Sienna & Slate
Sienna & Slate is a podcast for people who are capable, thoughtful, and under real pressure, and who are no longer willing to confuse productivity with worth. Through reflective conversations, endarkened narrative inquiry, and practice-based thinking, this podcast explores what it means to work, lead, and decide with rigor without self-erasure. Drawing from ancestral knowledge, embodied wisdom, and critical scholarship, Sienna & Slate names the stories that shape our decisions, and asks what becomes possible when we interrupt them. This is not a podcast about optimization, motivation, or escape. It’s a space for discernment, authorship, and staying intact inside the lives we’re already living.
Episodes
We’ve been told for years to chase work-life balance.
Balance your ambition with rest. Balance productivity with self-care. Balance work and home.
But what if the reason balance feels so hard to achieve… is because balance was never the right goal to begin with?
In this episode, we explore why the traditional idea of balance often leaves capable, driven people feeling frustrated, fragmented, and like they’re constantly falling sho...
In this thought-provoking episode, we explore the fine line between being capable and doing too much. What happens when your strengths—your reliability, competence, and drive—start turning into overfunctioning?
We unpack how overfunctioning can quietly show up in your work, relationships, and daily life, often disguised as “just being responsible.” From taking on more than your share to struggling to delegate or ask for help, this ...
Reflection can help you grow—but what if it’s actually making you feel stuck?
In this episode, we explore how self-reflection can quietly turn into self-doubt, overthinking, and loss of confidence. If you’ve ever replayed conversations, questioned your decisions, or felt paralyzed by your own thoughts, you’re not alone.
We break down the difference between healthy reflection and destructive overthinking—and how to shift your mindse...
We’ve been taught to treat pressure as proof of importance. To confuse urgency with obligation. To carry more than is ours — quietly, constantly, without question.
In this episode, I explore the subtle but powerful distinction between pressure and responsibility — and how collapsing the two shapes our work, our bodies, and our capacity to rest.
This conversation is about:
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Why pressure so often masquerades as purpose
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How bur...
Season 2, Episode 1: When Urgency Replaces Authorship
What happens when everything feels urgent — and nothing feels intentional?
In this opening episode of Season 2, we unpack how constant urgency quietly erodes authorship over our work, our time, and ourselves. When deadlines, metrics, and external demands dictate the pace, we stop creating from purpose and start producing from pressure.
This episode explores how urgency becomes a...
Welcome back to the Sienna & Slate Podcast.
This season begins with a return — not from absence, but from listening. After a pause, we’re coming back with greater intention, clearer discernment, and a theme that continues to surface in our work, our community, and our own lives: creativity.
In this opening episode, we invite you to rethink what creativity actually is. Not as talent, productivity, or artistic genius — but as aut...
Key Points:
- Finding Safe Spaces: The conversation begins by highlighting the need for spaces where we...
This thought-provoking shortcast is all about the importance of lifelong for educators.
The inspiration for this shortcast came from a conversation that I had with a mentor who said we can't be innovative in our teaching or thoughts when we have stopped learning and growing. This emphasizes the need for educators to be not only excellent teachers but also exemplary students. This resonated for two reasons:
- Read more
The Spark of Connection:
- The conversation begins by introducing Melvin and Lukas, who met while working at Microsoft.
- The book's backstory emerges from the murder of George Floyd ...
Welcome to this shortcast episode. Today, we're diving deep into the ever-present struggle of burnout.
We all know the feeling: caught in a relentless cycle of expectations, responsibilities, and societal pressures. This constant grind can lead to a debilitating state – burnout.
Research on burnout is vast, and the personal stories are even more so. Burnout is real, and the feelings associated with it are agonizing. It impacts our ...
This episode of the Sienna and Slate podcast features Dr. Nicholas D. Hartlep, who chairs the Education Studies Department at Berea College. Dr. Hartlep discusses his journey as a person of color in academia and his experiences with battle fatigue.
Here are the key points:
- Early Experiences of Race and Education: Dr. Hartlep discusses his personal experiences of being adopted and how they inform his...
Let me introduce Dr. Rick Wallace, who is the CEO and founder of Visionatics Institute. he is a personal life enhancement advisor, life strategist, consultant, and counselor. His works include 26 profound books on societal issues like The World of Black Wealth, The Undoing of the African American Mind, and much more.
Here are a few takeaways from our conversation:
- The importance of knowing one's "wh...
In this inspiring episode of "Sienna and Slate," I had the pleasure of conversing with the remarkable Dr. Luz Casquejo Johnston, an esteemed educator with extensive experience in various educational roles. From being a teacher and charter school principal to becoming a professor at St. Mary's College of California, Dr. Luz has devoted herself to the field of education, specializing in human development and the Montessori approach.
...
Greetings from Sienna & Slate again! We address a sincere query from a community member who is struggling to balance their dejected need to alter the system from within with the toll it has taken on their identity as a researcher in this special episode.
Join us as we explore the depths of cognitive dissonance, straddling borders, and negotiating identities within the oppressive framework of academia. Drawing inspiration from t...
Join me in this captivating episode as I speak to Dr. Rose Aslan, a transformational life coach and academic. Dr. Rose shares her personal journey of leaving academia and finding a slower, more intentional life. We explore her academic background and the challenges she faced, including a lack of support and moments of doubt. Through perseverance and self-discovery, she found her unique path to success.
In our conversation, Dr. Ro...
Join me, Dr. Keo, in this inspiring episode alongside the incredible Dr. Norrine Russell, founder of Vessel Coaching for Students. Driven by innovation, she has crafted a unique coaching approach for neurodiverse students, transforming challenges into triumphs.
Dr. Russell's journey, from university-level teaching to founding the largest student coaching practice, Russell Coaching, is a testament to the power of bridging gaps for n...
Hey there, welcome to Sienna and Slate! We've been blown away by the love for our podcast, and you've asked for more chats on genius, resilience, and well-being. So, here's a quick episode where I open up about feeling a bit out of place during a recent event, a feeling that many of us might get during the holidays.
I chat about the importance of embracing your authentic self and finding joy in imperfect moments. Plus, a bit on min...
As we continue our week-long series on the common mistakes that can derail an academic's hopes for a rejuvenating and realigning holiday break, let's take a moment to recap our journey so far. On Day 1, we explored the challenge of "The Holiday Hustle," where we discussed the pitfalls of overworking during the holidays. Day 2 brought us "The Time Tension," underlining the significance of effective time management for a fulfilling b...
In this week's series, we've been diving into the common mistakes that can thwart an academic's holiday intentions of rejuvenation and realignment. On Day 1, we talked about "The Holiday Hustle," exploring the challenge of overworking during the holidays. On Day 2, we tackled "The Time Tension," discussing the importance of well-structured time management for a fulfilling holiday break. Today, on Day 3, we dive headfirst into "Negl...
As we continue our journey through the common mistakes that can hinder academics' intentions of using the holidays for rejuvenation and realignment, we've arrived at the secon pitfall: "Poor Time Management" or what we're playfully calling "The Time Tension" 🕰️.
In case you missed our first email on Overworking During the Break, also known as "The Holiday Hustle," where we tackled the challenge of overworking during the holidays, ...
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