-love. Dr. Spelman exposes 13 tell-tale signs that you're sharing your bed with a narcissist. She also discusses why transitioning from toxic relationships to healthy ones can feel surprisingly challenging, even boring. Because I want to flood you with practical information you can actually use to change your life, we're unpacking the goods and exposing new insights and views to help you escape narcissistic abuse and narcissistic romance in the bedroom. *Why making you climax one minute and ignoring you the next is a power play they love *How narcissists gaslight you and totally bullsh*t themselves at the same time *The horrendous experience of being ghosted and devalued and why the “too good to be true” first dates are a major red flag. *How being dominated and submissive in the bedroom can go from fun and kinky to toxic and tragic fast! Original air date: 9-20-2023 Follow Dr. Becky Spelman: Website: ⁠https://www.drbecky.co.uk/⁠  YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@PrivateTherapyClinic⁠  Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/drbeckyspelman⁠  Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/drbeckyspelman/⁠  Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/DrBeckySpelman⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

En judisk-kristen interreligiös gudstjänst från Domkyrkan i Göteborg med författaren Karin Brygger och prästen Maria Bergius. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. Om kvinnorna vi bär med oss, förmödrarna i Bibelns texter. I gudstjänsten berättas om fyra par kvinnor och vad de kan lära oss än idag. Om att även förmödrar kan ha fel, om kärlek vid första ögonkastet, om styrka, om sorg och livskraft.Om Sara och Hagar, Rakel och Lea, Rut och Noomi och Maria och Maria.Berättelserna finns även som PODD med enbart text på appen Sveriges Radio!I sången Kol Berama sjungs texten från Jeremia 31:15-17Så säger Herren:Ett skri hörs i Rama,klagan och bitter gråt.Det är Rakel som gråteröver sina barn,hon vägrar låta sig tröstas,för hennes barn finns inte mer.Men så säger Herren:Stilla din högljudda gråtoch tårarna från dina ögon,för ditt verk ska få sin lön,säger Herren.De ska komma tillbakafrån sina fienders land.Det finns hopp för din framtid,säger Herren.Dina barn ska komma tillbakatill sitt land.TextRut 1:16-17Luk 1:46-55MusikSh´ma Jisrael (trad) Even when He is silent (Kim André Arnesen)Song of Ruth (David N. Childs/Rut 1: 16-17)ur Magnificat (Javier Busto /Luk 1: 46-55)Jephte (Giacomo Carissimi/Domarboken 11:34)Sabbats Prayer från Spelman på taket (Jerry Bock)Kol berama, /Rachel begråter sina barn (Yoshi Green/Jeremias bok)MedverkandeMaria Bergius, präst och liturg Karin Brygger, författareDomkyrkans ElfridakörSalomon Helperin, sångsolistUlrika Melin Lasson, pianistMikael Fridén, körledare och pianistShirat Mirjam, judiska församlingens körErika Melo, pianistErika Nordström, körledareProducent Neta NorrmoTekniker Thobias Sandinför Sveriges Radioliv@sverigesradio.se

Rediscovering yourself after divorce—especially during midlife and menopause—can feel overwhelming. When decades of partnership end, you're left asking: Who am I now? What do I really want? And if you're thinking about dating again, how do you navigate desire, boundaries, and intimacy in this completely new chapter?Dr. Jasmonae Joyriel, licensed clinical psychologist and founder of Ignite Anew, helps high-performing individuals and couples transform their relationships, friendships, and sex lives. A Spelman alumna with advanced degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Denver, she brings nearly a decade of experience across mental health centers, VA hospitals, and private practice. Specializing in how past experiences shape present needs, Dr. Joyriel offers a holistic, evidence-based, and embodied approach that goes beyond mindset to create mind-health. She delivers personalized therapy, couples work, and immersive retreats that empower clients to navigate sex, dating, friendships, and personal growth with depth and lasting fulfillment.Highlights from our discussion include:Before entering the dating world, reconnect with who you are now—not who you were in your twenties or thirties. Explore what brings you to life, revisit shelved dreams, and give yourself permission to want what you truly desire. If you don't know how to date yourself, you can't authentically date someone else.You're ready when you're dating because it adds to your life (not anchors it), when you've identified your contribution to past relationship dynamics, and when you can articulate how you want to date—casually, for commitment, or somewhere in between. Dating should feel like "sprinkles on top," not the whole pie.Your values have likely evolved since your last relationship. Clarify what matters now: What does generosity look like in a partner? What inspires you versus deprives you? Defining these before dating ensures your compass points north every time.Menopause, body changes, and shifting desire call for a more expansive "erotic pantry." Move beyond penetrative sex to include sensual massage, kissing, touch, and varied forms of pleasure. Consent isn't binary—it's created fresh each time by asking, "What do I want to do today?"Have adult conversations about sexual health, testing, and relationship structures within the first few dates. Discuss these topics in non-sexual settings (over coffee, during a walk) so decisions aren't made in heated moments. Your safety and agency matter, and the right partner will respect that.CONNECT WITH DR JASMONAE JOYRIEL:WebsiteInstagramLinkedInCONNECT WITH GABRIELLA ESPINOSA:InstagramLinkedInWork with Gabriella! The information shared on Pleasure in the Pause is for educational and informational purposes onGo to https://www.gabriellaespinosa.com/ to book a call.Full episodes on YouTube. The information shared on Pleasure in the Pause is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making any decisions about your health or treatment. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or Pleasure in the Pause.

The landscape of education is evolving in the midst of policy changes across the country. In this week's episode, we are joined by Dr. Fatima Brunson, Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Education at Spelman College. Dr. Brunson shares how federal shifts are reshaping learning environments, disproportionately impacting students and educators. Despite this politically charged climate contributing to student and faculty stress, Dr. Brunson highlights the resilience of future educators committed to authentic transformation, justice, and culturally relevant pedagogy. Find out how she empowers students in her class to navigate funding losses, dispel policy myths, and craft student-led policy briefs of alternative solutions with potential for school adoption. Dr. Brunson completed her Doctorate of Philosophy in Policy Studies and Urban Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). As a scholar committed to advancing educational equity, her research examines how schools can strengthen teachers' cultural knowledge and foster responsive teaching practices—critical components of culturally sustaining pedagogy. Her work focuses on urban schools where demographic divides between students and educators often exist, highlighting the conditions that support effective, equity-driven teaching. In partnership with school districts and informal learning spaces like science centers and children's museums, Dr. Brunson explores how educators can work collectively to create humanizing, culturally affirming learning experiences. Through consulting and professional development, she supports organizations in building inclusive environments and enhancing student engagement. At the heart of her work is a deep commitment to ensuring that all children—especially students of color—receive the affirming, high-quality education they deserve. To learn more about Dr. Brunson. Work, visit her at Spelman.edu or connect with her on LinkedIn

In this Not All Hood: conversation, host Candace Kelley sit down with Dr. Daniel Black and Guest Co-Host Kimberly Latrice Jones to examine whether Atlanta is still the “Black Mecca.” They unpack how Wall Street buy-ups, pricing, and displacement are changing the city; why HBCUs (Clark Atlanta, Spelman, Morehouse, etc.) continually fuel Black excellence; and how respectability politics and colorism shape leadership and aspiration. Jones previews her documentary Bye Bye Black Mecca and the larger Southern ecosystem of Black wealth and culture. The episode crescendos with a moving tribute to Malcolm-Jamal Warner with personal memories and an on-air African libation led by Dr. Black ,centering legacy, love, and communal responsibility. Viewers get candid insight on homeownership vs. community building, multigenerational living, land, and redefining success on our own terms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not All Hood (NAH) podcast takes a look at the lived experiences and identities of Black people in America. Infused with pop culture, music, and headlining news, the show addresses the evolution, exhilaration, and triumphs of being rooted in a myriad of versions of Black America.   Hosted by Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and Candace O.Kelley   Executive Producer: Layne Fontes Producer & Creative Director: Troy W. Harris, Jr. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. As a continuation of “Closer Look’s” series for National Suicide Awareness Month, host Rose Scott talks with Frances Cloud, a licensed clinical social worker and the director of counseling services at Spelman College. Cloud discusses Spelman’s mental health resources and efforts to spread awareness about suicide prevention. Plus, it's becoming a crowded field as more candidates are entering Georgia's 2026 gubernatorial race. Some of the Democrats and Republicans vying for Georgia’s top seat were on the frontlines of the 2020 presidential election. For a roundtable about the latest political news, Rose talks with Devin Barrington-Ward, the managing director of the Black Futurists Group, GSU politics and policy professor Tammy Greer and Atlanta-based political strategist and analyst Fred Hicks. They discuss campaign strategies, funding, free speech, and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The RSMS crew digs into a string of terroristic threats that forced lockdowns and class cancellations at multiple historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the U.S. Institutions such as Alabama State, Hampton, Virginia State, Southern, Bethune-Cookman, Spelman, Clark Atlanta, and Morehouse were affected. Although no credible threat has been confirmed, the timing—shortly after Charlie Kirk’s shooting—has many students and administrators on edge, with heightened security in place. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today’s episode of The Rickey Smiley Morning Show Podcast, the crew tackled breaking news, Hollywood rumors, real-talk about intimacy, and major updates in the Charlie Kirk shooting case. The RSMS crew digs into a string of terroristic threats that forced lockdowns and class cancellations at multiple historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the U.S. Institutions such as Alabama State, Hampton, Virginia State, Southern, Bethune-Cookman, Spelman, Clark Atlanta, and Morehouse were affected. Although no credible threat has been confirmed, the timing—shortly after Charlie Kirk’s shooting—has many students and administrators on edge, with heightened security in place. Rickey and the crew sat down with a sex and intimacy therapist, who broke down how open communication, honesty, and vulnerability can deepen relationships and help couples keep the spark alive. And during the last hour, the crew revealed that a suspect in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is now in custody. The suspect has been identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson of Utah, arrested after a tip from someone close to him, according to Utah law enforcement. Authorities say Robinson acted alone, and there are indications in messages and bullet engravings that the shooting was politically motivated. Website: https://www.urban1podcasts.com/rickey-smiley-morning-show See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

✦ In the immortal words of The Notorious B.I.G., get ready to sit and conversate for a few, with Atlanta's own Killer Mike. Legally known as Michael Render, the rapper, entrepreneur, and activist has launched a new podcast called "Conversate with Killer Mike." The show is recorded from his Atlanta studio, where he and his friends dive into topics both local and global. City Lights Collective producer Josh Thane recently sat down with the Atlanta icon to discuss the new project. ✦ Going to Brunch in Atlanta can seem like a sport. Even if you know some tricks to navigate the notoriously long lines, the cost can sometimes price people out of the game. In our mini-series, "Brunchin' on a Budget," we look at a few special Atlanta Brunch spots that can help you keep your wallet intact. This week, WABE arts reporter Summer Evans takes us to Ria's Bluebird. ✦ Today, we take a moment to hear from our artistic community In Their Own Words. This is where they tell us who they are, what they do, what they love, and a few things you might not see coming. What things? Who knows, there's only one way to find out. Today's spotlight shines on the band Champagne Lane, and we learn about their new album, "The World in Your Eyes." ✦ The art of Dance is leaping into the future at Spelman College. The new short documentary, "Beyond the Movement," explores new technologies and their applications in Dance through the testimony of students and faculty, as well as through their movement. The film, produced by WABE and made possible through a grant from HBCU Week Now, screens along with a live panel discussion on September 8th at Spelman's new Mary Schmidt Campbell Center for Innovation and the Arts. City Lights Collective Co-host Kim Drobes recently spoke with filmmaker Booker T. Mattison and Spelman's department chair of Dance and Choreography, Professor T. Lang, to learn more. ✦ What makes up a Good Night? I'm sure there are as many answers as there are people. But on the first Friday of every month, at Buteco in Grant Park, comedian David Purdue and Spoken Word Artist Adan Bean have a Free show that has a little bit of everything. You want to laugh, dance, hear an amazing vocalist, have some great food, have a strong drink, maybe all of that, or maybe just some of it. It's all available; at night, you can self-curate, appropriately titled: Good Night. City Lights Collective Co-host Jon Goode sat down with Adan Bean and David Purdue to discuss the night.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today’s “Closer Look with Rose Scott,” we discuss the latest quarterly economic report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta with analysis from President and Chief Executive Officer Raphael Bostic. The report on the southeastern United States shows a slight economic decline, with tariffs rising from 2% to 18% since late 2024. Despite current complexities, Bostic also shares his optimism. Also, we speak with Alexis Aggrey, the director of the new documentary, “Becoming Thurgood: America's Social Architect.” The film follows Marshall’s historic rise from visionary lawyer to civil rights leader and to America’s first Black Supreme Court Justice. A free screening of the documentary will be held on Monday, September 8th at Spelman's Mary Schmidt Campbell Center for Innovation & the Arts. Visit www.wabe.org/events/hbcu-week-now-free-film-screening to RSVP and receive more information. Additionally, the film is scheduled to air on WABE Studios on Thursday, September 18th, at 9:30 PM.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to former college president Beverly Daniel Tatum, Trump's war on university admissions is deeply hypocritical. On the one hand, she argues, his attack on affirmative action admissions policy is made in the populist language of “anti-woke” egalitarianism; but on the other, wealthy families are already gaming college admissions through clever manipulation of the system. A Harvard study revealed that athletes, legacies, donors' children, and faculty offspring—categories overwhelmingly benefiting affluent white families—receive admission advantages far exceeding any diversity program. Yet while demanding universities abandon "racial proxies," Trump's administration simultaneously insists on counting student demographics, exposing the contradiction in claims of colorblind meritocracy.Tatum's new book, Peril and Promise: College Leadership in Turbulent Times, draws from her extensive experience as President of both Mount Holyoke College and Spelman College. Tatum discussed her controversial decision to eliminate NCAA sports at Spelman, redirecting resources toward wellness programs for all students rather than competitive athletics for a few. She also addressed the broader challenges facing higher education, from AI's potential to transform teaching and reduce costs to the ongoing mental health crisis on campuses, presenting herself as both a trustworthy insider and experienced observer of college education in our unusually turbulent times. Even opponents of affirmative action might learn something from the wise Dr Tatum.* The Real Admissions Advantage Goes to Wealth, Not Race - A Harvard study shows that "ALDCs" (Athletes, Legacies, Donors' children, faculty Children) receive far greater admissions boosts than any affirmative action program ever provided, with these categories disproportionately benefiting affluent white families.* Trump's "Colorblind" Approach Is Contradictory - While demanding universities stop using "racial proxies" and claiming to want merit-based admissions, the administration simultaneously insists on counting and tracking student demographics by race.* 2025 Is Uniquely Turbulent for Higher Education - Tatum, who lived through the Vietnam era and other crisis periods, believes the current government intervention in university operations represents the most intense challenge to academic freedom she's experienced in decades.* College Sports Often Drain Resources from Student Wellness - Tatum eliminated NCAA sports at Spelman College, redirecting funds toward fitness and wellness programs that benefit all students rather than the small percentage who compete, especially given data showing young Black women's sedentary lifestyles.* AI Will Transform College Costs and Teaching - While startup costs for AI implementation are significant, early experiments show promise for reducing expenses and improving learning outcomes, such as AI tutors available 24/7 that outperformed traditional teaching methods in physics classes.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Imagine Atlanta in 2075. From politics to technology, to climate change, what will the city that’s been dubbed “too busy to hate” look like? That was the topic of discussion for “Closer Look’s” August installment of Coffee Conversations held at #Dragon Con 2025. Host Rose Scott spoke with a diverse group of creatives from various genres about how art can explore future possibilities and solutions, as well as reflect present issues. They also gave their critique of AI’s influence on art. Lastly, guests and audience members brainstormed ideas for what a futuristic series set fifty years from now in Atlanta could look like. Guests included: Dragon Con spokesperson Jo Garland Katie Cook, a spokesperson from the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), Dragon Con’s 2025 charity partner M. Davis, an Atlanta-based writer and director Delilah S. Dawson, a New York Times-bestselling author Dr. Chateé Omísadé Richardson, a professor at Spelman, a growth facilitator and an educational psychologist specializing in alternative history and diversity in speculative fiction Dan Whisenhunt, the founder and editor of Decaturish Carlton Hargro, a writer and founder of 20th Place MediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BOSSes, get ready for an electrifying conversation with a true entertainment icon. In this episode of the VO Boss Podcast, Anne Ganguzza is joined by the legendary Rolonda Watts, an Emmy-winning, talk show host, actress, and award-winning voice actor. Rolonda's career is a masterclass in professional reinvention. From her groundbreaking syndicated talk show, The Rolonda Show, to her powerful voice acting work on Professor Wiseman in Curious George and her on-screen roles in Mind Your Business and Survival of the Thickest, she embodies the art of pivoting with purpose. The hosts discuss how her journey from journalism to entertainment shaped her, why listening is the most important tool for any communicator, and the life philosophies that have guided her to become a true BOSS.   00:01 - Anne (Host) Hey, bosses, Anne Ganguzza, you know your journey in voiceover is not just about landing gigs. It's about growing both personally and professionally. At Anne Ganguzza Voice Productions, I focus on coaching and demo production that nurtures your voice and your confidence. Let's grow together. Visit Anneganguzza.com to find out more. 00:48 Visit anganguza, hey. Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss Podcast. I'mGanguzzayour host, Anne Ganguza, and I have something amazing for you 00:53 , bosses, today.  00:55 Today's guest is a one-woman entertainmentRolondaempire. She's done it all award-winning journalistRolonda daytime talk show host, actor, stand-up comic, best-selling author and one of the most recognizable voices in voiceover. You may have heard her as Professor Wiseman on Curious GeorgeRolonda in the Proud FamilyRolonda kung Fu Panda and now Invincible Fight Girl. She's also the annoucer and promo voice of the Sherry Show, where Sherry Shepard calls her a daytime talk show legend, which I happen to agree. Rolanda Watts is currently lighting up the screen on Bounce TV's hit comedy Mind your Business which I always get to see all the shorts on the Facebook feed, by the way where she plays Lucille, the sharp, sassy family matriarch that keeps it real with tough love and somehow I feel like that just echoes your character to a T. And she I feel like that just echoes your character to a T, and she's also appearing in the upcoming season of Netflix's Survival ofRolondathe Thickest, and was recently inducted into the prestigious Silver Circle by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the 2024 Emmys, recognizing her lifetime of groundbreaking work in television.  02:04 Bosses, please welcome the incomparable Rolanda Watts, thank you. Thank you, rolanda. I have to tell you, you know I'm a big fan. I mean, I've said this to you before, but, bosses, I am the biggest fan of Rolanda. I actually know Rolanda from watching her on daytime talk TV, and that was a while ago. I want to say that daytime talk shows had just kind of come into like being, and you're one of the first that I watched and I just I just you, your personality, just everything about you was just amazing. It's just magnetic, and so I am so excited to be able to interview you, a talk show host. So I was like, oh man, how am I going to prepare to talk to you? But you are just so gracious and wonderful, and so that kind of gave me a little bit of of hope that I wouldn't completely flub it up today, rolanda.  03:05 - Rolonda (Guest) I don't think you would do that, Anne.  03:08 - Anne (Host) My goodness. So for the bosses, who you know don't really know your story and how you started off, I mean, my gosh, you're a media empire, so I don't even like we could have like five days worth of interviews with you, but it all started as broadcast journalism correct interviews with you, but it all started as broadcast journalism correct?  03:28 - Rolonda (Guest) Yes, Tell us about that. Well, I grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and I, you know, I went to well, it's a long story about how I became an actor, but it all started with being 12 years old and going to Broadway with my family and seeing Guys and Doll and I was just like, oh my God, I love the stage and that's what I Anne do. So I went to Spelman and majored in theater arts and then there weren't a lot of roles when I got out of college. There just wasn't a track for folks who looked like me in the acting world, and so I fell in love with journalism, went to Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and I was a news reporter and investigative anchor woman and producer for many years for New York WABC, WNBC Inside.  04:16 - Anne (Host) Edition, and that's impressive. And all of a sudden. Well, yeah, I was an investigative journalist. I mean you just said it like it came so easy. But I Anne imagine at the time. I mean you must have had to really work to get yourself in that space.  04:33 - Rolonda (Guest) Well, it was a crazy time because it was the 1980s. There weren't a lot of women in investigative news reporting, not in New York City, and so it was a groundbreaking time for women and and there was so much in the news, especially in New York, it was the big gang wars, the mob wars. You know, gotti hadn't even come into into play yet, so it was murder and mayhem. I was covering, wow and yeah, an inside edition. I was more murder and mayhem.  05:04 - Anne (Host) I remember that.  05:06 - Rolonda (Guest) Yeah. And then a man by the name of Roger King, who in heaven remains the number one selling as human being in television, asked me if I would like to do my very own syndicated talk show. So for four years I did the Rolanda show and then, when that was over let's loop back to the 12 year old who wore the subway token around her neck as a good luck charm. I said I'm not going to be on a porch when I'm 80 years old, going I could have, would have, should have. I am going to take my chances and go for my lifelong dream and make that 12 year old inside of me happy.  05:41 And I took off and went to Hollywood and that's where I became an actor and a writer and a producer and had my own production company and stumbled into voice acting and all of these things were part of what so many people call me the reinventionist. But I have had to reinvent my life for so many reasons and so many times. But I believe that isRolondamany different things that I've done and it's all around one thing and that's what we do as voice actors Good storytelling.  06:13 - Anne (Host) Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. And it's so interesting because before I had really come into like knowing you again, after you know, watching your talk show, and then knowing you as in voiceover yeah, the Anne and promo voice of the Sherry show, how interesting. Like you started to talk show, you're like a legend and talk show in my, in my brain. I'm like Rolanda, that's so awesome, like you. And now you kind of came full circle back to it a little bit Right, being the Anne and the promo voice.  06:46 And I was watching a clip of you the other day and Sherry was saying something. She was going on. She was gushing about you, which I get that. She was gushing about you and it was so interesting. She was giving you this credit about talking about your talk show and how wonderful you were and you turned it right. The conversation went right back to her about how wonderful she was and I was just blown away by how gracious that was and I just thought, well, no wonder. Well, no wonder you made such a great talk show host, such a great communicator, such a great actor and stand-up comedian and everything, because you just have this wonderful way of connecting with people.  07:29 - Rolonda (Guest) Well, you're awfully sweet, Anne. I'm going to receive all of that, but I thank you for that. You know it's, it's it. I, you know I was. I get blown away too, because Sherry does not hold back about what. What do the folks say? Giving me my flowers? And it's nice to receive them when you can smell them. You know, you know, know, it's really interesting because we did pave the way for sherry and and kelly and and drew and tamron all of them and I also know the hard work that those ladies are doing.  08:04 This job called talk is not easy. The politics that go on, the struggles day to day, the whole idea that the show is bigger than you as a human. It's very trying and you're out there by yourself. So I of course give her her flowers back because you can hand over the baton, but if the person can't run with it it really doesn't count. So to be able to see that continuum is a beautiful, beautiful thing.  08:29 And you know what's really funny is that Sherry's executive producer, who you see on the show all the time, John Murray. John was a college student when he first came to see my show and that's when he got the TV bug. He was bitten by the TV bug and so I would invite him back. In fact, one time I put him on the show so he could come and see how the producers worked and the behind the scenes working Skip to him becoming the executive producer of the Sherry show, and he said there's no other voice that we would have introduced, Sherry, and pass on the legacy than you. So it's really good. I mean, you got to be nice to kids, because they're coming up and they'll be your boss.  09:10 - Anne (Host) Right. Isn't that the truth?  09:12 - Rolonda (Guest) It is, it's like full circle.  09:13 - Anne (Host) You've, really you've done so much and you are.  09:15 I feel as though you've got. I feel like, look, I know how busy I am and I do a lot of stuff, but I feel like you, you're, you're doing it all. I mean you're, you're in that sitcom and I see, I'm thankful. I see the clips that you're posting on Facebook and it's so funny how the Rolanda that I know right, that I had a conversation with at VO Atlanta, I mean I feel like it is just so true to your character. Tell us a little bit about that role. I feel like you're just having the best time doing it.  09:44 - Rolonda (Guest) Oh my God, Lucille Williams, or Lucille is just one of the most wonderful characters. I mean, she's just great. And this coming weekend she's going to break off into her cougarlicious life, I know, oh wow.  10:05 She and her besties. They call themselves the silver sneakers. The nieces have convinced them that they need to give up the old guys, who just need a nurse and a purse, and go and get some of the young guys to go get some cool you know, be cougars and so we see how that works. But it's very, you know, it's fun to play her. She's sassy, she's the matriarch of the family, but at the same time we're writing storylines that give her a full bodied woman-ness. At this certain age, absolutely, absolutely.  10:42 - Anne (Host) I love that.  10:43 - Rolonda (Guest) But Mind your Business is a wonderful sitcom. It's one of those wonderful family sitcoms. It's produced by Bentley Evans, who did Jamie Foxx and Martin, so you're going to get that kind of zany funniness, but it's. But my character is lost her business almost during covid and calls on her family to come in and help save the business. And so she moves in with the family to save some money and all hell breaks loose. They need more of a referee than they do business partners. Now.  11:14 - Anne (Host) I love it. Now, if I'm correct, you're on season two, is that correct?  11:20 - Rolonda (Guest) We're on season two. That's right.  11:22 - Anne (Host) That's right Will there be more seasons. We certainly hope so. I hope so too.  11:25 - Rolonda (Guest) Listen, we're depending on you to watch and binge and love it. We're on Bounce TV or the Brown Sugar app and you Love it.  11:32 - Anne (Host) We're on Bounce TV or the Brown Sugar app and you can go look up where you can watch it. Yeah, I love that. Well, ok, so All right, we have to. Now we have to come to the voiceover aspect of things. So you actually have been doing voiceover since you came to LA, right?  11:46 - Rolonda (Guest) And well, you know what's so crazy, Anne, is that I was doing voiceover work, promos and Anne and voiceovers, and I didn't even know I was a voice actor, because I was doing all of that stuff for my show. I mean, had I known I was a voice actor at that time, I would have had a very different contract, trust me. But but it let meRolonda you know. But, just being a news reporter for so many years in New York City and on Inside Edition across the nation, people just knew my voice. And when, when I moved to LA and gave up the whole news and talk business to come out here and be an actor and a producer, nine months into the game the writers went on strike and instead of hosting an internationally syndicated talk show, I was on the picket line serving pizza to the striking writers.  12:39 And I was like what am I going to do? And I had to eat, I had to pay my rent, I mean what, what? And it was like I'm not going back to news, so what am I going to do? And I remembered that I used to call 411 back when you used to get information and the operator even knew my voice. They would go is this Rolanda. And so I said well this, I know I've got a voice, I'll go do voice acting. And I could not catch a cold because I didn't understand what the business was about. I had a voice and I had a microphone, but I had no idea what voice acting was about. I had a voice and I had a microphone, but I had no idea what voice acting was about.  13:14 So I went over to Calumson and Calumson over there in Burbank and I took a class and that thing saved my life because those that was the one of the that was the well, it was one of the longest strikes in Hollywood nine months and by that time I had created a whole new career and the voice actors weren't on strike. So I said this is a great backup for my physical acting and there are times and when my voice works more than my physical acting and now that I'm becoming a woman of a certain age those roles aren't coming in as quickly. But, honey, I can play a hot 30 year old.  13:53 - Anne (Host) Well, my voice. I love that you're using the woman of a certain age because, as a woman of a certain age, as well, what are you?  14:02 - Rolonda (Guest) going to do.  14:04 - Anne (Host) Exactly. I mean, I say use it Right, I mean absolutely. And so let's talk just for a brief moment about what. So acting and voice acting, same, different, what? What would you say are the key differences? Because you said, oh, I had to go to Kalmanson and Kalmanson, right.  14:22 - Rolonda (Guest) So there are some things, yeah, oh, absolutely.  14:25 - Anne (Host) Bosses need to know that are different and I absolutely always tell people yes, you should, you should, you know, take acting classes. But also there are some, some differences.  14:35 - Rolonda (Guest) Yeah, I find that there there's. It's just a different set of muscles, I think that's what you would say. One is just strictly your imagination and I think, well, for me, one helps the other. Well, for instance, the character I play we talked about Lucille, lucille talks like this she's got a little quiver in her voice and she just real high pitch, like that. So some of those tricks that we learn in terms of texture and pitch and pacing and all of that that we do as we imagine our characters, I do the same thing when I see the character on the page and I say how does that voice, what? What is it about her voice that's going to make her stand out. And they know that's Lucille, that's part of her, because she doesn't have cause. That character doesn't have this voice, not my voice. So I think that that that helps me find my characters In fact.  15:29 In fact I did a play and I had I did three plays at one time. Craziest thing in the world never been done Did three plays at one time, playing 10 different characters, from a nine-year-old girl to a 76-year-old grandmother, and all of those are different voices. You know, one was a journalist, one was a, you know, grandmother one, a, a little girl who grew up in mississippi. I mean, those are just such different voices and I also have bring my physical things, like when I'm thinking of a character in my voice, acting. I think what would they wear?  16:04 Shakespeare said, the clothes make the man and the woman too. Are they wearing a cape that they sold over there, you know? Are they carrying a sword? Does she have really tight bobs in her hair? I mean, does she have a mustache? So there are all kinds of things that I think. If I'm in my prop room or my wardrobe room and it's just my imagination, what can I do to help bring those things to light? Just the way, when they put the wig on and the clothes and the heels on for stage or screen, you could become that character. You do the same in your imagination, yeah.  16:37 - Anne (Host) I love that, I love that parallel.  16:40 That makes so much sense, actually, and it's interesting. So, for voice actors, who have not necessarily acted, what sort of tips would you have to for them to be better actors? Let's say, because it's funny, I do a lot of the stuff that people don't think you need to act for in terms of voiceover, like corporate narration or e-learning, and they think that you don't need to act. But in reality you're always a character, and so when I'll say to my students, envision that scene, it's just to them they're like what, why? Why do I need to do that? Why don't I just read the words? You know why?  17:20 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) I hear it. Yeah, exactly, you know why?  17:22 - Rolonda (Guest) Because we're not looking for readers, we're looking for actors, and I think that's one of the biggest mistakes that folks make who don't become a VO boss is because they don't understand what this industry is about. It's really not even about your voice. It's not about I mean, everybody has a beautiful, unique voice, because there are no two voices alike but it's the acting that's going to make you so different. It's those subliminal things under those lines. Sometimes you have a whole commercial that tells a whole life story in four lines and they, they fought over those lines. Attorneys, 50 people made all those lines. So they mean something. What is the story we're telling here? Right, and who am I in this story and who am I talking to? You know all of those questions. Where am I? Why am I even this story and who am I talking to? You know all of those questions. Where am I? Why am I even talking about this toilet paper? You know, and I'm a bear.  18:21 Why am I. Even I'm a mama bear. I mean why? You know why am I, and I'm not going to act like a bear, but I'm going to act like a mom who's concerned about her kids not wiping themselves. And that's just real stuff. So how do you tap into the authenticity? How do you make it human? Because what our job is is to connect with another human being. That's something that folks down there on Madison Avenue, the big advertisers, can't do in their suits, so they depend on us as actors, to be human, to be just plain old ourselves and human. No bravado, as we're hearing so much in our copy and in our instruction and directions as actors. Authenticity, throw it away, just give it to me. No salesy, no Anne, and I got to tell you that's the hardest thing in the world to do. Even for us seasoned actors, it's sometimes hard to shake off the the, the formality and just get real with it. You know and feel comfortable and confident with that.  19:21 - Anne (Host) Can I ask you to repeat that, can you that you said, you said what you said. It was hard, it's hard, it is hard, right. It is so hard Like I love it because you create that scene Right. It is so hard, like I love it because you create that scene Right In which those words make sense, right.  19:36 And tell a story and sometimes those words are really we don't know. We don't know that, Like I, have some people that are almost indignant that they don't have a storyboard or they don't. They don't understand the words. So therefore, if they don't, they're just kind of well, let's just say them then.  19:58 - Rolonda (Guest) Right In a melody that I think they want to hear. Rolonda, that's great, then they'll have a melody that they just heard, but they won't have the commercial.  20:03 - Anne (Host) I love it, so yes, so you said it's hard, rolanda says it's hard, it is.  20:09 - Rolonda (Guest) I go on record as saying the hardest thing I've ever had to do whether it was talk, tv or vocal or physical acting is being myself. Now in life, I have no problem beingRolondaauthentically Rolanda. What you see is Rolonda you get. But it's something that happens when we pick up that script and that microphone is in front of us and, all of a sudden, things start changing and happening. We're just not ourselves. I don't sound like myself. I don't like toRolondahear my voice. It takes, it's really acting. When you hear people who sound like how did they get that job? They don't even sound like a voice actor. It's because they are turning themselves Rolonda a virtual pretzel justRolondato sound like that, to sound so normal.  20:58 I remember when I first started doing my talk show um, the, the demand of being a, an actor I mean not an actor, but a talk show host with a talk show called rolanda was that you had to be Rolanda. You couldn't be the news reporter anymore. That was crucial to the success, and so it was very hard to even do it then, and I can remember my bosses and my partners calling going get that news reporter out of there, bring back Rolanda. And I said but I've got this crazy laugh and a raspy voice and I, you know, I'm a Southern accent and that's everything that makes my brand. I mean, it's crazy, but that's Rolanda. When you say Rolanda, that's what you hear. So whatever that is about you, whatever that quirky, crazy thing that you think is your fault, that's going to be your greatest asset. You know, when I was a little kid, they called me froggy and I always played all the guys in all my all girls school plays and I thought that was a real fault of mine. And now I can play women, men, little boys, pirates, anything in this industry of voice acting, and there's no limitation. The only limitation is your imagination. It's not about the equipment, it's not even about your voice. It's about your brilliant imagination and what you bring to that character, not even the microphone, what you bring to that character that nobody else thought about. That made that animator go. Oh, I can't wait to draw this character, um, and to make the casting director's job easy. They want you to win, they want you to get this job, so give it to them, show them your special sauce.  22:43 But I think it takes real practice, practice, practice. Like carnegie hall, they say. You just don't walk up into carnegie hall and start playing the violin. No, you got to learn how the instrument works. You got to learn how to maintain it, take care of it, how to make love to that instrument so it delivers that God given art and craft that you've put into it. You've got to do the work. And a lot of people think, well, I can just go pick this up and read. And the sad thing is, and they don't take classes and they have no idea what they're doing wrong. The worst thing that can happen is you go years and years and years building on the wrong stuff because you never took the time to learn the right stuff. You don't know what you don't know. Yeah, that's so.  23:29 - Anne (Host) I'm.  23:29 - Rolonda (Guest) I'm real big on training and classes so that you get the education and the acting experience and you understand how to break down scripts, you understand the vocabulary of this industry and how to network and and and use your resources that are right there at your fingertips.  23:46 - Anne (Host) Well, I think I think you're probably very much a VO Boss on using those resources and networking throughout your whole career. That's absolutely something that I feel that you've you've done so successfully. What would you say is probably the most important thing tip that you could give to to ensure success in this industry? Because it's a evolving industry and, yes, being the the queen of reinvention, right, you've had to reinvent yourself, and reinvent yourself not only in, you know, voiceover, but in, like all the media and how it's evolved over the years. So what would be your, your best tip to ensure success? Don't quit there. You go.  24:26 - Rolonda (Guest) I like that. The only people who don't succeed in voice acting are people who quit. I like that. You know, even the greatest ones. And you know, when we're at the VO Atlanta conference and we're with the greats I mean we're with Bob, who's Porky the pig, and we're with Joe, who's every network's Anne and when you hear these, these, these major vo stars and pros say, man, I do 50 to 100 auditions and may not nab the job a lot of us went whoa.  24:59 - Anne (Host) thank god, it's just not us, because yeah, I mean I can show you a stack in my head. I'm like oh, thank god, because, yeah, I, I just did a ton, I know, yeah, and look, listen I hear some auditions from this month okay yeah, am, I, am, I am I booking every one of them?  25:16 - Rolonda (Guest) no, but that's but. But you have to change your mindset. Every time I show up that microphone and I'm doing an audition, I'm not going up there. Well, I'm not going to get the job anyway. If you've got a bad attitude like that, it's time for you to jump into a classroom and just realign yourself, because this is a long game. And let me tell you what's going to happen when you get great you nab that job, you go and do that commercial. One hour it's gone and you're right back to auditioning again. So don't put all of your emphasis on just the job, but the but, the practice, the maintenance of it. Uh, going to conferences like the VO Atlanta conference, vo Dallas conference, sosa look up these places. That's a good place to hobnob. This is a very solo business. You're a solopreneur, you're by yourself, you, your microphone, your computer and your imagination. That's it. So get out and join memberships. Like Anne. You can come and take my class, the voice acting masterclass with Rolanda. In fact, I'm going to offer your listeners a very special deal if they're interested.  26:29 But that's another way that we build community and you learn what's the cutting edge. Right now we're dealing with AI. What does that mean? Staying on the cutting edge of things that are going to affect your career and really take it as a business. This is not just a hobby. Understand how your taxes work, understand the legalities and understand the questions to ask when you're signing a contract. Now just don't run out there all willy-nilly and not ask the right questions or your voice will be used forever and you not get paid. You know the video game people just had a strike and got some. Where are we moving forward in the business?  27:10 Be able to talk intelligently about the business. So when you're out there meeting people, they know, oh okay, this is somebody really serious. This isn't just somebody who just got a microphone on amazon and call themselves a voice actor, because there's a lot of that. But I say that um, really, just don't quit and understand that every time you show up in front of that microphone, it's another opportunity to show you a special sauce. And if the casting director doesn't get you into this particular job and that's not their decision, it's the producer's or whoever the client is. If you don't make it then, then at least they've heard you. I get a lot of times where they're. Rolonda same client will keep calling me back and I know I've impressed them in those other auditions I've done, so I know they're looking for something for me, so I just keep showing up, doing the best that I possibly can and finding ways to make it different. Because they've heard the same audition 50 million times, sometimes 500 times.  28:12 So what can you do to make it a little different and still stay within the parameters? So there's Ganguzza kinds of tricks and strategies and all kinds of things that you can do to stand Ganguzza and also how you market yourself like anything else. This is a brand Just because Rolonda have a microphone. Anything else this is a brand. Just because you have a microphone doesn't mean you have a brand. So reallyRolonda you know, that's one of the things I tell my students all the time. Once you get the breaking down the script and understand how the microphone and the vocab let's, let's talk about marketing, social marketing. How do we brand ourselves? How can you be one name like Rolanda and people immediately know what that means, and so that's really knowing your stuff and knowing your own voice too, that's so interesting because for a while, when I first started, I had different names.  29:00 - Anne (Host) I mean I, of course I started VO Peeps, I have VO Boss, and then I have Anne Ganguza brand and I'm like I really just need to wrap it all up into the Anne Ganguza brand. So finally, people say I need an Anne Ganguza, like I need a Rolanda. I need an Anne Ganguza, and so I love that that you have that brand and you build on that brand. But, rolanda, let me ask you a question, because I saw the stack of auditions. Do you I mean still, do you get, still I say still do you get an imposter syndrome?  29:31 - Rolonda (Guest) I think I'm pretty much. I'm pretty much at this time in my life. I know who I am. You know I'm not trying to. I've done enough and achieved enough and have enough confidence in myself. I think you know what I think this is. The other thing about this industry is confidence, because you can hear I can hear through a microphone. If you're not confident and you don't even believe yourself, if you see it, I'm going to see it. If you believe it, I'm going to believe it. And that's half the battle, I mean, and that's also part of the practice of this art and this craft, is learning how to still your nerves. Breathing is so much a part, warming up is so much a part of it and it's a full body job. This is an inside job because your beautiful vocal cords are right here in this body encases it. So you got to work out, you got to stretch. You know I love this. Old morgan freeman used to say that the secret to his great voice was a good, deep yawn.  30:29 Absolutely, you know because it just loosens up everything and these 41 muscles up here need to be worked out. A lot of people just jump right up, start reading, don't even warm up their mouths.  30:40 - Anne (Host) As evidenced by your. I think it was yesterday when I saw you on Facebook and you were like all right, I'm going back to the gym.  30:48 - Rolonda (Guest) I know. I messed up.  30:50 - Anne (Host) That's it. I'm going back.  30:54 - Rolonda (Guest) I'm a hot mess but.  30:56 - Anne (Host) I think that warming up I mean it helps, it absolutely does. Just a physical walk, you know, if you go to the gym, a physical warmup does absolutely help. Now, we did talk, we touched upon the confidence issue. We did talk, we touched upon the confidence issue, and one thing that I'm really excited about is that in let's see, is it in September, on the 17th, we are going to have you doing a guest directorship for the VO bosses on improv to improve your confidence and connection. So we will be talking about how bosses can remain confident or stay confident or get confident in the booth, and I love that.  31:35 You said that we can hear. We can hear that confidence and it's really interesting because even if you're telling a story and it may not be the story that ends up being on the video or the commercial right or the commercial right If we're auditioning and we're telling a story and we're convinced of it and we are confident in it, then the people listening, the casting directors, the people that will cast us, will believe it as well, and I think that's one of the telltale signs that they say, ah, shortlist, or that's what's gonna get you the gig.  32:05 - Rolonda (Guest) I think confidence and that's really believing in yourself and being able to take chances and risks. Because you know, think about it. The casting director is hearing 500 people say the same three lines. What are you going to bring to that story that's going to make a difference? I'll give you an example.  32:23 I did an at t commercial and it was about it. It was a very little short commercial and it was about a young girl who sees her mother, who has gone out for girls night at a salsa club, and she says mom, is this you on social media? And the mother goes oh, yes, honey, we were out with Raul last night and we were just dancing and then I something happened. And I said and I just to world. That was not even a line in the script, but I just had this imagination, cuz I used to go out salsa with my girlfriends in California and, honey, when Eduardo would ask us to dance, we would to world. And that just brought that into that like an aunt Lucille, and that's what got me the gig. And it was, and it was just that little button that we say, you know, because they've heard 500 times that people say the same thing yes, I went salsaing with my girlfriend, but nobody twirled but me, nobody's.  33:26 - Anne (Host) nobody else is twirling except for Rolanda. Nobody else is.  33:29 - Rolonda (Guest) honey, that's how much fun I had, which lets you know what that video must have looked like, that the girl saw.  33:36 Absolutely, absolutely, and listen and the fact that these old ladies were even on social media, lets, you know, those boys were young. They taught him how to tick and tock and twirl, you know. So I'm having a whole imaginative thing about going out with my girlfriends and then my girlfriend, my daughter, catching me. Oh please, child, we had a good time. You know, we don't care about what people think at this age. So bringing all of those things, even my own wisdom at this age, like I don't care, honey, I'm twirling with Eduardo because the guys my age don't twirl, so I'm bringing all of that fun into it, you know.  34:11 Another example was when I did judge Joe Brown. You know I was the Anne for that show and when I was doing the audition we had to, you know, was a promo, so I would have to read the line and then listen to the sound bite and then read the line in between. And listen to the sound bite, read, read the line. And I was so big. Judge Joe was such a crazy, freaking judge show. I would say, coming up today on Judge Joe, I'm going to slit your tire and I'm going to beat Shaniqua Mary can't stand, john and then I'm going to cut your other tire and then I would be.  34:46 And then one time I just went, whoa, the next Judge, joe. Honey, they fell on the floor. I was so busy listening that I was reacting like an at home person and I was like, ooh, on the next Joe. I was so irreverent that they created a little animation called lady justice and it was a little bug and I made up this whole story that lady justice was in love with joe just like the daytime audience was gone. Joe, tell them, joe, that's judge, joe, you know because I know the daytime audience. Yeah, so that's the other question we asked who are you talking to?  35:30 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) absolutely, this wasn't the inside edition audience. This. Don't be afraid to take that risk.  35:53 - Rolonda (Guest) You can do a straight one on the next Judge. Joe and Shanique was going to go, but honey, one time let it rip and show them that you can have fun. Fun is the main key. If it's not fun, don't do it.  36:05 - Anne (Host) Yeah, I agree, I think if you can make, if you can make someone laugh, if you can, if you can, if you can bring a smile to that casting director, that person listening to you, oh my goodness. And speaking of because normally I try to make this, you know, a 30 minute podcast, but I do want to touch upon. I do want to touch upon the fact that you are a stand up comedian as well, and we had quite a conversation at VO Atlanta on that, and so I feel like that's just all embedded in your personality and I think you were always a funny person, like from maybe a young girl. But talk to us about being at stand up comedy is tough.  36:41 - Rolonda (Guest) Oh, it's really tough.  36:42 - Anne (Host) But you know something that's a rough audience.  36:45 - Rolonda (Guest) Know your audience. Who are you talking to? That's true. And you know something Lunell taught me that she said know your audience, be able to switch on a dime, whatever. But I'm going to tell you just, VO bosses, that comedy helps immensely. It helps your timing, you know. So much of comedy comes in threes. So when you're doing animation or even some fun commercials, what's that third line where the funny ABC?  37:10 - Anne (Host) read right Where's that?  37:11 - Rolonda (Guest) Where's that? Third line where the funny? Or they want an ABC. Read Right, where's that? Where's that? Where's the funny? And that also gives you the confidence and the imagination and and I tell you funny, joan Rivers told Sherri Shepherd funny girls always work, funny women, funny girls always work, funny women, funny women always work. So adding a little humor to something I think makes you stand out. But I love the craft of comedy. I'm uh got uh some comedy shows here in New York at the comedy village comedy in Harlem, and then I'm going to go out to flappers in LA this winter December for the holidays and I'm opening for Lunell and that's really exciting so yeah, I'm getting my comedy on Awesome.  37:58 - Anne (Host) Look out for me on Netflix one day. I do not doubt it. Well, rolanda, it has been such a pleasure. I wish I could talk to you for another. Well, another five episodes.  38:07 - Rolonda (Guest) Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute Speaking of Netflix. I got to do this and we're talking about Michelle Boutot's show survival of the thickest.  38:15 - Anne (Host) I'm on that one as well on Netflix. Awesome. Oh, and before and before we actually go, talk to us a little bit about September 17th improv to improve your confidence. A little bit about what we're going to, we're going to be diving into in that class.  38:30 - Rolonda (Guest) Oh, I can't wait to that class because improv is such a great way to gain your confidence, to loosen up and to have a whole bunch of fun. The beautiful thing about improv is there are certain rules that we go by, but it's just fun and it's going to help you tap into your authenticity. One good example we improv every day in life. You talk to your lover very different than you do to your boss, and don't let your best girlfriend call you in the middle of the day, and then, when your mother calls, listen to all the different voices that we have, and that's a lot of improv too. Improv also helps you listen and much of acting is about listening and I think you will surprise yourself, and part of the improv to improve your confidence is finding your own voice and discovering things through this exercise about your own experiences and about your being able to to react on a dime and have fun and laugh about it. Then when you you get those scripts, you can improv in your head.  39:32 I always do a little role play before I start, something Like if I have to play an old grandma, then I talk like an old grandma. Okay, I spin and rush them out. Our teeth don't fit too well. You got a little pain in the rats every once in a while. So you keep building these wonderful things that help you. Listen, you may not get that job, but you know you're going to doggone. Put in the effort because you've done the work. You know you. You will be so surprised, all the places that your voice will take you. And improv too. I mean there are times you're going to meet strangers, a new boss, and going to have to improv too. I mean there are times you're going to meet strangers, a new boss and going to have to improv too.  40:13 So improv is going to be a fun exercise for us. We're going to then take scripts, break down those scripts and do some acting. I'm going to teach you about Uta Hagen's nine questions. We're going to talk a little bit, a bit about Sandy Meisner's techniques, and these are just little things that you can put in your hip pocket that will help you. When you go out into the world and you're in that booth by yourself and you look to the right and the left and there's nobody there but padded walls, what are you going to do? You're not going to freak out, because we're going to learn about warmups and what we do with all this body when we're nervous and behind a microphone, because I can hear nervousness, I can hear it. So let's uh, let's work on that rolanda, did you hear my nerves?  40:57 - Anne (Host) did you hear my nerves when I was interviewing you are so not nervous listen, you need to make it easy.  41:05 - Rolonda (Guest) You've got the ganguza method, that's it there you my own method. I want to be gangouza'd. I love it.  41:12 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) I love it oh my gosh.  41:14 - Anne (Host) Thank you so so much. It has been such a pleasure talking to you today.  41:19 - Rolonda (Guest) You know how much fun we have. We get together and start talking and the sun can come up.  41:23 - Anne (Host) So true, so true.  41:23 - Rolonda (Guest) Thank you, thank you so much.  41:25 - Anne (Host) I so true, thank you. Thank you so much. I'm so excited for you, for our class in September. Bosses, I'm going to give a great big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You, too, can connect and network like bosses, like Rolanda and myself. Find out more at IPDTLcom.  41:42 - Rolonda (Guest) I just wanted to add this that if any of your listeners wanted to check out my voice acting masterclass voice acting masterclass I'm going to offer 50% off if they use the code VO Boss 50.  42:01 - Anne (Host) Oh, I love it. Vo Boss 50.  42:01 - Rolonda (Guest) I'll put that on the show notes, guys. Thank you so much, Just for your listeners. 50% off. Vo Boss listeners go to Rolandacom.  42:08 - Anne (Host) Awesome Thanks. Bye bosses. Thank you, Rolandacom. Awesome Thanks, Bye bosses. Thank you, Rolanda. Bye.  42:13 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, Anne Ganguza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipdtl.   

GDP Script/ Top Stories for August 9th Publish Date: August 9th PRE-ROLL: From the BG AD Group Studio Welcome to the Gwinnett Daily Post Podcast. Today is Saturday, August 9th and Happy Heavenly Birthday to Whitney Houston I’m Peyton Spurlock and here are your top stories presented by Gwinnett KIA Mall of Georgia. 1. Middle school teachers can apply for Jackson EMC's Bright Ideas grants 2. Mass shooting wounds five soldiers at Fort Stewart 3. New exhibits, learning spaces part of $27 million makeover at Fernbank Museum All of this and more is coming up on the Gwinnett Daily Post podcast, and if you are looking for community news, we encourage you to listen daily and subscribe! Break 1: 07.14.22 KIA MOG STORY 1: Middle school teachers can apply for Jackson EMC's Bright Ideas grants Jackson EMC is now taking applications for its Bright Ideas grant program, offering up to $2,000 to help middle school teachers bring their most creative classroom projects to life. Got an idea for hands-on science experiments? A wild literacy adventure? Maybe a tech-art mashup? If you’re a state-certified teacher for grades 6–8 in Jackson EMC’s service area, this is your chance to make it happen. Applications are due by Sept. 8 at jacksonemc.com/brightideas. Since 2015, over $621,000 has funded projects that spark curiosity and creativity. STORY 2: Mass shooting wounds five soldiers at Fort Stewart Chaos unfolded Wednesday morning at Fort Stewart, just southwest of Savannah, when five soldiers were shot in the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team area. The alleged shooter, Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, was apprehended by 11:35 a.m., thanks to nearby soldiers who tackled him before law enforcement arrived. Radford, assigned to the combat team, used a personal handgun—not military-issued. How he got it on base? Still under investigation. The five injured soldiers were treated on-site, then taken to Winn Army Community Hospital. Two were later transferred to Savannah’s Memorial Health, the region’s only Level 1 trauma center. All are stable and expected to recover. Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia’s senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, offered prayers and support for the victims and their families. The base went into lockdown within minutes, though it was lifted an hour later, except for the combat team complex. Investigators are still piecing together a motive. STORY 3: New exhibits, learning spaces part of $27 million makeover at Fernbank Museum Fernbank Museum in Atlanta is gearing up for some big changes—$27 million worth, to be exact. Announced Tuesday, the museum’s ambitious capital campaign promises to “revolutionize” how visitors experience science, nature, and history. What’s coming? A massive new permanent exhibit, Changing Earth, will explore our planet’s dynamic systems. It’ll be Fernbank’s largest exhibit ever. There’s also a new temporary gallery for rotating exhibits, an interactive Orkin Discovery Zone for hands-on science fun, and an expanded Star Gallery with fresh content about the cosmos. Thanks to major donors like the Rollins and Woodruff Foundations, these projects will roll out over the next few years, with Changing Earth set to debut in 2027. We have opportunities for sponsors to get great engagement on these shows. Call 770.874.3200 for more info. We’ll be right back Break 2: Ingles 4 STORY 4: Souto Foods opens expanded facility in Gwinnett Souto Foods just cut the ribbon on its newly expanded facility in Gwinnett, marking a big step forward for the local food distributor. Located at 5030 Sugarloaf Parkway in unincorporated Lawrenceville, the expansion represents a $28 million investment and promises 70 new jobs. “This is about growth, people, and the future,” said Kimberly George, Senior VP at Alex Lee, during the Aug. 1 ceremony. The facility, part of the Sugarloaf Logistics Hub, is transforming the former Cisco campus into a bustling center for food distribution. Founded in 2010, Souto Foods specializes in Latin American and Caribbean products, cementing its role in Gwinnett’s international business scene. STORY 5: Falcons' Jalon Walker Returns After Minor Setback Falcons rookie Jalon Walker is back in action at Flowery Branch, shaking off a hamstring hiccup that sidelined him for a few days. The 21-year-old, a former Georgia standout and the 15th overall pick, is already turning heads again. Known for his versatility at Georgia, Walker’s starting as an edge rusher in Atlanta. “We’re focusing on his strengths first,” said head coach Raheem Morris. “Once he’s comfortable, we’ll expand his role.” Walker and fellow first-rounder James Pearce Jr. are building chemistry, hoping to anchor a defense that’s long overdue for a resurgence. Break 3: STORY 6: Author Jacinta Howard to discuss 'When Forty Blooms' at Snellville library Jacinta Howard, Atlanta-based author and culture journalist, will chat about her latest book, When Forty Blooms, on Wednesday, Aug. 13, at 6:30 p.m. at the Snellville branch of the Gwinnett County Library. She’ll be joined by moderator Brianna A. Peppins. Howard’s no stranger to storytelling—her work’s been everywhere: Eater, Atlanta Magazine, Shondaland, and even LL Cool J’s Rock The Bells. Oh, and that piece she wrote about Magic City’s chicken wings? It snagged her a 2022 ASME nomination. She’s penned multiple series, including The Prototype and Love Always. Peppins, a Spelman grad, is the author of Briarcliff Prep. STORY 7: Gwinnett transportation officials want to bring microtransit to Duluth area On-demand microtransit might soon hit parts of Duluth, Gwinnett Place, and Sugarloaf by late 2026—if the funding comes through. Gwinnett County’s transportation team pitched a $400,000 budget request to a citizens review committee last week, aiming to launch a 15-square-mile “Central Business District” zone. Think of it as a crescent-shaped hub connecting downtown Duluth, Sugarloaf Mills, Gwinnett Place Mall, and more. The service? Simple. Book a ride via app for $3, and get to work, school, the doctor, or even the park. We’ll have closing comments after this Break 4: Ingles Markets 4 Signoff – Thanks again for hanging out with us on today’s Gwinnett Daily Post Podcast. If you enjoy these shows, we encourage you to check out our other offerings, like the Cherokee Tribune Ledger podcast, the Marietta Daily Journal, or the Community Podcast for Rockdale Newton and Morgan Counties. Read more about all our stories and get other great content at www.gwinnettdailypost.com Did you know over 50% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly? Giving you important news about our community and telling great stories are what we do. Make sure you join us for our next episode and be sure to share this podcast on social media with your friends and family. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home Briefing and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Produced by the BG Podcast Network Show Sponsors: • www.ingles-markets.com • www.kiamallofga.com NewsPodcast #CurrentEvents #TopHeadlines #BreakingNews #PodcastDiscussion #PodcastNews #InDepthAnalysis #NewsAnalysis #PodcastTrending #WorldNews #LocalNews #GlobalNews #PodcastInsights #NewsBrief #PodcastUpdate #NewsRoundup #WeeklyNews #DailyNews #PodcastInterviews #HotTopics #PodcastOpinions #InvestigativeJournalism #BehindTheHeadlines #PodcastMedia #NewsStories #PodcastReports #JournalismMatters #PodcastPerspectives #NewsCommentary #PodcastListeners #NewsPodcastCommunity #NewsSource #PodcastCuration #WorldAffairs #PodcastUpdates #AudioNews #PodcastJournalism #EmergingStories #NewsFlash #PodcastConversations See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Kevin Spelman joins us today to discuss the scientific basis for natural healing, providing insights gleaned throughout his multiple decade long career at the forefront of the botanical research and development sector. We discuss psilocybin mushrooms, functional mushrooms, cannabis, brain chemistry, extraction methods, and more. This episode is brought to you by Real Mushrooms.Please rate and review this episode wherever you're listening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textCome along with me as I introduce you to a fellow United Bowhunter of Illinois Ryan Spelman. We covered his latest bear hunt from this spring, UBI, his hunting plans for the fall. Ryan also told me he was the winner of the Compton dream hunt raffle !!! Enjoy !                                                                                                                          www.sauktrailarchery.com                                                                                                    www.circleearchery.com                                                                                                        www.abowyer.com                                                                                                                  www.truenortharrows.com                                                                                                    www.selkirknorthtradingco.com                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                If you would like some custom wood arrows you can reach out to me at stickbowcountrypodcast@gmail.com or Instagram  Special thanks - Sauk Trail Archery , True North Arrows and Abowyer broadheads

Fear is the killer.

Atlanta Opera’s artistic director, Tomer Zvulun, sits down with “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to discuss the rare gem of Baroque opera, George Frideric Handel’s “Semele,” which will be on stage June 7, 10, 13, and 15. Plus, we spotlight the Atlanta band Shock Tea in our series “Speaking of Music.” And we revisit another “Farewell Favorite” conversation between Lois and former Spelman president, Mary Schmidth Campbell. They discuss her 2018 book “An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In This Episode What does authentic public relations actually look like in practice? In this conversation, Adi Klevit speaks with Senja Spelman about how to build powerful marketing systems rooted in purpose, not just promotion. Senja shares her journey from working in dental and disaster restoration to becoming a sought-after PR leader in home improvement. She highlights how storytelling, local partnerships, and authenticity have helped scale brands while staying true to their values. One standout initiative—Baths for the Brave—showcases how thoughtful PR can drive national recognition and meaningful change. Together, Adi and Senja explore the systems behind consistent community engagement, how to identify causes aligned with company values, and why retention and recruitment often benefit just as much as brand reputation. If you're looking to build a marketing strategy that resonates and drives results, this episode is packed with actionable insights.  

Send us a textShe made history as the youngest Black woman to open a dispensary—and now she's on a mission to open doors for others.

Monday marks what would have been Malcolm X’s 100th birthday. Akinyele Umoja, a professor in the department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University, talks more about the Muslim minister and civil and human rights leader’s life and legacy, from his early years when he was known as “Detroit Red” to his period within the Nation of Islam. Professor Umoja also discusses his own involvement in the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. INSERT: We continue with WABE’s “Server South” series. Residents in Fayetteville brace for rapid data center development, basically in their backyards, we air WABE Southside reporter DorMiya Vance’s latest report. Plus, for “Closer Look’s” Class of 2025 graduation series, we hear from Winter Jones. The standout graduate is part of Spelman College’s largest-ever graduating class, consisting of 694 students. While earning her degree, Jones became an astronaut scholar and worked with NASA on reducing emissions from supersonic jets. Now, Jones talks with Rose about her academic journey and her dreams of becoming an aerospace engineer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Michelle Hite on Mothering While Black, Everyday Courage, and the Power of Telling the Truth What happens when the world sees your child as a threat before it sees them as human? What does it cost to raise a child while defending your right to grieve, to question, to be seen? This conversation centers the weight—and the wisdom—of mothering while Black. In this featured National Black Girl Month™ 2025 episode, we're joined by Dr. Michelle Hite, Spelman College professor, public scholar, and cultural critic whose work traces the intersections of Black identity, grief, and resistance. Together with co-host Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown, we examine what it means to mother, nurture, and protect in a world that wasn't built for our safety. This episode isn't about resilience. It's about truth-telling as a form of care. You'll hear: How cultural narratives, from Mamie Till to Toni Morrison, shape our understanding of motherhood Why public strength can't replace private witnessing The difference between independence and isolation—and why communal living is the lesson we keep returning to How everyday gestures become sacred acts of protection, memory, and joy Why sharing isn't a virtue. It's a practice. And we're out of practice. Whether you're a mother by birth, bond, or assignment, this conversation invites you to return to what you know: you don't have to do it alone. Listen now and access the free toolkit at NationalBlackGirlMonth.com Access Dr. Hite's work: https://www.spelman.edu/staff/profiles/michelle-hite.html  Connect with Dr. Rikesha Fry Brown: www.instagram.com/dr.rikesha  Connect with Felicia Ford: www.threads.net/@friendscallmefe  More about Dr. Hite:  Michelle Hite, Ph.D. has been a Faculty Member Since 2004 and is an Associate Professor for English, the Honors ProgramDirector and the International Fellowships and ScholarshipsDirector. Michelle Hite earned her Ph.D. from Emory University in American/African American Studies in 2009. Her dissertation used Venus and Serena Williams as subjects whose representation in popular media, books, videos, and other texts prompted her research questions regarding what their public portrayal might suggest about the intersection of race, gender, and nationalism during late capitalism.Although Dr. Hite remains deeply interested in sports, her intellectual work now focuses on African-American life, culture, and experience in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. To this end, she is currently working on a monograph about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963.In addition to her work as an associate professor in the English department at Spelman, Dr. Hite is director of the Ethel Waddell Githii Honors Program and director of International Fellowships and Scholarships. #nationalblackgirlmonth

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US institutions are being pressured into compliance with the Trump administration's capricious demands. Many law firms, philanthropic organizations, and higher education institutions are choosing the path of least resistance. But will it keep them safe? Sharon L. Davies is the president and chief executive officer of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. Davies' career experiences span both academic and nonacademic fields. From 2017–2021, she was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Spelman College. She joined Spelman from The Ohio State University, where she was vice provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. Davies was also a member of OSU's Moritz College of Law faculty for 22 years, serving as the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. In addition, she directed the university's Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity. Davies has an undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a law degree from Columbia University School of Law. https://kettering.org/

On April 11, 1881, classes began in the basement of an Atlanta church at what was then known as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary. Sponsored by the American Baptist Women's Home Mission Society, this modest beginning marked the foundation of what would become Spelman College, one of the nation's premier institutions for African American women. Spelman is consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report and as one of the best women's colleges by Forbes. The Rockefeller family, especially Laura Spelman Rockefeller, provided significant financial support. In 1924, the school was renamed in her honor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, prepare for a heartwarming and hilarious journey with Melisa and Meghan! Melisa gushes about her recent hangout with her friends' absolutely adorable baby, sharing all the sweet details. Meanwhile, Meghan recounts a magical day spent at Disneyland with her nephew, sparking a wave of nostalgia for Melisa as she reflects on her own Disney adventure with her niece... a whole 14 years ago! The Disney magic doesn't stop there, though. Meghan reveals her aspirations to fully embrace her inner "Disney Adult" and is determined to bring Melisa along for the ride. Will Meghan's infectious enthusiasm convince Melisa to don the Mickey ears? But the conversation takes an unexpected and delightful turn when the name "Ms. Spelman" is mentioned, leading Melisa down memory lane to her surprising and unforgettable days in royalty court. Get ready for some laughs and maybe even a tiara story or two! Buy Our Merch https://crowdmade.com/collections/sister-sign Call In for DBM - 310-694-0976 (3 minutes or less) Write In for DBM - meghanpodcast@gmail.com (300 words or less) Write in for BAIW - butamiwrongpod@gmail.com DBM Submission Form BAIW Submission Form Follow Us! instagram.com/meghanandmelisa @meghanrienks instagram.com/meghanrienks https://twitter.com/meghanrienks @sheisnotmelissa instagram.com/sheisnotmelissa instagram.com/diamondmprint.productions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the spark of curiosity ignited in Detroit to the cultural epicenter of Atlanta, Darralynn Hutson has been scripting stories since “my first article was written in 1990 in the 1900s,” she jokes, weaving words with love and purpose across decades. “I've been writing for over 25 years on Black culture. I love it.” And that passion first bloomed when a young Darralynn immersed herself in magazines like The Source, saying, “How else can you find out about who's the king of New York hip hop?” Her storytelling foundation was deeply personal too—growing up as an only child, “my joy, my passion, my excitement came from outside my house,” and writing became a tool to explore, escape, and express. She fondly recalls imagining “Twilight Zone episodes from a Black perspective,” like one where a family's rat takes over household responsibilities, embodying her early creative genius. That creative fire took her from Cass Tech to Spelman, where “Detroit demanded respect” and the AUC campus became its own cultural ecosystem. “We were developing it,” she says of Atlanta's evolution into a Black cultural mecca, remembering moments like OutKast performing in “hole in the wall concerts” and Spike Lee recruiting students for School Daze. Post-college, it was another Spelman sister, Sheila Brown of Upscale Magazine, who turned Darralynn's passion into profession, teaching her how “to use a mouse, how to interview, how to research,” and most importantly, how to trust her voice. Now an international journalist and TV/film writer, she honors that journey by capturing not only celebrity stories but also deeply personal ones, like writing obituaries for over 27 family members—a responsibility she holds sacred. “Everybody has a role to play,” she says, “I'm the writer of the family.” Whether it's penning features for Essence, profiling unsung icons, or celebrating Detroit's soul, Darralynn's pen remains her passport and purpose. “Writing was always something I did for fun. It was a passion. I didn't know it could be a profession.” Lucky for us, she found a way to turn her passion into pages that speak to our culture, our past, and our power. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Writer and prison abolitionist Keeonna Harris shares her intimate memoir, Mainline Mama, about the formidable challenge of raising a family separated by prison walls and how we can fight back against a broken Byzantine system. Keeonna and Jason met as young teens. Only fourteen, Keeonna had never had a boyfriend before, dreamed of attending Spelman to become an obstetrician, and thought she was “grown.” Within a year she was pregnant, and Jason was in prison, convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to twenty-two years. Overnight Keeonna had become a “mainline mama,” a parent facing the impossible task of raising a child — while still growing up herself — with an incarcerated partner. Keeonna recalls her harrowing journey in Mainline Mama, from learning to overcome the exhausting difficulties of navigating the carceral system in the United States, to transforming herself into an advocate for other women like her — the predominantly Black and brown women left behind to pick up the pieces of their families and fractured lives. She offers inspiration and solace, showing how to create moments of beauty, humanity, and love in a place designed to break spirits. Mainline Mama is about creating self-love and community — crucial acts of radical resistance against a prison industrial complex that is designed to dehumanize and to separate and shut away incarcerated individuals and their loved ones from the world. Keeonna Harris is a writer, storyteller, mother of five, and prison abolitionist. She is a Ph.D. Candidate at Arizona State University finishing her dissertation Everybody Survived but Nobody Survived: Black Feminism, Motherhood, and Mass Incarceration. Her memoir, Mainline Mama draws from her experiences as a Black woman, teen mother, and twenty years of raising children with an incarcerated partner and building community in the borderlands of the prison. Jodi-Ann Burey (she/her) is a writer and critic who works at the intersections of race, culture, and health equity. Her debut book, Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work disrupts traditional narratives about racism at work and is forthcoming in 2025 with Flatiron Books.   Buy the Book Mainline Mama Elliott Bay Book Company

DEI policies – short for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – have been in the crosshairs since President Donald Trump arrived back in the White House. Many corporations have been proactively choosing to downsize their DEI programs or eliminate them completely. But one company is facing a unique level of backlash: Target. The retail giant announced last month it would eliminate multiple DEI projects, including hiring goals, and its Racial Equity Action and Change program which focused on investing in and carrying products from Black and minority-owned businesses. Critics of these moves have been calling for boycotts of the red bullseye but it may end up hurting those businesses Target has helped. Guest: Timeka Tounsel, Associate Professor of Black Studies in Communication at the University of Washington. Relevant Links: Black faith leaders call for Target boycott for backing off diversity initiatives Target retreated on DEI. Then came the backlash In age of racial reckoning, Ralph Lauren partners with Morehouse and Spelman grads on vintage Black fashion styles Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Chasity Lourde Wright. Chasity is inventor and founder of Infiltron  Software Suite LLC. Infiltron operates in the cybersecurity space; a Service disabled-Veteran owned and women-owned small business. Infiltron offers quantum-resistant cybersecurity solutions for decentralized digital identity, digital assets, and AI governance, utilizing proprietary post-secure encryption. Its patented technology integrates AI, blockchain, and quantum-resistant encryption to provide advanced cyber resilience, compliance enforcement, and real-time threat mitigation across multiple industries, including aerospace & defense, fintech, smart cities, and EVs.   Chasity, as inventor, speaks about her team and how creativity in the work place is necessary for  enhancing innovation on really tough problems like Cybersecurity. As the CEO of Infiltron, Chasity Lourde Wright is also a former USAF Aerospace Engineer, Intel Officer, and Cybersecurity Instructor with extensive experience in cybersecurity, AI governance, and national security. She was part of the team that developed reconfiguration capabilities for the USAF C-130 and contributed to the creation of the CMMC framework since its inception in 2019. Additionally, she has engaged in high-level cybersecurity and AI governance initiatives, including industry collaborations, government advisory roles, and proprietary innovations in quantum-resistant encryption, AI security, and blockchain-based compliance solutions. Her expertise extends beyond participating in NIST challenges, encompassing leading-edge cybersecurity development, policy influence, and defense sector innovations. You can find out more about Chasity and Infiltron at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/infiltronsoftwaresuite/ https://infiltron.net/     Transcript: 00:04 Hi, I'm pleased to announce something very special to me, a new subscription-based service through Next Act Advisors that allows members exclusive access to personal industry insights and bespoke 00:32 corporate governance knowledge. This comes in the form of blogs, personal book recommendations, and early access to the founder's sandbox podcast episodes before they released to the public. If you want more white glove information on building your startup with information like what was in today's episode, sign up with the link in the show notes to enjoy being a special member of Next Act Advisors. 01:01 As a thank you to Founders Sandbox listeners, you can use code SANDBOX25 at checkout to enjoy 25% off your membership costs. Thank you. 01:19 Welcome back to the Founder's Sandbox. I am Brenda McCabe, your host of this monthly podcast in which I bring entrepreneurs, founders, corporate directors, and professional service providers who, like me, want to effectuate change in the world by building resilient, scalable, and purpose-driven companies. I like to recreate a fun sandbox environment with my guests. And we will touch on not only their purpose, 01:47 and what has driven them to create their own businesses. But also we're going to touch upon topics such as resilience, purpose-driven, and scalable sustainable growth. Today, I am absolutely delighted to have as my guest Chasity Wright. Welcome, Chasity. Hey. Thank you for having me. 02:13 Super excited to talk about how Infiltron has evolved and the lessons learned and how we're preparing to relaunch in 2025. Excellent. And it's perfect timing because I've known you for a couple of years now. Yeah. Right. So Chasity is CEO and founder of Infiltron Software Suite, a company that's headquartered out of Atlanta. 02:40 She is oftentimes in Los Angeles because she's working largely in the defense market and cyber security. So I wanted to have you on my podcast because you have gone further in building your business. So you and I met, I want to say back in 2022, you came out of the Women Founders Network cohort. 03:08 kind of very early stage. One of the events that I was a host of was the Thai So Cal Women's Fund. And you weren't yet ready for investing, but we struck up, I would say a friendship and I admire many things about you as, and we'll get into it in the podcast here, but you touch. 03:35 quite a few or check of quite a few boxes for my podcast. You says, so you are a woman owned veteran and women owned business. You are a veteran of the Air Force. You're in deep tech and you're by park and queer. And so there's many many boxes that you check and it was difficult to kind of hone in on what I really wanted to bring into the podcast today, but we're going to we're going to start from here. 04:05 I always like to ask my guests to start with kind of their origin story. I, when I first met you, right, in private conversations, got to hear your origin story and why you do what you do, what your firsthand experience while on missions, right, that really informed your aha moments to create infiltrant. 04:33 as a cybersecurity company. So tell us a bit about your origin story, Chasity. So, I mean, my origin story has, if you can imagine all of these different paths kind of streamlining into one path. So one of those paths would be a little black girl born in Georgia, still seeing dirt roads and... 05:01 being able to go to the country and work on a farm and, you know, just still having that connection to the past, you know, and not necessarily the past in a bad way. So athletic, played ball in college, went to Clark Atlanta University, you know, the HBCUs are a big hurrah right now, but they've always been one. 05:29 I grew up with one in my backyard, Fort Valley State, which is in Fort Valley, Georgia. So, you know, roughed it with the boys, played in the backyard with the boys, always been a boys girl, cousins, neighbor. We're all still close. We all still play sports when we meet. So it's like an adult play date, so to speak. But also, you know, 05:58 raised religiously, you know, I'm in Southern Baptist Church, two parent household, maybe lower middle class, but middle school was very transformative for me because they decided to mix in everybody. So it was my first time, you know, being in a more diverse population in school. 06:25 And, you know, music is a big thing for me as well. I DJ, I make music. That's the creative part of me. And I found a lot of people in deep tech to do something with music. So, yeah, so, you know, that's my like early years background. And then coming through, I decided to go into the Air Force. I actually took off between my junior and senior year at Clark Atlanta. 06:52 Um, there I was majoring in global leadership and management. Okay. And went in and I was in for eight years. I was an aerospace engineer, uh, got deployed several times, uh, to different places, and that kind of brings us to why Infiltron exists and, um, on one of those deployments, I was a part of a network takedown. 07:21 And it was, whoo. I mean, I don't mean to quote the pitch deck story, but it is what it is. I wrote it because that's the way it felt. It was catastrophic. So just imagine the city of Los Angeles losing power out of nowhere. The rail stops working, Sinai has no power, so all of the medical equipment is no longer working. 07:49 The internet's completely gone and not rebooting like it normally would. Your energy grid is down. That is what I experienced in one of those deployments. And I was a part of Iraqi freedom and Afghanistan. I was a part of both of those wars. And when we came, you know, we got everything back. Thank God we were smart enough to ship. 08:19 brand new equipment. Okay, you know, so you know, we weren't able to get there. Yeah. I mean, I mean, that's part of our job. We're engineers. And when you're in the middle of nowhere, there's no calling HP. There's no calling Cisco. Like you got to know how to do what needs to be done. There was there was a lot of makeshifting. I can be I came out of Air Force, I could be a mechanical engineer to 08:45 because we had to figure out how to make components on the fly. It was just so many things. Innovation, right? Like you had to be innovative. You had to be adapt quickly while keeping the mission as a focus. So just imagine something that catastrophic and something similar has happened. I feel like Colonial Pipeline was something that is known now in the US for sure. 09:15 that had similar elements of what we experienced in being deployed. Yeah, and that was two years back. And SolarWinds is another one. I generally refer to those because people generally gasp, even non-technical people, because they know how damaging it was. So we can reuse. Normally, when the equipment goes down, 09:44 Unplug, right? Plug back in. Reboot. Yeah, reboot. But that was not happening. And what we found out in the debrief was that quantum was used. So quantum simplistically is about frequencies in this context. It's about frequencies. And frequencies matter in so many aspects of life, from spirituality all the way through tech like what Infotron has. So... 10:14 What they did was they basically zeroed out the frequencies of our satellite communications. And I believe that they created some frequencies that damaged other equipment. So these are things that again we found out in the debrief. And I wasn't really able to talk to that probably when we met because I wasn't sure if it was unclassified yet. 10:42 But as soon as Biden started talking about quantum initiative, which was back in 2022, when we were in, I was like, everything's hitting it the right time because we were literally in Techstars LA space. And Biden pushed the quantum initiative. And I'm like, see, told you, because a lot of people, a lot of people doubted what I was saying because of the year that I said it had happened. And as. 11:09 we started to grow out our team. There are other veterans on our team from different branches. And of course we war story swap all the time. And those other two people work for like NSA and they did kind of the same thing, telecommunications. And I'm telling the pitch desk story and they're sitting there like, yep, yep. That happened to us too. And I'm like, when? 11:38 And they're saying different years. So at that point, we understood it. It happened more than once. So that's why Infiltronic. So what's Infiltronic? So let's bring it back to, Yeah. So you leave, you leave service after eight years after also experiencing that. I still feel like I'm a part of it because I do consult them still. Right. So it'd be great. So. 12:08 And once in the Air Force forever? Always. Well, I really would have been in Space Force. Yes. Yeah. Well, you heard that here on the Founder Sandbox. The next, yes. So for my listeners, again, you check a lot of boxes. Deep tech, women in STEM. What is it exactly that? 12:37 your suite of services. All right. So Info-Trans software, right, has two patents now. And on your landing page, it says, our patented solutions, solutions utilize adaptive artificial intelligence, advanced quantum encryption and blockchain technology to deliver real-time cybersecurity for a wide array of applications. Later on, we'll get into smart cities, but 13:06 including the internet of things, smart devices, legacy systems, hybrid data, signals and devices. All pretty, pretty understandable, but what is it that Infiltrion software is able to do that others are not? So we're able to create a easier way for businesses to migrate their devices. 13:36 and their software, so their applications that they use, maybe they've developed them themselves, we provide a way for them to easily migrate those entities over into a more quantum-proofed infrastructure. So we created what we've trademarked as quantum encapsulation. So just imagine something being encapsulated. And basically we've created, 14:05 a brand new method of leveraging quantum, the AI, we leverage it for the pro-activeness. So in lieu of just waiting for threats to happen to our clients, we go look for the threat. So we want to go be where the bad guys are and find out and bring that information back and update the solution in real time to provide protection for all of our clients in real time. 14:33 That's how we leverage the AI. The blockchain is kind of leveraged to kind of make sure that people, things like devices, aren't on networks that shouldn't be. So it's kind of, I mean, we use it for what blockchain was pretty much basically developed for, and that's a ledger. So keeping up with the transactions of what's happening. 15:03 in a client's infrastructure. Fantastic. So it's largely a B2B business, yours, right? We do. We have B2B, but we've been approached several times here recently by consumers. Because now, because of the biometric protection aspect of our solution using the quantum encapsulation, we can protect, say, 15:32 Halle Berry from deep fake, being deep faked, or, you know, protecting her likeness from being used without her knowledge in movies, CGI'd into movies. So it's kind of getting a little bit more consumerish as we iterate, right? Yeah, and we were briefly speaking before the podcast recording, Chasity and I, and... 15:59 I've known her for years. She's a very private person, would not allow photographs. So I told my producer, I'm certain Whitney Chastity's not going to be sending us a picture, but you said yes, that you might, because you do have biometric, artificial intelligence, safeguards that can actually discover deep fakes, right? Yes, yes. Yep, if it didn't come from us, if it wasn't checked back from us, 16:29 It wasn't approved by the person. So it's kind of pretty much that simple. Amazing. Well, later on in the show notes, we will have how to contact you at Enfield Tron. So you are in the startup ecosystem. Again, you travel a lot. You're between Washington DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and actually the Bay Area. Yeah, the Bay Area. Right. So. 16:58 Revenue can be elusive, right? How? Especially in tech, and especially in these really large markets that I call deep tech. Deep tech and leading edge, bleeding edge, right? People don't know what they're actually buying, right? Or what they don't even, they probably don't even know that they have a need, right? What's been your strategy at Infiltron to keep the revenue flowing while maintaining also a pretty playful, innovative culture? 17:27 You talked about your team and so talk, that's kind of two questions. So how have you kept revenue coming, right? While not going out for dilutive funding yet, but tell us a little bit about how, what's your business model? So the business model in itself is set up for B2B and we also have a licensing element there. So if they, for instance, 17:56 a Fortune 500 company who has a cyber team, right? They have an internal cyber team. If they want to license out the patents that we have and kind of customize it or create or build off of those, use it as a baseline for what they need for their systems, we offer that as well. But let me just put it out there. But back to your question, how do we keep it fun? So the team... 18:25 The original team members, should I say. So we met about seven years ago at a place called the Gathering Spot in Atlanta. So the Gathering Spot is a community and they just opened one in LA and I do go to the one in LA too when I'm there. But it's a community of people, creatives from creative people to deep tech people like myself and everything in between. 18:55 We went to a black tech event at the gathering spot and found ourselves not being able to get into the actual room. So we ended up, because they have a bar and everything at the gathering spot. It's a social club too. It has a club aspect to it too, but you can network there, have meetings there, meet all types of people. I mean known people, I mean it's a great 19:25 great concept, shout out to Ryan. But we found ourselves at the bar, and we're looking at each other. We knew each other because we had been introduced by the Hellbrella person, Tracy. Yes, yes. Because they had done some things for her with a previous startup that she had, development-wise. So we're all sitting at the bar, and we're looking at each other like, but we're the real tech people. 19:55 We do it. It's like we don't really take people. Um, we can't even get in there. We like, we know the organizers and personally and everything. So let's start a company. Well, what we did was we launched, um, what we launched kit labs. And it was literally right down the street from the 20:23 and connect to the community. So we had, it's not far from the AUC and the AUC is where Morris Brown, Morehouse, Spelman and Clark Atlanta are. Got it. So a lot of times you would come in there and find some of the founders, cause this was founded by myself and like six or seven other black tech founders. The ones that were outside. Drinking like, you know. 20:53 That's where we had that conversation. You know, the conversation started at the bar, being outside of that first Black Tech meetup, so to speak, with Joey Womack, who is a part of Goody Nation, who we did get a 50K grant from back in 2020 through Google for Startups. Let me just say this so much. We were so interconnected. I mean, Atlanta is Wakanda. Don't let anybody tell you anything different. 21:21 It's definitely Wakanda. But literally, not even a mile away from the Gathering Spot, we opened up Kit Labs. It's a smart lab where we can tinker with stuff. We're engineers. We're tech people. We need something. We need a makerspace. We don't necessarily need a space that is compared. The Gathering Spot was a little bit more buttoned up. 21:46 And then what we needed, we needed to be able to throw things and make things. We had everything from like 3d printers to, um, VR, AR headsets. I mean, you, anything in tech. Innovative fun. It was in, is in that lab. Um, but that's where around today. So we dissolved it. So it's been dissolved. What one of, one of the founders, he unfortunately transitioned. Um, 22:15 So, you know, and he was kind of like the pillar of it. And it kept going for a while, but it was just a lot of people like myself, it was two female founders, Dr. Nashley Cephas, who herself is from Jackson, Mississippi. I'm shouting out everybody, right? She's from Jackson, Mississippi, and she bought 10 acres in downtown Jackson, Mississippi and started a nonprofit called Bean Pad. And he basically took the concept of what we were doing at Kit Labs and brought it to our hometown. So. 22:44 Um, and it's so funny. She actually founded it on my birthday. So I was like, okay, I can dig that. Um, uh, but, but no, but we're still connected. Everybody still works with each other. You know, if I have to come in and do some things around cyber for a contract or, you know, commercial or whatever client that they have, I do like we, we all kind of still work together on each other's things. So that has allowed you to bring in some revenues, right? 23:14 through its service context. Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. Consultant wise, cause they're like, I think people may look at Infotron and think that there's not a human touch piece there, but if you're dealing with me, there's always gonna be a human touch point there because we have to consult the client. We can't assume, you know, we cannot assume. 23:41 what you need, we have to actually have a conversation with our clients throughout the process, even after we possibly have set up the platform for you, trained your people on it, there still needs to be an element of communication, human communication, right? But the team, we've been working together for about seven years. Yes. 24:10 Infiltron has been around for five, going on six years now. So, you know, I mean, respect, mutual respect, we're still kids at heart. I mean, we grew up wanting to be engineers. So, you really can't take the light of innovation out of an engineer unless they're just at the point of not wanting to do it anymore. So we're always, what I've found is most people in any engineering discipline are very, 24:39 curious and forward thinking. So we, and we kind of, we're kind of like a community. We are community and not kind of like, but we are community of folks that contribute to each other's, you know, projects. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And not just, not just business-wise, but personally, like we, I mean, we've been around each other for almost a decade, so. 25:04 there's been kids born and like I just said, one of our founders transitioned, like we've been through some things together that have brought us closer together. And you can, I believe when you have a team like that, and we're all diverse, you know, we have a team like that that cultivates innovation, for sure. You know, I've had a few guests to my podcast and I also write about this, 25:35 Creativity is only possible or it's greatly possible when you create a fun environment and make games out of things and have, right? And set up teams. So I think a shout out to you and what you've set up at Infiltron and in its earlier rendering at Kit Labs, just creating an environment that allows for what ifs, right? Is key. There are a lot of what ifs in cyber. 26:04 I bet you there. So I have a boatload of questions here. One is, before we get into your fundraising path, again, I mentioned earlier you have two patents that have been issued. What is post-quantum encryption technology in layman language? Post. 26:32 Quantum encryption technology. So there is definitely confusion out there that has been addressed. And because there is a difference between post secure quantum and encryption. There's a difference. So. Excellent. 27:02 Post quantum encryption, it is designed to protect data from quantum computers. So. And that's done through the encapsulation? For us, that is how we provide the protection, the encryption. That is the quantum encapsulation is a method of encryption with Involtron. So the current encryption. So you have things like RSA. 27:32 elliptical curve, which elliptical curve is more widely used and kind of being marketed as quantum encryption. It is, it is, it's on the list of quantum protections, right, or quantum methods of encryption protection. So companies like Okta use ECC a lot. But what's happening is that quantum computers are being built now. Yes. Like right now, there's no... Yeah, the cost is going down. 28:02 Yeah, there's no waiting five years from now. Like I urge anyone under the sound of my voice to prepare now for quantum computer attacks. The same thing that I describe happening to us when we were deployed, it's gonna happen. And again, I alluded to feeling like 28:33 situations like Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds were, I feel like they were tests because there were so many different elements of what we saw in the deployment that happened in those two cases. Yeah, because I'm sitting there and think it's like 2020, 2021, 2019 actually, it started. I think this didn't know, but. 28:59 And it's still going like 20, SolarWinds was still going, the last time I checked SolarWinds was still unraveling. Like it's still, still going. But back to the question. So for us, quantum encapsulation for us is breakthrough. So NIST has had these challenges, right? Where they put out bidding for companies, 29:27 researchers, because a lot of people that are in the quantum space, whether it's physics, mechanics, are generally found in academia. They're not at Infiltron. They're not at QED. They're just not there, right? It's very far in between, and we generally have to lure them. Or we have to do something like partner with them on... 29:53 grants, like the STTR grants. Like that's the only way, generally the only way that we can probably connect with the academia or pierce them and have them work with us. And they usually through that take all the funding, but it's, you're still. Exposed, right? You're exposed, but you're also getting the expertise that you possibly need and can't rightly find in the freelancing world. Yeah. So it generally works out in the long run. 30:23 Um, but so our encapsulation is a, is a breakthrough method because I look at it like this, NIST is holding these challenges and nothing against NIST. We're connected. I contribute to NIST and everything, but they are holding these challenges. And basically they're telling the hackers what people are going to the framework. 30:49 what people are gonna have to adhere to when they create their quantum algorithms to protect their devices and data. You know, you're giving away the secret ingredients. So like, even if they don't know specifically your algorithm, they know what you've based it off of. And that gives it like a tiny thread can unravel a whole t-shirt, right? So I look at it like that. So... 31:15 And even before, you know, we were already developing things before NIST put out these challenges. We are in alignment. We can adhere and do it here to the framework that they're putting out because, you know, you have the DOD space who definitely follows their framework, especially when it comes to the risk management framework. So they're going to follow NIST regardless. They're going to follow their framework, whatever they put out about cybersecurity protection. 31:44 The DOD space and all of its agencies are gonna follow that. However, being in the cybersecurity space every day, seeing what is happening and knowing that you've given some clues, some contextual clues to the malicious hackers about what you're using as a baseline to build your algorithms will, guess what? What we have is not that. Like we are... 32:12 One of the things that differentiates us right now, because I'm sure as quantum cybersecurity continues to grow legs, so to speak, people are gonna start using the more, less susceptible to hacks by quantum computers method. So you have things like multivariate hash code. So these are some of the 32:40 quantum properties that you can use that are not generally hackable by a quantum computer. They won't be hackable by a quantum computer. So we leveraged some of that. It was like, if I'm built, I looked at it like this, I've been in cyber, I've been in tech for almost 20 years. I know I don't look it. I get it all the time. You don't have to say it. I've been in tech for almost 20 years. I've been, and when I was in the air force, we call it InfoSec. It's the same thing. And that dates me. 33:08 If I say, if you hear somebody say InfoSec, trust me, they've been in cybersecurity for at least 20 plus years. So, but it's cybersecurity, that's what it is. And I've seen the changes and I've paid my dues too. Like I didn't, when I got out of the Air Force, I was just, side note, like I cut grass and loved it. I would go back and do it if I can make these results. So then like, it's very, it's very fulfilling. Don't let anybody fool you. Like I love, but I like being outside, but. 33:38 Um, my first tech job though, I literally went through the phone book. Cause this is like still, you know, internet was not quite what it is now, of course, but it was like still growing. And I went through the yellow pages and went through the aerospace companies and called all of them and was like, Hey, let's just get out of the air force, look for a job. I don't care if it's an intern or co-op and L3 L3 before they merged with Harris. Uh, 34:08 they created me a co-op. And, but again, still in touch with, cause you know, L3 is a huge government contracting company, right? And in the satellite communication space, cause they're in line with my background. And so I've seen it all. I've seen the changes of InfoSec into cybersecurity. And now we're entering a new frontier with quantum cybersecurity. So I've been here, 34:37 maybe at the latter part of the info set, but definitely through the cybersecurity and here for and to forge some guidelines and pathways in the quantum cybersecurity space with Inflotron. So when you know Inflotron was founded in 2019, I was like, okay, if I'm gonna start 35:03 something new in cyber and we hadn't even gotten to the quantum piece yet. They hadn't even gotten to me yet. Like it started like I was getting downloads. Yeah. Because I'm, I always, I'm a reader. I wake up looking at cyber news and just staying in the know because I need to know what's going on so I can protect my clients, whether that was me in a government contracting position or me as a consultant in my businesses. So. 35:33 I need to know what's going on. And if I'm going to build something new, why am I going to build it with compromised parts? Right. That's a great way to describe it. Yeah. Forget the tech. It didn't make logical sense. If I'm going to build something new, a SaaS product that's going to integrate and be flexible and adaptable and proactive. 36:01 Why would I use RSA encryption when I know what's coming? Got it. That will be one of the snippets that I share in my YouTube channel as well as the podcast. That is excellent. Why build something with compromised parts? Frontier technology, quantum cybersecurity is what Epfiltron is about. 36:30 Next generation. Talk to me a little bit more for us, less tech savvy listeners about the use of Infiltron in a SelleGov's program for smart cities. That kind of brings it more home and more tangible. How is technology used for smart cities? So first, SelleGov through leading cities. Yes. 36:59 It connects companies like ours with municipalities to tackle urban challenges. So for us, it's infrastructure, security, and sustainability. So we were a finalist in leading cities global competition back in 2021. And we've worked through them. You know, we've been able to work with city leaders to secure IOT systems and critical infrastructure. 37:28 And quick shout out to Michael Lake. Okay. He's the founder of Leading Cities, amazing guy. Another keep in touch, answer the email quickly person. He's based in Boston, but he's built a very supportive ecosystem. So shout out to Michael Lake. But as a part of this program, 37:56 We're offering smart cities our enhanced quantum vulnerability assessment. And this is to help the smart city leaders identify areas that need better quantum protections now. We've just had a session on November the 11th, Veterans Day. And the second one is coming up December the 5th. So you. 38:24 If you're a smart city leader or see so small, medium, large enterprise, no matter what market you in, you're in, definitely tap in. You can register for it on the leading city's website or on our website at Infotron.net. Yeah, that's on December 9, 2024 at 1pm. Is that Eastern? December 5th. December 5th? No, it's the 9th, because I have it here. And that's my cousin's birthday. So yeah, it's December 9th. 38:53 Did you get to influence those dates? Yeah. So let's jump into your startup. You've taken in very little dilutive funding. How much money have you raised to date? And how have you, what is the next phase, right? In terms of outreach for fundraising. So we've raised 120K and that was through Techstars, LA Space. 39:23 Still counting. I do not take a salary. I could take one, but I'm just, it's the long game for me. And I still consult. Don't let these people tell you not to quit your job and be an entrepreneur. Don't let people do that. Especially if you have a family. Don't let these people, don't let these people try to guilt you or shame you because you still have a job while you're building your startup. Don't let, don't do it. 39:53 Because I do have a company that I started called Right Tech Solutions and we still, that's why I said I still feel like I'm in the Air Force because I still consult them. So I can, you know, the revenue that we do and we've hit 500K in revenue. So you know, I could easily take a salary, right? But I just, it's the long game for me. It's the global expansion. 40:22 um, you know, more IP and patents, uh, protections, right? Because we do have global count clients. And, um, one of the things that I wanted to make sure of before we even took on the clients was that we had legal backing there. So IP trademarks, um, at least patent, at least the application is pending, but you know, like I want to, I want to, I want it to at least have that. And we have great attorneys. Um, shout out to Malika Tyson. 40:52 and Matthew and Dorian who have, they took over because I had a, I had an attorney, IP attorney that would, had her own boutique firm and then she had to go back, you know, she just couldn't do the entrepreneurship, it's not for everybody, but we still stay in contact as well. But she introduced me to McAndrews, they're based out of Chicago. 41:20 And they are the legal team for Impletron. I always tell them that when we're on calls, like you are the legal team. Like, yeah, anything that I need from them legal, legal wise, they do it. I literally just sent a partnership NDA over to Malekka this morning and she just sent it back to me. So like, that's not IP and trademark, right? But they do, they do it. And I always tell them how much I appreciate them because... 41:49 IP and trademarks are not free and they're not inexpensive. So, and then imagine, you know, we have one pending now in Japan. We just got one in Canada. So yeah, like it's expensive, you know, it's expensive. So a lot of the funding that we get now is going to be allocated to pay them, you know, even though they work with us. But it's going to be paying them. 42:18 doing some iterations, we have a partnership where there's some hardware that's gonna be involved. We're definitely tapping into the hardware. So we'll be forging our way there because people like things they can touch. SaaS isn't necessarily something that you can touch, although put it into a platform makes it a little bit more tangible for people, visual at least. So in the- 42:48 Yeah, I mean, hardware has always been a part of the vision. FBGAs, we have another colleague of mine, he has developed a cryptocurrency mining machine, and it leverages quantum. So it's mining at exponential speeds, right? Because generally what quantum does is speeds things up. It speeds exactly, in simplified terms. 43:18 Definitely still going after Sivers traditional government contracts globally. We participated in Fintech down in the Bahamas last October. Cause we are in the Fintech space and there's a lot of similarities between Fintech and Space Tech. Because when you're talking about fault zeros and being able to detect anomalies. 43:46 both of those markets need that and they need it quick. So we've been able to, yeah, like we've been able to leverage some of the things that we're learning in both of those for each other. So we've been able to participate in some conferences. We actually getting ready to go to Barbados in January for Fintech Islands, I'll be speaking about 44:14 the kind of the intersection of the quantum age and what's coming in respect to the fintech space, cryptocurrency, web three, traditional finance and AI, because we do leverage AI. And we've been in the AI space, Impletron has been in the AI space from the beginning. One of our advisors is an AI evangelist at AWS. I did say her name earlier on this podcast, but. 44:42 She's amazing. She's a Georgia Tech grad. We do have a few Georgia Tech people on the team, but she's amazing. And I'm able to tap her. I've been able to tap her because she was one of the Kit founders. So I've been able to tap her about AI and machine learning very early on. So all of the LLMs and the SLMs that everybody's kind of talking about, we've been doing. 45:11 Like even as small as we are, we've been. 45:16 Yeah, so, Chasity, how can my listeners contact or get information about Infotron? So, yeah, of course the website. So, infiltron.net. You can follow us on all of our socials at Infotron Software Suite. It might be, I think on Twitter is Infotron app. We wanted to keep it short. 45:41 And then, or you can email us at mfultronapp at gmail.com. And I know people are gonna be like, why you use Gmail? That's another filter. And that's an email that everybody on the team can look at and not be bombarded with, cause spam and it's just, everybody has their own email address, but. So you probably, it's a test environment for all of you. 46:09 beautiful quantum encryption that you're working on. Yes. And that's it all. One better way to start. Yeah, Gmail, right? Google knows a lot more about us than we'd like them to. Oh, Google knows everything. That's tough. Even when you turn location off. Oh, Instagram. I just posted something about Instagram. So Instagram's new. They just updated their policy maybe a month ago, maybe. 46:38 Okay. Whether you want to or not, they now have access to your photos, your GPS location, everything even if you say no, even if you turn it off, they still contract. 47:00 Just putting it out there guys. Yeah. So if you do platform. So there's cause to the platform. Right? Yes. Thank you. All right. We're coming down to the section of the podcast where I like to ask each of my guests what the following three words mean to you. Because this is what I do with my consulting business. 47:24 In addition to my podcast, I work with founders that are really building resilient, purpose-driven and scalable businesses. What's resilience mean to you, Chasity? Man, that's a word that I use. Uh, I mean, I'm, I mean, you gotta think about it. I'm black trying to raise money. It's hard for black people to raise money on top of that. I've been, you know, um, I've come face to face with people that didn't believe that I wrote my own patents. Like. 47:53 you know, as if black people didn't invent a lot of things, like that we still use today. Like, come on. I mean, it's just the truth. Resilience. Resilience for me is bending, but never breaking. Bending, but never breaking. Yeah. It's about, you know, adapting to challenges. I just mentioned some and facing them. Like you can't, you can't, and I'm about to sound 48:23 run from the pain, you gotta run towards it. So you can come out stronger on the other side. And it's not necessarily about survival, it's transformation. That's transformation. It's transformation. And that transformation is preparing you for what's next. And you'll be standing taller than you were before. Amazing, thank you. Purpose-driven, what's a purpose-driven? 48:53 Enterprises or? Yeah. I'm a visionary. So like, there's a lot of founders that I've met. If I have the opportunity to get close to them or kind of hear them speak about what they're building to include myself, because I do talk to myself about the things that I'm building. I counsel myself. I'm sure my ancestors are around me. 49:23 Purpose is, it should be intentional. I think that it's kind of interchangeable for me. But in the context of the question that you asked on purpose driven enterprise, so it's the heartbeat in what we build here at Infotron. I can definitely say that. It's creating meaningful solutions that solve real problems. And in solving those real problems, 49:52 you're still staying true to the mission. I still bring the aspect of the military into Infiltron. We are mission focused. We have fun. We do all the fun things, right? Because again, that cultivates innovation too. And it keeps it spicy. You need to let things be spicy because in a regular deglar cybersecurity job, you're probably bored. Like. 50:19 I mean, let's just be real. Like you're probably bored. You're probably looking at Excel spreadsheets and creating a report by hand from that. Like it's boring. Like, but you know, it's also making moves that matter. And it's solving problems that for me leave a legacy and just never losing sight of why we started in the first place. 50:48 So never lives in sight. Excellent. What about scalable? So how does- That's one of those BC's favorite words. That's right. Because that's what they want to see. How will you scale? That's right. I mean, I'm an investor too guys. Don't get it twisted. Like, I think that was a question that I did ask with one of the investors I had. Like, how are you going to get over that challenge? Like, before I give you this money. 51:18 Scalable. So growth, like we can think about growth in so many different ways, like growth, personal growth, because if you embark on the entrepreneur trick, you are going to be, and need to be open to growth. To me, entrepreneurship is a spiritual journey. Beautiful. 51:45 about the Southern Baptist roots, but I'm not spiritual. I'm a yoga, meditating, put my feet in the sand, grass grounding person nowadays, but still bringing that element of praying. And it's all the same to me. They just changed the name of God, right? Just that's my perspective, but growth isn't just about getting. 52:14 bigger. It's about getting better. And me speaking about the personal aspect, that is what growth is. It might not feel good, you know, while it's happening. But, you know, once you get through it and you can get in a reflective mindset and look back with what you just came through and be grateful, like find gratitude in it, you know. 52:43 That's how I look at growth. It's expanding mindfully and staying grounded in your values and making sure that every step that you take going forward strengthens the foundation that you've already built. And it's... 53:11 Like I said, it's moving with intention. And while you're moving with intention, you're also preserving the quality and the vision that define you. Which goes back to purpose-driven. Yes, thank you. Last question, Chasity. Did you have fun in the sandbox? Oh yeah, I mean, it's you. You know, we already have a great rapport. 53:38 I'll say this, one of my favorite memories of you is when you brought Ty to the table to kind of see if they were, could invest in Infiltron and it was too early. But we had to sign an NDA, it was some type of contract, but it was during Mercury retrograde. You said it before I said it, I was like, I wonder if she's onto this type. 54:05 Cause I wasn't going to sign it. I was going to try to delay it as much as possible, but you're like, no, let's wait, let's wait. So after Mercer, that's your great. Well, I was like, oh, these are this. She's my people. And I was like, and I think I responded like, let's wait five days. So it is no, it's like clear. So, um, that's a little fighter for me with you. Oh, I love it. I love it. Generally hear that in business. No, no. 54:32 And the Founder Sandbox again is a pretty eclectic podcast, bringing in deep tech founders like Chasity Wright that are on the frontier, bringing in what the future, will, it's the future's here. It's here. That's right. So to my listeners, if you like this episode with Chasity Wright, CEO and founder of Infiltron, sign up for the monthly release of 55:01 this podcast where founders, business owners, corporate directors, and professional service providers share their own experiences on building with strong governance, a resilient, scalable, and purpose-driven company to make profits for good. So signing off for this month, thank you, Chasity. Thank you, Brenda, so much. I hope to see you soon.  

Straight From The Admissions Office: Insider Strategies For College ApplicationsIf you're looking for helpful tips and insights for the college admissions process, check out my book by clicking the links below:

This week, we sit down with Dana Karyn to unpack her journey at Spelman—her experience auditioning for the Glee Club, studying music, and growing as an artist. We discuss overcoming self-doubt and the challenge of being your own biggest critic, and so much more. We diving into the AUC experience. As always, we hope you enjoy being Misunderstood.

Episode #120 Female CEOs are growing in numbers but still quite rare, so it was a real honor to have Lisa Spellman, the newly appointed CEO of Cornelis Networks,on the show. As a well-respected industry tech leader, Lisa shares her inspiring journey from her tenure at Intel, driving innovative technology, where she championed AI workloads and tirelessly advocated for women in tech. Now leading Cornelis Networks, she champions the appeal and value of network performance optimization as a critical next frontier in computing. With a diverse career spanning finance, marketing, and technical sales, Lisa's unique perspective is a masterclass in leadership and growth.Listen to Lisa candidly discuss the multifaceted challenges of leading in the tech industry. She cites team culture, trust, and collaboration as cornerstones for creating a positive work environment. She also reflects on her nonlinear career path and emphasizes the importance of thoughtful communication and the balance between being respected and liked. Gain insights into how she navigates high-pressure decision-making, takes calculated risks, and leverages a strong network of peers for support.During the interview, we also touched on the influential role of mentorship and advocacy for women in tech. Lisa sheds light on the pervasive issue of unconscious bias and offers practical strategies for women aiming for equitable wages. She passionately discusses forming inclusive teams and the necessity of bold, self-reflective career choices. As Lisa shares her thoughts on balancing work and personal life in high-stakes roles, she encourages embracing bold decisions and ensuring one's career aligns with personal aspirations. Anyone passionate about leadership and technology should tune in and gain valuable insights and inspiration. Resources:Lisa Spelman on LinkedInCEO Cornelis NetworksSupport the showWhen you subscribe to the podcast, you are supporting our work's mission, allowing us to continue highlighting successful women in a variety of careers to inspire others helping pay our wonderful editor, Chris, and helping me in paying our hosting expenses.

According to the Associated Press, Spelman College President Dr. Helene Gayle will not return from her leave of absence and is stepping down permanently, the historically Black women's college announced Thursday. The college has not disclosed why Dr. Gayle initially took leave or why she won't return. Trustees are developing a plan to select the next president, with interim President Rosalind “Roz” Brewer continuing to lead. Brewer, former chair of Spelman's board of trustees and a part-owner of the Atlanta Falcons, praised Gayle's service and expressed enthusiasm for her interim role. Dr. Gayle, who became president in 2022, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve and said she looks forward to her next chapter. Before Spelman, she led the Chicago Community Trust and worked extensively in global health and anti-poverty initiatives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

歡迎報名草闆的線上課程 品種學/後製處理課程 加入咖啡簡單說會員，跟草闆一起學咖啡 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiAACkTDMDX3skq_GcMIJNih_GO3Yl4SrAlUCnFNlnOgfH0w/viewform?fbzx=8219427370747578838 小額贊助支持本節目： https://open.firstory.me/user/ck6e0e6crh9qs08735s91my5k 留言告訴我你對這一集的想法： https://open.firstory.me/user/ck6e0e6crh9qs08735s91my5k/comments Powered by Firstory Hosting

LISTEN: On the Friday, Nov. 22 edition of Georgia Today: The results of the 2024 presidential election are certified; the president of Spelman College is stepping down; and Atlanta United's winning streak delays the retirement of a soccer legend. 

How do we become the persons we are? Cornelia Maude Spelman's Solace (Jackleg Press, 2024) seeks to answer that question. A portrait of the emotional legacies and psychological landscapes that shaped the author's life, Solace unfurls in a series of vignettes drawn from diaries and personal stories about her relationship to others as daughter, mother, friend, wife, therapist, and grandmother. These are stories of compassion and attention bringing about healing from grief and brokenness and the necessity of our deep and caring connection to others: the comfort offered to us and the comfort we offer to others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

How do we become the persons we are? Cornelia Maude Spelman's Solace (Jackleg Press, 2024) seeks to answer that question. A portrait of the emotional legacies and psychological landscapes that shaped the author's life, Solace unfurls in a series of vignettes drawn from diaries and personal stories about her relationship to others as daughter, mother, friend, wife, therapist, and grandmother. These are stories of compassion and attention bringing about healing from grief and brokenness and the necessity of our deep and caring connection to others: the comfort offered to us and the comfort we offer to others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

How do we become the persons we are? Cornelia Maude Spelman's Solace (Jackleg Press, 2024) seeks to answer that question. A portrait of the emotional legacies and psychological landscapes that shaped the author's life, Solace unfurls in a series of vignettes drawn from diaries and personal stories about her relationship to others as daughter, mother, friend, wife, therapist, and grandmother. These are stories of compassion and attention bringing about healing from grief and brokenness and the necessity of our deep and caring connection to others: the comfort offered to us and the comfort we offer to others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

Send us a textAmbassador Aurelia Brazeal joins us for an inspiring conversation on leadership, resilience, and navigating life's adversities. Learn how growing up in the dynamic environment near Atlanta's Spelman and Morehouse Colleges instilled in her the timeless values of humility, compassion, and truth. These values have been her guiding compass through a distinguished career in diplomacy, equipping her with the tools to lead through challenging times with grace and audacity. Ambassador Brazeal's anecdotes offer a window into her resilient mindset and risk-taking approach, painting a vivid picture of how history and upbringing can shape one's leadership journey.We uncover the layers of strategic leadership and diplomacy as Ambassador Brazeal shares best practices from her adventures in the diplomatic arena. Her stories illustrate the power of proactive listening, cultural adaptability, and building alliances in addressing global challenges. By exploring the fine line between leadership and management, she highlights the profound impact of guiding people rather than merely managing tasks. Through her experiences, you'll discover the significance of asking the right questions, fostering teamwork, and leveraging collective insights to drive change and innovation.As we wrap up, Ambassador Brazeal reflects on the essence of leadership—emphasizing joy, growth, and the transformative power of historical knowledge. From her favorite reads to her ideal places to live, she shares a glimpse into her personal life, offering inspiration beyond her professional achievements. As she celebrates a listener's graduation anniversary, we are reminded of the everlasting influence of history as a source of solace and hope. Join us for this engaging session that promises a wealth of wisdom and practical advice for leaders and aspiring leaders ready to make their mark.We have two upcoming events - one webinar and one in-person program. Please sign-up for our newsletter to stay informed about the details. You will find sign-up info on our home page at stirringsuccess.comFind us on YouTube!We publish new episodes every other Wednesday.Follow us on Instagram @Leadership_Tea for more inspiration and insights.Learn more about us and the podcast at www.stirringsuccess.com

Since July, according to an Associated Press report, more than 63,000 voter registrations have been challenged in Georgia, and roughly 1% of the people called into question have been removed from the state's voting rolls. Despite the low percentage of questionable enrollees, lawsuits are reportedly still being filed to order counties to do more. Associated Press reporter Jeff Amy discusses the latest. Plus, Comcast and Inspiredu recently opened a flagship Lift Zone in Atlanta to advance digital equity and drive economic growth. The new center offers free internet access and digital skills training. Melinda Little, vice president of Government Affairs for Comcast's 'Big South' region, talks more about the new facility and how it will serve as a connection hub for Georgians.Lastly, Aku Kadogo, a senior lecturer for the Department of Theater & Performance at Spelman College, and Spelman student Maddison Gardner, discuss an upcoming musical showcase called Sankofunktopia. The event inspired by George Clinton and Parliament- Funkadelic's album, “Funkentelechy vs The Placebo Syndrome,” is slated for Nov. 7 - 9 at 7 p.m. and again on Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. at the Baldwin Burroughs Theatre.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

EAB's Lindsay Schappell hosts a conversation with Dr. Andrea Lewis from Spelman College about helping new students get off to a strong start. Dr. Lewis shares details of the student onboarding and orientation process at Spelman, which starts with a college readiness program the summer before they enroll. Spelman's student support efforts also include mandatory study groups for first-year students and the use of Navigate360 to unite students, faculty, and administrators in a shared effort to keep students on the right path.

Host Cyrus Webb welcomes author Cornelia Maude Spelman to Conversations LIVE to discuss her journey that led to the writing of SOLACE----and what she hopes readers take away from it. 

Today, we have the amazing Mea Boykins in the studio! Mea is the definition of a globetrotter, and she's here to share her incredible journey. From her roots in New Orleans to studying at Spelman and earning degrees across the globe, Mea's story is nothing short of inspiring. We dive deep into her experiences living in six different countries, her switch from psychology to business, and her passion for humanitarian projects.Mea opens up about her decision to remain child-free and how her global experiences have shaped that choice. We also discuss the importance of giving back, with Mea sharing her hands-on work providing water to communities in Ghana and supporting students through scholarships. If you've ever wondered how to make a real impact in the world, this episode is for you.Tune in for a conversation that's as enlightening as it is empowering, and get ready to be inspired by Mea's dedication to living a rich, fulfilling life.CONNECT:Follow Mea: http://instagram.com/meaboykinsFollow Koe: http://instagram.com/koereyelleThis episode was sponsored by the American Red Cross. I'm teaming up with the American Red Cross for the Joined by Blood initiative this October to spread the word about the power of donating blood. Blood and platelets support patients with sickle cell disease who rely on regular blood transfusions, as well as those undergoing new gene therapy treatments. Head over to JoinedByBlood.org and schedule your donation today. Let's come together and show the power of our community.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/girlstopplayin/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this episode we sit down with dentist Dr. Chris Spelman to talk all about your oral health. He'll discuss why oral health is so important, how it affects the rest of your body, and some of his favorite doTERRA products to use like the On Guard Mouthwash and the new SuperMint Toothpaste. This episode is sponsored by PB Restore and the Serenity Sleep System, learn more about how you can get a free, exclusive copy of the Internal Use of Essential Oils audiobook by purchasing any of these new products. If you'd like to enroll to be a doTERRA member and receive a 25% wholesale discount on all products click here.

Q: What do you get when you put Robert Di Nero, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino in a 3.5 hour Scorsese epic about the life and crimes of Jimmy Hoffa? A: The Irishman! Nicole and Lauren are joined by writer Grace Spelman to celebrate Di Nero's platform shoes, the newest de-aging technology in cinema, and give special flowers to Ray Romano (Spoiler: Everyone loves him). Follow Grace: Instagram, TwitterNext week tune in for our next episode covering Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)!Like the show? Rate Newcomers 5 stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Nicole and Lauren to read on the pod!Follow the podcast on Letterboxd.Advertise on Newcomers via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bakari is joined by Detria Austin Everson, who is the chief executive officer of the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation. Detria dives into her career arc from her time at Spelman to continuing her activism in remembrance of John and Lillian Lewis. She also discusses what the foundation represents. Host: Bakari Sellers Guest: Detria Austin Everson Producer: Clifford Augustin Executive Producer: Jarrod Loadholt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices