Kyle Jacobs uses his talent for media and technology as a tool for more inclusive conversation about sustainability and environmentalism.

He's a graduate of Virginia State University and Columbia University.

His journey didn't start off rosy. He made it through abuse and the criminal justice system, all with help and support from Black women.

Chauncey was raised in Ohio, earned her bachelor's in Georgia, and launched her career as a Mississippi Delta Corps Member of Teach for America. She comes from a family that prioritizes education. Her grandfather is a doctor and her grandmother has a masters in social work, achieving that success when it was much harder for Black people to even go to college.

Although she faced high expectations and reached them, she knew there was more to her than degrees and titles.

She followed that intuition to Ghana, where she started to prioritize herself for the first time and continued applying lessons she learned from therapy, including inner child work.


Identities: Black-American, Black woman, woman of color, daughter
Profession: higher education, education policy
Themes: inner child work, self-care, travel

Victoria is a first-generation Asian American who has never taken any opportunity for granted. Her curiosity and tenacity led her to graduate from high school early and from college early, the University of Utah’s Eccles School of Business. Still, her road was far from what is expected. Her passion for education has her pursuing a career in academia while navigating being expected to be a "model minority" and managing mental health.

• Identities: Asian-American, woman of color, daughter, first generation, queer
• Profession: higher education
• Themes: mental health, tokenism, model minority

María is an educator from Florida who is pursuing masters at Harvard's Graduate School of Education with the goal of becoming a school principal.

• Identities: Latina, daughter, queer
• Profession: school leader
• Themes: family, mental health, domestic violence

Today I'm talking with Kenyatta, co-managing director and founding member of BlackSpace Urbanist Collective. Kenyatta and I go way back. Since studying together as undergrads at UCLA, Kenyatta has become an extraordinary entrepreneur who's reshaping the definition of an urban landscape. Before then she grew up in southern California, soaking up the wisdom of the matriarchs in her family as she navigated complex issues of race, mental health, and community.

• Identities: Black woman, daughter
• Profession: founder of an organization
• Themes: family, mental health, blackness
• Contact:
  • Website: https://blackspace.org/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackspaceorg/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/blackspaceorg

Our guest today is Luis, who hails from El Salvador by way of Houston, Texas. His isn't a story about academic achievements or professional accomplishments. It's about passion, perseverance, and a deep commitment to his community.

• Identities: Latino, Salvadoran, son, undocumented
• Themes: family, mental health, first-gen

I’ve known Coach Thompson for nearly ten years. He is the current head coach of his alma mater Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he was the star point guard on the basketball team:

• fourth on Hobart's all-time scoring list.
• second on the Hobart list with 492 career assists.

Before then though, he grew up in a neighborhood where the odds were stacked against him, facing challenges that could have easily deterred him from his path. So to him, basketball wasn't just a game; it was a lifeline—a ticket to a better future. And so, he honed his skills on the courts, striving for excellence both on and off the hardwood.

• Identities: black man, first-gen
• Themes: single-parent household, first-gen, sports
• Contact:
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/_StefanThompson