The Ben & Jamesa Podcast: Conversations about Compassion, Curiosity, and Courage

Ben and Jamesa
  • 4.8 (27)
  • SOCIAL SCIENCES
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

🎙️  A podcast for anyone ready to loosen the grip of control culture and step into a more human way of being. Through compassion, curiosity, and courage, Jamesa and Ben host two monthly episodes — one where they explore timely headlines and real-life moments through the lens of the 3 C’s, and another featuring conversations with people actively shaping a more humane, courageous world. 

  1. 11/18/2025

    Ep. 162: The End of the Ben and Jamesa Podcast (at least for 2025)

    In this short end-of-season episode, we share why we’re pausing The Ben and Jamesa Podcast for the rest of 2025—and what it means to winter. We explore the wisdom of slowing down, resting, and syncing with the natural world, especially as we enter a season that asks for softness and recalibration. We also talk about why Americans often do the opposite—speeding up, overcommitting, and pushing through the darkest months of the year—and what it costs us. Expect a beautiful nature fact about how the living world winters, a reflection on choosing slowness, and a look at how we’re preparing ourselves and our community for the new year. 🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast explores the deep work of healing, leadership, and community in a world built for disconnection. Support the show

    15 min

  2. 11/09/2025

    Ep. 161 Communities and Workplaces that Give a Damn and Gratitude Part Two

    What happens when gratitude becomes more than a feeling — when it turns into a shared responsibility? In this week’s episode, we explore gratitude as a community practice — how remembering what sustains us can become a guide for how we lead, work, and live together. We talk about the real consequences of recent SNAP cuts, the vacuum they’ve created, and the people and organizations stepping up to make sure everyone is still fed. These stories reveal what we call gratitude in action — not just saying thank you, but showing up for one another in tangible, compassionate ways. We also unpack how this lens of collective gratitude could reshape how governments and businesses operate — replacing toxic individualism with mutual care, responsibility, and respect for the many unseen hands that sustain every community and workplace. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when compassion drives policy, leadership, and daily life — this conversation will give you a glimpse. 🌿 Listen to hear: The difference between performative and collective gratitudeReal stories of communities filling the gaps left by policy failuresHow gratitude can guide workplaces toward deeper connection and trustFive ways businesses can lead through collective care🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast is where we explore the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection.  → Learn more about our coaching: www.benandjamesa.com → Download our Connection vs Control Starter Kit: https://www.benandjamesa.com/link-in-bio Support the show

    40 min

  3. 11/02/2025

    Ep. 160: SNAP, Decolonizing Gratitude, Remembering Deeply and Gratitude Part One

    Gratitude isn’t about counting blessings — it’s about remembering the people, systems, and histories that make our lives possible. In this opening episode of our Gratitude Series, Ben and Jamesa reclaim gratitude from individualism and performance, grounding it instead in interdependence, justice, and care. We explore:  🌾 How gratitude became aesthetic and performative — and how to reclaim it as relational and transformative  🥣 What the threat to SNAP benefits reveals about how our culture has forgotten shared care  🌍 The difference between colonial gratitude and ancestral gratitude  💭 How remembering our ancestors and the land can return gratitude to its roots in accountability and reciprocity This conversation is an invitation to remember deeply — to practice gratitude not as denial or comfort, but as a quiet act of resistance in a culture that teaches us to survive alone. 🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast is where we explore the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection.  → Learn about our coaching: www.benandjamesa.com → Download our Connection vs Control Starter Kit to learn your control style and receive our bi-weekly newsletter: https://www.benandjamesa.com/link-in-bio Support the show

    44 min

  4. 10/26/2025

    Ep. 159 It Takes A Village to Work with Anger (Anger Part Four)

    In this fourth and final episode of our anger series, we explore what happens when emotions are treated as private property—and how that belief keeps us isolated, performative, and disconnected. We dive into the idea of toxic individualism—the cultural pressure to “handle your emotions alone”—and how it shows up in colonized therapy models, workplace expectations, and even family dynamics. What would it look like instead to manage anger together—to create communities and workplaces that can hold, process, and transform emotion collectively? Along the way, we share one of the most bizarre natural phenomena on Earth: China’s Qiantang River tidal bore—a massive wall of water that reverses the river’s flow. Communities have learned to face this force together, turning danger into shared wisdom. It’s a perfect metaphor for collective emotional management: when the tide rises, no one faces it alone. 🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast is where we explore the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection.  → Learn about our coaching: www.benandjamesa.com  → Download our Connection vs Control Starter Kit and receive our bi-weekly newsletter: https://www.benandjamesa.com/link-in-bio Support the show

    52 min

  5. 10/19/2025

    Ep, 158: The Neurobiology of Good Trouble: The No Kings Protest and Anger Part Three

    What happens in the brain when we rise up against injustice — and how can anger become a force for clarity, compassion, and creativity rather than destruction? In this episode, Ben and Jamesa explore the neurobiology of “good trouble,” drawing from the wisdom of John Lewis, Greta Thunberg, and the No Kings protest to understand how anger can transform into courageous, values-driven action. We look at what actually happens in the brain when we’re angry — from the amygdala’s rapid-fire alerts to the prefrontal cortex’s capacity for reflection — and how this energy can fuel moral courage, not reactivity. Together we unpack: How the fight-flight-freeze-fawn system processes angerThe difference between reactive, suppressed, and regulated angerWhat neuroscience teaches us about turning outrage into actionReal-world examples of anger as a moral force for justice and connection→ Tune in for a grounded, compassionate look at how we can harness anger as a tool for healing, leadership, and community change. 🎧 The Ben and Jamesa Podcast explores the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection. → Join our Patreon for insight-driven tools and practices to build authentic community and personal growth: https://www.patreon.com/c/BenandJamesa  → Learn about our coaching: www.benandjamesa.com  → Download our Connection vs Control Starter Kit: https://www.benandjamesa.com/link-in-bio Support the show

    47 min

  6. 10/12/2025

    Ep. 157: Unrighteous Anger: Cockroaches, Narcissists, and Politicians (Anger Part Two)

    In Part Two of our series on anger, we get honest about what happens when anger stops being a tool for truth and starts becoming a trap. From the self-righteous outrage that fuels online culture to the quiet, corrosive resentment that poisons connection, we explore how ego, projection, and unhealed pain distort our sense of justice. We also ask: why are narcissists and politicians so good at weaponizing anger—and what can we learn from that about our own patterns? Join us for stories, laughter, and a few uncomfortable truths about the difference between clarity and control, anger and arrogance. 🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast is where we explore the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection.  → Learn about our coaching: www.benandjamesa.com  → Download our Connection vs Control Starter Kit to learn your control style and receive our bi-weekly newsletter: https://www.benandjamesa.com/link-in-bio Support the show

    48 min

  7. 10/05/2025

    Ep. 156: The Art of Losing Your Sh!t (Anger Part One)

    Season 10 opens with fire. 🔥 In this episode of The Ben and Jamesa Podcast, Ben and Jamesa dive headfirst into the theme of anger—how it shows up in our relationships, our communities, and even in our healing. What begins as a lighthearted chat quickly turns into a mini therapy session, as Ben unpacks his own relationship with anger—with some help from Jamesa, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Thich Nhat Hanh, and James Baldwin. Together they explore: Why anger isn’t the enemy—it’s information.How to notice what’s happening in your body before it erupts.The difference between managing anger and suppressing it.What healthy anger looks like in professional and personal spaces.This is Part One of a four-part series that invites us all to rethink anger—not as something to fix, but as something that can guide us toward truth, justice, and connection. 🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast explores the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection. Support the show

    54 min

  8. 09/24/2025

    Ep. 155: Jimmy Kimmel, Black Jobs, and Openhearted Living Part 4

    Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is back on air—but what about the 300,000+ Black women who have lost jobs since January 2025 and haven’t been given theirs back? In Part 4 of our Open-Hearted Living series, we hold space for this reality while also lifting up communities that are demonstrating what open-hearted living can look like in practice. From grassroots initiatives to workplaces and neighborhoods built on care and connection, we explore how people are building life-giving alternatives to a world dominated by profit and exclusion. 🎙️ The Ben and Jamesa Podcast is where we explore the deep work of healing, leadership, and building connection in a world built for disconnection. → Join our Patreon for insight-driven tools and practices to build authentic community and personal growth: https://www.patreon.com/c/BenandJamesa  → Learn about our coaching: www.benandjamesa.com  → Download our Connection vs Control Starter Kit and sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter: https://www.benandjamesa.com/link-in-bio Support the show

    45 min
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4.8
out of 5
27 Ratings

About

🎙️  A podcast for anyone ready to loosen the grip of control culture and step into a more human way of being. Through compassion, curiosity, and courage, Jamesa and Ben host two monthly episodes — one where they explore timely headlines and real-life moments through the lens of the 3 C’s, and another featuring conversations with people actively shaping a more humane, courageous world. 

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