ALEXA MORRIS grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, dabbling in several jobs (including Senate page) before choosing the world of non-profits, where she remains to this day. When she married Ben Parkett’s daughter and learned of his Holocaust survival journey, she became determined to help him turn his story into a book. Alexa lives with her family in Northern California and is currently at work on her first novel. Alexa joins us today to discuss “ The CourtYard” , a memoir she co-wrote with Ben Parkett.

Hours before the Nazis came to arrest the Parkett family in July 1942, Madame Nicolas from the apartment upstairs, tips them off that their names are on a list. Their neighbors band together to protect them, hiding the family in a vacant warehouse across the courtyard from their apartment. The courtyard becomes a refuge. With their world turned upside down, it is Ben’s job, at only nine years old, to leave the courtyard each day to get food for his family.

This is a story of community support and resilience-building that provides us with strategies that are useful in our current professional environments The courtyard helps us unlock new pathways for innovation and growth it's about cultural resilience and the ways it drives transformation across various life challenges.

Patricia Martin is a cultural analyst, researcher, and speaker. Her work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, The New York Times, Slate and Psyche Magazine. Author of four books, she holds an MFA in nonfiction from Bennington College, with post-graduate certifications from Duke University in medical narrative, and Jungian theory at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago where she teaches writing and hosts the psychology podcast, Jung in the World. Today, we’re talking with Patricia about her most recent book, Will the Future Like You?: Reflections on the Age of Hyper-reinvention.

It’s a much-needed work that explores how we consciously and unconsciously get caught in technology’s mirror, and how that reflection shapes everything from our sense of self to the external pressures of society. This conversation invites us to pause, and question who we are becoming? Which will help us consider what it really means to remain human in a digitally driven future.”

SUSANNE PAOLA ANTONETTA is the author of The Terrible Unlikelihood of Our Being Here and numerous other works of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Her accolades include a New York Times Notable Book, an American Book Award, a Library JournalBest Science book, and others. She writes for Psychology Today, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The UK Independent,The Hill, Orion, andThe New Republic and has been featured on CNN.

Today we on our show we talk to Susanne about her most recent book “The Devil’s Castle Nazi Eugenics, Euthansia, and How Psychiatry’s Troubled History Reverberates Today” A book that helps us uncover the forgotten history of eugenics in its darkest moments and the unsettling ways its logic lingers, within present day psychiatric practices. Susanne’s work challenges us to acknowledge and correct past injustices and how to transform the future of how humanity can support the value of the mind.

CARLA KAPLAN is the Davis Distinguished Professor of American Literature at Northeastern University. She has published seven books, including Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance and Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters, both New York Times Notable Books, and has written for such publications as The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Slate, and The Nation. Kaplan has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. She serves on the board of Biographers International Organization and is a Society of American Historians Fellow. Kaplan earned her PhD in English from Northwestern University.

And today, as we pull the curtain on this season finale of The He’s Just Podcast, we sit down with Carla to talk about her newest firestarter, TroubleMaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford, a biography that doesn’t just turn pages, it turns tables.

Join us for this earth shattering conversation with Emmy Award winning writer and host of Your Democracy, Gloria J. Browne-Marshall. professor of constitutional law at John Jay College, civil rights litigator, playwright, and award-winning author. Her work with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Community Legal Services has placed her on the front lines of America’s legal battles over rights, power, and justice.

Her previous works include She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power and The Voting Rights War. Gloria is a frequent commentator on CNN, NPR, and MSNBC, she has received numerous accolades, including the 2024 American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award.

Today on He’s Just, Gloria and I talk about her newest book, “A Protest History of the United States”. A book that reframes American history through the lens of resistance; from Indigenous uprisings to Black liberation movements, labor struggles, immigrant rights, and the ongoing fight for democracy.

“It is humbling to realize so many made sacrifices without ever knowing our names.” (Gloria J. Browne-Marshall)

USA National Bestselling Author Darius Ross shares his lived experiences and hard-earned insights with audiences around the world. His bestselling book, The TPS Blueprint: Transforming Trauma to Triumph, has become a powerful resource for readers seeking a fresh start from within. He is also the co-author of Leadership DNA and Success DNA, two works that spotlight character, clarity, and purpose in leadership.

Beyond authorship, Darius is a Forbes contributor, public speaker, and a frequent guest on global podcasts and events. Whether addressing Fortune 500 executives or mentoring emerging entrepreneurs, his message is rooted in strategy, healing, and legacy. He helps individuals reframe trauma, rebuild confidence, and achieve financial empowerment. Today, Darius stands as a bridge between adversity and opportunity, championing hope, achievement, and the power of aligning mission with action.

ELLEN BASSUK, MD is a psychiatrist, researcher, clinician, and advocate whose five-decade career has centered on mental health, homelessness, and society’s most vulnerable populations. Her son, DANIEL SCHOONOVER, an animal lover, volunteer, and steadfast champion for overlooked creatures and communities, has devoted his life to caring for those too often forgotten.

Mental health lives at the center of their story. For Daniel, it has meant confronting circumstances that remind us how fragile stability can be. For Ellen, it has meant facing the painful reality that the very systems she helped build now fail her son, forcing her to fight tirelessly to protect him from the perils of schizophrenia.

Together, they share Between Two Worlds: A Psychiatrist and Her Son’s Quest for Compassionate Mental Health Care, a book born from resilience, love, and an unyielding determination. Their journey illuminates both the cracks in our current system and the hope that emerges when care is rooted in humanity.

Anne Hand is a writer and global education expert whose work bridges personal history and social change. Born in New York she has divided her time between Massachusetts and Mexico City, exploring what it means to belong across borders. Her debut memoir, Austrian Again, traces her journey through Austria’s citizenship process for descendants of Holocaust refugees and the unexpected rediscovery of her family’s hidden past. With empathy and curiosity, Anne reflects on identity, memory, and the legacies we inherit. A graduate of Harvard University, she has devoted her career to advancing equity and opportunity through education and technology around the world. Today we take a deeper, more intimate look at her book “Austrian Again”,Reclaiming a Lost Legacy” is a homecoming, a joyful tribute to the power of belonging. This book is a much-needed reminder for all us who are immigrants, for those of us who seek to know the truth, a truth that sometimes changes our own theories, in that, truly is no place like home.