Inner Circle Podcast

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  Back to School: The Costs, the Rules, and the Cheat Codes 21.08.2026 1ч 9мин

  $863 per kid before the first bell. Phones getting benched. AI detectors reading your essays. School is back — and it's a whole different game now.Abe hands the co-host chair to an actual college student, and Buela Johnson delivers the line every teacher and parent needs to hear: "You can score a grade with AI. But can you defend the grade?"Inside: the community college move that turns a $1,300 course into a $300 one — same credits. Why Minnesota kids eat breakfast and lunch free, and whether taxpayers should foot the bill. The phone-ban debate ("they've got to interact with a human being for once"). And the hot take that'll start arguments at your dinner table: follow the passion, or follow the money?"Is it going to be hard? Yes. Am I going to die? No."Students, parents, grandparents — this one's the family meeting.Amplify. Empower. Elevate. New episodes Mon–Thu — follow the Inner Circle Podcast.
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  Trust & Accountability: The Headline and the Community 21.08.2026 1ч 3мин

  MPR dropped an investigation: a Liberian government official running Minnesota group homes from 5,000 miles away — $36 million in taxpayer money, neglect findings, and a community holding its breath.Let's be clear: he has not been accused of any crime. But the questions won't wait. Can you run a business you can't see? Where does hustle end and greed begin? And should a platform built to CELEBRATE our entrepreneurs be the one calling this out?Abe, Ms. B, and Buela Johnson say yes — because the honest operators deserve better. Ms. B breaks down exactly how the group home industry works and where the conflict of interest lives. Buela delivers the line of the night: "Integrity is doing the right thing when nobody's watching."Accountability AND grace. Both. That's how family handles hard news.Amplify. Empower. Elevate. New episodes Mon–Thu — follow the Inner Circle Podcast.
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  Social Media Companies on Trial 19.08.2026 1ч 15мин

  A jury already made Meta pay $6 million. Now the states are in court arguing your child's attention was engineered on purpose. So who's really guilty — the platforms, the parents, or all of us?Abe, Peterson, and brand-new co-host Buela Johnson go three rounds: infinite scroll vs. personal responsibility, the tobacco comparison, and whether parents should be on trial too. Abe confesses. Peterson brings the receipts. And Buela's own face was stolen by scammers — the platform couldn't even prove she was her."You can keep scrolling and keep wasting your life.""Kids are called kids for a reason. People are aware — they just play ignorant."Welcome to the circle, Buela.Amplify. Empower. Elevate. New episodes Mon–Thu — follow the Inner Circle Podcast.
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  National Black Business Month: Celebrating Black Businesses 13.08.2026 1ч 5мин

  3 million Black-owned businesses. Only 194,500 with a single paid employee. That gap is the whole story."There's living in the business, and there's building the business. We tend to live in the business."Abe and Ms. B break down why access to capital — not effort — built the gap, how $211 billion becomes $600 billion, and the local owners proving it's possible: from renting 1,500 square feet to owning 6,000. Plus breaking news on a major Black-owned expansion — and if nuns can open a bank, what's our excuse?Nobody's coming to save us. We save ourselves.Amplify. Empower. Elevate. New episodes Mon–Thu — follow the Inner Circle Podcast.
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  Primary Day in Minnesota: Minority Candidates | Peterson Flies Solo 12.08.2026 1ч 4мин

  The co-hosts got caught up. The show went on anyway.Peterson's first-ever solo flight landed on ELECTION NIGHT — and he called it live on air: Amy Klobuchar, projected winner for governor. History moving in real time.Plus the realest take you'll hear on why immigrants sit out politics: many of us fled countries where politics meant danger. But "if you do not mess with politics, politics WILL mess with you."A record number of minority candidates just ran in Minnesota. Little mouse vs. elephant — and the mouse keeps showing up.New episodes Mon–Thu. Follow the Inner Circle Podcast.
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  America Is Getting Older — Who's Going to Take Care of Everybody? 11.08.2026 1ч 5мин

  "How many yachts do you need, Abraham?" — "A LOT, if I can afford it!"Abe and Ms. B go head to head on the crisis nobody's group chat is talking about: America is aging fast, and somebody has to pay for it. Home care runs $34 AN HOUR — do the math, that's $139K a year. A nursing home? $10K a month. And Medicare? Doesn't cover long-term care at all.Inside: why Ms. B says retirement planning is "a guessing game at its best." The culture war over "Mom lives with us" vs. "Mom goes to assisted living." Why elders say the nursing home is "where you go to die." What the immigration crackdown means for who takes care of your grandmother. And the question for your family: have y'all had THE conversation?New episodes Monday–Thursday. Subscribe on YouTube and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.#InnerCirclePodcast #AgingInAmerica #Caregiving #TheTalk
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  Body Shaming: The Ariana Grande Effect 11.08.2026 1ч 4мин

  The internet played doctor with the biggest pop star alive — and she quit public life. Concern? Or cruelty?Ms. B: "If I can count your ribs, that's not shaming — that's the truth."Abe: "Whose place is it to comment on ANYBODY's body?"Nobody backed down.Plus: the childhood nickname "Booney Bones" that never healed, why our community says "she's struggling" when you lose weight — and the pregnant men segment. We said what we said.Drop a comment about the body comment YOU never forgot.New episodes Mon–Thu. Follow the Inner Circle Podcast.
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  Let Your WHY Build Your WEALTH 06.08.2026 1ч 2мин

  "You basically decided to take your closet and turn it into a clothing store. I'm sorry to say."Ms. B and Yahri take over the Inner Circle Podcast Business & Finance Wednesday — and it gets REAL. Why staying in business is harder than starting one. The "boring stuff" behind every million-dollar launch. Working IN your business vs. building it. And why entrepreneurs who ignore politics are quietly killing their own companies.Plus: Ms. B's origin story — a little girl in a St. Paul basement with a briefcase and heels who never stopped. Yahri's hidden résumé: published journalist, family art business, paintings sold as far as Europe. The 30-year-old Black-owned beauty supply store that can't find a buyer. And one question for you: what's YOUR why?New episodes Monday–Thursday. Subscribe on YouTube and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.#InnerCirclePodcast #Entrepreneurship #BlackBusinessMonth #BuildWealth
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  The 5th Annual On The One Music Festival 05.08.2026 1ч 4мин

  The 5th Annual On The One Music Festival (w/ Chadwick Phillips)He was on a major label, on shows with Kendrick Lamar — and months behind on rent. Nobody knew.Chadwick Phillips pulls up to the Inner Circle and drops GEMS: winning the Hot 97 talent show, the record deal that looked like stardom and paid like a side hustle, losing it all, moving to Minnesota — and building the On The One Music Festival from no vendors and no banner to a FREE festival headlined by Grammy-nominated R&B legend Carl Thomas.Inside: "The person with the most rejections becomes the most successful." Why preparation is stress prevention. Mansa Musa and why "we are royalty." And the question that turned into a song live on air: how do you make the money work?On The One Music Festival: Saturday, Aug 8, 3–9 PM, Bloomington Central Station Park. FREE. All ages. Pull up.New episodes Monday–Thursday. Subscribe on YouTube and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.#InnerCirclePodcast #OnTheOne #CarlThomas #TwinCities
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  Entertainment Monday: LeBron Goes East 04.08.2026 1ч 3мин

  Who leaves Hollywood... for Philadelphia?!LeBron just walked away from the Lakers to sign a veteran-minimum deal with the Sixers — fourth team, age 41, season 24. Abe calls it like he sees it: that's not love of the game, that's ring-chasing. Yahri's not so sure.Inside: the "grasshopper" problem killing LeBron's GOAT case vs. MJ and Kobe. Why he's playing for Philly but living in Manhattan (Sixers fans are HEATED). Can Embiid, Maxey, and Jaylen Brown end a title drought running since 1983 — or is this championship-or-bust? Plus: did LeBron rush Bronny out of UCLA for his own dream?Abe drops his all-time top 5 at the end. Somebody's favorite got left off.New episodes Monday–Thursday. Subscribe on YouTube and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.#InnerCirclePodcast #LeBronJames #NBA
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  What Happened to Nolan Wells? 31.07.2026 1ч 7мин

  The boat docked at 6:06 p.m. His mother's phone rang at 11:07. Nolan Wells never came home.An 18-year-old goes missing on a Fourth of July boat trip with his white friends off the Mississippi coast — and the internet declares its verdict before the autopsy comes back. Cover-up or tragedy? Rush to judgment or pattern recognition?The Inner Circle Podcast splits the table on the case gripping the nation. Abe asks why everyone's jumping to conclusions. Yahri and Ms. B bring the receipts on why Mississippi doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. First-time panelist Chino stands on foul play. A surprise guest drops the question nobody can dodge: if the roles were reversed, would we even be having this conversation? Live callers, a lit chat, and a debate that gets uncomfortable — the phone, the mystery girl, the eight-hour silence, Ben Crump, and the two autopsies that still can't tell us how Nolan died.We're not detectives — just four mics, the facts, and the questions nobody has answered.New episodes 4 nights a week. Follow the Inner Circle Podcast and join the conversation.
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  First of Her Kind: A Run for Mayor 67 Years in the Making 29.07.2026 1ч 8мин

  67 years. Zero women of color in Coon Rapids City Hall. Thuba Nguyen is here to change that.The daughter of a Vietnam War refugee — brought to America by the act that reunited children of Black servicemen — Thuba went from a refugee camp to preschool classrooms to the State Capitol. Now she's knocking on doors in a city that's never seen a candidate like her.She gets real about code-switching on the campaign trail, the empty storefronts draining Coon Rapids, private equity buying up family homes — and the moment she was told never to question her patriotism. "Broken ceilings require broken glass. And glass cuts."The primary is Tuesday, August 11.Learn more: thubaforcoonrapids.com | @NguyenforCoonRapidsMayorCivic Tuesday on the Inner Circle Podcast — where we amplify, empower, and elevate all things civics. Follow, rate, and share.
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  Liberia 179 Across America: Which City Showed Up Best? 28.07.2026 1ч 2мин

  10,000+ people. 100° heat. Four nightclubs packed beyond capacity. And nobody was counting.Liberia turned 179, and the diaspora showed OUT.So which city really came out on top? Minnesota? Philadelphia? The DMV? California?Tonight, Abe, Ms. B, and Yahri rank the biggest Independence Weekend celebrations across North America, relive the WizKid moment, call out the cities that denied parade permits ("we remember you when you come looking for our votes"), and ask a bigger question: How much money did the Liberian community generate this weekend—and why aren't we measuring our own economic impact?The data is priceless. The celebration was unforgettable. And with Liberia's 180th Independence just one year away, the planning starts now.The Inner Circle Podcast — where we Amplify, Empower, and Elevate the culture.
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  Monrovia to Minneapolis Part 2 24.07.2026 1ч 3мин

  Snow, Hennessy, and Independence Day. How did Liberians turn Minnesota into Monrovia's second capital? The story of the "Liberian Weekend Off," why nobody who visits ever leaves, and a $1.6B economic footprint nobody's counting. Happy 26 — this one's on you
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  The Price of Disunity: Missed Money, Missed Moments 23.07.2026 1ч 6мин

  Division isn't just painful—it's expensive. While other communities turn their cultural celebrations into economic engines, we're splitting one holiday into multiple competing events and wondering why the sponsors, vendors, media, and crowds never reach their full potential.Tonight, we count the real cost of disunity: the money left on the table, the memories never created, and the opportunities our community keeps letting slip away.Ms. B paints a powerful picture of what one unified July 26 celebration could become, explores why trust remains the biggest obstacle, and shares a personal story of an opportunity she watched pass her own family by.One line captures the entire conversation:Organized money is organized power. Divided, we all lose.Tomorrow: Monrovia to Minneapolis – Part 2.#InnerCirclePodcast #ThePriceOfDisunity #July26 #LiberiansInMinnesota
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  Why the Division? One Holiday, Too Many Camps 22.07.2026 1ч 10мин

  One Independence Day. Multiple events. No unified plan.With Liberia's 179th Independence Day just days away, the Inner Circle Podcast asks the question many in the community have been asking: Why can't we come together for July 26?The conversation gets real. The city denied the parade permit. The canceled Lone Star vs. Minnesota United match sparks fresh questions about planning and leadership. The longtime I.E. vs. Barrolle tradition is missing, leaving many wondering how one of the community's most cherished rivalries became another casualty of division.Guest Peterson brings a different perspective, pointing to Chicago's Ghana Fest—three decades of sustained community collaboration—and asks why Minnesota can't build something with that same longevity.From ego and old rivalries to cliques, trust, and the leadership vacuum few want to address, the panel examines what continues to pull the community apart—and whether a unified July 26 celebration is still possible.Then comes the question that changes the conversation:Should the community stop supporting competing events until organizers commit to building one celebration together?Tomorrow: We move from emotion to economics. How much opportunity is our community losing because of division? Vendors. Sponsors. Hotels. Restaurants. Artists. The numbers may surprise you.
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  Entertainment Monday - what’s on tap for Liberia July 26 21.07.2026 1ч 9мин

  Minnesota is shaping up to be the place to celebrate Liberia’s 179th Independence Day — and we break down everything happening this weekend.Wizkid headlines Tribeville Fest at The Armory on Friday. The Independence Day Parade and Day in the Park take over Sunday. But one major event is no longer happening: the Liberia Lone Star vs. Minnesota United match was canceled after visa denials.Tickets were already sold. So where are the refunds?Plus: Katt Williams, a Lake Minnetonka yacht party, Spain wins the World Cup, Justin Bieber’s halftime performance gets a 6 out of 10, the LeBron GOAT debate gets heated — and Ms. B drops a bombshell about July 26, 2027.New episodes all week as we count down to the 26th. Amplify. Empower. Elevate.
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  The Manosphere Culture | Who's Really Raising Our Young Men? 17.07.2026 1ч 8мин

  There's a classroom on your son's phone — and nobody hired the teacher.Nearly one in four young men in America report feeling lonely every day. The number of men with no close friends has exploded over the past generation. Meanwhile, millions are turning to YouTube personalities, TikTok influencers, and online "alpha male" gurus for answers about success, relationships, masculinity, and purpose.So who's really raising our young men?This week, Abe, Yahri, and Ms. B dive deep into the manosphere: Andrew Tate, alpha-versus-beta culture, masculinity influencers, the loneliness epidemic, and why so many young men feel disconnected from community, friendship, and mentorship.The conversation gets personal when the panel tackles a question that stopped everyone in their tracks:"When was the last time you cried?"It gets heated. It gets honest. And nobody leaves the conversation the same way they entered it.The Inner Circle Podcast — where we amplify, empower, and elevate the conversations that matter.Follow, rate, and share with a parent, mentor, coach, or anyone helping raise the next generation of young men.
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  Trending Businesses: What Should You Start, Buy, or Grow in 2026? 16.07.2026 1ч 2мин

  Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur in 2026—but what business actually makes sense?Abe, Ms. B, and Yahri debate the hottest businesses to start, buy, and grow right now, from food trucks and home healthcare to childcare, beauty services, and creative brands. The conversation tackles rising childcare costs, America's aging population, immigrant entrepreneurship, and whether owning a business is becoming more important than climbing the corporate ladder.If someone handed you $100,000 today, what would you build?Amplify. Empower. Elevate.
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  Local Elections Matter More Than You Think 15.07.2026 1ч 14мин

  Your city council decides your property taxes, your police budget, the parks your kids play in, and the future of your community — yet most people couldn't name a single member.Tonight, Charles Boakai, a first-time candidate for Champlin City Council Ward 4, joins the panel on the opening day of candidate filing for the November 3 special election. He lays out his vision for public safety, a community center, lower property taxes, and representation in one of Minnesota's fastest-changing suburbs.But the panel doesn't let him off easy. Abe, Peterson, and Yahri press him on the questions every candidate eventually faces: How do you lower taxes while expanding services? What should city government actually prioritize? And where does the money come from?Recorded live July 14, 2026.Amplify. Empower. Elevate.