📸 Cheers to five years of Shades & Layers.
Hello Podfriend!
How’s life treating you? Aside from melting in the Massachusets heat, everything has been okay.
It’s a month of firsts at the SAL studio and I’m very excited for you to share in the fun. We have our first solo episode to mark five years of SAL and the five most frequent lessons over the lifetime of the podcast so far.
We also have a Pod Swap! It’s our first collaboration with a new podcast bestie. So, you will see and hear a new powerful voice on Shades and Layers in these days. Stick around and find out more in the rest of the newsletter.
And one more first: getting an unsolicited accolade. Million Pods recently named Shades and Layers in its Top Ten of 75 podcasts focused on Black Business. 🥳
On that bright note, let’s see what’s coming up in this edition :
-Studio Update
-Also This Month
-This Month’s Recommendations
Alright pod friends, let’s get to business!
PS. If you enjoy this newsletter, please share with friends and ask them to subscribe.
STUDIO UPDATE
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📸 My converted cupboard which served as a studio for a few years.
In this milestone 5th birthday episode I highlight five of the most recurring themes on the podcast and also share aspects of my entrepreneurial journey. One of the top themes that emerges is about embracing change. We were all forced to change our lives five years ago when the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic and sent us all on our merry way to shelter in place. In a reflection of the times, businesses operating back then had to pivot to another way of doing business. As a podcaster who had lofty dreams of sitting in person in studio with guests, remote recording was my only solution back then and I’ve stuck to the format ever since. All this to say, EMBRACE CHANGE is one of the themes in this episode …
ALSO THIS MONTH
📸 Felicia Walker, Founder of ThisThatBeauty
INTRODUCING MADAME SPEAKER SAYS
Shades and Layers is proud to introduce Madame Speaker Says, a podcast by Magogodi oaMphela Makhene, fellow South African and author of one of my favorite short story collections, Innards.
She has been speaking to some of the most amazing women and inspiring others to chase that dream that’s burning in their hearts. We met online and soon realized that we were aligned in our mission, and so we decided to swap episodes.
SAL is proud to feature this episode featuring beauty editor, entrepreneur, and founder of ThisThatBeauty, Felicia Walker. Felicia shares her signature approach to radiating power from the inside out. Felicia believes that from boardrooms to brunches, your beauty and presence should speak before you do—and Felicia breaks down exactly how to make that happen.
PS. I’ll be interviewing Magogodi in a separate episode during the next season of SAL, so that you can hear more about her and her work outside of podcasting.
AUGUST RECOMMENDATIONS
WATCHING, LISTENING AND READING RECOMMENDATIONS
By way of podcasts, I’m recommending Martine Severine’s This is How We Create podcast. She also has a wonderful Substack companion to this podcast called Creative Matters. She really cares about her community and gives so much with her considered writing. It’s a true meditation on the creative process.
Of course I heard IMO’s episode with Barack Obama. Podcast hosts, Forever Flotus (44) Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson interview Forever Potus (44) about parenting challenges in 2025. He has some interesting views about how he’d have been as a father to boys. It had me thinking how sad it is that American society encourages isolation and far too many parents find themselves bearing the load alone - whether coupled or not. An essay for another day - some thing along the lines of Living The Nuclear Family. I’m sure there are academic papers an thought pieces on this, but maybe too few documentation of successfully navigating the lived experience.
The Retrievals Season 2 is very revealing. I had no clue that anesthesia could fail during a C-section. It’s a horrifying listen. It’s bad enough having to have a cesarian in the first place - especially if it’s an emergency - but being able to feel everything during the operation is just outrageous. Once again, and apparently this is not a rare occurrence, a case of women not being listened to. The podcast itself is worth a listen.
I’m currently making my way through Summer Fishing in Lapland by Juhani Karila gifted to me in a care packages from my good friend Audrey Quinn in Copenhagen. What a joy to get some Scandinavian quirkiness into these heavy times. After that I’ll be reading Buchi Emecheta’s Kehinde which has been sitting on my desk for too long now.
What are you listening to at the moment? What are you reading?
Ok, Podfriends that’s all from me this time around . Let me know what’s exciting you, what’ you’re reading or whatever is on your mind.
Until next time, please do take good care.
Cheers,
Kutloano
(your host with the most)