B The Way Forward

B The Way Forward

B The Way Forward is an action-driven conversation about systemic change—how it happens, who drives it, and what it really takes to make an impact. Hosted by AnitaB.org CEO, and battle-tested leader in tech and equity, Brenda Darden-Wilkerson, the show gives listeners the tools they need to step off the sidelines and shape the future themselves. B The Way Forward Season 2 kicked off with a central question: do you change the system from within, or do you have to break it to build something better? Now, in our second half of the season we'll celebrate something women often feel they can’t admit to in the tech world - failure. Through candid conversations with leaders at the top of the tech industry the audience gets authentic, actionable advice that they can apply to their own careers. Thoughtful, incisive and full of Brenda’s warmth and humor, B the Way Forward is human conversations in a digital world. --- At our heart, AnitaB.org is a connector: we connect women in tech to the organizations, opportunities, and tools they need to advance, thrive, and transform the future of technology. We convene transformative events, lead essential discussions, produce groundbreaking research and white papers, and support the tech ecosystem to shape the future for women in tech. --- Connect with AnitaB.org Instagram - @anitab_org Facebook - /anitab.0rg LinkedIn - /anitab-org And for more ways that you can be the way forward visit anitab.org --- Our guests contribute to this podcast in their personal capacity. The views expressed in this interview are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology or its employees (“AnitaB.org”). AnitaB.org is not responsible for and does not verify the accuracy of the information provided in the podcast series. The primary purpose of this podcast is to educate and inform. This podcast series does not constitute legal or other professional advice or services.

Episodes

When Your Dream Job Becomes a Nightmare - What April Christina Curley Learned From Being Let Go

April 17, 2025 • 42 mins
In 2014, former teacher turned recruiter, April Christina Curley, got offered her dream job - a major tech company asked her to come on board specifically to create a talent pipeline for overlooked tech talent at historically black colleges and universities. Without hesitation, April said yes, packed up her things, and moved from Baltimore to NY. At first, things were great - the program April helped create was a success. She was d...
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Seeing Things Through (Even When You Think You Failed) with Karen Catlin, Author of the Better Allies® Book Series

April 2, 2025 • 36 mins
The second half of season 2 is all about the view from the bottom: what does it feel like to fail, and more importantly, how do you come back from it? We’re creating a safe space for women tech leaders to talk about the worst day of their career — a project gone wrong, a lay-off that came out of nowhere, a startup that shutdown — and how they got through it. Because we never learned anything from the days it all went right.  To ki...
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The Secret Origin of AnitaB.org - Telle Whitney on Friendship with Anita Borg and Founding AnitaB.org

March 20, 2025 • 42 mins
Welcome to B The Way Forward Interludes - a series of conversations that don’t necessarily fit in our regular season, but are just too good to not share. This week, a very special episode for Women’s History Month.  Telle Whitney was already a trailblazing woman in the field of semiconductors when she moved to  Silicon Valley in the 1980s. Anita Borg had already made a name for herself in systems. The two met at a party and became...
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Be Fearlessly Authentic, Not a Jerk - Jeanne Sparrow on How to Communicate for the Good of All

March 12, 2025 • 42 mins
Over the first half of Season 2, we’ve been exploring the best ways to create meaningful change - and whether it happens within our systems or on the outside. But no matter which approach you take, you have to be able to effectively communicate with others  - and that can be hard, especially when you need to speak up in spaces that may not seem as open to hearing from you.  How do you read the room and communicate more strongly to...
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The Art of the Pitch: How BāKIT Box Founder Shelley Gupta Crafts a Winning Pitch

March 6, 2025 • 40 mins
Welcome to B The Way Forward Interludes - a series of conversations that don’t necessarily fit in our regular season, but are just too good to not share.  Today, we’re bringing you a conversation with one of our favorite kinds of people; A BFF. No, not a “best friend forever,” a Badass Female Founder.  Shelley Gupta took her own culinary and cultural curiosity and channeled it into BāKIT Box, a unique subscription service deliver...
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Coming Up on B The Way Forward: The Best Things I Learned From the Worst Day of My Career

February 26, 2025 • 2 mins
It’s never been easy being a woman in tech. But now? When top tech execs say there’s "not enough masculine energy" in “the culture?” It’s a lot. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a show where women who’ve “made it” can share their inspiring success stories?  Sure. But this is not that show. Because we don’t need “nice,” we need honesty. And, if we’re being honest, failure can teach us even more than success. In the second half of B Th...
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The Environmental Impact of Your Chatbot Habit - Why it Might Be Time to Say Bye to the AI

February 12, 2025 • 47 mins
Here’s a question; how much water do you think a single query of ChatGPT consumes? What about Carbon Emissions? How many round trip flights between New York and San Francisco equal the Co2 emitted by training one Large Language Model? And maybe this is the most important one - how would you even figure those numbers out when the big AI companies don’t make them public? Concerns about AI’s impact on Climate Change aren’t new, but a...
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Is AI Going to Take My Job? Unpacking How Workers Are Fighting to Protect Their Careers

February 5, 2025 • 47 mins
Let’s start with the obvious - There is no putting the AI genie back in the bottle. And frankly, as an organization run by technologists and dedicated to advancing women in tech, we wouldn’t necessarily want to. We believe in the promise of technology. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to be concerned about with how AI has been developing so far.  Near the top of that list for almost everyone is the question “Is AI going to...
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The Revolution Will Be Democratized - How the Working Families Party Uses Data and Tech to Fight for Change

January 29, 2025 • 38 mins
We started this season by asking what’s the best way to create real change - inside or outside of the established system? But sometimes it feels like the systems we’re trying to improve are just too entrenched; it can be hard to imagine any approach being successful. And there might not be anyplace where that feels more true than in our politics. But Jennifer Knox, the National Director of Organizing and Tech for the Working Famil...
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Being the Way Forward in the Face of Change - Brenda’s Advice for All of Us

January 22, 2025 • 32 mins
When Americans went to the polls in November of 2024 it felt like in many ways, alongside the presidential candidates, tech was at the top of the ticket. So what will advocacy in this world look like as Donald Trump begins his second term? And what can be done to ensure that the change we’ve worked so hard to create for women and non-binary folks around the country isn’t reversed?    To unpack those questions, and explore how activ...
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The Kids Are Alright… They’re Just Not Voting - With Paul Jones (Young Dems of IL) and Lucille Wenegieme (HeadCount)

January 15, 2025 • 39 mins
With a new administration about to take office, we’re kicking off our second season of B The Way Forward by talking about one of the most powerful tools for change we have access to -- our vote. And digging into why - in the most recent presidential election -less than 40% of young voters showed up, compared to a record-breaking 50% in 2020. GenZ and Millennials make up the largest voting bloc in the country. Re-engaging this slic...
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Coming Soon: B The Way Forward Season 2: Rebuild? Or Burn it Down?

November 22, 2024 • 2 mins
B The Way Forward is coming back with all-new episodes featuring a slate of incredible guests, taking on some of the biggest issues! Including the one that’s central to activism - can we create real change by working within the system? Or do we need to break it to fix it?   Featuring arguments for how to tackle making political representation actually representative, debates on whether Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives ...
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Innovating with Purpose: Driving Equity, Leadership, and Human-Centered Technology in a Data-Driven World

November 20, 2024 • 33 mins
Welcome to B The Way Forward: Interludes - a mini series of special episodes and conversations that stand apart from our regular season, but are just too good not to share. Dr. Rebecca Anderson, Kendall Holbrook, and Supriya Gupta. All three are leaders within the technology, business and career development spaces. They are all working on truly innovative products, research, and technological solutions to pressing problems. We cou...
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Tech for Good: Innovating Solutions to Social Challenges

November 13, 2024 • 33 mins
Welcome to B The Way Forward: Interludes - a mini series of special episodes and conversations that stand apart from our regular season, but are just too good not to share. These days, the headlines can sometimes mostly focus on the challenges in tech - issues like AI ethics and data breaches. But in this special conversation, taped live at Grace Hopper Celebration 2024, Brenda wanted to shift gears! Because Grace Hopper Celebrat...
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On the Fence to On The Ballot: How She Should Run’s Erin Loos Cutraro is Working to Put More Women in Office

November 7, 2024 • 49 mins
Welcome to B The Way Forward: Interludes - a mini series of special episodes and conversations that stand apart from our regular season, but are just too good not to share. Last night was election night in America, and as we publish this episode today (November 6th, 2024) we can say that it was historic - but not because the US elected its first female president. Once again, the highest glass ceiling was cracked but not shattered....
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Announcing B The Way Forward: Interludes

November 1, 2024 • 3 mins
The B The Way Forward team is hard at work on Season 2, premiering in December 2024. But you won't have to wait until then for more of the the honest, insightful, and inspiring conversations you’ve come to expect from this feed. Introducing B The Way Forward: Interludes - special episodes and conversations that stand apart from our regular season, but are just too good not to share. First up, two interludes focused on ways that o...
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Transforming Government: Innovation, AI, and Human-Centered Policy with Clare Martorana and Noreen Hecmanczuk

November 1, 2024 • 36 mins
Welcome to B The Way Forward: Interludes - a mini series of special episodes and conversations that stand apart from our regular season, but are just too good not to share. A lot of things probably spring to mind when you hear the words “Federal Government.” “Innovation, understanding, adoption, and regulation of new technology” is likely not one of them. More likely, citizen-facing government technology brings to mind websites th...
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How Humans and AI can Work Together with BCG’s Suchi Srinivasan

October 17, 2024 • 51 mins
On this episode of “B The Way Forward,” host Brenda Darden Wilkerson is joined by AI and digital technology expert, Suchi Srinivasan. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Suchi is extremely sought after for her expertise and knowledge and is currently managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group. Suchi sits at the helm of the artificial intelligence space where she is passionate about using technology to so...
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Trishala Pillai’s Toolkit for Competence, Confidence, and Advocacy

October 9, 2024 • 55 mins
On this episode of “B The Way Forward,” host Brenda Darden Wilkerson talks with multi-tasker extraordinaire Trishala Pillai. Outside of Trishala’s day job as senior product manager of supply chain innovation and automation at Walmart, she also serves as a board member at AnitaB.org and a producer at the media company she founded called Jugaad Community. Together, Brenda and Trishala talk through how to bring creativity to your care...
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From College Capstone to Tech Startup: How JusticeText Increases Equity in the Criminal Justice System

October 2, 2024 • 61 mins
Devshi Mehrotra and Leslie Jones-Dove join host Brenda Darden Wilkerson on this inspiring episode of “B The Way Forward.” Devshi and Leslie are the CEO and CTO, respectively, and co-founders of JusticeText, an MIT and Google-backed startup that is building technology to better improve the criminal justice system. They talk Brenda through the mission of their company – to hold law enforcement accountable and ensure that low-income c...
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