Compost, Cotton & Cornrows
Compost, Cotton & Cornrows is a podcast centering Black sustainability leaders across fashion, agriculture, wellbeing and beyond. Through storytelling, culture, and climate conversations, the show explores how ancestral wisdom and modern practices can cultivate regenerative futures. Hosted by Dominique Drakeford, each episode unearths powerful insights that shift the narrative of environmental justice.
Episodes
56 episodes
Episode 53 | Movement Lawyering with Raya Salter (aka Climate Auntie) on Climate Justice & Intergenerational Youth Leadership
In episode 53 of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique sits down with energy justice attorney, activist and self-proclaimed "Climate Auntie" Raya Salter for an unfiltered conversation about what it truly means to fight for environm...
Episode 52 | Mary Annaïse Heglar on Climate Grief, Black Storytelling & Why the Future Depends on Honest Narratives
In this profound and deeply reflective episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique sits down with acclaimed author, essayist and climate writer Mary Annaïse Heglar for a conversation about what it means to bear witness in a wo...
EPISODE 51 | What Style Remembers: Talia Bella on Fashion, Survival & Living Archives
In this deeply personal episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique sits down with creative director, stylist, vintage curator and image consultant Talia Bella for a conversation that expands what sustainable fashion can truly...
Episode 50 | What If Science Could SANG? Environmental Scientist Jordan Ayanna on Music as Climate Education
What if the scientific method had a soundtrack? In this inspiring episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique sits down with Jamaican American artist, environmental scientist and educator Jordan Ayanna (better known as The...
Episode 49 | Beyond the Classroom: André Ware on Urban Beekeeping, Experiential Learning & Expanding Life Saving Opportunities for Youth
In this expansive episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique sits down with André Ware, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Bee U NYC, an organization using urban beekeeping as a gateway to environmental education, leadership develop...
Episode 48 | Compost as an Offering to the Earth and Yourself | Crystal Walker on Composting as a Majestic Practice & Showing Up EXACTLY as You Are
In this joyful and deeply affirming episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique sits down with Crystal Walker, better known online as Compost Fairy, a radical composter, gardener and educator who is transforming how people think about ...
Episode 47 | Protecting Future Generations Starts Now | Victoria Elizabeth Whalen centering the power of Self Discovery, Equitable Land Use and Lived Experience Data
In this deeply expansive episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique sits down with environmental justice legal strategist Victoria Elizabeth Whalen for a conversation rooted in land, memory, climate justice and the...
Episode 46 | Black Fathers Get Postpartum Depression Too | Kalvin Bridgewater on Building Daddy Stroller Social Club For Vulnerability, Healing & Community
How are Black fathers navigating their own postpartum depression in a world that rarely gives them space to feel? In this deeply moving episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique sits down with Dallas-based advocate, father a...
Episode 45 | We Don’t Need To Make New Jewelry | London-Based Founder Tammuz Davis on Vintage Luxury, Adornment & Overcoming Anxiety
What does it mean to build an independent luxury brand rooted in restoration instead of extraction? This week on Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits down with Tammuz Davis, founder of COVE - a London-based vintage jew...
Episode 44 | World-Renowned Climate Expert Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd Breaks Down Resiliency, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Community Co-Creation and the "Kitchen Table" Realities of Climate Change
In this expansive and grounding episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in powerful conversation with Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, a globally recognized climate scientist, former president of the American Meteo...
Episode 43 | No Flowers, No Food | Dee Hall Goodwin on Teaching Climate Through Flowers, Building Black Flower Farmers & Beautifully Disrupting an Aesthetic Industry
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford is in a rich and grounding conversation with floral designer, horticulturalist and agricultural leader Dee Hall Goodwin. She is the founder of Mermaid City Fl...
Reflection Moment | PODCAST SPRING BREAK ANNOUNCEMENT
CCC is on a two-week Spring Break Use this time to tap into past episodes, share your favorites and stay connected to the community. We’ll be back next week continuing Season 2 with more depth and necessary cultural climate conversatio...
Episode 42 | Serge Attukwei Clottey is a Ghana-based global artist weaving plastic waste to unpack migration, expose global systems and build community while advancing environmental justice.
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in a powerful conversation with Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, the visionary behind Afrogallonism - a radical artistic practice transforming discarded...
Episode 41 | Meteorologist Alesha Ray is Making Climate Make Sense - From Data to Daily Life
Episode 41 | In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in conversation with meteorologist and climate storyteller Alesha Ray, whose journey from journalism to national broadcast weather reframes enviro...
Episode 40 | Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso: Sustainability Begins at Birth: A $45M Investment in Maternal Health, Environmental Racism & Brooklyn’s First Data-Driven Comprehensive Plan
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows podcast, Dominique Drakeford sits in conversation with Antonio Reynoso, Brooklyn’s 20th Borough President and the first Dominican to hold the office in New York City history. Raised in Williamsb...
Episode 39 | Sustaining Us: Diamond Spratling, Detroit Roots & the Rise of Climate Sisterhood
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in conversation with Diamond Spratling, MPH, award-winning Climate DisruptHER, two-time TEDx speaker and founder of Girl Plus Environment, a nonprofit mobilizi...
Episode 38 | Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Haitian Moringa & Castor Oil Built a School, a Farm & a Vertical Beauty Blueprint in Brooklyn
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in rich conversation with Fredeline “Freddie” Amedee-Benjamin, co-owner of Papa Rozier Farms, a vertically integrated farm-to-store ecosystem rooted in Haiti W...
Episode 37 | From Civil Rights to Climate Justice: OG Environmentalist Catherine Coleman Flowers on America’s Planned Obsolescence, the Disaster Economy & Why We’re All Environmental Stewards
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits in powerful conversation with Catherine Coleman Flowers - MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Just...
Episode 36 | “I’m Done Being Poor & Popular” - Christa Barfield (FarmerJawn), Founder of the Largest Black Woman-Owned Regenerative Farm in the U.S., on Agricultural Profitability, Wealth Strategy & Creating a Family Office Using a Trust
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Christa Barfield, aka FarmerJawn - regenerative agriculture powerhouse, James Beard Award winner, and founder of the largest Black woman-owned regenerativ...
Episode 35 | Heather McTeer Toney on the Pervasiveness of Plastics, Storytelling as Renewable Energy and Deconstructing Mainstream Sustainability
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, host Dominique Drakeford sits with Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of the Beyond Petrochemicals campaign, 2025 Forbes Sustainability Leader, former mayor of Greenville Mississippi and ...
Episode 34 | Latham Thomas Unapologetically Goes In on Survival and Sustainability Through Black Matriarchy, Afrofuturism and Weapons of Consciousness
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Latham Thomas, renowned birth justice advocate, cultural theorist and founder of Mama Glow, a global maternal health and education platform transforming how birth,...
Reflection Moment | The Practice of Radical Care
This week, Compost, Cotton & Cornrows interrupts our regularly scheduled program. No guest. No interview. No promo assets. Host Dominique Drakeford offers a short grounded reflection on nervous system care, burnout and the...
Episode 33 | Kevin “The Plant Papi”: Showing Others That They Can - Growing Through Wellness, Joy, Vulnerability & House Plants
In this episode of Compost, Cotton & Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Kev aka “The Plant Papi”, creator and cultural storyteller known for weaving plant care, mental wellness and radical self-honesty into everyday life. What begins a...
Episode 32 | You Cannot Talk About Climate Without a #FreeCongo: Maurice Carney on the Foundations of Capitalism, the Silent Genocide Fueling the Global Green Tech Economy & Why Agro-Liberation Rooted in the Congo Basin Rainforest Is Essential
In this uncompromising conversation, Dominique Drakeford sits with Maurice Carney, co-founder and Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, to name what the world has been trained to ignore: the Congo is not a footnote to modern life … It is ...
Episode 31 | Ciara Imani May of Rebundle Building Patented Climate Solutions Inside the $19 Billion Hair Extension Industry
In Episode 31 of Compost Cotton and Cornrows, Dominique Drakeford sits with Ciara Imani May, founder of Rebundle and producer of Reclaimed Beyond the Braid, for a conversation that reframes beauty as a climate and health conversation rooted in ...