Streets Dept Podcast – SN 3, EP 14: Michael O’Bryan and Thinking About Our Humanity

Welcome back to the Streets Dept Podcast, y’all! The Streets Dept Podcast is one-on-one interview podcast where I, your host Conrad Benner, sit down with the creative minds shaping the world around us, from Philadelphia and beyond. Creative minds like street artists, poets, activists, politicians, small business owners, and community organizers.

Today, we’ll be chatting with Michael O’Bryan! Michael is an expert practitioner and budding researcher in the fields of community development, organizational culture, and human wellbeing. He’s spent more than a decade working directly with resilient yet underserved populations — including veterans, adults in recovery, returning citizens, and families experiencing homelessness.

Michael’s currently an Innovation Fellow at Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation and also serves as Director of Learning at The Village of Arts and Humanities, a non-profit located in North Philadelphia. He is the founder of Humanature, a consultancy working with nonprofits, businesses, local government agencies and their employees to transform how they understand and support human development, interaction, and performance. Clients include NeighborWorks America, ArtistYear, New Jersey Community Capital, and The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. And Michael has spoken nationally about his work, including at Cornell University, The Vera List Center for Arts and Politics at The New School, SPECTRUM/SOCAP, and the famed Apollo Theatre in New York.

We begin today’s episode talking first about Michael’s work at The Village, in which he talks about different ways you can support the organization: click here to learn more about ways to support The Village of Arts and Humanities! Then we talk more widely about defunding the police, generational resilience after decades of chaos-creating policy, and why Philly’s Mayor Kenney must resign.

Check out my conversation with Michael O’Bryan below, or on any major podcast streaming platform by searching “Streets Dept Podcast”!

Be sure to subscribe to the Streets Dept Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, or any major podcast streaming platform to receive new episodes as soon as they’re published, and please feel free to rate and write a review of the podcast on those platforms to help others find it. (Truly, rating and reviewing podcasts, particularly on Apple Podcasts, helps us so SO much, so thank you for doing that.)

Season 3 of the Streets Dept Podcast is brought to you by our brilliant sponsors at the Spring Arts district, Elfant Wissahickon Realtors, and Kismet Cowork! Each episode is mixed and edited by our producer Mike Mehalick, and each Philadelphia episode of this season is recorded at Radio Kismet!

Listen to past episodes of Season 3 here:
SN 3, EP 1: Ernest Owens
SN 3, EP 2: Jane Golden
SN 3, EP 3: Christopher Plant
SN 3, EP 4: Jose Acevedo
SN 3, EP 5: Antoinette Cauley
SN 3, EP 6: Erika Rubio
SN 3, EP 7: Daphne Rice-Allen
SN 3, EP 8: DINKC
SN 3, EP 9: Sabrina Allie and David Sabados
SN 3, EP 10: Eriko Tsogo
SN 3, EP 11: Ginger Rudolph
SN 3, EP 12: Robert Perry
SN 3, EP 13: Tayyib Smith