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The Culture Soup Podcast®️

The Culture Soup Podcast®️

By: L Michelle Smith
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This show airs in 70+ countries and boasts more than 315 episodes. It can be streamed on Apple Podcast and is in audio and video formats and it can also be hear whereever fine podcasts stream. It's where tech, culture and business collide. Executive producer, host and creator L. Michelle Smith has been interviewing her friends that exemplify innovation and thought leadership at the intersection of tech, culture and business, and sometimes, she shares her own thoughts based on trending conversations and hashtags. Called one of the best Black podcasts to binge by BLAVITY & AfroTech and listed as one of the podcasts you can't miss by Black Enterprise, binge it now.Copyright 2026 The Culture Soup Podcast®️ Career Success Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Ep 201: The Leadership School Hidden Inside the Black Church

    Ep 201: The Leadership School Hidden Inside the Black Church
    Jun 11 2026
    What if the most sophisticated leadership training you ever received happened before you turned 15, and it happened in church? In this fireside chat recorded live at Greater Life Church in Dallas, L. Michelle Smith joins Pastor Stephen G. Brown for a conversation that moves between sermon and scholarship, between science and story. Drawing from her bestselling book Call & Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church, L. Michelle traces the origins of her keynote career back to a Sunday school floor at Good Street Baptist Church, where she learned to stand in front of a room and deliver. This is not nostalgia. It is a leadership masterclass grounded in neuroscience, positive psychology, and the lived wisdom of Black excellence. In this episode, you will hear: - Why real team bonding requires going through something real together, and what the science of social cohesion and oxytocin reveals about how trust is actually built in high-performing teams. - The story of Trudy Bourgeois, former Fortune 500 executive, who was deliberately left behind by her new leadership team at the Kentucky Derby, and what she did next. - Why resilience is pliability and not strength, and how the name-it, tame-it, reframe-it framework turns adversity into a passport for growth. - How hope theory, neuroplasticity, and the music ministry of the Black church connect to what the most rigorous leadership research is only now beginning to name. - What it means for the future of leadership development that the generations who need these formation lessons most have largely left the building. Go deeper: Free leadership toolkit: soaracademy.nsccoaching.co The Circle (community for leaders): lmichellesmith.com/thecircle Speaking requests: lmichellesmith.com/speaking FlightPath newsletter: soaracademy.nsccoaching.co/subscribe Heart-Centered Leader Assessment: SOARacademy.nsccoaching.co/a/CallandResponse Substack: lmichellesmith.substack.com #HerNextPowerMove #HeartCenteredLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #CallAndResponse #BlackChurch #CultureSoupPodcast #GreaterLifeChurch #PastorStephenBrown #Resilience #SocialCohesion #BlackLeadership #FaithAndLeadership #LeadershipLessons #BlackExcellence
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    29 mins
  • Ep 201: Call & Response Book Tour: Fireside Chat w/Rev. Stephen G. Brown — feat. L. Michelle Smith

    Ep 201: Call & Response Book Tour: Fireside Chat w/Rev. Stephen G. Brown — feat. L. Michelle Smith
    Jun 11 2026
    Episode Summary: What if the most sophisticated leadership training you ever received happened before you turned 15 — and it happened in church? In this powerful conversation recorded live at Greater Life Church in Dallas, L. Michelle Smith joins Pastor Stephen Brown for a fireside chat that is equal parts sermon, scholarship, and strategy session. Drawing from her bestselling book Call & Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church, L. Michelle traces the origins of her own keynote career back to a Sunday school floor at Good Street Baptist Church, where she learned to stand in front of a room and deliver — or get coached until she could. This is not a nostalgia trip. It is a leadership masterclass grounded in neuroscience, positive psychology, and the lived wisdom of Black excellence. In This Episode: L. Michelle walks us through the moment a 25-million-impression keynote made her trace her gifts back to a 14-year-old junior deacon. She unpacks why community is her favorite leadership lesson in the book — and why it has nothing to do with pizza Fridays. She shares the science behind social cohesion, oxytocin, and why teams that have never truly failed together have never truly bonded. She tells the story of Trudy Bourgeois — former Fortune 500 executive, mentor, and one of the book's featured leaders — who was deliberately left behind at the Kentucky Derby by her new senior leadership team. What Trudy did next is a clinic in dignity, resilience, and showing up when you have every reason not to. L. Michelle also breaks down what resilience actually means — it is not about being strong, it is about being pliable — and introduces the name-it, tame-it, reframe-it framework that turns adversity into a passport for growth. From her grandmother in Louisville, Arkansas playing records beside the railroad tracks, to the science of hope theory and neuroplasticity, L. Michelle connects the hush harbor to the Harvard research and makes the case that what the Black church has always practiced, science is only now catching up to name. She closes with a challenge to the room and to every leader listening: the interpersonal and communication skills forged inside the Black church building — the junior usher boards, the choir loft, the adult Sunday school — cannot be replicated on a screen. And if the generations who need them most have left the building, the work now is figuring out how to bring those lessons to where they are. Key Concepts Covered: Social cohesion and oxytocin — why real team bonding requires going through something together Resilience as pliability, not strength — the skyscraper model Name it. Tame it. Reframe it. — a three-step framework for processing adversity Hope theory (positive psychology) — goals thinking, pathways thinking, and agency thinking Neuroplasticity and the leadership intelligence hidden in the music ministry What Gen Z and younger millennials leaving the church building means for the future of leadership development Featured in This Episode: Cynt Marshall, former CEO of the Dallas Mavericks Trudy Bourgeois, former Fortune 500 executive and leadership mentor Books Mentioned: Call & Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church by L. Michelle Smith Available now wherever books are sold. Book signing available at Pan Africa Connection, Dallas. Connect with L. Michelle: Website: lmichellesmith.com The Circle private leadership community: lmichellesmith.com/thecircle Podcast: Her Next Power Move + The Culture Soup Podcast® Coaching: cal.read.ai/coachlmichelle/30-min
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    29 mins
  • Call and Response: About the Research

    Call and Response: About the Research
    Apr 18 2026
    "It was important to me to not just go on a hunch..." LMS Watch this clip from my recent book tour stop at Texas Christian University's Brite Divinity School with my friend and classmate, Rev. Dr. Shonda Jones as she probes about my research methodology for my new bestseller Call and Response. No pressure at all...right? I always get a little nervous when I'm speaking to a well-credentialed scholar, but I have to say that this book has been extremely well received from academia, with some universities buying the books in bulk. Shoutout to all the PhDs giving this book praise! I am honored and humbled. You can watch my full conversation with Dr. Shonda and most of the Q&A on The Culture Soup Podcast on YouTube, or listen on any podcast platform.
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    3 mins
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