Greetings Glocal Citizens!

Hello from Londontown, where I find myself officially starting my summer antics for the 2026 season. And where I’ve found inspiration for this week's compilation episode. From an early episode with crime writer, Leye Adenle, to last year’s conversation with activist and social entrepreneur, Lavinya Stennett, we’ll hear a range of Pan-African perspectives on how London is local for these guests--all of which happen to also be writers.

Serial entrepreneur, investor and author of We Don’t Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World, Eric Collins shares perspectives as an immigrant from the US to the UK. Lawyer, international development consultant, journalist, politician and author of Love Does Not Win Elections, Ayisha Osori helps us to understand home as presence. Award-winning author of Easy Motion Tourist, with a forthcoming new series due to launch this year with Fall From Grace, Leye Adenle shares about his London before experiencing it as a writer. As a lux-preneur herself, award-winning luxury business consultant, Elizabeth Solaru, author of best-selling book, Opulencia and LUXpreneur: How to start and build a successful luxury brand, is taking us along in her experiences transitioning from a career in the sciences to business. Architect, artist, and multi-faceted creative, Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay shares how his talents from design to music helped to give his London life an artisic flair. And finally, founder of The Black Curriculum, fimmaker and author of Omitted: The Untold Black History Lessons We Need to Change the Future, Lavinya Stennett helps us to understand effective organizing techniques for impact.

If you haven’t already settled in, mind the gap and take a seat on this Tube ride through London.

Where to find full conversations and show notes from episodes with this week’s guests?
Eric Collins
Ayisha Osori
Leye Adenle
Elizabeth Solaru
Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay
Lavinya Stennett

Soundscape:
Sounds Like a Train on YouTube

Special Guests: Ayisha Osori, Elizabeth Solaru, Eric Collins, Lavinya Stennett, Leye Adenle, and Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This past spring, a volunteer from the Digital Democracy Project reached out to me about its founder and this week’s guest, Ramon Perez. I’d never heard of the project and as a podcast about the many dimensions of citizenship, this was a very necessary conversation exploring innovative ways to enhance citizen participation and reform democracy using technology like AI, blockchain, and mobile voting. As an AI technology executive and US military veteran, Ramon founded the Digital Democracy Project as an accountability system and mobile voting platform that connects voters directly with their legislative representatives to address systemic problems in the electoral system that result in hyper-partisanship and widespread voter alienation. To achieve better outcomes, he believes technology can be used as a catalyst for building a more modern, representative system of government giving greater control directly to voters. #Listenandlearn more as we discuss systemic challenges in US politics and how technology can create a more transparent, accountable, and inclusive democratic process.

Where to find Ramon and the Digital Democracy Project?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Bluesky
On YouTube

What’s Ramon Listening to?
The Lord of the Rings Series Audiobooks
Empire Podcast

Other topics of interest:
On the Enduring Legacy of 9/11
About OneVirginia21
What is Gerrymandering?
About ranked-choice voting
What is Hyperledger Fabric?
Homomorphic encryption explained

Chapters
00:06 Intro and Guest Bio
01:54 Ramon Perez's Background and Motivation
03:14 Defining Democracy in the 21st Century
03:22 Limitations of Current Electoral Systems
05:30 Civic Responsibility and Voter Engagement
07:16 Educating Voters with Technology
09:50 AI's Role in Legislative Summaries
13:57 Systemic Problems in US Elections
16:16 Verifiability, Accountability, and Transparency
17:54 Ramon Perez's Career Path and Transition to AI
20:06 Public Perception of AI and Ethical Use
21:14 Tools and Innovations in Digital Voting
26:07 Global Examples of Democratic Success
35:34 Glocal Speak: Transparency as a Key Value
37:19 Organizing and Operating a Nonprofit Project
42:51 Historical Progress of Voting Rights
44:34 Future Goals and Expansion of the Project
46:44 Ramon Perez's Leisure and Personal Interests
47:42 Reflections on the Evolution of AI and Democracy

Special Guest: Ramon Perez.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week, as the summer heat inches up across the northern hemishphere, we’re hosting our youngest guest yet on the podcast. Augusta Barlow is a 14-year old change agent. Born and raised in Maryland in the United States, with family roots in Cape Verde, she believes in assistance through advocacy and service through sharing. She recently completed her freshman year at Northwestern High School, a public comprehensive and magnet school in Hyattsville, Maryland known for its rigorous Center for the Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) program. This year, in addition to starting high school she took on another new challenge as one of 12 participants globally in The Kuda Vana Partnership International’s, Youth Advocacy Voice Amplifiers-YAVA group which kicked off it’s inaugural cohort in October of 2025. YAVA is KVPI's youth program, where students learn to advocate for the mission and amplify it responsibly online. This cohort is running a capstone project driven by a set of interviews plus a coordinated push to grow the organization's reach the right way. In a why the where teaser, when her mother, friend to the podcast and colleague of our guest in Episode 93, Sef Ashiagbor, suggested she join YAVA so she could use her new Instagram account to help people, she agreed wholeheartedly. When not in school or doing work for YAVA, Augusta enjoys theater, movies, cooking and baking.

Where to find YAVA?
@ KVPI
On Instagram
On TikTok
On YouTube
On GoFundMe

What’s Augusta reading?
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

…watching?
The Knives Out Trilogy

…listening to?
Lyn Lapid Music

Other topics of interest:
What is KVPI? Kuda Vana Partnership International is a US nonprofit supporting family-based care for vulnerable children in Zimbabwe, working to strengthen families and communities so fewer children become vulnerable in the first place. Full picture and the Theory of Change: kudavana.org.
Take a culinary tour of Cape Verdean Cuisine

As you'll hear in the beginning of the episode, with the recent devastating floods that happened across Accra on June 28th-29th, conversations like this with young people challenging themselves to action and understanding around issues outside of themselves and their comfort zones, give us hope that the future is in good hands. For information on how you can assist those in need here in Accra visit the following:

Joy FM
Direct Aid

Special Guest: Augusta Barlow.