Home & Belonging
What does it mean to come home — to memory, to identity, to truth, to ourselves?
This category gathers the episodes where the longing for home — physical, spiritual, psychological — sits at the center of the story. These are the conversations about returning to the places inside us we abandoned, healing the fractures of belonging, and naming the communities, identities, and histories that shape who we are.
These episodes explore what it feels like to lose home, rebuild home, redefine home, and sometimes… to discover that home is the self we are still becoming.
Attica Locke’s newest novel Guide Me Home is the final installment in the trilogy of books that have followed the life and career of our hero Darren Mathews. A black Texas Ranger, whose world is defined by a strong family tradition, life off Highway 59, and a mother who has sold him out to his enemies. With this story of unexpected turns, surprising unholy alliances, and a race to find a missing black girl who may already be dead, Attica shines a light on the mysteries and shrouded cloak and dagger of motherhood. With the waning days of the Trump administration as its backdrop, Attica excavates where the secrets lie, what stories have been told and left untold, and asks a profound question – do our mothers deserve grace and maybe love even in the fractures of the unknown? As Attica herself says, this is a story that she could only have written now because of where she is in her own life today. In the in between place. Sending her own daughter off to college this year and all the emotions that come with this process. Also, having a deeper understanding and grace for her own mom – once seen through a glass darkly, now known. Attica’s final destination is suggested in the dedication of the book. For every mother whose child knows only half the story.
In this two-part episode of “At the Podium,” I sit down with LeRoy McClain. An award-winning actor who has distinguished himself On and Off Broadway, and in television shows such as And Just Like That (in the role of Andre Rashad Wallace) and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (in the role of Shy Baldwin) and the feature film Respect (in the role of Cecil Franklin).
In Part II Grappling with My Biracial Identity we examine LeRoy’s origin story and the man beneath the success. LeRoy and I look back at his time at our shared alma mater Yale Drama School which he refers to as one of the roughest, yet most important times of his life. We learn how he had to navigate the complexities of growing up a biracial child in England and Hawaii. And how the murder of George Floyd brought into LeRoy’s family life the contentious dialogue about race, responsibility and representation that was being fought for out on the streets of America in 2020. These questions of race and racial identity were inevitable, because, As LeRoy says, growing up he didn’t get to choose despite having a white, English mother because “As society views me… I am a black man.”
In this two-part episode of “At the Podium,” I sit down with LeRoy McClain. An award-winning actor who has distinguished himself On and Off Broadway, and in television shows such as And Just Like That and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and the feature film Respect.
In Part I The Career that Almost Wasn’t we delve into the journey of his career and how he transitioned from his love of a life in the theater to his burgeoning career in front of the camera. LeRoy also gives us a personal and touching view of his relationships with three major leading ladies in his career: Jennifer Hudson (Respect), Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Karen Pittman (And Just Like That) – and what he learned from working with these three powerhouse artists. We also explore how the untimely death of his father made him consider giving up acting but was also the inciting event in his life that freed him to experience some of the biggest successes in his career to date in television and film. And how one flippant comment impacted his view of himself and the trajectory of his career.
Kristen McGuiness is a successful author of books such as her memoir 51/50: The Magical Adventures of the Single Life and her debut novel, Live Through This. She has also founded her own publishing company called Rise Books where her mission is to publish what she describes as “radical works of inspiration.” Kristen is also the daughter of Dan McGuiness – one of the largest and most consequential marijuana smugglers of the 1970s and 1980s. She describes him as “one of the architects of the modern drug trade,” in Rolling Stone article Learjet’s Mistresses and Bales of Weed: My Dad’s Life as a Drug Kingpin. There exists a hard truth that comes through in our conversation and in her writings of what it was like to love her dad so much, even as he loved equally, if not more, the rush he got from being addicted to crime - "the juice" as she describe it. Her views of her life and who Dan McGuniess was are both heartbreaking and provocative; there is not the neat and easy good guy/bad guy trope that we usually expect from this type of story. Mostly, we find ourselves at the tip of the needle, dancing on a point that pricks our feet while we stay as upright as we can, clinging to dear life.
Connor Schoen is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of Breaktime. When you speak with him about the epidemic of young adult homelessness, you see he has had a passion for this work most of his life. And his coming out experience as pansexual while he was a student at Harvard University working at a shelter where he serviced homeless youth (most of whom were thrown out of their homes because they were LGBTQ+) only increased that passion. There he saw the irony of his own situation, that there but for the grace of having a family that supported his process of embracing who he is, that homeless youth could have been him. It was a turning point that brought into focus for Connor what he should be doing with his life. And he boldly walked in the direction of that mission, by co-founding Breaktime to specifically address the causes of young adult homelessness and how to help move young adults from homelessness to job and financial security. It isn't easy work. It requires persistence and commitment. But for Connor and his team, it comes back to his life's central motto, "every single young person deserves the opportunities and support they need to reach their full potential. And we need to do everything possible to make that happen.”
Yissel Guerrero describes her life as existing in excellence. Excellence and resistance. Guided by a profound faith, this first generation American embodies the American dream. She achieved academically and studied at Emory University, and abroad in Geneva, Switzerland to earn a degree in political science. She worked in the field for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign in 2016 and then served in Boston’s Mayor Marty Walsh’s Administration during Covid. She was the State Government Liaison for the administration and was at the table of government for its response to the all-consuming pandemic and the social unrest stoked by George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s murders. When you ask her how and why her life has unfolded and is unfolding in this epic way, she says that she was born for such a time as this. When you ask her what is next in a life already filled with history, she says “For the first time, my ‘next’ is living in the new place called ‘now.’”
In our conversation, author, screenwriter and producer Attica Locke (writer and producer of the Netflix Limited Series From Scratch) and I both show up and struggle together through the most challenging questions of our times as we contemplate what the world is and what it could be: Will this democracy last? Can black people afford forgiveness? Can we defeat the illusions of scarcity that Attica identifies as the central question of crime in her work? Our conversation is funny, sometimes raw and tear filled (mainly on my part), but mostly it is the dialogue between two life-long friends who spend an hour together in fellowship as the world around us is filled with lightning.
David Ambroz describes his life growing up as navigating on live wire with his mother’s mental illness. His new memoir A Place Called Home chronicles his journey through profound poverty and homelessness, the assaults of the foster care system, and the battles he fought to find his way home to himself. The memoir and his life are a manifesto of survival and a call for us to move from empathy to action.
In our conversation this week, Lucia Brawley, Chief Creative Officer of AMP Global Technologies, and I explore the uncomfortable, real conversations about identity, race, representation and who gets to say who is or is not part of any ethnic group. A fascinating conversation as we live in a time where the truths of the past are daily questioned and challenged and re-examined.
Delia McLinden and her family own Farmhouse Fresh, one of the most successful product brands in the global spa industry. Built into the mission of the company is their living, breathing passion for farm animal rescue.
Joshua Banbury’s work and personal narrative are a tapestry of rich textures influenced by the wide range of music (Jazz, Folk Music, Classical, Carnatic Music and Art Songs) that he has been a student of and performed at the highest levels. He is also artistically and intellectually inspired by Surrealist artists like Leonora Carrington, his Texas roots, and the folk songs of Appalachia.
With his honest telling of his struggle through profound prescription drug and alcohol addiction, Quentin Vennie gives us soul stirring life lessons. We can turn our traumas into our triumphs. We all have to receive forgiveness and extend it to people who hurt us, even when we don’t want to. And in a world where society often strips people of humanity, when we have the courage to tell our stories to one another honestly, that’s when we can feel and see each person we meet through a lens of empathy and compassion.
Dennis’ journey to meeting his son is a lesson for us all that we have to construct new futures for ourselves when our plans don’t work out as we have dreamed. In his calming and assuring manner, Dennis encourages us to keep knocking on the doors believing that the answers we are looking for will soon appear. His is the perfect story to contemplate as we prepare for Thanksgiving. You can also see his journey and update on fatherhood on ABC’s The Parent Test.