We talk about growing up without seeing yourself reflected in books, the power of finally encountering stories that feel familiar and affirming, and how fiction, in particular, can widen our capacity for empathy, self-discovery, and connection. Jessica shares the personal experiences that inspired her debut novel, including her first trip to Ghana as an adult and the longing that followed to find more stories rooted in return, grief, self-discovery, and diasporic life!

To engage with the full module, visit the following link:

On its own, this is a rich, thoughtful conversation. We talk about the stories we inherit, the ones we repeat without realizing it, and how narrative quietly shapes our sense of possibility, identity, and belonging long before we consciously question it.

Inside the full Module 3, though, this conversation is more deeply contextualized. It sits alongside reflections, readings, and prompts designed to help you trace which stories have been organizing your life, and decide which ones still deserve that authority.

You can find the full module and subscribe to my Substack here:

We talk about the early influences that shape how we dress, the rules we absorb about what feels allowed, and how clothing becomes a language long before we know how to name it.

If this conversation resonates, the full Module 2 includes the complete interview, reflections, readings, and prompts designed to help you think more deeply about the story your style has been telling all along.

You can find the full module and subscribe to my Substack here: https://cashmereandcollardgreens.substack.com/

Welcome to the Cashmere and Collard Greens Winter 2026 Syllabus! Every single one of us is shaped by the things we take in. From the fabrics we prefer in our closets and the art we pause in front of, to the stories we internalized before we had language for them, the culture that raised us, and the spaces we build around ourselves over time.

I started Cashmere and Collard Greens because I love style, culture, beauty, and the ongoing work of building a life that feels like my own, but as a narrative strategist and a researcher of media and culture, I also carry a lot of questions. I am always paying attention to context and meaning, curious about why something resonates, why certain things feel grounding while others don’t, how taste develops across seasons of life, and why some stories stay lodged in us long after we should have been able to set them down.

Each module in this syllabus is designed to help you notice patterns rather than prescribe outcomes, and hopefully will offer structure without flattening your experience.

Module 1 is all about home. The spaces that raised us, the objects we keep, and the meaning we assign to all of it, consciously or not.

I’m in conversation with Tyka Pryde, Emmy-nominated interior and production designer, about memory, inheritance, taste, and the emotional life of rooms. We talk about how homes hold stories long after people leave them, and how space quietly shapes who we become.

If this conversation resonates, the full Module One experience lives on my Substack. It includes the complete conversation, a reading and media guide, and reflective exercises designed to help you think more deeply about your own relationship to home.

You can find the full module and subscribe here:
https://cashmereandcollardgreens.substack.com/

I’m really excited for you to listen and spend time with this one.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what we mean when we talk about creative work being “serious.” Who gets to claim that designation, and who doesn’t. What kinds of labor are seen as legitimate, necessary, even noble, and what gets dismissed as indulgent or ornamental, even when it’s doing real emotional work in people’s lives.

That tension sat at the center of my recent conversation with the brilliant and incomparable Tyka Pryde.

What struck me most wasn’t just the impressive breadth of Tyka’s career, from television and interior design to launching her own furniture line, but the clarity with which she understands why she creates. I don’t mean in a branding sense, but in a purpose-driven, I know who the hell I am sense. Her work responds to people’s emotional lives, and it answers a need for safety, meaning, and orientation when the world feels unstable and uncertain.

There’s a way so many of us have been trained to think about creativity as something separate from survival, almost as if beauty, pleasure, and imagination live on a lower rung than productivity or “impact.” Those controlling the levers of power would have us believe that creative work is secondary to politics, law, medicine or finance, or art is something you return to once the “real” work is done. This conversation with Tyka pushes back against that hierarchy with a real clarity about the role of the artist.

She talked about interior design not as aesthetics, but as nervous system regulation, which gave me language for something I’ve long felt, but never really articulated. She dug into the history of how the way we arrange our spaces helps our bodies understand whether we are safe or not, and about how color, texture, light, and intention shape how we move through our days, how we rest, how we create, how we recover, and how we work. That framing feels majorly important right now, especially when so many people (it’s me, I’m people) are carrying persistent low-grade dread while carrying on as if everything is normal.

What also stayed with me was how honest she was about the messiness of building a creative career. Again, with real clarity, she pushed back on the false idea that creative work should arrive fully-formed, highlighting the idea that we need push back on the pressure to be perfect before we begin, and let go of the fear of being seen trying. Tyka was clear that if she had waited until everything was refined, optimized, and pristine, she would never have started.

Instead, she building her stunning furniture collection in public, and learning in real-time alongside her audience.

Note: This conversation is separate from the Cashmere and Collard Greens Syllabus series. The syllabus is its own project, with a different structure and intention. That said, if you enjoyed this exchange and the kind of thinking it holds, the Cashmere and Collard Greens Syllabus series launches January 10th and explores many of these themes through longer conversations, reflections, and guided prompts. You can subscribe now to receive it when it goes live.

Get full access to Cashmere & Collard Greens at cashmereandcollardgreens.substack.com/subscribe