 Happy New Year! We’re excited to be closing out 2018 on a high note by welcoming yet another fantastic guest on the show. This time around it’s Anitra Durand Allen. Torn by the demands of a full-time career and a full-time commitment to managing the careers of her super kids, Anitra walked away from a six-figure salary to pour her time and talents into creating success in her own family. Now, she is a certified family coach, speaker, author, and the Creator & Chief Mom at The Mom On The Move, an online resource and community providing success tools for motivated moms with busy families. Driven by the desire to be “just a wife and a mom,” Anitra uses the skills she gained as a corporate project manager to run the most important organization in her life: her family. Through evidence-based, easy to apply changes in communication, she helps moms and wives reduce stress and improve outcomes with their spouses, partners, and children. Anitra is married to her college sweetheart, Harold. They are raising their two daughters — a professional actress and an All-American sprinter — in Louisville, KY. Find her on social at: www.instagram.com/TheMomOnTheMove www.facebook.com/TheMomOnTheMove www.twitter.com/TheMomOntheMove We also sounded our Air Horn for actor and all-around fabulous, fierce woman Taraji P. Henson and the launching of her nonprofit, the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, aimed at combating the stigma around mental health in the African-American community. Listen in and join the conversation! 

Hey, Sis!

Ep. 61: How to Get More Done in Less Time

 Hey, hey! We’re back with a fresh, new episode. This week we’re chatting it up with Charnaie Gordon of Here Wee Read. Charnaie is a wife, mom of two, computer programmer by day, blogger/influencer by night, self-proclaimed lifelong learner, podcast junkie and Distinguished Toastmaster. Her blog, Here Wee Read, is where she is currently expressing her creativity and passion for reading, diverse literature, and literacy. Her children and her husband are her inspiration and her followers/supporters are her book-loving tribe. More than anything else, she cares about connecting people with great books they'll love. In her world books are an absolute necessity. Charnaie is passionate about instilling a love of reading, lifelong learning, and curiosity in her kids. She hopes to inspire others to do the same with their children.  Charnaie is also the creator of the Bookstagram Choice Awards on Instagram, a contributing writer for Brightly and a contributing writer for Laila Ali's blog.  She's also working with her two children on their family community service project, 50 States 50 Books, a project helping to close the literacy gap in the United States.  So far she and her children have collected and donated 650 diverse children's books to 13 different states.  Their goal is to donate 50 diverse children's books for each of the 50 U.S. states and donate them to children in need around the country.  A forthcoming gracious 800 book donation from Hachette Book Group will help them complete 16 additional states in the coming weeks.  Taking their total number of states left to complete down to 21.  Find her online at hereweeread.com and @hereweeread on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.  You can find her children at @50states50books. We’re also sounding our Airhorn for legendary actress, Cicely Tyson, who at 93 received an honorary Oscar. 

Ep. 60: Representation Matters with Charnaie Gordon

We’re back at it, this time with our friend and special guest Natasha C. Nicholes. Who’s that, you ask? Listen. Basically, the woman is no joke. Natasha is a serious maker. To be a serious maker, you need the ability to see things not as they are but as what they can be. Not only that, you need the skills to make that vision into reality. That is Natasha’s super power. Where others saw an abandoned lot on the Southside of Chicago, Natasha saw a community garden overflowing with greens, fresh food for her neighbors, and chickens. Because of Natasha’s community leadership and hard work, the We Sow We Grow Community Garden allied with local stores, won features on the Harry show and in the Chicago Tribune, and was a 2017 Iris Award Nominee for the Best Philanthropic Work of the Year. Not only does Natasha grow food, she grows humans. She made four bold and brilliant children with her husband — and even made two of them at the same time. She even homeschools. But when she was researching online to find families like hers, she didn’t find any voices of African Americans represented. So of course, she created her own space at Houseful of Nicholes. Find her on social at: Twitter - @NatashaNicholes; IG - @Natasha Nicholes; and FB - We Sow We Grow We also sounded out Air Horn for the incomparable Michelle Obama (a.k.a. Our Forever FLOTUS) and the release of her bestselling memoir Becoming.

Ep. 59: 'Stop Juggling and Get a Basket'

Welcome back! Last episode we introduced you to the new focus of the podcast. We’re talking to women just like us: work-at-home-moms with creative, slightly unconventional careers. This week we got into the importance of carving out time for ourselves to recharge the batteries. Maybe that looks like a professional development conference that you attend every year or a quiet retreat you go to so you can center on your art/writing/business for two days or perhaps it’s getting together with some chill, like-minds and going for a hike every Saturday to hash things out. Hey, maybe it’s just getting a decent hotel room in your town for a night by yourself to do whatever you damn well please. Make that staycation a mom-cation. It’s all about recharging and taking a few clean breathes, free of guilt and stress. Amen! Tell us: How do you make time for YOU, the “me” before you became a mom? Let us know, ‘cuz we’re nosy and we like to share good intel with our people! We also sound the Air Horn for all the women who became elected officials and made history in the 2018 midterm elections. Listen in!

Ep. 58: You Probably Need a Mom-cation

 Hey, hey! We’re back with another fresh episode. Circle up because this one’s important. We’ve decided to narrow the focus of our podcast to zero in on a particular type of woman: creative work from home moms. We’re talking about the entrepreneurs, the writers, the artists, the bloggers, the consultants, the freelancers, the business owners, the creatives. Those women who juggle making a living working for themselves with taking care of their homes, kids and partners while working from home offices, co-working spaces and Starbucks. We have a strong connection to these women because they are us. And we want to make sure that we’re cutting through the BS and shame and guilt out there to provide good resources, support, and community for other creative work from home moms out there. Listen in for more on our pivot. And let us know what you think! 

Ep. 57: We See You, Creative Work From Home Mom

 We’re back after a week’s break, and we’re fired up all over again. This time we’re All A Twitter about the steady rise of white people calling the police on Black folks just living. These latest outrageous stories have one man in St. Louis being physically blocked from entering his own building because white woman and her puppy decided that he didn’t belong there; white woman in Brooklyn calling police on Black child(!) after falsely accusing him of groping(!) her at the deli; and a young white man in SoCal calling the police on a Black woman for daring to search her own car’s trunk. Worst part is? This is just a handful of these kinds of infuriating stories. Damn, it’s like, can we live? (Answer seems to be: nope.) We’re also honoring activist and original Me Too founder Tarana Burke again. This week marked one full year since the #metoo movement’s second iteration went viral. We’re looking at how far we’ve come and how much more ground needs to be torched in order to set down a new and better path for survivors. 

Ep. 56: #MeToo Movement -- One Year Later

 We’ve got a hot + fresh Nsquared episode for you. Starting things off, we’re All a Twitter about the Season 3 finale of Insecure and finding out what happened to Ghost Bae (a.k.a Nathan, Issa’s barber boo). We also get into another buzzed about topic right now: Kanye West. Whether it’s that awful MAGA hat or his pro-trump rants, we’re basically asking the same thing you are … WYD, Kanye? This leads us into the main topic this week: mental health and the importance of investing in meaningful self-care. For Black women, it’s almost a revolutionary act to put your mental health and wellness as priority one, and we get into how we’re doing exactly that. Plus, we sound our Air Horn for Atlanta-based psychologist Dr. Joy Harden Bradford and her great resource Therapy For Black Girls, an online space dedicated to encouraging the mental wellness of Black women and girls. The site can even help you find a therapist in your city! So, relax, relate, release, and listen in! 

Ep. 55: Making Your Mental Health a Priority

 It’s another Nsquared episode! This time we’re talking about friendships as an adult, specifically when you go through a major life change like moving or having a baby. Maintaining friendships as an adult is hard enough but sometimes big changes like a new baby can shatter them completely. We’re sharing our experiences and giving some tips on how to keep those friendships going strong even after that little bundle of joy joins the party. We’re also All A Twitter about the disgusting mess of the Supreme Court Nomination process for Kavanaugh. And we’re sounding our Airhorn Salute for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and her bravery in coming forward with her testimony. *Programming note: we recorded this episode before the Senate hearings for both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh that took place on Thursday 9/27 

Episode 54: What About Your Friends?

We’re back with another N+N episode! This time we’re all abuzz about the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards which aired earlier this week. On the real, this year’s Emmys were a bit of a snooze but there were still some fun moments — The Fonz! Betty White! Teddy Perkins! — and we dive into each of them. We also talk about some of the new, diverse shows slated for this Fall season. We sound our Airhorn Salute for the one and only Regina King who won her third Emmy for her starring role on Netflix’s Seven Seconds.

Ep. 53: The Highs & Lows of The Emmys

 It’s an N-squared episode fresh and ready for ya! This week we’re All A Twitter about — #spoileralert! — that tall, cool, drink of Big Gulp, Lawrence (Jay Ellis), walking back into our lives on HBO’s Insecure. This means we got a brief visit from our fave sidekick, Chad (Neil Brown. Jr.), too. We’re also buzzing about Lena Waithe’s powerful acceptance speech for the Shot Caller Award she won at the recent Black Girls Rock ceremony. She encouraged us all to “get free” of the limited thinking, restricted narratives, stereotypes, and unnecessary fear about what other people think of you, and instead live out loud as your authentic self. This leads into our larger conversation about tennis great Serena Williams and the tired-ass “angry, Black woman” trope too many of us have to deal with every damn day. And we close out the show with an Air Horn Salute for 20-year-old, Women’s U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka. Get in to this! 

Ep. 52: It's Time to Get Free, Sis!

 This week we're chopping it up with A'Driane "addyeB" Nieves, a USAF veteran, self-taught artist, activist, and speaker with a heart for serving others and social good. She’s the founder of Addie Addye Studios, and gallery & boutique in Philadelphia that serves women artists of color. She's also a mental health advocate living with bipolar disorder, and runs an online mental health support group for women of color called Tessera Collective. She empowers women to transform brokenness in their lives into power and beauty, and amplifies the voices and experiences of those marked as Other in society through her written and visual work. She believes creating and viewing visual art that addresses themes such as racism, mental health, and recovering from trauma can serve as a catalyst for personal growth and social change.Her work has been featured on BlogHer, Everyday Feminism, Upworthy, Buzzfeed, Mashable, The Fourth Trimester Bodies Project, Sheryl Sandberg's "Option B" platform, and MISC Magazine. Her artwork has been exhibited at Wild Goose Festival, Johnson State College, WORKS San Jose, and most recently at Rare Device in San Francisco. She lives in New Jersey with her robotics loving husband and three boys. Plus, we sound the Air Horn for Nike and their newest ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick. Nike will air its first "Just Do It" ad narrated by Colin Kaepernick during the NFL season opener Thursday night. How do you like them apples, NFL? Listen in! 

Ep. 51: Making Art and a Difference with A'Driane "addyeB" Nieves

We're back with another fresh one and another lovely guest! We welcome our friend and fave IG Influence LaShawn Wiltz. LaShawn is the creator of Everyday Eyecandy where she blogs about motherhood, her life, her passion for capturing everyday moments through photography and trying to find her version of balance through it all. She was the 2017 Mom 2.0 Summit IRIS Award winner for Best Instagram And 2018 winner for Best Photography. She is also VERY passionate about helping everyone live their best Instagram life. Based in Atlanta, GA, you can find Lashawn on Instagram, capturing the beauty in life’s everyday moments, documenting her days as a working wife and mom with a half-finished coffee in one hand and her camera in the other. LaShawn is also on Twitter: @lashawnwiltz and FB: @lashawnsphotoblog. We also sounded our Air Horn Salute for pioneering NASA mathematician and "human computer" Katherine Johnson, who celebrated her 100th birthday this week! So glad that she's able to see and feel all the well-deserved admiration, love, and gratitude going her way. 

Ep. 50: Looking For Everyday Eyecandy with LaShawn Wiltz

 We're excited to welcome our homegirl Amber L. Wright to the show this week! Amber is a communication coach, consultant, and owner of Words Well Said, LLC. Her superpower is helping women take their voice off mute and use it to change their lives. A popular speaker and award-winning educator, she is known for her hilarious, authentic, and inspiring approach to speaking and teaching. An expert in storytelling, she has helped a stellar roster of clients tell their stories at TEDx events, SXSW, and Harvard. She’s been featured in or mentioned on sites like Forbes, Mashable, Fast Company, and Black Enterprise. Her debut book, Can We Talk? 10 Life Lessons on Finding Your Voice and Finding Yourself, was released in 2017 and is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com. She’s a married mom of two, a proud lefty, and card-carrying member of Beyonce’s BeyHive. We're also sounding out Airhorn for Crazy Rich Asians, whose box office success is further proof that #RepresentationMatters, but it also brings in the big dollars.  

Ep. 49: Take Your Voice Off Mute with Amber L. Wright

 Hey, hey! Not only are we back with a new N+N episode, but it's another episode that we recorded sitting right next to each other. We could get used to this! This week we're All A Twitter about the return of HBO's Insecure for its third season. And we're issuing a major spoiler alert because we dive right into what's going on. We're also talking about Black women and the power in getting outdoors. We highlight a few women and organizations who are doing their part to help make the outdoors a more colorful, reflective place, including Nailah's Color Outside. Lastly, we sound our airhorn for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezfor her historic nomination and what it means for the future of the Democratic party. 

Ep. 48: We Got This

 We're back! So excited to kick-off Season 3. Even better: We actually recorded the episode sitting right next to each other. So the laugh factor was definitely leveled up. We dive into what everyone seems to be talking about (uh, basically, always)... Beyoncé. This time it was her takeover of the September issue of Vogue magazine. Not only did she grace the cover, but Beyoncé also served as creative director for the issue, including handpicking the photographer for the cover shoot: 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell. He is the first Black fashion photographer to shoot a Vogue cover in 126 years. A HUNNID AND TWENTY SIX YEARS! Wow! (But also, wow. Shameful.) Plus, we sound the air horn for all the magazine September issues with strong, creative, powerful Black women on their covers. As Lena Waithe said on Insta: "We don't just move the needle forward; we are the needle." Hell, yes! 

Ep. 47: Black Women a.k.a. Icons Living

Hey, Sis! is a weekly podcast about women finding their focus and place in business, art, culture, and life. Hosted by Nicole and Nailah Blades, two sisters who are 12 years apart and live 3,000 miles apart, but still manage to talk everyday about so many different things. The Sisters thought it’d be intriguing to add other folks, like you, into this ongoing conversation. Nicole is a novelist, freelance journalist, and mother to an 8-year-old son, while Nailah is marketing consultant and owner of boutique communications agency specializing in consumer lifestyle brands, and mom to a 2-year-old daughter. Together they are out to turn up the volume on women’s stories and soak up all the lessons from these folks’ fascinating lives.

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Hey, Sis!

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