The Fragmented Whole Podcast
Role(s): Creator, Host, Executive Producer
Fragmented Whole (n.): Any entity navigating the fragments of broken systems, relationships, and geographies, while simultaneously striving to remain whole.
Conceptualized by host and executive producer, Amara Grace, in 2017, The Fragmented Whole, a bi-monthly podcast, explores how the brokenness we see in ourselves is reflected in the world around us. Through conversations with entrepreneurs, scholars, artists, and more, Amara investigates how the fragments of intergenerational and systemic trauma can be utilized to manifest individual and collective wholeness.
Season 2, Episode 1
Why are Black people not extinct based on everything we've been through? What factors are contributing to Black women continuing to have full-term births despite experiencing racism across their lives? In this episode, we speak with Dr. Monica McLemore, a reproductive justice nurse, scholar, and activist at the University of California-San Francisco, about potential strategies for reducing the disproportionate rates of Black maternal mortality rates in the United States.
Season 2, Episode 2
In this episode, I speak with Marcus Littles, the Founder and a Senior Partner of Frontline Solutions. Marcus provides strategies organizations can utilize to center equity not just in word, but in action. Happy listening to the entrepreneurs, dreamers, and doers striving to facilitate spaces of production that are equitable and innovative.
Season 2, Episode 3
In this episode, I process what it means to be an adult by putting it into practice. I speak with Dr. Asani Seawell of Pacific University about how forgiveness positively impacts one's health outcomes. If you get nothing else from this episode, forgive for you. You don't need permission from anyone to forgive. Happy listening!
Season 2, Episode 4
Crone (n.): an old woman who is thin and ugly. What happens when that 'old' woman is Black, beautiful, bold, and outspoken? What happens when she's above the age of 40 and still wants bodily, sexual, and professional autonomy? In this episode, I speak with activist and storyteller, Omisade Burney-Scott, about all of this and more. Happy listening!
Season 2, Episode 5
According to LearnVest's 2014 Financial Confidence study, even though women's average income increases by more than 50% after age 25, their financial confidence decreases conversely around age 25. In this episode, I speak with financial planner and public health professional, Ashley Stewart, about strategies for gaining financial confidence at any-age by dismantling debt head-on. To learn more about Ms. Stewart's financial independence services, you can contact her at goodriddancedebt@gmail.com. Happy listening!
Season 2, Episode 6
I began 2019, wrestling with one question: how do you manifest joy and heal from trauma when you're overburdened with societal expectations of resiliency? In this episode, I speak with activists, Desmera Gatewood and Marion Johnson, about the price of toxic resiliency and strategies for transcending and reshaping oversimplified stereotypes. Happy listening!
Season 2, Episode 7
In this episode, I speak with Rita Phetmixay, the creator and host of the virtual healing space and podcast, Healing Out Lao'd. Healing Out Lao'd explores Lao diaspora storytelling, healing, and tools for sustainability. For my POCs, reframing intergenerational narratives of trauma begins with dismantling and rebuilding how we see our individual and collective purpose and value today and everyday. Choose joy! Happy listening!