Esther Armand, producer and WBAI colleague, brings a Ghanaian Ashanti perspective to the question of why Americans struggle with mentoring. She argues that supporting others is not a special act but a natural function of community, and shares her work helping formerly incarcerated young women discover their own strength through media and storytelling.
Armand DiMele opens the phones and asks listeners to rate their year on a scale of zero to ten and name three things that shaped it. Callers share stories of job hope, health crises, death, financial collapse, and hard-won perspective, turning the show into a candid collective inventory of 2009.
Belonging requires more than membership. Armand DiMele draws on University of Michigan research to argue that fitting in matters as much as formal ties to family, work, or country. Callers share how volunteering, nature, and shared love (not shared hatred) create genuine connection.
Kindness is framed not as a soft sentiment but as evolutionary glue and a cornerstone of sanity. Armand DiMele maps the virtues of a well-balanced person and argues that fear, envy, greed, and jealousy, the classic deadly sins, are precisely what block us from genuine, give-without-getting kindness.
