Modern Minorities

"Some have to carry more weight than others - everybody's got to do their part to try to lighten their load."

Linda Clement-Holmes served as P&G’s Chief Diversity Officer AND P&G’s Chief Information Officer - significantly elevating early efforts in corporate Diversity & Inclusion. Starting as a systems analyst in 1983, Linda has led a global career as an “executive of firsts” - the first Black female Senior VP, and later President. Linda’s been named one of Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders, Black Enterprise magazine’s Top Executives, and Working Mother’s “Working Mothers of the Year,” among many other honors. Linda is an active active Board leader among many business and community organizations, is a graduate of Purdue University, and a proud mother of two accomplished sons. In this candid conversation about authenticity and courage, Linda speaks about her personal - and professional - experiences in race, and comments on the unique moment we face today. Linda shares how she works everyday to lighten the load of others, and gets everyone to do their part. 

For Black History Month, we’re sharing conversations from Raman’s other podcast “Learnings from Leaders” where we have candid mentorship style conversations - with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists, many of whom are alums of Procter & Gamble - where many industry leaders got their start with a foundation of purpose, values, and principles. 

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“Making improvements is challenging. But we can't give up and we've got to learn how to do it better.” “Speak, engage, help, be helped. Be part of society. Be an optimist towards the fact that people can change, that people can learn.” 

John Pepper and Ursula Burns sit down for a candid conversation on race, understanding and the state of our society’s devolving discourse. Ursula Burns was one of Americas first Black female CEOs, and John Pepper was the former Chairman of both P&G and the Walt Disney Company. This is a conversation among two of corporate America’s most celebrated CEOS - longtime friends - have been having for years - and wanted to bring us along for the journey. 

For Black History Month, we’re sharing conversations from Raman’s other podcast “Learnings from Leaders” where we have candid mentorship style conversations - with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists, many of whom are alums of Procter & Gamble - where many industry leaders got their start with a foundation of purpose, values, and principles. 

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“Don’t take the straight ladder, go up and across to build your toolkit.”

Najoh Tita-Reid is a Black leader of marketing reinvention who’s maintained feet on both sides of the world - literally. Najoh spent many years as a Black American living in Europe with her husband and two kids. Najoh’s worked across in multinational roles across leading brands like Mars, Logitech, Hero, Bayer, and Merck, after having spent 19 years at P&G - rising through the ranks of marketing and sales. Najoh earned an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a BA in English from Spelman College. She also completed the Executive Leadership Program at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Woman’s Executive Leadership Program at Simmons University and the Design Thinking program at the Stanford School of Design. As a member of The Executive Leadership Council, she serves on the International Steering Committee and the Community Service Committee. Najoh’s a longtime mentee of John Pepper (P&G + Disney’s former Chairman) who first made the introduction - and you’ll enjoy this candid conversation from the perspective of an American on the outside looking in.

For Black History Month, we’re sharing conversations from Raman’s other podcast “Learnings from Leaders” where we have candid mentorship style conversations - with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists, many of whom are alums of Procter & Gamble - where many industry leaders got their start with a foundation of purpose, values, and principles. 

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"People are willing to risk a lot to show their support for our freedoms."

Ed Rigaud was the first President & CEO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which pays tribute to all efforts to abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people. This conversation’s actually from June of 2020, when we were in the midst of a long overdue conversation about race in America. It was a great chat about coming up as a Black professional in the 60s and 70s, and a reflection on where we are today. 

Ed was P&G’s second-ever Black Vice President - spanning a 36-year career at the company in 1965 - during which he was the R&D Technical Brand Manager who helped create Pringles. Ed was later the first Black co-owner + lead investor of the Cincinnati Reds, as well as CEO of EnovaPremier, and CEO of Legacy Acquisition. Ed has served on numerous company boards, has received appointments from the Governor of Ohio, and a sitting US President. He’s a husband, father, grandfather, accomplished artist and guitar player. In this candid conversation on race, work, and life - Ed shares his thoughts as a Black man growing up in Louisiana, rising through the ranks of corporate America in the 60s and 70s, and reflections on the current climate. Ed believes that his number one mission is to help those who have been consistently under-represented to achieve higher levels of freedom…especially in the areas of education, economic empowerment, and inclusion.

For Black History Month, we’re sharing conversations from Raman’s other podcast “Learnings from Leaders” where we have candid mentorship style conversations - with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists, many of whom are alums of Procter & Gamble - where many industry leaders got their start with a foundation of purpose, values, and principles. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

“I used to have this dream where I would be laying down, looking up, about to die - I used to make all my decisions -  how I dress, how I presented myself to be opposite of that because I didn't want that to happen for me.”

Kris Stith is a DC native who has won awards in photography, painting, and podcasting. He is now freelancing as an Art Director / Creative Director in Los Angeles. Previously, he was an Art Director at AFSCME, and creative consultant for NAACP. He has always been a twin (double the trouble, double the flavor). In addition, Kris is the co-hosts of Beyond Hood and Evil, a comedic podcast about the Black experience exploring the themes of community, responsibility, professionalism and ethics as it relates to making it out the hood.Creatively, Kris aspires to deliver quality solutions for even the most nebulous asks. Using tangibility, transparency, and traction as his foundational principles Kris has been able to engage and activate audiences for some of America's most trusted institutions and emerging brands. Kris’ Clients and collaborators include: NAACP, NFLPA, AFL-CIO, the Biden Campaign, the Clinton Campaign, Intuit, JP Morgan Chase, AFSCME, the Democracy Alliance, Color of Change, International Association for the Study of Pain, UNAC, NUHHCE, the Mussar Institute, American University, Mimconnect, Fighting for Our Vote, ONE / OFF, the Dap Project, the Pinkline Project among others.

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“The book was originally a memoir about coming to America - my history and how it connects to what's happening right now. Trump sounds just like the things Castro said — this is pretty dangerous.”

Edel Rodriguez is a Cuban American artist, activist and author who’s created more than 200 magazine covers for the likes of Time, The New Yorker, Newsweek and Der Spiegel - which are singular and striking given our current political climate. Edel’s latest work is the graphic memoir "Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey" - telling the story of his childhood in Cuba and his family's decision in 1980 to join a hazardous flotilla of refugees, the Mariel boatlift. This may be one of the best (comic) books Raman read in 2023, so naturally we reached out for a chat.  In WORM - which is a term Castro used for Cubans who chose to leave the country - Edel uses his own life to capture what it's like to grow up under an authoritarian government and to sound a caution - from the runup to the 2016 US election to January 6, 2020 — to the future we are facing THIS election year. In our conversation we go deep into - and beyond Edel’s personal story - to get at the why for his activism and storytelling approach...

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“We don't understand people we disagree with, and being challenged by the news is something people find refreshing. I figured I couldn't be the only person out there who wanted that — and it turns out I'm not.”

So it’s a new year, and it’s going to be an interesting one, so what better way to start 2024 by an introduction to a different perspective? Longtime FrieMMd of the Pod Rajiv Satyal - beyond being a world-class entertainer and comedian - also hosts the TanGent show, featuring conversations from fields of entertainment, politics, business, religion, and tech. Rajiv recently sat down with journalist Isaac Saul, whose newsletter and podcast TANGLE NEWS is an increasingly relevant source of independent, non-partisan source summarizing the best arguments from across the political spectrum on the news of the day. Rajiv and Isaac covered a lot of topics including the political makeup of Tangle’s audience, and how our news sources really dictate our outlook and discourse. It’s a down the middle approach that might give you some pause. So wherever you’re coming from, we hope you’ll enjoy this candid conversation about how and where we get our news for a very important year to come...

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As 2023 comes to a close, we revisited some of our favorite moments from all this past year’s Modern Minorities conversations this past year. Minority voices for ALL of our majority ears. Heard someone you liked? Be sure to go back and check out any of our past episodes, leave us a 5-star review on Apple/Spotify, and send us a note about your favorite MMoment — it keeps up going: [email protected]

...so grab a (final) drink for the year, share with a friend (or three), and remember, we’re ALL Modern Minorities. 

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“People are interconnected in India, there's an interdependence that doesn't exist here — a connectedness, togetherness.”

To continue our chat on India ahead of Raman’s return trip, we connected with his other “Learning from Leaders” podcast co-hosts Sharad Lal and Rajiv Satyal. Sharad is speaker and coach based in Singapore who Raman worked with in Asia a lifetime ago, and Rajiv is a longtime FrieMMd of the pod - and a stand-up comic and entertainer in Los Angeles. In recent years both have done a ton of work on the subcontinent, so had a unique professional and perspective we couldn’t miss. India’s gone through more change in recent decades than the west has in a century. India isn’t just a modern superpower - it’s becoming a geopolitical swing vote - and of course there’s all the cultural wonder and awe folks have romanticized over the years, but now also with all the social and political growing pains one would expect from such a...colorful country. By chatting with some old friends, we hope to get a better feel for what to expect...

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“India just, it's so drastic, the gap between those who have and those who don't. But they also have a lot of joy. There's billions who live in fundamentally different ways from how we live and you can't get a sense of that until you're around it.”

Ahead of Raman’s return to India - his first time back in nearly two decades - he wanted to reconnect with some childhood friends - Barun Singh and Sonali Kulkarni. Barun is a tech and sustainability entrepreneur, and Sonali is a physician and public health advocate. India’s gone through more change in recent decades than the west has in a century. India isn’t just a modern superpower - it’s becoming a geopolitical swing vote - and of course there’s all the cultural wonder and awe folks have romanticized over the years, but now also with all the social and political growing pains one would expect from such a...colorful country. By chatting with some old friends, we hope to get a better feel for what to expect...

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.