DEI After 5 with Sacha

What if the future we need is not something entirely new, but something we have to remember?

In this Part 2 conversation, Sacha Thompson and Joy Donnell continue exploring the relationship between history, community, nature, and care. This time, they look more closely at what happens when people, land, and culture are treated as resources to be controlled rather than relationships to be honored.

Together, they discuss Indigenous knowledge, colonization, environmental harm, community resilience, and the ways our well-being is tied to the earth and to one another. The conversation also examines what it means to center care in the systems and communities we build moving forward.

Progress rarely happens in a straight line. Sometimes moving forward requires looking back, reconnecting with what we have lost, and asking better questions about the future we want to build.

In this episode of DEI After 5, Sacha Thompson talks with Joy Donnell about narrative change, community, time, history, and our growing disconnection from the earth. Together, they explore how storytelling shapes what society sees as possible, why the Overton Window matters when thinking about social change, and what gardening can teach us about care, community, and resilience.

The conversation also looks at Sankofa—the idea that we can move forward by reaching back for what is valuable—and how history can help us better understand moments of progress, resistance, and pushback.

Diversity does not need to be created. It already exists.

In this Part 2 conversation following our episode on Black Fatigue, Sacha Thompson continues the discussion with Dr. Mary Frances Winters and Marisha Winters-Reese about what happens when organizations resist the very realities their employees are living.

Together, they explore why diversity is an inherent part of the human experience, how power shapes resistance to workplace inclusion, and why the current backlash does not eliminate the need for this work. The conversation also expands beyond the U.S. to consider how workplace equity is understood globally and what leaders need to pay attention to as expectations continue to shift.

Black fatigue is more than being tired. It is the cumulative, intergenerational toll of navigating racism over time—and that stress can affect the body, mind, relationships, and sense of belonging.

In this episode of DEI After 5, Sacha Thompson is joined by Dr. Mary Frances Winters and Marisha Winters-Reese for a powerful conversation about Black fatigue, the physiological effects of racism, and what healing can look like.

Together, they unpack the concept of “weathering,” the chronic stress created by repeated exposure to racism and discrimination, and how those experiences can accumulate over time. They also explore the difference between belonging in community and belonging at work, why respect can mean different things to different people, and the practices that can help restore capacity and reclaim humanity.

After last week’s conversation on Tall Poppy Syndrome and how high-achieving Black women and women of color are often cut down in the workplace, this episode asks a different question: what do we build instead?

In this Part 2 episode of DEI After 5, Sacha Thompson reflects on the move from radical self-reliance to intentional community. For solopreneurs, women entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and anyone trying to build something healthier than what they came from, the work is not just avoiding toxic environments—it is creating structures, relationships, and practices that support trust, collaboration, and psychological safety.

This conversation explores how self-reliance can become a survival strategy, why delegation and collaboration matter, and how leaders can avoid recreating the same harmful dynamics they once had to survive. It is a call to build the “poppy farm”: a community where growth is nurtured, not threatened.

What happens when high-achieving Black women and women of color enter organizations, do the work, name the problems, and then become the problem?

In this episode of DEI After 5, Sacha Thompson welcomes back attorney Brittany Hale for a timely conversation about Tall Poppy Syndrome, workplace abuse, psychological safety, and the patterns that push talented women out of organizations. Together, they unpack why some workplaces reward mediocrity, resist accountability, and marginalize the very people who are identifying risks, gaps, and opportunities for change.

This conversation also explores conflict fluency: the ability to navigate tension, name what is happening, and address issues before they become culture problems, legal risks, or talent losses. For many Black women and women of color, the challenge is not a lack of skill. It is the exhausting reality of being in permanent proving mode while trying to survive systems that benefit from their labor but resist their truth.

Sometimes the lessons we need are hiding in plain sight—even in a children’s movie.

In this episode of DEI After 5, Sacha Thompson and Dr. Evelyn Carter continue their conversation on racism, power, and the systems that shape our everyday lives. Using Frozen 2 as an unexpected entry point, they unpack themes of settler colonialism, collective liberation, accountability, and what it means to “do the next right thing” when the path forward feels overwhelming.

Together, they explore the difference between race and racism, why individual success cannot be separated from collective experience, and how modern fights against racism require consistency—not just statements, good intentions, or surface-level change.

Racial bias is not always loud or obvious, but it still shapes how people are seen, treated, believed, and included. In this Season 13 opener of DEI After 5, Sacha Thompson talks with Dr. Evelyn Carter, social psychologist and author of Was That Racist?: How to Detect, Interrupt, and Unlearn Bias in Everyday Life, about how bias works, how it connects to power, and why historical context still matters.

Together, they unpack the difference between racial bias and racism, how current events reveal deeper patterns of exclusion, and why understanding history helps us better understand the present. The conversation also touches on voting access, gender, policy, and the importance of asking better questions when something feels “off.”

DEI After 5 is back for Season 13—and this season will look a little different. We’re revisiting timely conversations from past seasons, bringing in new guests, and exploring what the future of DEI, inclusion, workplace culture, and psychological safety looks like in today’s anti-DEI climate. Tune in as we ask what’s changing, what still matters, and where we go from here.

The language around workplace culture may keep changing, but the real work has not gone away. Employees still want to feel respected, recognized, supported, and safe enough to tell the truth about their experiences.

In this replay episode of DEI After 5, Sacha Thompson reflects on the future of this work and why organizations need more than one-off workshops or performative statements. The conversation explores the shift toward deeper culture transformation, trust rebuilding, accountability, and repair after harm.

This episode is about what it takes to build a true culture of care—one where leaders align their actions with their values, employees feel seen and heard, and organizations create conditions where people can contribute without constantly bracing themselves.