I Am Northwest Arkansas®

Summer's here and we're stepping away from the mic for a few weeks, so we're digging back into the archive to share some of our most downloaded conversations from the past year. This is one worth a second listen, or a first one if it's new to you. Lynn Wong and Mike Thompson turned a dream of an ice cream shop into Pedal Pops and Pedal Park, an all-natural fruit pop business that's grown into a re...

About the Show: "I always want to have that posture of, like, what can I learn? How can I grow?" – Danielle Keller Danielle Keller didn't plan on becoming the steward of Northwest Arkansas's most beloved family magazine. She moved from California to Arkansas, built a life here as a mother and filmmaker, and somewhere along the way fell in love with the kind of community storytelling that big media...

About the Show: "Black Paper Party doesn't exist if it's not for the authentic representation of the Black diaspora and our products." – Jasmine Hudson What does it really take to build a business rooted in culture, stay true to your mission, and scale to 20,000 points of distribution—all from Northwest Arkansas? Jasmine Hudson, co-founder of Black Paper Party , is living proof that it's possible....

About the Show: "There's something here for everybody in Northwest Arkansas, and it's the kind of place that, you know, you really can make your dreams come true in a space like this. It's not gonna be easy, but because, you know, people are really open to building relationships and really connecting with you, I mean, I can't think of more fertile territory for you to start something." — Randy Wil...

About the Show: "My sense of identity as an American never was as pronounced as it was when I was overseas." – Jamie Atkinson Some people find Northwest Arkansas. Jamie Atkinson chose it after seeing most of the world first. Before planting roots in the region, Jamie Atkinson spent years as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, living and working across more than 55 countries—Argentina, Nicaragua, Bulga...

About the Show: "I've never pivoted so much. Not even when I play post on pickup basketball do I pivot this much and this hard." – Blanca Maldonado Blanca Maldonado and Danielle Reynolds are back. If you caught their first appearance on I Am Northwest Arkansas® back in 2022, you already know these two are something special. A lot has changed since then — and in the best possible way. In this episo...

About the Show: After seven years of weekly episodes since April 2019, I’m intentionally changing how I Am Northwest Arkansas appears in your feed. Starting now, new episodes will drop every two weeks, with bonus episodes along the way. Same mission, same stories, same commitment to this community. Just a little more room to do it right. This shift comes at a full season of life—I'm in my first ye...

About the Show: "It's not a lack of food problem. You know, our country has an abundance of food. It's getting that food to the people that need it."        –  Chef Sam Walker Hunger doesn't take a&nb...

About the Show: "Financial wellness transforms communities." – Alfred Milan, CEO Express Wages In this episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas® , host Randy Wilburn sits down with Alfred Milan, founder and CEO of Express Wages—a connection made at a recent StartUP NWA VC event—to explore how giving employees faster access to their paychecks can transform small businesses across the region. Alfred share...

About the Show: "As soon as we started setting foot in Northwest Arkansas, we had a hand reach out and say, 'What do you guys need?' How can we help? How can we make this event bigger?" – Pedro Garza, Club America What happens when one of the world's most storied soccer clubs chooses Fayetteville, Arkansas, as its next big stage? That's the conversation at the heart of this episode. I sat down wit...

About the Show: "A community that buys into its future, buys into its youth, can really create something special." – Coleman Warren This episode is part of a special series supported by the Walton Family Foundation . Through their Home Region program, the Foundation is investing in the people and ideas shaping Northwest Arkansas—across housing, entrepreneurship, transportation, and leadership. Bef...

About the Show: "We are all one life-changing event away from having to navigate or make decisions in a landscape we never thought we would find ourselves in." – Cherie Clark In this heartfelt episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, host Randy Wilburn sits down with Cherie Clark, Director of External Relations at Purview Life NWA, for a deeply personal conversation about aging life care management an...

About the Show: "Get your LinkedIn polished, treat it like a professional network and read. Read the things that interest you, but read the things that will challenge you." – Jose Socorro In this episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, host Randy Wilburn sits down with Jose Socorro, regional director for Jan Pro of Arkansas and self-proclaimed "Jersey boy," to explore his journey from Jersey City to...

About the Show: "if you stay active, if you stay engaged in your life and you're serving a larger cause, like for me, helping other people to find the courage and the energy to reinvent themselves and go back to their childhood, which is what I've done with myself." – David Nelson What does it look like to reinvent yourself at 71? For David Nelson, it starts with a pickleball paddle and a whole lo...

About the Show: "We are a Victorian house burdened by optimism." – Cognac Franklin What happens when historic charm collides with a new vision for community connection? In this episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas® , host Randy Wilburn sits down with Cognac Franklin , Director of Operations at Stonebreaker —Fayetteville's stunning hotel, club, and gathering space perched atop Markham Hill. Cognac ta...

About the Show: "This is one of those initiatives that we are going to look back on, I believe, as a turning point for our city." – Mayor Molly Rawn In this episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, I sit down with Fayetteville Mayor Molly Rawn to talk about the city's $375.5 million bond proposal heading to voters on March 3rd. This episode is specifically for Fayetteville residents—one of the four ma...

About the Show: "My greatest takeaway was that no matter where I am in life, no matter how old I get, I will always find time for moments like this to share my knowledge with someone else." – Rochelle Bradshaw From touring with reggae royalty to calling Northwest Arkansas home, Rochelle Bradshaw has lived a life in music that most artists only dream about. In this episode, Randy sits down with the...

About the Show: Best of I Am Northwest Arkansas® Shining a Light on Homelessness with 7hills Homeless Center In this Best of episode, we revisit a powerful conversation from December 2024 with Becci Sisson , CEO of 7hills Homeless Center , and Will Roth , President of the Board. At a time when community support is more important than ever, this episode reminds us of the critical work 7hills is doi...

About the Show: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In this episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, I'm reflecting on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of the "beloved community"—inspired by this year's MLK Council event theme right here in Northwest Arkansas. I share words from Dr. King's powerful "mountaintop speech" and revisit stories fro...

About the Show: “I hope there’s silver buckshot… a lot of small action in a lot of areas is what will really help us get where we need to be.” – Jessica Lewallen This episode is part of a special series supported by the Walton Family Foundation . Through their Home Region program, the Foundation is investing in the people and ideas shaping Northwest Arkansas—across housing, entrepreneurship, trans...

About the Show: "Every time I introduce someone and they find their tribe, that feeds my soul." – Rebecca Luther aka Queenie Be Rebecca Luther—who goes by Queenie Be—went from feeling isolated after a divorce to building some of the biggest community networks in Northwest Arkansas. In this episode, she talks about how one Facebook post changed everything. Rebecca founded The Hive Network, a suppor...

About the Show: "It doesn't demand a new goal or resolution. It just invites you to think a little differently, to breathe a little deeper, and maybe even to imagine that, yeah, what if it all works out?"        – Randy Wilburn In this special solo episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, host Randy Wilburn closes out 2025 by looking back at the wisdom and advice he'...

About the Show: "The lives that were lost were beautiful lives. Yeah, I think it's easy to just think of them as a statistic. And I want to honor the beauty that we lost. For sure, we can do that through the beauty of art."        – Monica Moore In this episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, host Randy Wilburn sits down with artist Monica Moore to talk about the CO...

About the Show: "It's a connector, but it's also kind of a mixer in that, you know, it stirs the pot a little bit and gets people… out of their daily routine and... build[s] social capital, which is often lacking in this day and age."        – Regina Buono Finding your people in a new place isn't always easy. Even if you've lived somewhere for years, making real...

About the Show: "We are wired for storytelling. It's why we love movies and books and YouTube and all these kinds of things, because we all love stories, and we connect to them in some way."        – Angie Albright In this episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, host Randy Wilburn sits down with Angie Albright, director of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Sprin...