Hello dear reader/listener,
Immaculata here and I have come to the end of this iteration of Sweet Medicine. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING AND FOR BEING HERE.
I’ve loved learning about which episodes excite which kinds of people. One of the images I had in my head as I prepared this project was that I wanted a project where different members of an inter-generational family could find something in there for them. One of the images that emerged during one of the early conversations I had with my project manager Oluwakemi was an image of Sweet Medicine as a place where people visit to pluck morsels of respite and inspiration for themselves, according to their specific tastes and needs.
Headache? I’ll have some of that episode 4. Fighting with my wife? Episode 12 might just do it for me. Want to start a business? Last time I had episode 20, it did what it needed to do.
This whole experience has been so intellectually fun. and spiritually nourishing. It feels really good and I recommend doing hard things.
I’m working to be back in the new year to make Sweet Medicine functional.
Happy holidays! <3
(A reminder: I’m hiring a part-time Generalist. I’m hoping to hear from people who are big dreamers + big risk-takers + big doers who find Sweet Medicine fun.)
📧: hello@studiostyles.org 
On the podcast’s final week:
I shared my conversations with two guests who are passionate makers.
Mobolaji and Oluwakemi make things with their hands. Their work is informed by social research and rooted in history. It was necessary for me to end on this note because all this work, all this talk, is towards the goal of creating, of making a world where it is easier to love. I’m a ‘social life of things’ girl through and through. I love the objects. My best friends are colours and textures and all the objects keep me interested in how we channel the energies of our socio-political and spiritual worlds into the things we make with our hands. I’m at peace where the word becomes flesh—in the wood, the rubber, the glass, the metal and even the plastics—and dwells among us.
Enjoy!!
Please spread the word, rate the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or leave a comment. Word of mouth goes a long way.
The Thank You episode.
It’s like J. Cole’s ‘Note to Self’ on his 2014 Forest Hills Drive album. I’ve been wanting to make a mixtape so I could make an ‘Acknowledgements/Thank You/Roll Credits' track like it. ♥️
“It’s not if I can, it’s how I can.” - Mobolaji Otuyelu (listen above)
Mobolaji Otuyelu is the founder of two startups—a kitchenware company AGBO ILÉ and Ọjà Wellness Foods, a beverage company. As an entrepreneur focused on black innovation and social change, Mobolaji is also deeply involved with the Federation of Informal Workers’ Organisations of Nigeria (FIWON), where she collaborates on member-led initiatives to provide tangible support like health insurance, mortgage opportunities, and pension schemes for informal workers. In this conversation, we discuss the ties between economic development and healing—the two need each other—, the gift of now and the power of the contemporary.
Timestamps
04:02 FIWON: A Model for Informal Workers
08:48 Resourcefulness in Nigerian Entrepreneurship
16:15 Healing Through Money and Economic Capital
25:34 The Gift of Now/Culture is Dynamic
Full transcript is not yet live but will be on this page.
“We can give the world beauty, band for band.” - Oluwakemi Agbato
My final guest episode was with Oluwakemi Agbato who lives by the question: “How can we make good things to live with?” And explores that question through her research and design studio, Studio GB and her jewellery brand RENIKEJI. This conversation was full of passion for how history continues to live with us in the objects around us.
(Oluwakemi also worked with me as a project manager on Sweet Medicine.)
04:41 James Baldwin on Suffering and Achieving One’s Own Authority
15:06 The Rich History of Nigerian Silk
19:34 The 1960 Nigeria Exhibition
22:16 “It becomes real—you’re the one pursuing knowledge, knowledge is not pursuing you.”
Full transcript is not yet live but will be on this page.
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