
The Emergent Strategy Podcast
The official podcast of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute - each episode we dive deeply into the life, practice and experimentation of a person or group who we see as living embodiments of emergent strategy. Emergent Strategy is about how we get in right relationship with change - what are the simple interactions that can shift and shape complex systems and patterns? Hosts are Sage Crump, Mia Herndon and adrienne maree brown.
Latest episodes

Dec 23, 2021 • 52min
Observing Urgency with Yolo Akili Robinson
Founder and CEO of BEAM (Black Emotional and Mental Health), Yolo Akili Robinson, visits with ESII host, adrienne, to talk about questioning capitalist, nonprofit urgency. Often, nonprofit timelines are not on community timelines. Hear how Robinson and team members navigate circumstances that are at odds.

Dec 2, 2021 • 50min
Dancing with the Speed of Trust with Shalewa Mackall
"All of us got rhythm because all of us have hearts," says Shalewa Mackall choreographer, poet, mother, and artist. Mackall joins Emergent Strategy Podcast host, Mia Herndon, on this week's episode to talk about being in touch with our own rhythms (it's not easy), not gaslighting yourself (okay), and learning to be in touch with your needs.

Nov 18, 2021 • 1h 1min
Honest Movement with PG Watkins
Organizer, facilitator and organizational strategist, PG Watkins, talks with host adrienne this week on the Emergent Strategy podcast. The two shower some love on Detroit and the rich possibilities in organizing that exist in the city as well as taking better care of ourselves and one another in movement building.

Nov 4, 2021 • 54min
Interconnectedness with Mallika Dutt
"...and the medicine showed me that many of the ways in which I did social justice work in the world, actually upheld all of the systems of oppression that I was trying to dismantle," says Mallika Dutt strategic innovator. Dutt joins Emergent Strategy podcast host, Mia Herndon, and shares her journey from from activist to innovator and how Spirit and centering with the earth was crucial to that process.

Oct 21, 2021 • 1h 2min
Devotion, Strategy and Rigor with Sendolo Diaminah
"White supremacy and capitalism wants us to believe that they are the most important thing going on and that the whole world is against us. The whole world is not against us," says Sendolo Diaminah, co-director of the Carolina Federation. Diaminah joins ESII host, adrienne maree brown, this week to talk about love of strategy, softer rigor (at times), and living out a new politics.
Transcript found here.

Oct 14, 2021 • 51min
Be Bold with Jennifer Toles and Jonathan Stith
How do we continue towards freedom and care for one another during pandemic times? What does pivoting look like when the world demands we change our plans? This week, Jennifer Toles and Jonathan Stith of Black Organizing for Leadership and Change (BOLD) talk with The Emergent Strategy podcast host, adrienne about centering, adaptation and holding one another.
Transcript found here.

Sep 23, 2021 • 47min
Divine Theater with Jonathan McCrory
"What does it mean for the Black body to have a home on this continent that is not tethered to labor but is imbued by your spiritual abundance?"
Jonathan McCrory, Executive Artistic Director of the National Black Theater, joins host, Sage Crump, on the Emergent Strategy podcast this week to discuss bringing the book, Emergent Strategy, to the theatrical sphere and divine co-creation.

Sep 9, 2021 • 52min
Transformative Funding and Organizing with Xiomara Caro-Diaz
"I think it's a big opportunity in terms of emergence of allowing for new possibilities of things you never imagined. I think that is something important to center in the context of moments where there is a lot of pain, there's grief, there's loss and it's really important to be able to see that -- even in those moments --something new will emerge," says Xiomara Caro-Diaz about organizing and collaborating post Hurricane Maria. Caro-Diaz is the Executive Director of the Maria Fund and joins host, Mia Herndon, to talk about transformative funding, making space for people's humanity and what the U.S. could learn from Puerto Rico.
Sweet coqui frogs make a special appearance.

Aug 26, 2021 • 51min
Emergent Education with Ana Luis, Luis Alejandro Tapia and Marinieves Alba
"Who are you when you walk into a space with young people?" asks Ana Luis, education facilitator and one of three guests on the Emergent Strategy podcast this week. Luis is joined by educators Marinieves Alba and Luis Alejandro Tapia to talk about what emergent strategy could look like when applied to the teacher-student dynamic.

Aug 6, 2021 • 52min
Philanthropy: A Necessary Death With Javier Torres-Campos
"Philanthropy is a system that will die with capitalism," says this week's guest, Javier Torres-Campos, program director of the Thriving Cultures program at Surdna Foundation. Torres-Campos manages a $9 million grantmaking portfolio. He talks with host, Sage Crump, about encouraging an imagination in the philanthropy field and creating new values around grantmaking processes.