Greetings Glocal Citizens! Let me introduce myself, I'm your host Florence Amerley Adu. I'm CEO and co-founder of LEAP Transmedia. Our vision is to seeds and sows a fertile ground for improving education and economic outcomes for Ghanaians and Africans across the diaspora.

Do you dream about “doing something” abroad? Then consider Glocal Citizens required listening in the due diligence, trusted advisor and inspiration department. In each episode, I visit with dynamic diasporans making local and global impact designing and applying their craft. We explore how their passions have rooted them throughout their lives, while at the same time feeding the branches compelling them to keep reaching “beyond.” We also discuss the personal and professional dimensions of glocal citizenship. Then we round out the discussion with a deep dive into to the business of their business, covering the technical and operational components of the work of “doing something.”

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

I’m sure many of you remember the groundbreaking web series An African City. We’ve even hosted a panel featuring creator of the series Nicole Amarteifio. My guest this week launched her creative career as a cast member on the series and she hasn’t looked back since. Maame Adjei is a Ghanaian storyteller, producer, director, entrepreneur and cultural archivist.

As the founder of Sweet Roots Media, she leads a women-driven media hub dedicated to amplifying cultural narratives and preserving history through high-quality storytelling. Their work spans documentary scripted, brand storytelling, and immersive experiences, all crafted to resonate on a global scale.
Beyond media, She is the founder of Duruyeh, a bold jewelry brand that celebrates heritage, beauty, and self-expression. Every piece tells a story, designed not just as an accessory but as a keepsake to be passed down.

She is also deeply invested in archival work and co-founded Korabea which focuses on preserving, protecting, and uplifting the stories of Ghanaian women, both past and present, through exhibitions, educational projects, and a forthcoming podcast.

Where to find Maame?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube

What’s Maame listening to?
Devi Brown’s Deeply Well Podcast
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Myleik Teele Podcast
The Emotions

Other topics of interest:
NAFTI is now UniMAC-IFT
Who is GloRilla
The Whites of Our Eyes trailer
On Kenneth B. Clark's Doll Study
The Sunday Mirror today
Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings

Special Guest: Maame Adjei.

Heartfelt Greetings, Glocal Citizens.

This week’s encore episode is a salve for my heavy heart. I’m resharing it as a reminder of life’s certainties; because it reflects some of the roots experiences that my guest, Global Ghanaian, death doula and author of Briefly Perfectly Human, Alua Arthur and I share; and because care for the aging has become a feature focus of my life story, particulary since the start of the pandemic.

On April 4th, my father, Peter Otoe Adu took his leave from the body that was the man I know as Daddy, Dad, PO, Peter and papa. He was 86.

Last week on the podcast, I mentioned the long overdue solutionscape and stretch salon series. The first topic we covered in these live sessions--the future of work in care for the aging, is an ever-timely discussion that will go live later this month. Woven into this series will be small tributes in memory of the briefly, perfectly human life dad lived and what I hope will be inspiration for us all to normalize conversations, pay attention and act in the interest of not just our elders but our inevitably aging selves.

Where to find Alua?
See the show notes for Episode 164

Special Guest: Alua Arthur.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This year our Women’s Herstory Month series has taken us for the first time to Botswana and Norway; we stopped in the UK, picked up flavors from Nigeria, Sudan, Zambia, Netherlands, Philippines, Belgium, Brazil and South Africa; went on a future forward mission in Kenya, and we’re landing home in a flashback forward conversation with fellow Ghanaian-American and early Glocal Citizen, Nana Amoako-Anin. Nana first joined us on the podcast in January 2020 in a time when wellness was often taken for granted or an afterthought for later. Then the global pandemic, COVID-19 changed everything. Wellness is now having a moment. However, as we’ll discuss in the conversation, the moment calls for depth, not trend, to sustain real mindset and lifestyle shifts on the personal and professional levels. Nana writes about this at Wellness in Black and lives and works it as a social entrepreneur and organizational leader. She is best known as the founder of Bliss Yoga Accra, Ghana’s first full-service yoga studio. With a background in law, she brings cross-sector expertise to her work, which bridges global perspectives with local impact, positioning her as a thought leader in mindful leadership, mentorship, social innovation and international executive strategy. In this conversation we catch up on evolving realities around wellness for Africans and in Ghana as well as her experience diversifying the what and how of work, guided by her enduring committment to staying people centered. And much, much more.

Where to find Nana?
https://www.nanaamoakoanin.com/
@ Bliss Yoga Accra
On Glocal Citizens
At CrowdReason

What’s Nana reading?
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by Zeinab Badawi

Other topics of interest:
The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic
The “official” Vicks story
Kemetic Yoga
An African History of Africa on YouTube
On Legalized Cannabis in Ghana
Indigenous vs Colonial Medicine in Ghana
Hamamat Shea Butter Museum
ishowspeed in Ghana
Jill Scott talks with Angie Martinez

Special Guest: Nana Amoako-Anin.

Greetings Glcoal Citizens!

This week our Women’s Herstory Month series takes up back to Kenya--to a place called Area Nyaga. Our guide is futurist, artist, and creative synthesist reimagining African futures, San’aa Njeeri. Distilling over a decade of global interdisciplinary practice, she positions art as a tool for education, translating complex ideas into accessible experiences that advance African storytelling while progressing digital ecosystems and financial literacy within the context of emerging technologies.

Through Area Nyaga, her world building framework informed by the Maasci Return saga and her seminal MaaSci series, she situates Indigenous African identities within expansive futuristic landscapes through her signature visual language, A.EYE (African Eye). Working across speculative art, immersive environments, and narrative design, she develops cultural and digital infrastructures that expand how futures can be imagined, understood, and built.

Her work is guided by a defining inquiry: What becomes possible when cultural heritage informs the futures we shape and the narratives we carry forward? In this conversation we explore this question and find ourselves in depth with San’aa getting to know more about how from childhood, her Kenya has grounded the mission and vision that focus her world, and at times, interstellar view.

Where to find San’aa?
On LinkedIn
In Instagram
On Substack

What’s San’aa watching?
After Skool](https://www.youtube.com/afterskool )
Other topics of interest:
Baraza Media Lab
San People of sourthern Africa
About Murang'a, Kenya
Kiambu County
Where is Kirinyaga?
Mount Kenya and Batian Peak
Other Futures Festival
Who is Blinky Bill?
Black Rhino Studios
Old Town Lamu
About the Super Six School News

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week in our continuing Women’s Herstory Month series, we’re in another new country--from southern Africa last week we’re landing in Scandinavia on our first trip to Norway via Sudan, Zambia, The Philippines, Netherlands, Ghana and South Africa--all places my guest this week has called home. Sarah Osman is a cognitive psychologist, global development specialist, and social entrepreneur with twenty years of experience across Europe, Africa, and Asia. Born in Khartoum, Sudan, and shaped by a life lived across multiple continents, she has built her career at the intersection of applied behavioral science and international development, helping major organizations translate insights about human decision-making into programs that create lasting social change.

As the founder of Osman Advisory Services, Sarah has worked with international organizations such as the Council of Europe, World Vision, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union on some of the most complex behavioral challenges in global development.

In 2024, she founded Ela, a membership community for women of color building their own consulting practices. Ela is grounded in the conviction that structural inequity in the consulting sector cannot be solved by individual effort alone: it requires community, peer accountability, and the kind of behavioral design thinking that Sarah has spent two decades applying in the field. Ela members are already experiencing tangible transformation in how they position themselves and grow with confidence.

Sarah is currently building a new platform for Africa-focused professionals who want to harness the power of behavioral and consumer insights in their work and sector.

Currently based in Oslo, Sarah is a true ‘glocal’ citizen: Sudanese by heritage, Pan-African by spirit, European by dwelling, and wholly at home in the space between local realities and global systems.

Where to find Sarah and her resource offerings?
osmanadvisoryservices.com
Join the Ela Membership
Sign up to the Pattern Recognition Newsletter
On LinkedIn
On YouTube

What’s Sarah reading?
Credit Alert by Ayo Akinola
We Are Not Consumers by Louis Seeco

What’s Sarah listening to?
The Department Podcast

Other topics of interest:
Perspectives on Black Identity in Norway
Curious about “Delulu” thinking?
Manal Sayid of Sayid Consulting

Special Guest: Sarah Osman.

Greetings Glocal Citizens!

Next up in our Women’s Herstories Month series is our first trip to Botswana. I met this week’s guest, a native Motswana and globe trotter--Caroline Modise, in Accra earlier this year representing in her role as the Sustainability Engagements Manager at De Beers Group. At De Beers she plays a key role in socialising and amplifying the company’s social impact programs across a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders. The how of our meeting is the Stanford Seed program where De Beers participates as a key partner in Botswana.

Caroline built her early career managing relationships with some of the world’s leading diamond jewellery retailers and later became a founding board member and Head of Strategy for the Botswana Careers Roundtable, a pioneering networking platform designed to bridge experienced professionals with emerging talent across corporate Botswana. As an alumna and former board member of the African Leadership Academy—an institution committed to transforming Africa by developing a network of future-ready young leaders—she remains passionate about Africa’s developmental journey, with particular interest in social enterprises and sustainability strategies for grassroots organisations.

Where to find Caroline?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Caroling reading?
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

What’s Caroline listening to?
Anything Beyoncé
Kaytranada

Other topics of interest:
My local for this conversation - Nanyuki, Kenya
About Gaborone and Palapye in Botswana
From Debswana to
About the Okavango Basin, the National Geographic’s Okavango Project and watch the film
About the Nkashi Storytellers
Traditional cuisine in Botswana
Treehaus Botswana

Special Guest: Caroline Modise.

Women’s Herstory Month Greetings Glocal Citizens!

If it’s March then it’s that time again for a month of conversations centering women’s stories and experiences. This week, we’re also kicking off the series with the launch of our Glocal Citizens x Black Women in Real Estate collaboration--Borderless Building. Founded in 2019, Black Women in Real Estate (BWRE) is an organization that aims to bring together black women in property, creating opportunities for upcoming talent and organizing workshops for those already in the industry. Througout the year, we’re teaming up with BWRE to showcase the personal and professional journeys of Black women in the real estate industry; highlight how Black women in the industry invest and structure value in/around land/property across global markets; and offer valuable insight into the business/operational functions in the real estate industry to inspire a spirit of land stewardship. All ideas you’ll hear in this week's conversation.

Kicking off the series is BWRE Founder, Hanna Afolabi. A few years after founding BWRE, Hanna found herself furthering her entrepreneurial journey with Mood and Space (MAS), a development company supporting clients in embedding social value in their development vision and strategy as well as efficiently managing processes delivering community focused building and urban neighborhoods.

Prior to setting up MAS, Hanna was a Development Director for Balfour Beatty Investments seconded into East Wick and Sweetwater Ltd a joint venture with Places for People. She lead on the feasibility, business planning, budget, design, programming and planning of the mixed-use regeneration project of approx. 1,900 homes on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Her other notable projects in London, include Hallsville Quarter in Canning Town and Borough Triangle in Elephant and Castle.

Additionally, she is Vice Chair of the University of Greenwich’s Construction, Property and Surveying Practices Industry Advisory Board and is on Estates Gazette's Diversity & Inclusion Content Advisory Panel, advocating for diverse representation in property.

Where to find Hanna?
Black Women in Real Estate (BWRE) and get your tix to their International Women’s Day Gala
@ Mood and Space
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Hanna watching?
All her Fault
Bridgerton on Netflix
His & Hers on Netflix

Other topics of interest:
Oke-Ila in Osun State, Nigeria
About Hackney
Estates Gazette

Special Guest: Hanna Afolabi.