Madame Speaker Says

Why does wanting scare you more than failing ever will? In this solo episode, Magogodi Makhene unpacks why thought leaders, founders, and creatives shrink from naming what they actually want—and how that silence is costing you more than any failure could. 📚 You'll learn:  → Why desire feels dangerous (especially for women and marginalized leaders)  → The 3-part Magogodi Method to get clear o...

Thought Leadership Is Spiritual Work. No Ego, No Performance. What if thought leadership isn’t about influence — but about responsibility? In this powerful conversation, we explore why thought leadership is spiritual work, and what becomes possible when you speak not to be impressive, but to serve humanity. Ra invites us to reconnect with our deepest longings, reclaim imagination, and stop settlin...

Tired. Angry. Happy. The Truth About This Year We Survived What if there’s nothing wrong with you for feeling tired, angry, hopeful, and joyful all at once ? This week, I’m pulling back the curtain on why so many of us—especially Black women and marginalized leaders—are carrying emotional contradictions that actually make sense in this chaotic world. From political exhaustion to tiny pockets of jo...

Unrig the Game: How to Organize Through Autocratic Fear with Vanessa Priya Daniel What's your part to contribute when autocracy tightens its grip and fear becomes a daily ration? For Vanessa Priya Daniel, the answer has always been: organize. But not the performative kind—the kind that might get you attacks...from your own team. The kind that moves $100 million from donor control to community...

The Productivity Lie That's Killing Your Thought Leadership (Why Rest Is Your Secret Weapon) What if the most powerful move you can make as a thought leader isn't relentless productivity—but radical restoration? After a sudden health crisis forced me to stop everything--including a week off this podcast schedule--I'm here to unpack the toxic lie that pausing makes you irrelevant.  H...

From Stanford Grad to Paid Storyteller: The Thought Leadership Blueprint for Resistance with Anna Malaika Tubbs What does it really take to build a career around storytelling and public speaking—especially when the world needs your voice most? Anna Malaika Tubbs, award-winning author of "The Three Mothers" and "Erased," breaks down the exact roadmap from validating your "c...

📧 JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER: Madame Speaker Says Why Black Women's Stories Matter - And How to Master Yours with Kutloano Skosana Ricci Your story isn't just yours—it's a lifeline for someone walking streets halfway across the world who needs to hear they're not alone. Kutloano Skosana, founder and host of Shades and Layers podcast, reveals why mastering your personal narrative isn&...

📧 NEWSLETTER: Madame Speaker Says (Weekly Truth Bombs) Why 98% of Immigrant Businesses Fail (And What One Bankruptcy Survivor Learned) | Art Chang on Leadership, Small Business, and the Currency Beyond Money What happens when your business dies at 27 and still, your employees don't leave you? Art Chang—NYC mayoral candidate, women's studies major, and bankruptcy survivor who went on to...

She Almost Died and Came Back to Tell Y'all: Stop Giving These Companies Your Integrity for Free What happens when you almost die—and then go back to work in a place built on performative safety? In this raw, unflinching conversation, Jodi-Ann Bury shares how a three-week hospital stay rewired everything she thought mattered about career, status and survival—and why she couldn't keep lyi...

Skip the Book Deal: One Powerful Article with Kleaver Cruz Tired of waiting for the "right time" to become a thought leader? In this episode, we sit down with Kleaver Cruz to explore the alternative path to publishing—and why you don't need a book deal to build authority. We get into: 🔥 How one well-written article can attract editors and agents —bypassing years of the traditional...

Claiming Audacity: Building Thought Leadership For Marginalized Voices ft. Sisonke Msimang🎙️✨ Tired of waiting for permission to lead? In this episode, we sit down with Sisonke Msimang to unpack what it actually takes to become a thought leader—especially when the world wasn't built with you in mind. We get into:  🔥The audacity required to claim your voice when structural violence says you...

Our 2020 Conversation with Joy Harjo Joy Harjo—the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate, saxophonist, member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the woman who held that laureateship longer than anyone in decades—breaks down why joy isn't escape, it's resistance. This conversation pulls from her work that refuses to separate poetry from music, grief from celebration and survival from b...

BONUS Episode - From our 2020 Conversation with Nikki Giovanni Think poetry is just pretty words? Think again. Nikki Giovanni—who survived lung cancer, buried her best friend James Baldwin, and kept teaching at Virginia Tech through everything—breaks down Morrison's genius, the writers who shaped her, and why celebrating "The Bluest Eye" fifty years later isn't nostalgia, it&ap...

Our 2020 Conversation with Arundhati Roy  Think love is just sentiment? Think again. Arundhati Roy—author, activist, truth-teller extraordinaire—breaks down how love becomes revolution, how tenderness transforms into resistance, and why the most radical act might just be refusing to harden your heart in a brutal world. This was our 2020 keynote for "Love as a Kind of Cure's Freedom Festi...

🎯 PART 3/3 - The MAIN Character Method™: How to Embody Unstoppable Authority Ready to own every room like Beyoncé owns a stadium? This is where everything clicks. We're breaking down the complete MAIN Character Method™ framework that transforms brilliant people from invisible to impossible to ignore. Think you can't have that level of aura and embodiment? Think again. You ARE capable of...

 🎯 PART 2/3 - Why Brilliant People Hide (Spoiler: It's Not Humility) We're diving deep into the real reason brilliant people stay invisible: the fear of judgment that makes you defer to everyone else's narrative except your own. You know that voice that says "What I have to say is stupid" or "Who would want to listen to me anyway?" Time to call BS on that voice...

🎯 PART1/3 - Getting Clear on Your Vision  Tired of nodding politely while dumber people mansplain your own brilliance back to you? Tired of saying 'someday I'll write that book' while the same plain vanilla people publish plain vanilla stories that become bestselling books?  Stop studying success in theory and start dissecting it in practice. We're reverse-engineering how expe...

🎙️ BONUS EPISODE from our podcast sisters at Shades & Layers What happens when the dream your mother sacrificed everything for becomes your personal nightmare? Johannesburg-based filmmaker Karabo Lediga explores this haunting question through her debut feature film "Sabbatical" – a raw portrayal of a 30-something woman forced to return home after professional failure, confronting how...

Season 1 Finale with my Mom! This is it — Episode 10 and our Season 1 finale! And who better to close out this incredible season than my own mother, Maki Makhene, MSW? (But since I love you, I'm dropping a fun bonus episode next week with a very cool surprise! 👀 Stay tuned.) In this deeply personal conversation, my mom and I dive into:   🔍 High-functioning depression — you're crushing...

Real Talk - My Story Behind The Mic This personal episode reveals the mistakes, missed chances, and mindset shifts that shaped who I am as your host. I'm pulling back the curtain and sharing my story—the hard lessons I learned in my 20s and 30s so you don't have to.  What you'll learn: My biggest regrets from my earlier decades - and how they became my greatest teachers Mindset shif...

The True Cost of Being a Female Entrepreneur 💼💥 Tired of pretending it’s all fine? You're not alone. In this episode, I sit down with Yvonne Biggins to unpack her latest research on the real challenges women entrepreneurs face—and the powerful, creative ways they push through. We get into: 📉 Why only 1.8% of UK equity funding goes to all-women teams 👩‍👧‍👦 The pressure of being in the &q...

Balancing A Corporate Gig & Purposeful Side Hustle with Sewela  In this episode, we’re joined by the powerhouse that is Sewela Langeni —a full-time corporate leader and the founder of one of Johannesburg’s most beloved bookstores: Book Circle Capital , nestled in the heart of Melville. 📚 We talk about what it means to build something beautiful and necessary in a place still shaped by its past...

🎙️ ON TODAY's EPISODE - Becoming An IVF Mom While Building a Business  What happens when a Type A, high-achieving entrepreneur faces the one thing she can’t plan, schedule, or control? In this powerful episode of Madame Speaker Says, we get real about becoming moms while building businesses. I'm joined by my brilliant friend Courtney Montague for a raw, funny and soul-stretching convo ab...

🎙️ ON TODAY's EPISODE - Creating a World Without Bias by Anu Gupta “What would it feel like to live in a world without bias?” It’s a simple question—with radical power. In this episode, Anu invites us to pause, reflect, and imagine. Because if people can dream up colonies on Mars, surely we can dare to envision equity right here on Earth. 🌍✨ Where our mind goes, our energy flows. What if we...

🎙️ ON TODAY's EPISODE - Unlearn the Grind: Presence Over Productivity with Dr. Kate Otto Chebly What happens when you realize the voices that shaped you—school, church, whitewashed "success"—never actually had you in mind? Kate Otto joins me to unpack the toxic productivity scripts so many of us grew up with, especially as ambitious girls in all the wrong environments. We get into w...