Pod 4 Good

Chris and Jesse are joined by Kuma Roberts, Vice-President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce. She tells us about how she became a DEI expert, what she has learned in that time, what does DEI look like when it comes to businesses and the Chamber of Commerce, and how to learn from your own biases. Kuma is also the Executive Director of Mosiac. Mosiac will...

Chris and Jesse are joined by Obum Ukabam, who by day is the Head of Admissions & Marketing Manager at Holberton Tulsa, but by night is a leader and volunteer for so many organizations that Jesse actually had to increase his own speech rate to name them all. Hear him discuss his passion for the  Tulsa Debate League ,  FC Tulsa partnering with the Dream C...

Carlos Moreno joins Jesse and Chris to discuss the Victory of Greenwood , a project that endeavors to tell the story of Greenwood from the perspective of the heroes and entrepreneurs who built Greenwood and then rebuilt it after its destruction. They are doing that via a book, that will come out in May 2021, a collection of those stories being published in the New Tulsa Star , an upcoming exhibit...

For the1 year anniversary of Pod4Good, Chris and Jesse host a livestream with some of our favorite guests and friends from the past year. We start off with recent guest Tommy Yap to update us on the Tulsa Voter Van and how they need funds to help buy cleaning supplies. Donate at www. donate.tulsavotervan.com . Then they are joined by Fairy Godmother of Pod4Good, Marcia Bruno-Todd and her daughter...

Tyrance Billingsley II joins Jesse and Chris to talk about Black Tech Street. Black Tech Street looks to build a thriving capitol of Black tech in Tulsa, starting on the grounds of Black Wall Street. Tyrance talks about his vision for Black Tech Street as a way to create both innovation and wealth for Tulsa's Black community and why using technology is the key. He also says that his driving philos...

Chris and Jesse are joined by Tommy Yap, co-founder of the Tulsa Voter Van, who discusses with us the history of this idea, voter suppression in general, and more importantly how you all can help! The Tulsa Voter Van is raising money to buy a van that is accessible to all and they need our help! As we approach what will be a very important election in November, learn how you can use the Tulsa Vote...

Steve Cluck joins Chris and Jesse in a first and hopefully last outdoor podcast recording. Steve takes us through the history of Celebrate the 918, how the ultimate man about town has been spending the pandemic, why it is so important to believe women (in the arts as well as everywhere,) and how Karaoke is good for the soul. To follow Steve on his adventures or to buy some of his amazing shirts ch...

Jeff Martin "sits" down with Chris and Jesse to talk about stories, running a bookstore during a pandemic, and some of his best memories from Philbrook and Magic City Books. Hear Jeff name what he would call his autobiography, and why Jeff and Chris would throw the world's craziest party. The Chuck Palahniuk video that is referenced can be watched here: https://youtu.be/urkfGTVNpnw To see Magic Ci...

Tulsa City Councilor Kara Joy McKee joins Jesse and Chris, for a second time, to talk about fighting to keep the Black Lives Matter Mural on Greenwood, running for office during a pandemic, and what those City Propositions on the ballot are all about. Don't forget to vote on August 25th! To find out more about her campaign, visit her website: http://kj4tulsa.com/ Please subscribe to Pod4Good anywh...

Chris and Jesse are joined by Dr. John Schumann, President of OU-Tulsa, host of Medical Mondays on Studio Tulsa and has written for national publications such as The Atlantic, Slate, Reader's Digest, and NPR's health blog, Shots. He walks Jesse and Chris through what it has been like running OU-Tulsa during a pandemic, running a medical facility during a pandemic, what we all need to do if we want...

Kojo and Onikah Asamoa-Caesar join Chris and Jesse to discuss Kojo's run for Congress, Onikah's drive to open Fulton Street Books, how both of these relate back to the power of stories and what it has been like doing all that, as well as having their first child during the Coronavirus pandemic. Please support Onikah and Fulton Street Books by visiting and buying something, or if you don't want to...

Jesse and Chris are joined by City of Tulsa Mayoral candidate Greg Robinson. Greg tells us what in his journey that lead him to running for Mayor, how it is not a campaign of Me, but a campaign of We, and what he learned from years working for other campaigns. If you want to hear Greg explain what he would do for Tulsa and how he is different than our current mayor, here is your chance. To learn m...

Nehemiah Frank, founder, executive editor, and director of The Black Wall Street Times joins Jesse and Chris to discuss the crazy confluence of events that lead to the weekend of Juneteenth. Which involved throwing it together in a span of two weeks, dealing with President Trump's rally in town at the same time, while continuing to fight for what he considers to be the new civil right for all Blac...

Chris and Jesse are joined by Arielle Davis and Kolby Webster, the two co-hosts of Focus Black Oklahoma. We talked to Ariel and Colby about how Focus Black Oklahoma had to pivot in the age of COVID, the intersection of Urban Design, City Budgets and Systemic Racism. The Systemic Racism conversation goes in many different directions and might be both hilarious to some and offensive to others. Be wa...

Becky Gligo, Director of Housing for the City of Tulsa and the interim ED for Housing Solutions, joins Chris and Jesse to discuss the troubled and unjust history of housing policy (Redlining) in the city and the United States. She also describes to upcoming eviction crisis that will strike when the pandemic ends which will be the largest eviction crisis Tulsa has ever seen. Also, the harmful and n...

Chris and Jesse are joined by Chris Siemens (Executive Director) and Evan Taylor (Director of Community Engagement) from Fostering Connections (Formerly the Tulsa Advocates for the Protection of Children) to discuss about their re-branding process, the many different ways we can all help children in the foster care system and the families who care for them, and Chris and Evan's personal stories as...

In what seems like years ago, but was actually only three weeks, Brandon Oldham joined Jesse and Chris to discuss his work on the Vibrant and Inclusive Tulsa (VIT!) Team for the George Kaiser Family Foundation. We discuss how he is handling the pandemic and how he makes new rituals at home. He elaborates on a new initiative he is working on called SummerTulsa, their goal is to create opportunities...

Chris and Jesse are joined by special guest, Sam Sinyangwe , co-founder of We The Protestors , an organization building a scalable digital infrastructure to advance policy solutions at every level of government to end police violence. Sam will be the keynote speaker at the 2020 John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation National (Virtual) Symposium, this year's theme being "Reconciliation and Te...

Chris Bernard, Executive Director of Hungry Free Oklahoma and Tulsa Kitchens Unite! joins Chris and Jesse to discuss the work of Tulsa Kitchens Unite! who partners with locally owned restaurants and caterers (with the ability to produce pre-prepared and refrigerated/frozen to-go style meals) to provide free meals to families in this time of crisis. Tulsa Kitchens Unite !aims to keep local kitchens...

Jesse and Chris are joined by Mike Brose, the Chief Empowerment Officer for the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma. We ask Mike how the Mental Health Association is not only dealing with Covid-19 but how, as a mental health issue itself, their work has changed during this pandemic. How this shared collective trauma could be a great equalizer amongst Americans, hopefully lowering the stigma of M...

Laura Bellis joins Jesse and Chris to discuss both her day job, as executive director of the Take Control Initiative, and her current night job, as one of the founders of the Save Our State Facebook group . This non-partisan, non-political group is working at this critical moment to bring people together and call on their elected leaders to do what is best for our state during this pandemic. Laura...

Marc Baizman joins Chris and Jesse to discuss his work at Salesforce, how nonprofits can use technology to solve organizational challenges, whether Covid-19 will permanently change how nonprofits use technology, and an array of amazing resources to help nonprofits use technology better. Here are those resources! Idealware: https://www.idealware.org/ , a Consumer Reports for Nonprofits Techsou...

Chris and Jesse are joined this week by the amazing Mikeal Vaughn, founder of the Urban Coders Guild, a Tulsa-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization providing Computer Science education opportunities in underserved, under-represented communities. He tells about why he founded the Urban Coders Guild, how he is trying to help train the future technology industry here in Tulsa, what he learned from his...

Educator and community-activist Jennifer Solis joins Chris and Jesse to talk about LGBTQ+ issues within the Methodist church and in public schools. We then discussed two important language labeling issues:  People-first language (which puts an individual’s humanity before anything else), and why gender pronouns matter. We also spoke about Jennifer’s upcoming TEDx UTulsa talk. This year’s TEDx...

Aaron Bolzle joins Chris and Jesse to discuss Tulsa Remote, which grants $10,000 and additional benefits to eligible remote workers who move to and work from Tulsa. As Tulsa Remote enters its second year, Aaron expounds on how the organization's goal is to make this city a more diverse and dynamic place by removing some of the financial risk in moving to a new city. We also want to recog...