🎙️ Indigenous Intelligence

Nii M O
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Indigenous Intelligence explores how 🌍 ancient traditions uplift modern life. Hosted by 🧔🏾‍♂️ Nii Okyne, a cultural guide and wellness coach, the 🎧 podcast shares ✊🏾 African and Indigenous 🌿 wisdom—from grounding 🦶🏾, ancestral foodways 🍲, and spiritual healing 🔥, to decolonizing wellness and emotional intelligence 💆🏾‍♂️. Tune in monthly for real stories, reflections 💡, and insights to reconnect with your 🌳 roots and thrive 🌟 today.

Episodes

  1. 15h ago

    From the Lab to the Table to Parliament: Barbara Bray MBE on Food, Nutrition and the Policy Moment We Are In

    Barbara Bray MBE is one of the UK’s most respected voices in food nutrition and safety — a registered nutritionist, Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology, Trustee of the Nutrition Society, and former Director of the Oxford Farming Conference. In this conversation, Barbara and Nii explore what it means when science, industry and policy finally begin to move in the same direction. They discuss food nutrition, public health, the role of industry in shaping outcomes, and the opportunities that emerge when trusted relationships open doors to new ideas and new action. This episode reflects one of the central themes of Indigenous Intelligence: that meaningful change often happens at the intersection of knowledge, connection and courage. Barbara has also been one of the key people helping to shape and connect this work, and the conversation speaks to both the personal and professional foundations of that journey. A thoughtful discussion about food, policy, collaboration and what happens when the science is ready, but the system is still catching up.

  2. Jun 12

    Headstrong: Women, Memory and Modernity in Ghana | Dr Laurian Bowles

    What can the lives of women carrying goods through the markets of Accra teach us about resilience, identity and the future of Ghana? In this episode of Indigenous Intelligence, I sit down with anthropologist Dr Laurian Bowles, author of the newly released book Headstrong: Women Porters, Blackness and Modernity in Accra. We begin with Laurian's own story—her childhood, how anthropology found her, and how a first visit to Ghana in the 1990s sparked a journey that would eventually lead to more than a decade of research and relationship-building in Accra. Together, we explore the lives of the kayayei (female head porters), examining the realities of migration, labour, belonging, Blackness and modernity in contemporary Ghana. We discuss what these women taught Laurian about resilience, dignity and community, and reflect on the challenge of preserving memory in a rapidly changing society. This conversation goes beyond anthropology. It is an exploration of what we value, whose stories get told, and what we can learn from people whose lives are often hidden in plain sight. Topics include: • Ghana and social change • The lives of the kayayei • Blackness and identity • Migration and belonging • Memory and preservation • Anthropology and storytelling • Community, resilience and human flourishing Listen, reflect and join the conversation.

  3. Jun 1

    What They Call a Deficiency Isn't a Deficiency

    The word deficiency points you toward food. But the active form of vitamin D is a hormone — called calcitriol — and your body makes it from sunlight, not from diet. When the system fails, it's not because you haven't eaten enough oily fish. It's because something is disrupting the production pathway. In this episode, I walk through how calcitriol is actually made, why melanin-rich skin at northern latitudes disrupts that process at the very first step, what the data shows about who is most affected in the UK — and why some of the supplements GPs are prescribing may be making things worse, not better. This is the science behind the parliamentary question. It's the reason I asked it — and it changes how you understand your own body. calcitriol vitamin D melanin health equity endocrine system Black health UK

  4. Jun 1

    Why I Asked Parliament a Question About Your Skin

    In this episode of the Indigenous Intelligence Podcast, Nii Okyne explores the journey that led him to submit a formal question to the UK Parliament regarding vitamin D guidance for people with higher melanin concentration. Blending science, ancestral wisdom, policy, personal experience, and cultural history, this episode examines:  why vitamin D is actually a hormone  how melanin affects sunlight absorption at northern latitudes  why current public health guidance may not adequately serve Black and South Asian communities  and how Indigenous knowledge systems often understood these realities long before modern institutions acknowledged them Nii shares the story behind Parliamentary Question 106242, the government response that followed, and how Ga ancestral practices from Ghana connect directly to modern conversations around health, grounding, wellbeing, and human biology. This is more than a conversation about vitamin D.  It is a conversation about memory, disconnection, science, identity, and reclaiming knowledge that was never truly lost. Topics explored:  Melanin and sunlight  Vitamin D and hormonal health  Indigenous knowledge systems  Ga traditions and Homowo  Grounding and wellbeing  Health equity  Public policy  Ancestral intelligence Follow Indigenous Intelligence for future conversations exploring ancestral wisdom, wellbeing, culture, identity, and human potential.

  • 4 Episodes

About

Indigenous Intelligence explores how 🌍 ancient traditions uplift modern life. Hosted by 🧔🏾‍♂️ Nii Okyne, a cultural guide and wellness coach, the 🎧 podcast shares ✊🏾 African and Indigenous 🌿 wisdom—from grounding 🦶🏾, ancestral foodways 🍲, and spiritual healing 🔥, to decolonizing wellness and emotional intelligence 💆🏾‍♂️. Tune in monthly for real stories, reflections 💡, and insights to reconnect with your 🌳 roots and thrive 🌟 today.

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