Welcome to Free Radicals

As an Every subscriber, you may have noticed Free Radicals in your inbox from time to time. You may have even read and enjoyed one of our interviews. When we launched this newsletter in September of 2020, we just sent it out into the world without really taking a moment to stop and properly introduce ourselves. 

A very belated welcome to Free Radicals. We are Sherrell Dorsey, a data journalist, and founder of The Plug—a subscription-based digital news and insights platform covering Black innovation economies; and Annaliese Griffin, writer, editor, and newsletter maven, who most recently ran the Quartz Daily Obsession. 

Twice a month we publish interviews that explore a single question: What does great leadership look like right now? We find ourselves in a moment of intense change, and the past year has made it increasingly clear that leadership with vision, courage, and intention will be crucial in shaping the future. 

As we’ve talked with leaders we admire over the past six months, we’ve expanded our reach from tech and business to journalism, entertainment, and politics, both out of sheer curiosity, and because the same themes keep emerging. A skepticism about the sudden interest in diversity, coupled with a desire to make the most of the moment, with integrity. A willingness to listen, to be wrong. Clear ideas about who is missing from conversations where power is present. And more than anything, a willingness to sit with discomfort. 

We’d love to hear about leaders you admire—and not just the folks who are in charge of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, or who founded their own companies, but people who are unafraid to rethink entire structures, to reimagine their industry, to dismantle what isn’t working and build something new—to be radical. 

Reply to this email to suggest someone for us to interview and keep an eye out for us in your inbox—we have some fascinating conversations to share with you.