NCOMMON

Latest Episodes:

Season 2 / Ep. 07: El Yunque Aug 03, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, rooted in Sentido's El Yunque chapter, Alison is joined by futurist and speculative designer Monika Bielskyte to talk about Protopia Futures — a framework built on the premise that the futures worth inhabiting are neither utopian nor extractive, and that most of the people designing ours are still working from a model of the human that science abandoned a long time ago.

The conversation turns toward what it costs to design as though we were separate. Not just from each other, but from the ecosystems we are made of. What happens when world building replaces gardening, when the vision comes from one architect who never has to live inside the result. And what changes when independence stops being the aspiration.

Find Monika's work at monikafutures.design.

Season 2 / Ep. 07: El Yunque

Season 2 / Ep. 07: Hiding in Plain Sight Jun 22, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, Alison is joined by director and cinematographer Soraya Sélène to talk about Who in the Hell Is Regina Jones? — a documentary about the founder of Soul newspaper, a nationally distributed publication that predated Rolling Stone, launched out of a dining room in 1966 by a woman with five children whose name most people still don't know.

The conversation turns toward what invisible labor actually costs. Not just professionally, but over a lifetime. What happens when the architecture of something is left out of the record. And what changes when a woman who spent decades performing fine is finally given space to stop.

Rooted in Sentido's Hiding in Plain Sight chapter. Find Soraya's work at sorayaselene.com.

NCOMMON S2: Hiding in Plain Sight

Season 2 / Ep. 06: Radical Jan 08, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, Alison is joined by Aimee Meredith CoxandSoeuraya Wilson, teachers at The Class whose work is grounded in embodiment, care, and long-standing practice in collective spaces. Their conversation explores what it means to be honest with one another in real time, and how trust is built through presence, attention, and the willingness to stay with what’s uncomfortable.

As the conversation moves through stories from classrooms, studios, and personal relationships, it turns toward the quieter work that makes connection possible: emotional labor, mutual accountability, and the discipline of showing up again and again.

Rooted in Sentido’s Radical chapter, and the ongoing inquiry into sense-making and relational leadership, this episode invites listeners to reconsider where culture actually forms. It’s a conversation about grown-up love, shared responsibility, and the small, everyday interactions through which meaning—and community—take shape.

Season 2 / Ep. 06: Radical

Season 2 / Ep. 05: Lessons from an Individual Contributor Dec 02, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Alison is joined by Corina Ocanto, a workplace strategist who has spent her career translating human needs into environments where people can thrive. Their conversation traces the quiet power of leading from the middle—those moments when influence comes not from authority, but from attention, empathy, and the courage to ask better questions.

As they move through Corina’s path from architecture school to systems-level strategy, the discussion turns toward the invisible work that makes organizations function: trust, communication, and the willingness to see each other clearly. Corina shares what she’s learned as a “team of one” inside complex structures, revealing how belonging is built not by proximity, but by understanding.

Rooted in Sentido’s “Lessons from an Individual Contributor,” this episode invites us to rethink how leadership shows up in our own work. It’s a story about presence, purpose, and the relationships that make our work meaningful—and a reminder that culture is co-created, every day, in the smallest interactions.

Season 2 / Ep. 05: Lessons from an Individual Contributor

Season 2 / Ep. 04: Luck as a Superpower Nov 07, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Alison sits down with Rachael Dietkus, a social worker and designer whose practice challenges the false divide between care and design. Together, we talk about luck not as chance or magic, but as something built through persistence, timing, and the quiet work of showing up for others.

What begins as a conversation about survival becomes an exploration of what sustains us: the mentors who see us, the small acts of care that change our direction, and the systems that decide who gets to thrive. Rachael shares how her path from social work to design taught her to treat care as infrastructure—to build it, not wait for it.

A companion to Sentido’s “Luck as a Superpower” chapter, this episode looks at how we design futures where luck is shared, not hoarded. It’s about agency, timing, and the ways we repair what’s been broken. And it’s a reminder that sometimes, what looks like luck is really the result of choosing to keep going—with care, and with purpose.

Season 2 / Ep. 04: Luck as a Superpower

Season 2 / Ep. 03: Sisterhood? Oct 27, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Alison sits with her lifelong friends — Norma, Delia, and Vanessa — women who have known her through every version of herself. Together, they trace the arc of friendship that began in the streets of 1980s and ’90s New York City and has carried them through love, loss, and reinvention.

What starts as a conversation about growing up becomes a reflection on what sustains us—the laughter, loyalty, and lived wisdom that shape how we lead and who we become. They speak openly about aging, identity, and the unspoken contracts of sisterhood: how we hold one another up when the world doesn’t, and how friendship can be its own form of design.

A companion to Sentido’s “Sisterhood?” chapter, this dialogue honors the unseen labor of care that women do for one another and the power of staying connected across decades. It’s a love letter to chosen family, to the ones who remember who you were before the world had a name for you.

Season 2 / Ep. 03: Sisterhood?

Season 2 / Ep. 02: I’m Gonna Win Oct 16, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Alison sits with filmmaker and storyteller Elaine Del Valle, whose debut feature Brownsville Bred captures the beauty and brutality of growing up in 1980s Brooklyn. In a conversation about persistence, self-belief, and the quiet rebellion of creating without permission, Elaine reflects on what it means to keep going when the world tells you not to.

Season 2 / Ep. 01: Explore Test Wander Emerge Oct 03, 2025

Show notes

In this first episode of season two, Alison explores the edges of uncertainty with Jessie Shefrin, an artist, educator, and former Provost at the Rhode Island School of Design. In this conversation about wandering, testing, stumbling, and ultimately emerging into new clarity, Jessie reflects on the sparks that shape us, those fleeting moments of sensation that accumulate into transformation. Together, the dialogue traces how luck, timing, and openness weave into leadership and design, offering listeners a meditative space to consider their own turning points and the practices that help us stay open to what might emerge.

Season 2/ Ep. 01: Explore Test Wander Emerge

Episode 12: Hella Justice Jul 03, 2020

Show notes

In this final episode of season one, Jacqui and Alison reflect on the times with Quinnton Harris, one of the founders of Hella Creative – the team behind the Hella Juneteenth movement. We talk about his incredible journey, the importance of Juneteenth not just as a day, or a moment, but a call for organizational change. How we can continue to grow, listen, learn, do much better, and make the hire.

Ep12 - Hella Justice NCommon

Episode 11: The Future is Bright May 28, 2020

Show notes

Episode 11 is part two of the conversation about Design Operations and where we are heading. In this episode, Jacqui and Alison go broad and extensive (and somewhat meandering ) about future opportunity areas for Design Operations and how we, as design leaders, can lead the charge in laying the groundwork for that future. We charge forward into the unknown with the responsibility to consider society, ethics, customer experience, and the employee experience. Discuss.

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