『Meet Me at the Highland™』のカバーアート

Meet Me at the Highland™

Meet Me at the Highland™

著者： Gabrielle Wyatt
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Meet Me at the Highland™ is a podcast and sacred space centering Black women's leadership, imagination, and legacy. Hosted by Gabrielle Wyatt, founder of The Highland Project, it offers intimate, intergenerational conversations with changemakers, artists, and cultural architects reimagining what it means to thrive. It's a rhythm of rest, reflection, and radical dreaming, where we remember who we are, reclaim our joy, and begin again. Season Two, Seeding, is unfolding now, with Highland Leaders like Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Dr. Topeka K. Sam, and Brea Baker. Each episode arrives with a love letter, journaling prompts, and reflections that invite deeper introspection. This is your invitation. To lead. To rest. To imagine forward. To meet us at the Highland.

meetmeatthehighland.substack.comGabrielle Wyatt 個人的成功 社会科学 自己啓発
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  • Dr. Topeka K. Sam: Not Just Free From, But Free To

    Dr. Topeka K. Sam: Not Just Free From, But Free To
    2026/08/19

    "Because of them, I can. And because of me, I will." —Dr. Topeka K. Sam

    What happens when freedom stops being a moment of release and becomes a practice?

    Dr. Topeka K. Sam arrives at the Highland with an answer shaped by a decade of moving from the freedom from to the freedom to.

    Dr. Topeka K. Sam is a trusted consultant and justice reform leader. She is Founder of The Ladies of Hope Ministries (The LOHM) and leads EPIC Financial PBLLC, TKS Ventures LLC, Faces & Voices Inc., and MyFRSH Financial Services, creating therapeutic pathways that address trauma and support justice-impacted individuals.

    In this conversation, Topeka calls in her lineage as the daughter of the most high God and the daughter of every Black woman who has led, conquered, cried, laughed, loved, lived, and died before her. Gabrielle mirrors back the shift she has witnessed since 2021: that freedom is a practice, not just a moment, and that Topeka has moved from naming wholeness as a North Star to living it as a non-negotiable, from urgency and survival to true thriving.

    Topeka places grace on the altar as her seed. Grace for herself first, learned in her first real rest at the Highland, because Black women so often extend grace to everyone but themselves. She traces the reflection that changed her direction: realizing she was rich in friends, love, and family, but not building financial wealth or anything that could outlive her. She names the narrative that polices Black women's earning in nonprofit spaces and the internal work of releasing it, forgiving herself, and trusting that she can do good and do well.

    She also takes us inside The Ladies of Hope Ministries, where women coming home from prison are met with housing, dignity, and an ecosystem of investment rather than a model of fixing. Dena's episode asked what the next generation inherits; Topeka answers with what she builds. She tells the truth about owning her whole story rather than the three and a half years others knew how to applaud, speaks directly to little Topeka, and offers Black women leaders her clearest counsel: move at your pace, trust your gut, and pat yourself on the back.

    Together, Gabrielle and Topeka explore why freedom without economic infrastructure is incomplete. Topeka shares what she is building now, businesses, financial pathways, and a fund to seed other Black women, so the next woman does not need ten years to learn what she deserves. She leaves us with the teaching that holds her whole arc: life is about going to the freedom to and not the freedom from.

    If Season Two of Meet Me at the Highland™ is an invitation to seed, then Dr. Topeka K. Sam seeds freedom in the hardest, most overlooked ground—the places where dignity has been denied and possibility has been made to feel far away. She reminds us that freedom is not only the absence of chains. It is the presence of choice, worthiness, and the conditions to flourish.

    Connect with Dr. Topeka K. Sam
    Website: https://drtopekaksam.com
    The Ladies of Hope Ministries: https://thelohm.org
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/topekaksam
    The LOHM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelohm

    Connect with Meet Me at the Highland™
    Full episode and companion content: https://meetmeatthehighland.substack.com/p/dr-topeka-k-sam-not-just-free-from
    The Legacy Studio: https://meetmeatthehighland.place
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meetmeatthehighland
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MeetMeatTheHighland

    • (00:00) - Black Women Lead
    • (01:48) - Welcome Back to Highland
    • (03:05) - Who Are You Daughter Of
    • (08:18) - Grace and Rest
    • (10:49) - Blooming After Loss
    • (17:03) - Freedom To Not From
    • (23:23) - Legacy Artifacts EPIC
    • (26:17) - Building Dignified Systems
    • (31:16) - Storytelling New Narratives
    • (33:36) - Belonging and Identity
    • (36:15) - Owning Your Whole Story
    • (40:10) - Questions on Belonging
    • (40:52) - Advice to Little Topeka
    • (42:33) - Guidance for Nonprofit Leaders
    • (45:38) - Future Stories Tease
    • (46:16) - Wealth as Freedom
    • (48:07) - Building Social Enterprises
    • (53:53) - Rest and Joy Practices
    • (57:06) - Protecting Peace in Chaos
    • (58:43) - Legacy Closing Reflections
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    1 時間 2 分
  • Dr. Dena Simmons: The Soil We Cannot See

    Dr. Dena Simmons: The Soil We Cannot See
    2026/07/29
    “Because of them, I can dream. Because of me, I can make my dreams come true.” —Dr. Dena SimmonsWhat is the emotional soil the next generation will inherit?Dr. Dena Simmons arrives at the Highland with an answer rooted in lineage, liberation, and the courage to stop calling endurance success.Dr. Dena Simmons is an activist, educator, and student of life from the Bronx, New York. She is the founder and executive director of LiberatED, an organization that centers radical love, healing, and justice in education and social and emotional learning to support the mental health of students and educators.In this conversation, Dena calls in the strength of her mother, who came to this country alone at 18 with $25 and created a life for her three daughters. She reflects on her twin sister’s chronic illness, her own health journey, and the years she spent swallowing difficult emotions because being a “good” Black girl meant not causing problems. Those experiences taught her what can happen when children are expected to achieve, endure, and remain strong without anyone asking how they really are.Dena shares how being bullied at Yale and ultimately walking away from the institution forced her to redefine wellness and success. Success could no longer be measured only by accolades, awards, or proximity to prestige. It had to include therapy, family, laughter, emotional honesty, movement, community, and the preservation of her spirit. She names self-preservation as community preservation and explains why the work of caring for ourselves cannot be separated from caring for one another.She also takes us inside the work of LiberatED, where educators and young people are invited to co-create the communities and systems meant to support them. Dena discusses refusing pressure to dilute the organization’s justice-centered language, the difference between neutrality and justice, and why social and emotional learning can become “white supremacy with a hug” when culture, history, identity, and power are removed from the conversation.Together, Gabrielle and Dena explore care as something we must practice rather than perform. They consider what it means to ask people what they need, listen without judgment, and act on what we hear. Dena leaves us with two questions that can reshape the emotional ground beneath our lives: How am I really? What would feel good right now?If Season Two of Meet Me at the Highland™ is an invitation to seed, then Dr. Dena Simmons turns our attention toward the soil we cannot see—the emotional and relational conditions beneath our homes, schools, organizations, and communities. She reminds us that the next generation will inherit more than our ambitions. They will inherit what we normalize, what we make space to feel, and the kind of care we make possible.Connect with Dr. Dena SimmonsWebsite: https://denasimmons.com LiberatED: https://liberatedsel.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denasimmons X: https://x.com/denasimmons LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dena-simmons-9263a918Connect with Meet Me at the Highland™Full episode and companion content: https://open.substack.com/pub/meetmeatthehighland/p/dr-dena-simmons-the-soil-we-cannot?r The Legacy Studio: https://meetmeatthehighland.place Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meetmeatthehighland YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MeetMeatTheHighland (00:00) - Black Women Lead(01:54) - Welcome to Highland(03:43) - Daughter Of Lineage(07:29) - Choosing Joy Daily(09:57) - Redefining Wellness(15:28) - Self Preservation Community(21:54) - Shifting Systems Through Youth(24:50) - LiberatED in Practice(30:20) - Courage Lessons Learned(36:35) - Freedom We Cannot Unsee(40:10) - Including Yourself in Care(41:07) - Daily Practices for Wholeness(43:23) - Kindness Joy and Community(47:39) - Wellness Needs Justice Context(50:42) - Neutrality vs Collective Healing(56:14) - Ecosystem of Care in Schools(01:01:04) - Care Under Real World Threats(01:02:23) - Agency in Healing and Culture(01:08:01) - Seeds to Grow Trust Community Love(01:12:11) - Mad Lib and Closing Blessing
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    1 時間 16 分
  • Katara McCarty How to Grow Without Burning the Soil

    Katara McCarty How to Grow Without Burning the Soil
    2026/07/08

    What does it take to grow something without burning the soil it grows in? Katara McCarty arrives at the Highland in the second episode of Season 2 with an answer shaped by both her flourishing and her depletion.

    Katara McCarty is the founder and CEO of Exhale, an award-winning, inclusive well-being app and resource that centers the mental health and well-being of Black women. She also leads Exhale Cares, advancing mental health equity through advocacy, education, and research. Her honors include first place in the NBA Foundation All-Star Pitch and a Webby Award. She is an inaugural Highland Leader and now a coach to many leaders across the Highland.

    In this conversation, Katara arrives slow and gentle, practicing a pace that does not shove her through the day. She names her lineage: daughter of Betty Waters, who opened her home to a foster baby in 1972, daughter of Mary Waters-Smith, daughter of Nellie Waters, daughter of community and collective care. She places a seed on the altar, a slower, more intentional pace of leadership that does not require depletion to prove impact. She reflects on what the Highland helped her remember about legacy, that it is not only what you leave behind but what you seed forward to flourish seven generations from now. She tells the truth about eighteen years as a pastor and nonprofit leader, holding space for everyone while few held space for her, and about the day in 2016 she landed on her bathroom floor, emptied, asking where to go from here, and the coach who told her to pour back into herself and to grieve. She offers the line that names the whole season: you can grow things, but you do not have to burn the soil. Gabrielle mirrors it back as wholeness, rest integrated with purpose rather than sacrificed to it, and names the difference between care as branding and care as a practice that actually holds us. Katara describes what Exhale really offers, not new care but remembered care, spaces that guide us home to ourselves. She names the vision she will not trade, I see us well, well resourced, well rested. She names what the systems do, deplete and extract, and frames rest and prioritization as refusal. And she closes with the mad lib that holds the arc in two lines: because of them, I can exhale, and because of me, they can exhale.

    If Season Two of Meet Me at the Highland™ is an invitation to seed, then Katara McCarty tends the question of what the soil requires. Before the planting, the conditions. Before the harvest, the rest. Seed yourself first. Let this episode be a remembering that there is nothing wrong with us, that we are deserving of our own care, and that we can build a different way.

    Connect with Katara
    Website: exhale-app.com
    Exhale Cares: exhalecares.com
    Instagram: @kataramccarty
    LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kataramccarty

    Connect with Meet Me at the Highland™
    Full episode and companion content: https://meetmeatthehighland.substack.com/p/katara-mccarty-how-to-grow-without
    The Legacy Studio: https://meetmeatthehighland.place/
    Instagram: @meetmeatthehighland
    YouTube: @MeetMeatTheHighland

    • (00:00) - Intro
    • (02:23) - Arriving Slow and Gentle
    • (03:56) - Lineage Daughter Of
    • (06:38) - Seeding Slower Leadership
    • (09:35) - Legacy Seven Generations
    • (13:33) - Depletion and Turning Point
    • (16:33) - Bathroom Floor Breakthrough
    • (21:55) - Grow Without Burning
    • (27:25) - Relearning Rest from Grandma
    • (30:51) - Rest Fuels Creativity
    • (34:25) - Care as Practice Now
    • (36:11) - Pandemic Spark for Exhale
    • (39:31) - Building Exhale From Frustration
    • (43:08) - Wellness Spaces And Harm
    • (46:05) - Remembered Care And Mirroring
    • (48:41) - What Is Yours To Carry
    • (54:33) - Discernment And Saying No
    • (01:01:42) - Protecting The Seven Generation Vision
    • (01:03:16) - Breath As Daily Resistance
    • (01:07:32) - Support The Movement
    • (01:13:35) - Mad Libs And Gratitude
    • (01:16:03) - Closing Celebration And Farewell
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    1 時間 18 分
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