Tuesday 7am & 7pmET

That Part with Naa Yirenkyi and Verta Maloney

The Kind of Podcast Your Mama May Have Made- If They Let Her Be Free

That Part is the signature podcast from 45 Lemons, also known as the culture company. Hosted by co-founders Naa Yirenkyi and Verta Maloney, the show is a bold and liberatory space where culture, creativity, systems, and Gen X realness come together. In each episode, Naa and Verta unpack the mess and the magic of being: as leaders, as creators, as women, and as humans just trying to make it. They invite listeners to unlearn what no longer serves, imagine what’s possible, and build something freer, wiser, and more whole.

The podcast is rooted in truth-telling, clarity, and ancestral wisdom. Each episode features segments like:

• What We’re Holding – current events and real life
• The Juice – deep dives into culture, business, tech, and liberation
• That Part – mic-drop moments and community truths
• The Fix – listener dilemmas and practical insights
• Vitamin C – a closing dose of nourishment, clarity, or care

Email: thatpart@45Lemons.com 
Website: www.45lemons.com/thatpart
Instagram: @fortyfivelemons

Broadcasts Weekly Tuesday 7am & 7pmET

Tuesday 7am/7pmET

How Do We Write Our Family Stories? with Nicole R. Fleetwood | Season 2 Episode 7 | That Part by 45 Lemons

We asked the Black women in our lives a simple question: If you could talk about anything on a podcast, what would it be?

Nicole R. Fleetwood chose writing our family stories.

In this episode of That Part, verta and Naa sit down with cultural historian, curator, professor, and MacArthur Fellow Nicole R. Fleetwood for a deeply personal conversation about family, memory, history, and what it means to tell the stories that made us.

In her forthcoming memoir and cultural history, Between the River and the Railroad Tracks, Nicole traces her life growing up in a multigenerational Black family in the Midwest. Writing it required her to wrestle with a question many of us know intimately: how do you honor the people you come from without avoiding the difficult truths that are also part of the story?

Together, Nicole, verta, and Naa talk about the different versions of the people we love, the stories families carry across generations, the things we inherit without fully understanding where they came from, and the freedom that can come from claiming our own perspective.

They also make room for something harder: the possibility of holding compassion for someone who caused harm without erasing the harm itself. Of allowing joy and sorrow, love and anger, tenderness and truth to exist in the same family story.

Because our histories belong to us. And sometimes telling them begins with giving ourselves permission to hold all of it.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of sexual assault and rape. Please take gentle care while listening.

Learn more about Naa & Verta here: https://www.45lemons.com/thatpart

Together on That Part
Verta and Naa are your guides through the mess and the magic of being—at work, in the world, and within ourselves. Come for the cultural clarity. Stay for the cackles, the community, and the truth that just might set you free.

Why the Name That Part?

In today’s culture — especially in Black communities and online spaces — that part is what people say when someone speaks a truth that hits deep. Instead of saying yes, exactly or I feel that, we say: That part.

Imagine someone says: I’m tired of jobs saying we’re a family — but cutting people without warning.

And someone else replies: That part.

It’s like saying: That’s the truth that needed to be said — and I feel it.

It’s the moment in a conversation when someone names what everyone else was thinking. It’s a head nod. A pause. A shared knowing. You might hear it in a meeting, a group chat, a meme, or at the dinner table. 

We chose this name because we’re not here to sugarcoat or skip the real stuff. We’re here to say what’s true — not just what’s trending. The hard parts. The holy parts. The parts we whisper about after the meeting or talk about off the record.

This podcast is where we speak from the gut and name what needs naming. Because that part is where the real conversation lives — where the shift begins

Meet Verta Maloney

Verta brings the fire, the feels, and the freedom.
She’s a Gen X Black woman, mama, facilitator, and cultural truth-teller who’s spent decades helping people get real about race, leadership, and liberation. Whether she’s naming the thing no one else will say or holding space for healing, Verta shows up with love, rage, and deep ancestral knowing. On That Part, she’s here to help you unlearn, reimagine, and build something freer—one mic-drop moment at a time.