Be The Messenger

NEW EPISODE 🌱
“Your pain don't have to be the end of your story.”
My friend Bonita Dianne Clemons came to Be The Messenger and gave us a conversation that went FAR beyond farming.
We talked about:
🌱 Food
🌱 Health
🌱 Land
🌱 Black women and agriculture
🌱 Community
🌱 Entrepreneurship
🌱 Spiritual alignment
🌱 Purpose
🌱 Economic power
🌱 What previous generations knew that we may need to remember
Bonita's grandfather grew food.
Decades later, she's working toward influencing one million sisters to grow food in their own spaces.
But one of my favorite stories happens when Bonita simply went to buy some organic food.
A farmer sat her down.
Three hours later, before letting her leave, he told her:
“You're the one.”
She didn't want to be the one.
He told her it wasn't her decision.
WHEW.
That's a Messenger story right there.

🎙️ NEW BE THE MESSENGER EPISODE

Your Pain Can Become the Soil | Bonita Clemons on Food, Farming & Purpose
[https://youtu.be/fSZ0YgkX_QU]

And wait until you hear the message she leaves with the world.

1 day ago | [YT] | 1

Be The Messenger

WHO TAUGHT YOU?

Not only in school.

Who taught you how to move through this world?

Your mother?

Father?

Grandmother?

Teacher?

Coach?

Professor?

Pastor?

An OG?

Someone in the neighborhood?

In TIME TO TEACH, I ask us to remember that education has always been bigger than the classroom.

And I leave you with two assignments:

1. Thank somebody who taught you.

If they're still here, call them. Text them. Write them. Tell them what they taught you and what stayed with you.

2. Teach somebody something worth carrying forward.

A lesson.

A skill.

A story.

A piece of history.

Something your grandmother taught you.

Something your professor taught you.

Something your community taught you.

Something life taught you.

Pass it forward.

🎙️ Watch Messenger Memo #009: TIME TO TEACH

https://youtu.be/qI3ddHu5HdE

Then put their name below:

Who taught you something you still carry today?

Let's honor some teachers.

6 days ago | [YT] | 0

Be The Messenger

NEW MESSENGER MEMO 🚨

WHO IS TEACHING US NOW?

Think about that.

Because somebody is.

Every day.

Our phones teach us.

Social media teaches us.

Podcasts teach us.

Television teaches us.

Our families teach us.

Our communities teach us.

Schools and universities teach us.

And people behind microphones like mine teach us.

So the question isn't whether we're being taught.

The question is:

ARE WE BEING TAUGHT WELL?

I've been teaching my whole damn life.

But I've also been taught my whole life.

Family. Teachers. Coaches. OGs. Uncles. Aunts. Elders. Pastors. Professors. Community. Research. Mistakes. Successes. Failures.

And sometimes life itself sat my ass down in the classroom.

That's what this week's Messenger Memo #009: TIME TO TEACH is about.

My working proposition:

Teaching is transmission with responsibility.

And in an age where information is everywhere, I believe excellent teaching matters more, not less.

🎙️ TIME TO TEACH — Messenger Memo #009

Watch now. https://youtu.be/qI3ddHu5HdE

Then come back and answer this:

Who taught you something you still carry today?

Let's honor some teachers.

Healing First. Justice Always. Reform 4Ever.

#BeTheMessenger #TimeToTeach #Education

6 days ago | [YT] | 0

Be The Messenger

YOU BELONG HERE.

There are doors in life you may not even know exist.

And sometimes it takes a parent, teacher, mentor, elder—or another Messenger—to help you see the door, understand what’s on the other side, and recognize:

You are capable of walking through it.

My conversation with Attorney David Youngblood is about that journey.

David has practiced law for more than three decades and spent years working in public policy and on Capitol Hill. But before all of that, he was a young man who wasn't sure he was capable of becoming a lawyer.

His father believed it before he did.

Eventually, David discovered it for himself.

We talk about education, expertise, access, law, leadership, race, public policy, mentorship, purpose—and why the people who make it through the door have a responsibility to help others recognize that the door exists.

One of David's messages to the next generation says it all:

“You’re where you’re supposed to be.”

And his final Message to the World?

PAY IT FORWARD.

▶️ WATCH THE FULL CONVERSATION:
https://youtu.be/MQZvsALRLEc

Then come back and answer this:

Who helped you realize you belonged in a room you once questioned whether you were qualified to enter?

Give them their flowers.

Healing First. Justice Always. Reform 4Ever.

#BeTheMessenger #Leadership #Education

1 week ago | [YT] | 1

Be The Messenger

🌍 “THINK LIKE THE PERSON YOU WANNA BE.”

Then Lucky followed it with:

“Life is just a thought away.”

MESSAGE. 🎙️

I met Lucky at Podcast Summit 2026 in Atlanta and gave him the microphone.

He took it from there.

That's the heart of Collecting Messages from the World.

Different people.
Different perspectives.
Different lived experiences.

One opportunity to share something with the world.

Watch Lucky's message today and subscribe to Be The Messenger.

Another messenger gets the microphone next Sunday.

🌍 What message would YOU share with the world?

Healing First.
Justice Always.
Reform 4Ever.

1 week ago | [YT] | 1

Be The Messenger

“IF IT'S JUST YOU, YOU FAILED.”

Dr. Dennis Youngblood gave me that line near the end of our conversation.

And it captures something much bigger than professional success.

What do we owe the people who made our opportunities possible?

What responsibility comes with walking through doors somebody else fought to open?

And once we get through those doors:

Who are we bringing with us?

This conversation moves through generations of family history, Morehouse, medicine, racial identity, representation, mentorship, leadership and collective responsibility.

🎥 NEW EPISODE NOW LIVE

https://youtu.be/hMOMUZMALQM

Watch the conversation and then answer this:

Who is further along because you were here?

Healing First. Justice Always. Reform 4Ever.

#BeTheMessenger #Leadership #BlackExcellence

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

Be The Messenger

YOU HAVE THE POWER.

But will you use it?

Last Messenger Memo, we examined Proximity to Power Without Authority.

This week, we're looking at its structural mirror.

What happens when you actually have the authority—the title, vote, budget, resources, and ability to act—but the way you exercise that authority doesn't align with who you say you are?

I call it:

AUTHORITY WITHOUT ALIGNMENT.

And here's the proposition I want you to wrestle with:

Not exercising authority can itself be a consequential exercise of authority.

Because silence doesn't erase authority.

Sometimes silence tells us exactly how authority is being used.

🎥 Messenger Memo #008 is NOW LIVE:

https://youtu.be/qILGmBB1P8o

Then come back and answer this:

What are you doing with the power you already have?

#BeTheMessenger #Leadership #AuthorityWithoutAlignment

PINNED COMMENT

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

Be The Messenger

After more than 40 years in science, Dr. Lisa White came to a realization:

“They're probably gonna talk about me anyway...so I might as well just be myself.”

That line stayed with me.

Because this conversation isn't simply about becoming a scientist.

It's about becoming yourself while navigating institutions that weren't necessarily designed with you in mind.

Dr. Lisa White is a micropaleontologist, educator, mentor, and Director of Education at the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology.

We talk about becoming an “accidental scientist,” developing a science identity, being a Black woman in the geosciences, mentorship, belonging, authenticity, institutional culture, taking risks, and bringing the next generation of scientists along.

We even go back to the first time Lisa heard me challenging a diversity workshop at AGU and thought:

“You're gonna get us in trouble.” 😂

Her conclusion?

Some things needed to be challenged.

🎥 WATCH THE FULL CONVERSATION:

https://youtu.be/RbwP5Z89hLI

Then tell me:

What has it taken for you to remain yourself in the spaces you've had to navigate?

#BeTheMessenger #BlackWomenInSTEM #WomenInScience

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

Be The Messenger

A seat at the table doesn't mean you have power.

We have spent decades fighting for representation.

And representation matters.

But I believe we have to ask a harder question:

What happens after we get into the room?

Who controls the resources?

Who sets the agenda?

Who determines what gets implemented?

Who can say no?

Who can actually change something?

In Messenger Memo #007, I develop a concept I've been working on inside the Be The Messenger Framework:

Proximity to Power Without Authority.

Because an institution can become visually diverse while remaining structurally unchanged.

And sometimes...

the organization gets the benefit of your presence without accepting the consequences of your authority.

This one is heavy.

Watch the full Messenger Memo:

https://youtu.be/GCJ7JgBIbtc

Then come back and tell me:

Have we confused getting a seat at the table with actually having power at the table?

#BeTheMessenger #Leadership #InstitutionalPower

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

Be The Messenger

NEW GUEST EPISODE 🎙️

What good is intellectual accomplishment if your soul is broken?

Dr. Ahmad Washington and I are both sons of Columbia, South Carolina.

Both Black scholars.

Both products of formal education.

And both shaped intellectually by things that happened long before the PhD.

Hip-hop.

Community.

Black culture.

Family.

Schools.

Barbershop conversations.

Racial realities.

Lived experience.

So this conversation became something different.

We talked about who gets to decide what counts as knowledge—and what happens when institutions teach people to distrust what they already know.

Then Ahmad took us somewhere much more personal: therapy, Black men's mental health, surviving an aortic aneurysm, rediscovering joy, and realizing something many of us need to hear:

The institution continued without him.

This is one of those Be The Messenger conversations where healing and justice actually meet.

🎥 WATCH THE FULL CONVERSATION:
https://youtu.be/OBTnIMWsuKA

Then come back and tell me:

What did your life teach you before the classroom did?

1 month ago | [YT] | 4