How to Build a Village

Atlanta-based fitness expert Saidah Jones CSCS shares how she creates healthy communities by developing health education and physical activity regimens. A track and field All-American, this University of Tennessee alum has worked as a fitness professional for more than 15 years. Saidah also reveals how she reinvented herself after an Achilles injury, creating a sustainable coaching career.

Alison Baum describes her inspiring journey from science filmmaker to charity CEO. Following her own challenges as a new mother, she founded the charity Best Beginnings in 2006 to support parents of all backgrounds to give their babies the best start in life. She spent almost 10 years as a Producer/Director in the Science Department at the BBC, then chose to use her skills and experience as a teac...

British journalist Hazel Sheffield travels the UK, finding and investigating stories of resilience and entrepreneurialism. She tells Jill Martin Wrenn how she launched and funded Farnearer.org , which documents local projects and people building alternative economic systems in the UK, and what inspires her.

Michelle Jana Chan, award-winning journalist and Travel Editor of Vanity Fair, shares how her global travels helped to inspire her debut novel, Song . Bernardine Evaristo calls Song , "A wonderfully lush and atmospheric odyssey of survival against all odds."

Joe Lynam, presenter and moderator who was the BBC’s Business Correspondent for a decade, tells Jill Martin Wrenn about his adventures in broadcasting, from Dublin to London, and how his son surprised him and his wife with an early arrival outside a London hospital. 

Katie Hellwig, a Californian living in Italy, shares stories, book recommendations, travel tips and what she’s learned about cooking from the lake region of Northern Italy with Jill Martin Wrenn.

From meditation to mindfulness, how to feel present wherever you are with Allyson Zimmermann. The diversity and inclusion executive has lived abroad for more than half of her life, and calls Zurich, Switzerland her home.

How tens of thousands of volunteers from around the world formed a global community at the Olympics. Rio 2016 volunteer Misha Santa Barbara shares her Olympics volunteering experience with Jill Martin Wrenn.

Hear how love and loss helped to inspire Evelini Quarrell to launch The Foreign Mum Podcast. She also shares her journey from Fortaleza, Brazil, to London, and how she made a new city her home.

From MTV to Text, Prose & RocknRoll, Kris Kosach shares her journey from TV through radio and podcasts. Join us on this trip to Los Angeles for tips on how to start your own hit podcast, and how to interview like a pro.

As the Wimbledon Championships start, tennis journalist Simon Cambers shares an off-the-court look at the global community of tennis reporters, which he has cultivated for more than 20 years. We'll hear about resilience, anxiety, and how Wimbledon will look different in 2021.

June Angelides tells How to Build a Village host Jill Martin Wrenn how the coding school she launched, Mums in Tech, taught more than 250 women how to code, and helped to earn her an MBE for her services to women in technology. June also shares why she calls London her home, while her heart is still in Lagos.

Journalist and storyteller Tara Duffy tells Jill Martin Wrenn what it's like to live in Taipei, Taiwan, during the pandemic, and how teaching Iyengar Yoga has helped her to build a community around the world. She also shares which part of Taiwan reminds her of her adopted home of the west coast of Ireland.

Angela Tucker is a prolific filmmaker. She is a writer, director, and Emmy-nominated producer. Her most recent project is "The Trees Remember", a fiction series in collaboration with REI Co-op Studios: https://www.rei.com/blog/the-trees-remember-film-series . Other recent work includes “All Styles,” starring Du-Shaunt "Fik-shun" Stegall, about a talented hip-hop dancer from Las Vegas. In the film,...

London-based journalist Katie Pisa has moved more than 20 times, including diplomatic postings to Athens and Kuala Lumpur. She tells Jill Martin Wrenn how she manages to make each new city feel like home; how she answers the question, "Where are you from?"; and how to make goodbyes easier.

Georgia State University Professor Dr. Jelena Subotić shares the surprises she uncovered when researching her book Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance After Communism, with podcast host Jill Martin Wrenn. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Subotić studies international relations theory, human rights, international ethics, state identity and the politics of the Western Balkans.

New York-based special events producer Suzanne Tobak tells How to Build a Village about her mother, Erika (Schirok) Tobak, who escaped from the Holocaust as a child on the Kindertransport in World War II.

Lynn Harris, founder of GOLD Comedy , shares with podcast host Jill Martin Wrenn how her startup creates a community where young women and non-binary folks get to be their funniest selves. 

Award-winning writer Sara Hammel tells How to Build a Village host Jill Martin Wrenn about her role in a groundbreaking US Army study that helped to change the role of women in the military. She formed close friendships with her fellow pioneers and found the inspiration for her new book, The Strong Ones: How a Band of Civilian Women Made Their Mark on the Army.

Ruchika Tulshyan is an author, activist, educator and foodie. She tells Jill Martin Wrenn how she finds the flavour of cities where she's lived, including Singapore, Seattle, London, New York and Atlanta. The author of The Diversity Advantage: Fixing Gender Inequality in the Workplace and founder of Candour, an inclusion strategy firm with global clients, Ruchika is a regular contributor on creati...

Media specialist Alessia Giustiniano shares how she made global cities from Hong Kong to New York to London feel like home, and why Amsterdam feels like such a magical place. 

London-based novelist Sarah Sultoon describes how her years as a media executive in the CNN International newsroom inspired her new thriller, The Source, in this episode of How to Build a Village with Jill Martin Wrenn.

From Eurovision host to CNN presenter to Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Fionnuala Sweeney tells Jill Martin Wrenn how she juggles changing work demands while she creates equity-focused global communities in this episode of How to Build a Village.

Australian novelist Leisel McKenzie showed How to Build a Village host Jill Martin Wrenn how to score Wimbledon tickets, find the best West End shows and most importantly, make London feel like home when they met nearly twenty years ago. Now, while London grapples with lockdown, Leisel and Jill look back at what the city has to offer - and what to hope for in the coming months.

Leone Lakhani's career has taken her around the world, from the Arctic to South Africa, Shanghai to LA. She has two decades of international experience at the CNN and BBC. In the last episode of How to Build a Village in 2020, Leone shares with host Jill Martin Wrenn how she got started in the competitive career of broadcast journalism in London - and how she found a family of friends in the newsr...