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Manhattan based non-profit Hot Bread Kitchen creates opportunity for immigrant women and women of color through food entrepreneurship. I spoke with CEO Leslie Abbey about how they leverage the NYC food industry to help women improve their economic trajectory. They also have an amazing marketplace! Visit hotbreadkitchen.org.

Sharon Palmer is a vegan nutritionist whose writing has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Oprah Magazine, Prevention, the Los Angeles Times, and many others. Her new book is The Plant-Powered Plan to Beat Diabetes, which includes 100 easy vegan recipes that are both inventive and delicious.

Founded in 1853, Manhattan College is an independent, Lasallian Catholic, co-educational institution of higher learning. In 2023, Manhattan College markes several milestones: 100 years in the Bronx, 170 years since the college’s founding, and it’s 50th anniversary of admitting female students. The President of Manhattan College, Brother Daniel Gardner, talks about the school's rich history in New York, being one of the first schools to prioritize first-generation college students, and it’s evolution into one of the region’s top schools. For more, visit manhattan.edu

Written by author and anthropologist Dr. Rooane Van Voorst, ONCE UPON A TIME WE ATE ANIMALS imagines of a future where animal consumption is a thing of the past. Dr. ROANNE VAN VOORST, is a researcher, writer, speaker, and moderator. As an anthropologist of the future, her core research focuses on what she calls ‘sustainable humanity’. For more, visit www.roannevanvoorst.com

Journalist Brianna Holt has spent years covering identity, race and culture. She now invities readers to unlearn their biases and expand their worldviews in her debut book IN OUR SHOES: On Being a Young Black Woman in Not-So "Post-Racial" America. Brianna Holt is an author, writer, and reporter living in New York City, who’s has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, GQ, The Cut, The Atlantic, Complex, and more.

With legalization of marijuana, easier access and more open usage among adults, the cannabis landscape has also shifted dramatically for children and teens. Davon Russell, President of the Bronx-based Community Development Organization WHEDco, talks marijuana perception and access for young people, and the need for education for all New Yorkers. For more, visit whedco.org.

More than half of the U.S. workforce are now millienals--and millenials say they prefer to work for businesses that embrace diversity. For Autism Acceptance Month, we spoke with Michele Ford, President & CEO of Inroads to Opportunities, a NJ based group that provides job training and placement to people with a variety of disabilities. For more, visit inroadsto.org.

In her new book REAL SELF-CARE: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included), Dr. Pooja Lakshmin explains why our understanding of self-care is incomplete at best and manipulative at worst—and instead, she offers a complete road map to treat ourselves with compassion, while asserting our power. Dr. Pooja Lakshmin is a board-certified psychiatrist, New York Times contributor, and the founder of Gemma, a physician led women’s mental health education platform.

For Immigrant Heritage week, our guest is Mino Lora, founder of the People’s Theatre Project, a theater rooted in Washington Heights and Inwood, presenting the world premiere original play THE DIAMOND, onstage now thorough April 23. For more, including show tickets, visit peopletheatreproject.org

Through a blend of compelling exercises, illustrations, and stories, Annie Duke, the bestselling author of Thinking in Bets and a former professional poker player, will train you to combat your own biases, address your weaknesses, and help you become a better and more confident decision-maker.

The UN has declared 2022-2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, as thousands of them are facing extinction. Our guests are Wil Meya of The Language Conservancy and Alex Fire Thunder of the Lakota Language Consortium, to talk about their efforts with the Lakota Language, and the New Lakota Dictionary and app now available at the New York Public Library. For more, visit languageconservancy.org and lakhota.org.

Meg Zucker is a lawyer, a mother and founder of Don’t Hide It, Flaunt It, a nonprofit with the mission of advancing understanding and mutual respect for people’s differences. Her book is BORN EXTRAORDINARY: Empowering Children with Differences and Disabilities, which shows parents how to empower their children to confront others’ assumptions, grow in confidence, and encourage dialogue—rather than silence, fear, and shame—around difference. For more, visit donthideitflauntit.com

During The Public Health Emergency (PHE) caused by the recent Pandemic, many of the requirements keeping current Medicaid recipients protected by their coverage were set aside, including routine checks whether recipients were still eligible. But now with the end of the PHE in April, many Medicaid beneficiaries are wondering how they will be impacted. Our guest is Donny Dennison, an attorney in the Elder Law practice at Mandelbaum Barrett PC in Roseland, NJ for a conversation about what Medicaid recipients should know.

THE TEACHERS: A Year Inside America's Most Vulnerable, Important Profession is the result of investigative reporter Alexandra Robbins intensive shadowing of three individual teachers over the course of a year, and interviews with hundreds of teachers nationwide. Alexandra Robbins is the author of five New York Times bestselling books, a Goodreads Best Nonfiction Book of the Year, and an award-winning investigative reporter who also has been honored for “Distinguished Service to Public Education.”

Social workers are real life superheroes who can help people navigate mental health challenges and trauma. Our guest is Katie Rodriguez, Social Work Therapist with JCCA, one of New York’s oldest child and family services organizations, to talk the growing need for youth mental health support – especially for teen girls. For more, visit jccany.org

Life changes, job changes, changes in our health…they’re always happening. And even when they are supposedly changes for the good, they can turn our lives upside down. Clinical psychologist Dr. Carrie Ditzel joins us for a conversation about why change is so challenging, what keeps people from progress, and ways to become more resilient. Dr. Carrie Ditzel is a practicing psychologist and clinical manager at Baker Street Behavioral Health, based in New Jersey, and recently appeared in the Real Simple magazine article, How to Cope With a Fear of Change.

At the beginning of Ramadan, the most important month in the Islamic Calendar, a look at a New York based organisation with Middle Eastern roots: The Syrian Music Preservation Initiative promotes and celebrate the diverse ethnic and regional musical traditions of Syria through innovation, research, and education. Our guest is President of the Board, Marissa Arciola. For more, visit syrianmusic.org.

In DRAMA FREE: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships, licensed therapist and NY Times bestselling relationship expert Nedra Glover Tawwab offers clear advice for identifying dysfunctional family patterns and choosing the best path to break the cycle and move forward.

It's astounding to think that within the child welfare system, black youth make up nearly 57% of the foster care population in New York State, compared to 15% percent of children overall. Kerlyne Colin of The Children’s Village, a charitable organization that specializes in working with the most vulnerable children and families in the New York metropolitan area, talks about how the child welfare system has disproportionately affected Black and Brown families, and how the organization is responding to racial inequity within the system. For more, visit childrensvillage.org

In THE COURAGE TO RISE, Liz Arch shows how trauma changes your brain and inhabits your body, creating a vicious cycle of physical and psychological distress. As an an internationally acclaimed yoga teacher, Liz offers a prescriptive and transformative plan to use yoga to heal pain, anxiety, depression, and other manifestations of unresolved trauma.