Season 1: Episode 1

Anna Arnold Hedgeman and Bertha Cooley fought for racial justice inside the YWCA decades before "DEI" existed—and paid a steep price.

In this opening episode of Return to Presence, we examine Black women's burnout, workplace racism, and the health crisis created by being "the only one" in the room. We explore how racialized workplaces fracture Black women's health, the weathering hypothesis, and how capitalism and martyrdom culture demand we sacrifice our bodies for the work.

I share my own experience of burnout as a Black woman PhD student running a nonprofit and consultancy—the embodied martyrdom, chronic stress, inflammation, and mystery medical problems that came from overgiving and overworking.

Through their storie ...