Planet Noun Podcast

Why would anyone sacrifice their privacy to run for public office? In Episode 50 of Planet Noun, we interview a candidate who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Prince George’s County, Maryland. He officially entered this arena after jokingly suggesting to his team at his 16-year-old business about running for a senate seat. They liked the idea. And his wife was on board, too. However, his p...

In Episode 49 of Planet Noun, we delve into the remarkable journey of Katrina Duncan, who turned her late husband’s cancer experience and her own grief into a source of hope and support for caregivers and the reminder that “Your Story Matters.”Learn how she guides others in discovering self-care opportunities during life’s toughest moments. This is a compelling tale of resilience, love and the sta...

Sometimes life presents us with grief, cloudy skies, and then a glimmer of sunlight through a break in the clouds that lets us know all will be okay eventually. Meet our guest! Kim Williams is a business owner and grief recovery specialist who found her way through her own grief clouds and aims to help others do the same. Episode 48 of Planet Noun is available now. Take a listen!

Available New Year’s Day, 2026! 🎧📺📱This episode of Planet Noun features an engaging conversation with Nakeyta Moore founder of ARTLOUDLA. Nakeyta discusses the impact of her childhood experiences, travel, and philosophical outlook on her life and work. She highlights her efforts to empower artists and marginalized communities through financial literacy and her perspective on the evolving art in...

Join us for an exciting new episode of “Planet Noun” featuring Diane, the visionary behind Diane's Talking. Discover her journey from full-time employment to freelancing in the media world. Diane shares invaluable insights on flexibility, challenges, networking, and self-advocacy, while weaving in her background in media training and experiences growing up in a military family. Don’t miss her insp...

Barrington Smallwood took a not-so-random random walk from his apartment to and through a housing project in DC more than a decade ago. He was having a tough time, but his inspired walk turned into a positive, purposeful encounter and helped foster a bond with community members. And that walk maneuvered him steps closer to his purpose—and the founding of the Vision, Identity and Purpose Roundtable...

If we live long enough, grief finds us. Just depends on when, where and the type. But there’s an added layer when the person exits life at the hands of another person. And today’s guest has been on a journey since her dad’s death back in 2001. Years later, she wrote a book called “The Soul’s Journey”. It’s a tool that addresses her experience and part of how she learned to process grief. It’s also...

Sometimes loss leaves a gaping hole. Maybe you wonder if it’ll ever get better. But sometimes those earth-shattering losses can take time to heal. And the journey will have you traversing a winding road. Such events can cast a pall over every other area of life and influence everything from the relationships we choose and treatment we tolerate from others to how we use or tamp down our voices. The...

Grief doesn’t wait for an invitation to show up. It just plops itself into your life—regardless of what you had planned and wanted. Is there a way to brace for such unwelcome surprises? Discover how a mix of realism and daily preparation can help you cope with life’s unexpected losses. In Episode 42, A. Jeanine Warden-Jarrett, MD discusses various points of grief--from the illness of her dad to hi...

Welcome to Planet Noun — Episode 41. It’s been a long time, and a lot has happened since our last episode. We’re embarking on a series about grief. Jay Herriott’s been a previous guest on the show. We’ve kept in contact through the years - during my Mom’s illness and after her passing. Then Jay joined the unwelcome club of Motherless Adults. On this episode of Planet Noun, he shares his personal e...

This intro is quick and sweet… Episode 40 features Miguel Asia, someone I met right before Rona became a national emergency…but we’re part of the same team at work—at a new job I started just as the pandemic was starting to rage in the United States. This guy wears a lot of hats: Writer…music artist…to video producer…. But let me stop typing so you can meet him yourself! We talk inspiration, motiv...

Welcome to Planet Noun where it’s all about the People, Places, Things and Ideas that teach us, prompt us to make a difference and do more with what life presents! Talk about doing the most with what life presents! Rashad McCrorey, our guest for Episode 39, is doing just that. McCrorey joins Planet Noun for another COVID catch-up. In this series, I’ve been chatting with past guests on Planet Noun—...

This episode is another installment in the COVID catch-up series…I’ve been chatting with past guests on Planet Noun—to find out how they’ve been faring during this rough year. This time, I’m catching up with someone I met a couple of years ago while working as a reporter. We met at a street festival in Washington, D.C., and I wanted to interview him for a radio story I was going to file with the r...

Welcome to Planet Noun where it’s all about the People, Places, Things and Ideas that teach us, prompt us to make a difference and do more with what life presents. This episode is another installment in the COVID catch-up series…I’ve been chatting with past guests on Planet Noun—to find out how they’ve been faring during this rough year…known as 2020. This time, I’m catching up with another guest...

Welcome! This episode is another installment in our COVID catch-up series…I’ve been chatting with past guests on Planet Noun—to find out how they’ve been faring during this rough year…known as 2020. This time, it’s a first time guest to the show…but THIS dude…I haven’t seen in SOOOOOOO long. We overlapped at college for a bit where we sang in the same choir…then poof! No sightings for many years—u...

This episode is another installment in the COVID catch-up series…where I’m chatting with past guests on Planet Noun—to find out how they’ve been faring during this rough year…known as 2020. The last time Dr. LaKeischa McMillan was on, we were talking about family health history about two years ago…it was an episode ahead of Thanksgiving. Back then, the world had plenty of rough patches, but this t...

Today, we’re catching up with another past guest. This time, Stacia Wright. She was on Planet Noun about two years ago…a little more than that, actually…we met up at a local Panera Bread, sat outside in the sun and talked about her life as a business owner. Welp, thanks to the COVID-19 global pandemic, we caught up via Zoom this time…so that meant no selfies after the interview—but plenty of conve...

Hey folks! ⁠ So it’s been about a year since the first episode dropped with Lenina Mortimer. At that time we were talking about her new book.⁠ ⁠ Well, one year later, it’s time to catch up. A round of guest catch-ups is something I was thinking of for some of the folks I interviewed a couple of years ago, but 2020 is so janky, one year ago feels like five! ⁠ ⁠ Find out what's been going on in Leni...

Sometimes you just need to talk it out with friends…to catch up, to listen, to process and share. Welcome to this conversation with a longtime friend. A fantastic friend with a beautiful mind—one who is a constant wonder, one who I admire, one who I am constantly learning from and inspired by. Welcome to Planet Noun, where it’s all about the people, places, things and ideas that teach us, prompt u...

You want dreams? Well, dreams cost. If you don’t remember Debbie Allen uttering those words on the television show Fame, we can’t be friends. Kidding! But seriously, what I’ve learned from interviewing folks on the 30 previous episodes of Planet Noun, is that there’s a cost to realizing goals and aspirations. Even when it seems like luck, trust and believe—there’s a lot of work that goes into bein...

Welcome to Planet Noun where it’s all about the People, Places, Things and Ideas that teach us, prompt us to make a difference and do more with what life presents. Meet today’s guest, Romus Simpson. He always has a funny tale of everyday life to share, and has been a vivid storyteller since I’ve known him. I don’t even remember the year we first crossed paths, but it was through my cousins at thei...

There’s a quote that says — move boldly in the direction of your dreams. I love that one, but sometimes we all need….wait…let me speak for myself….I need a nudge to get me moving in the direction of those dreams, aspirations, and goals written in all those notebooks around the house. Is this you? Do you know someone like this? “What I do is I accelerate your success. That’s the funny thing about c...

A virus has thrown the world upside down… My sister Lea joined me just to verbally sort through some of our thoughts about this COVID-19 pandemic. I’m still processing a heck of a lot that 2020 has dropped on the world’s doorstep. We're in this together...

Today's guest on Planet Noun—Jay Herriott of The 25th Project, an organization dedicated to helping the homeless on the 25th of each month—and beyond. We met through my job, a former co-worker recommended him to me as a source for story ideas. I’ve interviewed him for work stories a couple of times, and wanted to talk a bit more with him, so I called him up for Planet Noun. But HOW did his organiz...

So…who ARE you? I can’t help but think of Alice in Wonderland—the Disney movie…and the caterpillar with the hookah…asking Alice this question while blowing smokey designs in her face. No smoke here…but the question remains the same. Who ARE YOU? What are you here to do? What’s your gift? No, I’m not talking about something you got for a birthday or holiday—if you celebrate those. I’m talking about...