In this episode of the Ben & Jamesa Podcast, we’re joined by author Jill Damatac, whose book Dirty Kitchen beautifully examines home through the lens of food, identity, and lived experience—and was just nominated today for the prestigious James Beard Award. 

Together we explore the deeply personal and ever-evolving idea of “home.” Is it a physical place, a feeling, or something we carry within us? Through thoughtful conversation, we unpack how home is shaped by memory, migration, family history, and the world around us. Along the way, we reflect on how our understanding of home shifts over time, and what it means to come back home and also to ourselves.

Support the show

 In this episode, Ben and Jamesa take a close look at hope — not as a feeling to perform or a wish to hold onto, but as an active practice of staying engaged with life when outcomes are uncertain. They explore the real benefits of hope: how it sustains meaning, drives action, and keeps us connected to others. But they also sit with the harder questions — when does hope become avoidance, pressure, or even a quiet form of denial? Along the way, they share stories that ground the conversation in the real world, from young inventors tackling environmental crises to the people and communities that keep Ben and Jamesa themselves moving forward. If hope is less about optimism and more about how we orient ourselves toward what matters, this episode is an invitation to practice it more honestly. 

Learn more about their organizational leadership work at www.benandjamesa.com

Learn more about the Ben and Jamesa Podcast at www.BenandJamesaPod

Support the show

In this episode of the Ben and Jamesa Podcast, we're asking does marriage actually help or harm women? We kick things off with the Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma. We explore the gray divorce revolution, the "Living Apart Together" movement, Leslie Jones' fiery claim that marriage is "legalized slavery," and the rise of women building their own community housing outside of traditional partnership. Joining Ben and Jamesa is award-winning author and activist Soraya Chemaly.

Soraya is an award-winning author, activist, and cultural critic whose work examines gender norms, social justice, free speech, and sexualized violence. She is the author of All We Want Is Everything: How We Dismantle Male Supremacy, described as "a potent rallying cry for a beleaguered feminist movement," in which she draws powerful connections between intimate inequality and the global antifeminist backlash. You can find her on Substack at Unmanned and on Instagram at @ragebecomesher.

Support the show

What is the secret to human connection? This week, Ben and Jamesa follow that question down a rabbit hole that takes them from a laboratory full of surprisingly affectionate octopuses, to the aging back streets of Japan where a quiet army of women are saving lives one yogurt delivery at a time. They'll get into Jack Harlow's claim that he "got Blacker" and the layers of problematic whiteness that it reveals, and why we all need a daily disobedience practice. Come hang out.

Support the show

 Ben and Jamesa are joined by author Derrick Barnes to discuss the growing challenges men face in forming deep friendships, the backlash against gentle parenting and what it means for raising children with empathy and courage. We also discuss a recent incident in New York City where a professor’s racist remarks were caught on a hot mic during a school board meeting. 

Derrick is a New York Times bestselling author and has earned numerous honors, including a Newbery Honor, Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King Award, Ezra Jack Keats Award, Charlotte Huck Award, Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor, YALSA Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award, and the Kirkus Prize. Derrick’s books  have reshaped children’s and young adult literature with joy, dignity, and cultural pride.

The Ben and Jamesa Podcast explores the subtle ways harm and injustice show up in our lives, from relationships and family to community and culture. Learn more at www.benandjamesapod.com 

Support the show

 In this season opener of the Ben and Jamesa Podcast, we explore relationships, loneliness, and cultural moments like the Olympics through the lens of compassion, curiosity, and courage. We discuss interracial dating, the challenges of human connection, and what it means to grow and repair in our personal and communal lives. Along the way, we reflect on our own life changes and share what’s coming this season with guests and new conversations. 

About the Podcast: Ben and Jamesa explore the subtle ways harm, injustice, and human connection show up in everyday life — from relationships and family to community and culture — through the lens of Compassion, Curiosity, and Courage.

Learn more:

 Leadership Coaching: www.benandjamesa.com
Podcast:  benandjamesapod.com

Support the show

In this short end-of-season episode, we share why we’re pausing The Ben and Jamesa Podcast for the rest of 2025—and what it means to winter.

We explore the wisdom of slowing down, resting, and syncing with the natural world, especially as we enter a season that asks for softness and recalibration. We also talk about why Americans often do the opposite—speeding up, overcommitting, and pushing through the darkest months of the year—and what it costs us.

Expect a beautiful nature fact about how the living world winters, a reflection on choosing slowness, and a look at how we’re preparing ourselves and our community for the new year.

🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast explores the deep work of healing, leadership, and community in a world built for disconnection.

Support the show

What happens when gratitude becomes more than a feeling — when it turns into a shared responsibility?

In this week’s episode, we explore gratitude as a community practice — how remembering what sustains us can become a guide for how we lead, work, and live together. We talk about the real consequences of recent SNAP cuts, the vacuum they’ve created, and the people and organizations stepping up to make sure everyone is still fed. These stories reveal what we call gratitude in action — not just saying thank you, but showing up for one another in tangible, compassionate ways.

We also unpack how this lens of collective gratitude could reshape how governments and businesses operate — replacing toxic individualism with mutual care, responsibility, and respect for the many unseen hands that sustain every community and workplace.

If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when compassion drives policy, leadership, and daily life — this conversation will give you a glimpse.

🌿 Listen to hear:

• The difference between performative and collective gratitude
• Real stories of communities filling the gaps left by policy failures
• How gratitude can guide workplaces toward deeper connection and trust
• Five ways businesses can lead through collective care

🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast is where we explore the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection.

 → Learn more about our coaching: www.benandjamesa.com

Support the show

Gratitude isn’t about counting blessings — it’s about remembering the people, systems, and histories that make our lives possible.

In this opening episode of our Gratitude Series, Ben and Jamesa reclaim gratitude from individualism and performance, grounding it instead in interdependence, justice, and care.

We explore:
 🌾 How gratitude became aesthetic and performative — and how to reclaim it as relational and transformative
 🥣 What the threat to SNAP benefits reveals about how our culture has forgotten shared care
 🌍 The difference between colonial gratitude and ancestral gratitude
 💭 How remembering our ancestors and the land can return gratitude to its roots in accountability and reciprocity

This conversation is an invitation to remember deeply — to practice gratitude not as denial or comfort, but as a quiet act of resistance in a culture that teaches us to survive alone.

🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast is where we explore the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection.

 → Learn about our coaching: www.benandjamesa.com

→ Download our Connection vs Control Starter Kit to learn your control style and receive our bi-weekly newsletter: https://www.benandjamesa.com/link-in-bio

Support the show

In this fourth and final episode of our anger series, we explore what happens when emotions are treated as private property—and how that belief keeps us isolated, performative, and disconnected.

We dive into the idea of toxic individualism—the cultural pressure to “handle your emotions alone”—and how it shows up in colonized therapy models, workplace expectations, and even family dynamics. What would it look like instead to manage anger together—to create communities and workplaces that can hold, process, and transform emotion collectively?

Along the way, we share one of the most bizarre natural phenomena on Earth: China’s Qiantang River tidal bore—a massive wall of water that reverses the river’s flow. Communities have learned to face this force together, turning danger into shared wisdom. It’s a perfect metaphor for collective emotional management: when the tide rises, no one faces it alone.

🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast is where we explore the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection.

 → Learn about our coaching: www.benandjamesa.com

Support the show