The Make Meaning Podcast

Heather's love for cake design stemmed from her education in art, a passion for food, and a childlike refusal to believe that there was nothing she couldn't create. While attending the University of Michigan School of Art and Design, Heather Leavitt packed up her paint brushes and headed to Florence in pursuit to let Italian masters teach her how to be an artist. Instead, she found herself more in...

Brynnna Connolly, Rithik Hossali, Sabriya Imami, and Krisha Ramani found meaning writing within the One Earth Writing Ambassadors program. One Earth Writing's empowerment programs bring together teens from different races, religions, and socioeconomic origins for writing workshops that build confidence, power and purpose. Students explore shared interests like family, friendship, sport, food, love...

Sherrie Singer is a full time community leader and volunteer. She is the president and co-founder of THREAD...Connecting Jewish Women, a non-profit organization with its mission to educate, engage and inspire Jewish women in the metro Detroit community. Sherrie joins Lynne on the Make Meaning podcast and discusses how Thread has grown, why she believes that every person has a sense of wanting to h...

LaTonia Walker is a lifelong resident of Detroit, MI. She is a Social Worker and Life Coach to women living in poverty and experiencing homelessness at a Detroit Shelter. She is also the founder and CEO of The Ladies League of Detroit, a women's group for middle ground women that focuses on professional and personal development, empowerment, and networking. LaTonia joins Lynne on the Make Meaning...

Anni Keane-Riley has over 10 years of experience working with professionals and families throughout the United States. She has worked primarily in training, social service support and advocacy roles, engaging people who work in and around the Child Welfare Industry: youth, prospective adoptive parents, social workers, and policymakers. Anni joins Lynne on the Make Meaning podcast to discuss what i...

Allen Einstein is the President and Founder of The Einstein Method and a retired Public School teacher. Allen joins Lynne on the Make Meaning podcast for conversations about what inspired him to leave teaching and start this company, what he loves about teaching, and what it was like to teach pop star Madonna. The Einstein Method provides the tools and instruction to allow teachers to be more effe...

Alex Kimbrough is a director of newscasts for Fox 2 Detroit and a Detroit-proud advocate for, and graduate of, Cass Tech High School. He joins Lynne on the Make Meaning podcast to discuss why he remains connected to his high school and to promoting all the good things that come from it.

Katie Brown helps businesses of all sizes, from family-owned companies to multi-state corporations. She travels to their locations and evaluates any challenges and shows organizations how to avoid problems before they occur. Katie is principal at Madden Hauser, specializing in employment law. She joins Lynne on the Make Meaning Podcast to discuss how she got into law, how she prioritizes her perso...

In 2017, High School junior Jackson Riegler was inspired to raise awareness of the dangers of The Great Lakes and created Oshki Merchandise, delivering local, long lasting comfortable clothing with 5% of the proceeds donated to local charities who share the same mission. Jackson joins Lynne on the Make Meaning podcast where he explains what Oshki means, how living on the great lakes factors into h...

Mike Forsyth, partner & founder of Detroit City Distillery joins Lynne as they discuss how he got into the business of spirits, DCD creative menu and local ingredients, and how Mike's family background lead him to become an entrepreneur. Mike's piece of advice on how to find purpose is "do what you love to do, otherwise you are wasting time." Detroit City Distillery creates small batch artisanal w...

Make Meaning Podcast Episode #4 - Amy Augustin, president of Venture6 Studio, a creative production studio specializing in video production and design. Amy launched Our Safer World, which prompted her to take a team to Uganda and then to Haiti, to "be a voice for a developing country." In this episode, Lynne and Amy discuss what it means to be a visual storyteller, how creativity can build success...

For the Make Meaning Podcast Episode #3, Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman's, joins Lynne in-studio to tell the story behind Zingerman's and how they built a community of business from scratch. Beyond the two co-founders of Zingermans, there are now 17 managing partners and over 750 employees. Paul believes that he has been successful in spite of the fact that he has limited natural talent and...

Barbara Jones is the Executive Editor at Henry Holt publishers in New York. Barbara joins Lynne Golodner on the Make Meaning podcast as a great mentor,friend, and inspiration. They speak about how Barbara's career has taken her through magazines and publishing houses, telling powerful stories. Barbara shares her insights on how the publishing industry is doing today and what the future holds for b...

For the Make Meaning Podcast Episode #1, Lynne Golodner interviews her father Norman Cohn, retired CEO of Norco Alloys. He joined Lynne for an inspiring and in-depth conversation highlighting his past accomplishments from teaching to becoming a leader in the scrap metal industry in Detroit, founding and leading his company, Norco Alloys. They also discussed beliefs, personal growth, family, and li...