We welcome Andre Banks for a conversation on the role and influence that our digital connections play in our physical and mental wellbeing. There may be more questions than answers at the end of this one, so consider it the start of a much deeper conversation that will continue.

Our guests this week, authors Todd Newman and Emily Howell (together with Dominique Broussard), present their insights into the messengers and their messages that constellate to keep us unhealthy.

Getting resources to organizations truly doing front line work involves challenging entrenched ideologies and engaging leadership often marginalized in philanthropy: people of color. And so it is a group of funders and organizers of color who founded the organization, those who know best how to poke at philanthropy's power problem. One of the leaders of this charge is our guest today: Iara Peng, founder and CEO of JustFund.

Through Solutions Journalism Network, Tina Rosenberg thoroughly shares her passion for rigorous reporting, educating future journalists, and reclaiming the news as an agent of public good. She joins us today to talk about the media, and its role in healing.

Linda Villarosa is a brilliant storyteller, a journalist author, editor, and educator. She's a New York times magazine contributing writer where she covers race, inequality, and health. She joins us today to talk about just how far our public health system has to go on issues of equity and inclusivity.

This is going to be a season of perspective-shifting conversations that will touch on faith, media, the economic recovery, and the role of philanthropy. We start this week with a big picture conversation with our new co-host, Natalie S. Burke.

A few weeks back, we reached out to a group of CEOs and business leaders with a very big request: join Carrie and Alex Orfinger of the Washington Business Journal for an honest, on-the-record, uncomfortable conversation about the anti-racist commitments and statements we have made over the last twelve months, and assess our progress against those commitments. In our season two finale, we bring you that conversation.

Amira El-Gawly believes love is making a comeback at work, and she should know: she’s spent the better part of her career with a keen eye on her people, their relationships, and what leads to better results. This week she shares the hard work of bringing people together.

C.Marie Taylor’s company is Equity Through Action and through that organization, she leads leaders through active coaching, equity training, leadership development and recruitment focused on building equity into the very fabric of those with whom she works.

Marisa Forti’s entire career is based on pressing through obstacles for herself, and with those she trains. She uses the science of movement and the human body to set audacious goals and help her clients crush them. While the work Marisa does is at the elite level, we hope you take away a few key lessons from this episode.

Our guest today is a testament to that. Corey Briscoe serves as managing partner and chief operating officer for ABCD and Company. Their work is rooted in “event planning,” which might be true in practice, but in spirit it serves to minimize so much of the hard work of change Corey and his team have lead in the last year as their world shifted.

Jackie DeCarlo’s leadership is a model of adaptability. The COVID-19 crisis called on skills beyond those of daily operations. This week on the show, she joins us from the Manna Food Center administrative offices in Silver Spring, Maryland, to share the leadership lessons that helped her continue to press the organization forward.

Eric Meade is an award-winning author of two books (Reframing Poverty and Whole Mind Facilitation) and a nationally recognized facilitator who "stands outside of time" to help groups see their current issues in a longer-term perspective. This week, we reflect on history, how living in this time feels, and we touch on how the past can help prepare us for the future.

Dr. Robert Kelly serves as Vice President and Special Assistant to the President at Loyola University Maryland. As we catch up with Rob, he’s doing the deep work of reintroducing students to campus. He does so under the shadow of a pandemic and the baggage higher education carries with it from the last twenty years.

Carol Cone is an incredibly generous person. To hear her talk about what she does from day to day, she says her super power is connecting people, but that minimizes her story by a country mile. Here’s a woman who stands atop a bold mission. Welcome to Season 2 of Mission Forward.

For over two decades as publisher, Alex Orfinger worked to develop a strong identity for the region's business sector. After a brief stint away, he is now back at the publication as Market President and Publisher, leading the paper and doubling down on the city that he loves. In the face of great local and national challenges alike, he sees a role for the Journal.

If there’s one thing that 2020 has taught us, it's that dual transformation is key to sustaining organizations in 2021 and beyond. This week, Ken Zakalik, Director of Innovation at ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, joins us to share how his team looks into the future in the spirit of constant innovation in three core areas—culture, strategy, and opportunities.

This week, before we can dismantle inequality in financial systems, we must understand our roles in these systems. Karen Wawrzaszek is here to help us unpack the complexity of these systems.

This week’s show goes straight to the heart of the dynamics in entrenched business processes that serve to stifle innovation through diversity and limit opportunities for marginalized communities. The opportunity, says our guest, lies in demography.

Carolyn Lowery sat down with Carrie Fox earlier this year to discuss race in the workplace as part of our virtual community conversation series. The goal was to model a conversation on race and racism to show that while these conversations may be challenging, they don’t have to be intimidating.