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Dreaming in Color

Dreaming in Color

By: The Bridgespan Group
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The equitable future we seek requires celebrating the genius of today’s leaders of color. In Dreaming in Color, hear from champions in the charge for equity and justice. Hosted by Darren Isom, a partner in the The Bridgespan Group’s San Francisco office, this podcast offers leaders of color space to share how they have leveraged their unique assets and abilities to embrace excellence, drive impact, and more fully define what success looks like. Grounded in both his New Orleans roots and his experience as a queer Black leader in the social sector, Darren invites listeners into the candid kitchen table conversations that have long helped shape the journeys of BIPOC leaders. Together, we embrace these leaders’ ingenuity, learn from their wisdom and wit, reflect on their words with authenticity and humor, and listen as we think of how we can collectively strive to do and be better. This is Dreaming in Color.Copyright 2026 The Bridgespan Group Economics Management Management & Leadership Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Dreaming of Land Returned

    Dreaming of Land Returned
    12 Oct 2026
    Land Return is not a historical debt already being settled. It is a live, present-day argument over who gets to hold title to the ground beneath us.In this episode, we travel to Santa Fe for a conversation recorded live on the eve of the Santa Fe Indian Market with Jodi Archambault, Founder and CEO at ANPO; Dallas Goldtooth, Environmental organizer, Actor and Co-Founder of The 1491s; and Alvin Warren, Vice President of Policy & Impact at the LANL Foundation, in conversation with Rohit Menezes, Partner at The Bridgespan Group.The conversation moves from definitions — title transfer versus co-management — to a deeper argument that land is the source of language, song, and sovereignty itself. Together, the panel presses past land return as a historical debt already being settled and toward what it would mean to treat it as an active, ongoing responsibility.Jump straight into:00:00 Introduction, recorded live in Santa Fe on the eve of the Santa Fe Indian Market.03:58 Alvin welcomes the audience to Tewa homelands, in place of the show's usual invocation.09:46 Jodi draws the line between land return, co-management, and full title transfer.17:54 Dallas explains how “Empire accommodates, it does not liberate.”19:49 Alvin reframes land theft as a present-day activity, not a historical one.28:57 Jodi recounts being asked point-blank why tribes should have to buy back their own land.33:59 Dallas on the Black Hills settlement money tribes have refused to touch.39:22 Jodi on human rights, relatives beyond the human, and the cost of becoming “indoor humans.”46:09 Alvin on the responsibility his ancestors were gifted, and what it demands now.1:07:49 Alvin closes on the trillions derived from stolen land, and who shouldn't “get cheap.”ResourcesOrganizations and Institutions Referenced:ANPO — founded by Jodi Archambault, an organization focused on the interconnectedness of Indigenous lands, languages, and cultures:https://www.anpo.org/The 1491s — Native American sketch comedy group co-founded by Dallas Goldtooth:https://www.allamericanspeakers.com/speakers/452181/The+1491sLANL Foundation — where Alvin Warren serves as Vice President of Policy & Impact:https://lanlfoundation.org/Santa Clara Pueblo's Land Claims Rights Protection Program — established by Alvin Warren:https://www.santaclarapueblo.org/programs/community-services/rights-protection/California's tribal nature-based solutions program — a $100 million state investment in tribal land reacquisition referenced by Alvin, credited in part to Geneva Thompson, Deputy Secretary of Tribal Affairs at the California Natural Resources Agency:https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Tribalaffairs/TribalNatureBasedSolutionsProgramOther Resources“This Land” — Rebecca Nagle's podcast on tribal sovereignty and land rights, referenced by Alvin:https://www.crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/#DreamingInColor #DEI #LeadersOfColor
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    1 hr and 4 min
  • Dreaming of What Rest Makes Possible

    Dreaming of What Rest Makes Possible
    9 Sep 2026
    Burnout is not a personal failing among today's changemakers. It is a systemic cost, one that philanthropy, movements, and communities can no longer afford to ignore.In this episode, we travel to New Orleans for a live conversation on the importance of rest, co-produced with Beloved Community. Gabrielle Wyatt, Founder and CEO at The Highland Project; Rhonda Broussard, Founder and CEO at Beloved Community; and Charmel Gaulden, CEO and President at Foundation for Louisiana, come together to explore rest as a personal practice, a source of spiritual grounding, and an essential part of the infrastructure that sustains movement work.The conversation moves from individual habits: walking, writing, dance, prayer, to the systems that either protect or erode rest for the people doing the most demanding work. Together, they consider what it would mean to build rest into philanthropy, leadership, and community life, not as an afterthought, but as a strategy for sustaining people and movements.Jump straight into:00:00 Darren opens with a poem framing rest as the still point between waves.04:47 Gabrielle recalls a personal episode and a warning that her body needed rest.10:30 Rhonda reframes a solitary walk to the bathroom as her most luxurious rest practice.15:22 Gabrielle's daily ritual: one sentence of gratitude, written morning and night.17:20 The panel turns to rest as spiritual practice, tied to prayer, silence, and faith.23:04 For Rhonda, dance becomes both prayer and stillness.24:39 Rest as personal practice to rest as infrastructure.33:00 Rhonda on protecting rest for frontline and operational staff, not only senior leaders.35:13 Post-Katrina, Charmel built Communities of Care to sustain overworked nonprofit teams.ResourcesOrganizations Referenced:The Highland Project: founded by Gabrielle Wyatt to build and sustain a coalition of Black women leaders closing the racial wealth gap.https://www.thehighlandproject.org/Beloved Community: founded by Rhonda Broussard, a New Orleans-based nonprofit building sustainable change toward racial and economic equity.https://www.wearebeloved.org/Foundation for Louisiana: led by Charmel Gaulden, funding climate, racial, gender, and economic justice work across the state.https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/Other Resources:“Trough” by Judy Sorum Brown – the poem Darren opens the episode with, published in “Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems.”https://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2013/08/judy-brown-trough.htmlOctavia Raheem: rest coach and author referenced by Gabrielle Wyatt as a mentor in her rest practice; author of “Rest Is Sacred.”https://www.octaviaraheem.com/ #DreamingInColor #DEI #LeadersOfColor
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    52 min
  • Part 2: Dreaming of Different Definitions of the Value of Culture

    Part 2: Dreaming of Different Definitions of the Value of Culture
    20 Aug 2026
    Art doesn't emerge in isolation, and it doesn't end there either. What we owe our artists, and what they owe us back, shapes the culture we all inherit.In this episode, we return to Whitechapel Gallery in London for part two of our conversation with Mariana Mazzucato, Whitechapel Economist in Residence and Professor at University College London; Alvaro Barrington, Artist; and Darren Isom, Partner at The Bridgespan Group, in conversation chaired by Gilane Tawadros, Director at Whitechapel Gallery, as part of the gallery's Art Futures series on the value of culture.Picking up where part one left off, Alvaro reflects on the creative eras and communities that shaped his own practice before the floor opens to audience questions. Together, the panel explores what artists owe their communities, what philanthropy owes when it comes from a place of love rather than obligation, and why measuring what we value may be the key to building something different.Jump straight into:01:01 Alvaro Barrington reflects on the creative eras that shaped him, from Motown to hip-hop.07:07 Mariana Mazzucato reframes philanthropy through pre-distribution, not redistribution.13:11 An audience member asks whether imagination should lead culture, or emerge from it collectively.15:48 Alvaro on making art that your community, friends, and family genuinely love.18:32 Why blockbuster culture crowds out the very ecosystems that create it.20:41 Darren reframes philanthropy through the lens of Black communities' oldest traditions.23:23 An audience member asks how artistic labor finally reaches the people who hold power.27:50 A question of reciprocity: what do artists owe back to the city and economy?34:58 Closing reflections on imagination, permacrisis, and why culture is not a luxury.ResourcesOrganizations and Institutions ReferencedWhitechapel Gallery — the London gallery hosting the Art Futures series.The Bridgespan Group — the philanthropic advisory firm where Darren Isom is a partner.UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) — Mariana Mazzucato's institute at University College London.Bezos Earth Fund — referenced in the discussion as an example of philanthropy detached from its source of wealth.Campaign for the Arts — the UK arts advocacy charity represented by an audience question during the panel.Other ResourcesHave You Heard George's Podcast? — the Peabody Award-winning podcast by George the Poet (George Mpanga), referenced in the discussion on creativity and community investment.#DreamingInColor #DEI #LeadersOfColor
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    40 min
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