Humanity Checked Out

Natalie Brasington and Exavier Pope visit friends and discuss the defunding of Harlem Schools, how Jordan Neely’s life should have mattered, and more with host Marina Franklin. 

Natalie Brasington is a multimedia producer, content creator, director, strategist, and media programming developer passionate about seeing the magic in everyone. She specializes in building media programs for social service agencies, nonprofits, and community groups through her hybrid media production company and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, With & About Projects.  Before founding With & About Projects, Natalie photographed celebrities, entertainers, athletes, and CEOs for advertisements, national networks, and global brands, produced photo shoots for world-renowned clients like Grey Advertising, BBDO, Viacom, and New Wave Entertainment, among others, produced award-winning short films, and produced and directed short and feature-length documentary films. Uniquely equipped with a media background and nonprofit training in youth trauma, creative workshop facilitation, interviewing techniques, and anti-oppression alignment, Natalie realized she could lend her varied expertise and insight to important causes.  Natalie is dedicated to leveraging the power of media to problem-solve by challenging assumptions, shifting narratives, and building platforms where communities can celebrate their innate gifts. Her maker process is unique in that she works consciously to flip power dynamics and deliberately center media subjects as co-collaborators and art directors of their own stories. Her professional background spanning the worlds of celebrity entertainment, advertising, social change storytelling, and nonprofit program development allows her to forge unlikely partnerships. Natalie founded her company on the premise that the social justice, nonprofit, and mainstream entertainment sectors can and should have a much more symbiotic relationship. She is a committed member of the Harlem community, and her life’s pride and joy are her amazing family and Ukrainian heritage. Natalie loves people fiercely and believes that community is everything and that there is no such thing as other people’s children. She’s an absurd human who loves talking to strangers so much that she built a whole career around this impulse. Natalie has held many different job titles, but the most important, fulfilling, joyful one is “mom.”

Exavier B. Pope I, Esq. is an award-winning attorney, Legal & Cultural Contributor to ESPN Las Vegas, and host of SuitUP News, a news magazine & variety program focusing on politics, law, social justice, and sports. Exavier is also a Fortune 500 speaker, yoga instructor, and vegan chef. 

Always hosted by Marina Franklin – One Hour Comedy Special: Single Black Female ( Amazon Prime, CW Network), TBS’s The Last O.G, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Hysterical on FX, The Movie Trainwreck, Louie Season V, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert, HBO’s Crashing, and The Breaks with Michelle Wolf.