The Ben & Jamesa Podcast: Conversations about Compassion, Curiosity, and Courage

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 
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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

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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.
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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
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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
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