Living in 3D Power Podcast

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What happens when one simple question brings up something you’re still carrying?

This week, Amber and Emma test the 3D Curiosity Cards prototype with A Basket of Love.

The Discovery question is simple:

“What are some things that make you feel cared for?”

But Emma has a hard time answering. Eventually, she realizes she is still carrying guilt from a recent argument with Gram.

That unexpected moment opens a conversation about overwhelm, apology, repair, forgiveness, and how hard it can be to name what we need when something still hurts.

Then the card powers up.

A Toni Morrison Quote Garden card brings Amber and Emma back to a conversation from Episode 2: When a child walks into the room, does your face light up?

That earlier conversation included Emma calling Amber in for making “care” sound a little too much like criticism—especially when it came to lotion, ashy knees, and crusty feet. Toni Morrison Face

This time, Emma gets to grade Mom’s progress.

Spoiler: the report card needs work. 😂

Along the way, they explore the difference between loving someone and making them feel loved, as well as care, boundaries, accountability, repair, and the practice of trying again.

Ask a young person:
What are some things that make you feel cared for?

Ask a grown-up:
Who made you feel safe and loved when you were growing up?

Chicken Nugget Wisdom:
“Maybe it’s okay to feel overwhelmed and you should find ways to calm yourself.” — Emma Toni Morrison Face

Chapters

03:27 Divider Card Warmup
08:13 Discover Card Prompt
11:59 Gram Argument Repair
22:09 Battery Icon Power Card
23:52 Gladness Over Critique
27:23 Report Card Reality Check
29:01 Rules Boundaries Accountability
34:47 Be A Witness Round
38:11 Feeling Invisible Talk
41:11 Power Cards Chicken Nuggets

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!

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What happens when something feels wrong—but you’re not sure whether anyone else sees it?

In the final episode of our three-part Shine series, we move into Discernment and explore how individual experiences can sometimes reveal something larger.

Amber shares why she asks, “Is it just me?”—not simply for validation, but to understand whether other people are noticing or experiencing the same thing. She and Emma talk about the importance of speaking up in real time, echoing someone else’s concern when you agree, and recognizing when what appears to be an individual problem may actually reflect a larger pattern. 

Emma then revisits a lunchroom experience from elementary school. After hearing classmates voice similar frustrations, she asked others what they thought, wrote a letter on behalf of the group, and requested a class meeting so her peers could share their perspectives and possible solutions. 

The conversation turns toward what leaders do after people speak: Do they become defensive? Dismiss concerns as complaining? Simply say “thank you for sharing”? Or do they remain open enough to listen, learn, and change? 

Emma closes with this week’s Chicken Nugget Wisdom:

“Don’t let your silence make you not shine.” 

Chapters

02:50 Is It Just Me?
04:16 Speak Up in Real Time
06:12 Summarizing the Takeaways
07:03 Lunchroom Leadership Story
09:57 From Feedback to Action
13:09 Class Meeting Reality Check
17:14 When Leaders Dismiss Concerns
20:51 Closing Nuggets and Shine 

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!

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What happens when somebody else being good at something starts making us question ourselves?

This week on Living in 3D Power, Amber and Emma continue modeling a shorter way to use the developing 3D Curiosity Cards: one question, one conversation, followed by witnessing.

This time they choose Discovery.

Amber traces comparison back to childhood experiences with school competition, public performance, attention, and the early lesson that someone being “better” can somehow mean someone else must be worse. 

Emma offers another perspective: she sees people being compared, but she can recognize both her strengths and the things that take more work without letting either determine her worth. 

Together they get curious about praise, achievement, growth mindset, and how easily “I’m good at this” can become “I have to be good at this.”

This Week’s Curiosity

Ask an older person:
When you were growing up, when did you first feel like there wasn’t room for everyone to shine?

Ask a young person:
Have you ever felt like someone else getting attention meant there was less attention for you?

Then practice reciprocal reflection:

“One story I heard underneath your answer was…”

Chapters

00:59 Substack Comment Spotlight
02:49 One Question Framework
04:11 Discovery Question Begins
04:26 School Competition Stories
07:06 Over Complimenting Talk
12:26 Discovery Reflection Wrap
13:24 Strengths, Confidence, Praise
19:41 Cast Iron Cooking Detour
20:39 Middle School Growth Mindset
24:41 Closing Reflections Nugget
27:44 Guitar Sign Off Outro

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!

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Why does someone else’s shine sometimes feel like a threat?

This week on Living in 3D Power, Emma and Amber model a shorter way to use the 3D Curiosity Cards: one question, one round, and Reciprocal Witnessing.

Their Devotion question asks:

What kind of leader do you want to be when someone else shines in a way that is different from you?

The conversation moves through leadership, scarcity, comparison, envy, and the idea that there is room for more than one person to be talented, successful, or recognized.

Emma shares an honest example from art: sometimes seeing someone who is better at something she loves can sting—but it doesn’t mean she is suddenly less talented.

Together, they explore how comparison can become curiosity, how someone else’s strengths can teach us something, and why good leadership isn’t about being the best at everything.

Their family practice:

One way we will make room for our own shine and someone else’s is…

Emma’s answer brings it back to something simple: give people space to speak and be heard without immediately comparing them.

And in Chicken Nugget Wisdom, she offers a strategy for those moments when someone else’s shine makes you forget your own.

Chapters

03:06 Why Shine Matters
06:05 Leading When Others Shine
08:50 Reframing Envy
12:16 Family Practice Listening
13:29 Witnessing and Honesty
20:31 Chicken Nugget Takeaway

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!

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What does confidence look like when you are still nervous?

When the degrees, accomplishments, appearance, relationships, influence, and applause are stripped away—what remains?

This week on Living in 3D Power, Emma and I explore radical confidence, inspired by my sister-friend Hattie B., Founder and Editor of The Lead Up Magazine, and the powerful conversation she moderated at She Belongs Here.

Hattie describes radical confidence as standing ten toes down, being unapologetically yourself, taking up space without permission, and being fearless. But that last word gave us something to get curious about.

Because sometimes confidence does not look like fearlessness.

Sometimes it looks like doing the thing afraid.

Using our 3D Power Tools framework, Emma and I reflect on what made us feel confident—or question ourselves—at age eleven, how community can help us take off the armor, and what happens when our sense of worth becomes tied to what we produce or accomplish.

The conversation also takes us back to one of my own sixth-grade experiences with racism and school discipline, and Emma does what Emma does best: asks the question underneath the story.

By the time we reach Devotion, the conversation turns toward practice: What do we do when we doubt ourselves or keep waiting until we feel completely ready?

Emma’s answer?

Dance.

And her Chicken Nugget Wisdom becomes a challenge for all of us:

“Be radical somewhere.”

In other words: Be you.

Chapters

01:18 Lead Up Magazine Framework
03:36 Defining Radical Confidence
06:27 Round One Discovery
09:03 Confidence and Community
13:04 Racism and School Systems
14:53 Round Two Discern
21:38 Round Three Devote
27:20 Witnessing and Nuggets
30:41 Be Radical Somewhere

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!

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What did you already believe about your hair at 11?

In honor of Emma’s five-year locaversary, we use the 3D Curiosity Cards to explore Black hair across two generations.

Amber reflects on growing up with relaxers and messages about “good hair,” while Emma shares what it’s like growing up with locs in a generation where natural Black hair is increasingly part of her everyday world.

Along the way, we get into tender-headed childhoods, hair as identity, swimming and freedom, touching Black hair, beauty standards, choice, discrimination, Amber’s doctoral research on Black women and natural hair, and the question underneath it all:

What happens when something one generation had to reclaim becomes ordinary for the next?

Plus Reciprocal Witnessing and Emma’s Chicken Nugget Wisdom:

“Love your hair even if you don’t have hair—because you’re awesome.”

Chapters

02:51 Why We Chose Locs
04:52 Doctorate Storytime
10:15 bell hooks and Hair Politics
19:28 Emma’s Locs Core Memory
23:40 Length Standards and Cutting Talk
27:10 Unlearning Hair Shame
29:06 Loc Curiosity and Boundaries
34:19 Natural Hair and Liberation
35:38 Ancestral Strength and Choice
40:03 The CROWN Act and Hair Discrimination
42:49 Speak Up and Shut It Down
44:08 Reciprocal Witnessing
50:31 Hair, Health and Beauty Standards
52:34 Chicken Nugget Wisdom

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!

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Emma is starting middle school. Maya is starting her senior year. And we’re getting curious about what it means to belong without losing yourself.

In this back-to-school episode, Emma and I use our 3D Curiosity Cards to explore the stories we learn about belonging, why being heard matters, how we find and create environments where we can be ourselves, and what parts of ourselves are worth protecting as we grow.

Then we slide over to Maya for a special sister-to-sister Chicken Nugget Wisdom exchange about friendship, finding your people, middle school, and senior year.

The moment I can’t stop thinking about? When I ask Emma what she doesn’t want to lose as she gets older:

“Me.”

May all of our young people have spaces where becoming more of themselves doesn’t require leaving themselves behind.

Chapters

02:06 Early Start Adjustments
03:53 Round One Discovery
04:05 Mom’s Belonging Story
09:13 Emma’s Belonging Moment
11:38 Round Two Discernment
13:22 Voice and Safety at School
18:06 Final Round Devotion
20:24 Witnessing and Reflections
22:37 Slide to Maya Segment

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!

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What happens when someone sees something in you and helps you find a place where it can grow?

After spending a week at WITF learning sound engineering, podcasting, visual storytelling, music production, interviewing, and website design, Emma reflects on what made the experience feel so aligned with who she already is.

Amber and Emma explore how community can help us recognize our gifts, why making music makes Emma feel most like herself, and what it means to give our curiosity somewhere to grow. Through the 3D Curiosity Cards—Discovery, Discernment, and Devotion—they also reflect on the people who have seen something in them before they could fully name it themselves.

The conversation ends with reciprocal witnessing and Emma’s Chicken Nugget Wisdom:

“Do something that is calling to you…just do it.”

If you’ve lost touch with what calls you, Emma has a suggestion: go back to what you loved as a child.

In this episode: curiosity, creativity, youth voice, community, belonging, authenticity, Howard Thurman, podcasting, music, reciprocal witnessing, and helping young people cultivate what is already inside them.

Chapters

00:25 Camp Overview
03:16 Building a Canva Website
05:27 Beats and Making Music
14:24 Caffeine Episode Research
18:45 Round One: Discovery
24:58 Podcast Fan Moment
29:47 Round Two: Discernment
32:52 Bass Impromptu Demo 
40:20 Round Three: Devotion
45:05 Reciprocal Witnessing
49:24 Chicken Nugget Challenge 

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!

Send us Fan Mail

What might children teach us if we listened long enough to be changed by them?

After watching A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood during a family trip to Pittsburgh, Amber and Emma reflect on Fred Rogers’ extraordinary practice of presence: slowing down, honoring silence, remembering people, and treating children as people worth listening to.

Using the 3D Curiosity Cards, they move through Discovery, Discernment, and Devotion to explore childhood grief, adult joy, play, deep listening, curiosity, and what helps another person feel truly seen.

Emma offers a simple lesson when Amber asks how she knows an adult is really listening:

“They don’t interrupt.”

That opens a conversation about listening to understand instead of listening to respond, Amber’s tendency to stack questions, when curiosity can feel like interrogation, and why being present sometimes means resisting the urge to fix someone’s pain.

They also practice reciprocal witnessing, explore what it means to be “too much” and still belong, and consider how speaking life into another person can help them see something in themselves differently.

And Emma’s Chicken Nugget Wisdom?

Go outside.

Sometimes presence begins by returning to the world right in front of us.

In this episode:

•  Mister Rogers, intentional living, and the meaning of 143 
•  The ten-second gratitude practice 
•  What adults forget about childhood 
•  Play as joy 
•  Childhood grief and the need to be witnessed 
•  Listening without interrupting 
•  Listening to understand instead of rebut 
•  Curiosity versus interrogation 
•  Allowing silence instead of stacking questions 
•  Helping others feel seen, heard, and loved 
•  Reciprocal witnessing and speaking life 
•  Too muchness and finding your people 
•  Emma’s “Go Outside” Chicken Nugget Challenge 

Episode Chapters

 00:17 Pittsburgh Trip Talk
 02:20 Movie and Article
 04:19 Childlike Wonder
 07:30 Ten Seconds Gratitude
 09:55 Being Seen and Love
 11:48 Childhood Wishes
 15:27 Play and Joy
 21:07 Listening as an Adult
 27:07 Devotion Practice Ideas
 31:19 Witnessing and Speaking Life
 35:43 Too Muchness and Belonging
 36:37 Go Outside Challenge

Reflection question:
What helps you know that someone is truly present with you—and what might change if we listened to children long enough to be changed by what they say? 

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!

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What if love wasn't something you defined...

What if it was something you felt?

Inspired by a challenge from Amber's therapist, this episode explores what it means to experience love—not as an idea, but as something embodied.

Using the next round of their co-created 3D Curiosity Cards, Amber and Emma reflect on how our earliest experiences shape the way we give, receive, and sometimes question love.

Along the way, they explore mistakes, emotional safety, family practices, reciprocal witnessing, and Emma leaves us with another memorable piece of Chicken Nugget Wisdom:

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen deeply, and imagine what love feels like in your own body.

Reflection Challenge

Spend five minutes this week imagining what it feels like to be loved.

Then ask yourself:

Chapters

00:16 Imagining Being Loved

02:06 Conversation Card Rules

04:25 Round One: Discovery

09:20 Reflecting on Stories

11:27 Round Two: Discernment

19:10 Love Languages & Family Practice

23:09 Reciprocal Witnessing

26:43 Chicken Nugget Wisdom

28:05 Closing Challenge

Connect with Me:

Instagram: @natural_inclination

Youtube: @naturalinclination

TikTok: Amber Sessoms

LinkedIn: Dr. Amber M. Sessoms, NCSP

Bluesky: @ambersessoms.bsky.social

Facebook: Natural Inclination

Website: www.aninclination.com

Like, Comment, Share, Engage
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who would love these conversations. Engage with the Curiosity Cards and ask the youth in your life about their experiences because you might be surprised by what you learn. Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments or on social media using #LivingIn3DPower. And, don’t forget to subscribe and stay tuned for next week’s conversation!