Black Girl Burnout

In this deeply personal milestone episode, Kelley celebrates 500 episodes of Black Girl Burnout by reflecting on the journey that brought her here—and the one she's stepping into next. She begins by honoring the incredible team behind the podcast before sharing how laying her father to rest at Arlington National Cemetery became an unexpected invitation to slow down, remember, and reconnect with herself.

Kelley explores the ide...

We often think expansion should look loud, visible, and impressive. More followers. More money. More accomplishments. More proof that we're growing. But what if the most important growth happens where no one else can see it?

In this episode, Kelley uses the metaphor of roots and blooming to explore a different path to expansion. She challenges the idea that success requires constant striving and invites listeners to embrace seasons ...

Over the past several weeks, Kelley has been exploring the idea of thawing—what happens when you move from survival mode into a space where you can finally feel again. In this episode, she examines another form of freezing that often goes unnoticed: outrage.

Through reflections on social media discourse, cultural conversations, and personal experiences, Kelley explores how outrage can offer certainty in uncertain times while s...

What does it look like to pursue ambition without abandoning yourself in the process?

In this powerful conversation, Kelley sits down with Sarah Boyd, founder of The Formation, to discuss how Black women can navigate workplace challenges while protecting their wellbeing. Together, they unpack extraction culture, invisible labor, workplace boundaries, self-advocacy, and the difference between excellence and self-sacrifice. Sarah shar...

Last week, Kelley shared that she had entered a season of thawing—a period of finally feeling safe enough to stop bracing for impact. This week, she returns with an unexpected discovery: healing hasn't brought certainty. Instead, it has brought questions.

Drawing inspiration from Zora Neale Hurston's reminder that "there are years that ask questions and years that answer," Kelley reflects on the deeper inquiries emerging in th...

In this Mental Health Month bonus episode, Kelley sits down with Ashlee Edwards, founder and CEO of MindRight, to discuss community-centered mental health support for Black women. Together, they explore why healing shouldn’t begin only in crisis, how community care helps protect our capacity for joy, and what it looks like to build more human-centered systems of support through technology, intention, and connection.

Key Ta...

Sometimes grief doesn’t look like falling apart — sometimes it looks like becoming incredibly productive. In this episode, Kelley reflects on the realization that she had been producing healing instead of actually experiencing it, and how years of survival mode, caregiving, medical trauma, and loss shaped her relationship to grief. Through personal storytelling and thoughtful reflection, she explores how Black women are...

In this episode, Kelley is joined by political analyst, writer, and speaker Zerlina Maxwell for a powerful conversation about visibility, truth-telling, and navigating the pressure of being a Black woman in public spaces. Together, they explore the emotional toll of constantly having to prove yourself, the importance of boundaries, and what it means to remain grounded while living and working in highly demanding environments.

Zerlin...

In this episode, Kelley sits down with mindfulness teacher and creative visionary Oneika Mays for a grounding conversation about breath, presence, and reclaiming joy as a daily practice. Together, they explore how mindfulness can help Black women reconnect with themselves in a world that often rewards constant output over inner peace.

Oneika shares how breathwork, creativity, and intentional pauses have supported her healing journey...

It’s easy to believe you’re stuck—that something about you isn’t working or that you’ve reached your limit. In this episode, Kelley offers a reframe: you may not be stuck at all—you may simply be in the wrong rooms. She explores how environments, communities, and proximity shape what feels possible, visible, and available to you.

This conversation invites you to consider how the spaces you occupy ...

In this episode, Kelley sits down with Ruchi Pinniger to unpack the emotional roots of financial avoidance. Together, they explore how childhood beliefs, shame, and subconscious patterns shape our relationship with money—and why high-achieving women often feel stuck despite earning well. Ruchi introduces practical tools like the RIR Method™(Recognize, Interrupt, Reframe™) method and a prosperity framework that ce...

You’ve likely been taught that success requires hardness—pushing through, tightening up, and leaving softness behind. In this episode, Kelley explores a different path: the middle way, where you can pursue success without abandoning your softness, your boundaries, or your humanity.

This conversation challenges the belief that you must choose between ease and achievement. Instead, it offers a grounded perspective on how t...

In this episode, Kelley challenges the idea that joy should be spontaneous and effortless, introducing a powerful reframe: joy needs structure. She shares how good intentions alone often fall short without systems that make joy repeatable and accessible. Through personal examples and practical strategies, she walks listeners through how to schedule, automate, and protect joy in everyday life.

Kelley also addresses the real-life barr...

In this deeply reflective episode, Kelley introduces a life-changing mantra: “I will no longer break my own heart.” She explores how self-abandonment, internalized beliefs about suffering, and delayed joy have shaped her past—and how choosing softness and intentional joy became her path to healing. Through personal stories, including her time living in Europe and the creation of her “joy jar,” Kelley o...

In this deeply honest and unexpectedly joyful conversation, Kelley sits down with author and television writer Angela Nissel to explore the layered reality of grief, caregiving, and rebuilding a life after loss. Together, they unpack the quiet, everyday griefs that linger long after the funeral, the guilt and self-blame many Black women carry, and the emotional toll of being “the strong one.”

Angela shares how losing her...

In this episode, Kelley explores the idea that joy is not something we wait for, but something we actively practice, especially in difficult times. Drawing from personal reflection, cultural history, and evidence-informed healing, she unpacks how constant exposure to outrage and hardship can disconnect us from our humanity.

She reframes joy as both a survival tool and a form of resistance, rooted deeply in Black cultural traditions ...

Marissa Renee Lee has been through it. Harvard. Wall Street. The White House. And also: her mother's MS diagnosis at 13, stage four breast cancer, a pregnancy loss, and now two years of long COVID. What she's learned isn't that grief has a silver lining. It's that grief has a through line, and if you're honest enough to follow it, it leads somewhere real.

In this episode, Kelley sits down with Marissa, bestselling author of Grief Is...

There are moments when you realize you’ve drifted—away from your needs, your pace, your sense of self. In this episode, Kelley explores what it means to come back to yourself after seasons of burnout, overextension, or disconnection. She gently unpacks how easy it is to lose touch with your inner voice when you’ve been prioritizing expectations, survival, or the needs of others.

This conversation offers a grounded ...

It’s easy to believe you know what you want—more success, more money, more recognition, more stability. But sometimes those goals are inherited from pressure, expectation, or survival patterns rather than your true desires. In this episode, Kelley explores the practice of reverse engineering what you actually want by slowing down and examining the life you’re building.

This conversation invites you to move beyond a...