FRESH Labs: The Greenroom

In this minisode, Courtney dives into what we can learn from community in building conversations with real staying power and how friendship is a love language all its own.

This last episode of the Greenroom features not one but two brilliant humans: Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson, a dynamic duo of climate scientists who are the visionaries behind the best-sellingAll That We Can Save. 

We talk about rage walks, asks that feel like invitations, and DMing celebrities on Insta. It’s a laughter-filled conversation that provides a deep celebration of the power of the collective alongside the nitty gritty of book publishing.

Bridgit Antoinette Evans is a groundbreaking narrative strategist at The Pop Culture Collaborative. She and Courtney sat down to talk about the stories that shape us in our families, on TV, and across our culture all the while asking: what other stories might we tell?

In this minisode, Courtney reflects on how Angela Patton took her time to make her documentary Daughters because she wanted to do it in a way that truly aligned with herself, her work, and she wanted to do it with someone she could trust. Taking that approach took a lot longer, but the result is truly phenomenal.  

Angela Patton is loving on Black girls in everything this does. In a conversation with equal parts laughter and wisdom, Courtney and Angela get into the power of taking risks, trusting your gut, telling your truth, keeping the girls she works with at the center of it all, and using her mama’s church training to memorize a TED talk on the spot. 

In this minisode recap, Courtney marvels at Edgar’s ability to see differing strategies as highly complementary in the long term work of making change. Oh and Edgar also compares himself to Paula Abdul on American Idol?!

Edgar Villanueva is changing how money moves inside of philanthropy and doing it with so much heart (and style). Courtney and Edgar’s wide ranging conversation covers how waiting tables prepares you for almost anything, the power of attribution, and why we have to risk saying the hard thing and saying it with  so much love.

In this minisode recap, Courtney and Aisha make the case for ditching the term “thought leadership” for the maybe less catchy but all the  more powerful “vessel.” We think there’s something to be said for how it captures the way  being deeply rooted in who you serve and where you come from reorients how you walk and talk and make your way in the world.

Aisha Nyandoro is crafting new narratives around deservedness, wealth,  and what we all need to thrive and we are here for it.. In her conversation with Courtney, these two get into why the term “thought leaders” is so cringe, what a difference it makes to have the folks living the problem crafting the solution, and how to tell if you’re going too far or not far enough in getting your message out in the world. 

You can follow Aisha’s at AishaNyandoroSpeaks or get familiar with her work Springboard to Opportunities and Magnolia Mothers Trust.