Meet Brittany Friedman, Ph.D.

We were lucky to catch up with Brittany Friedman, Ph.D. recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brittany , so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?

When I am the only one in the room that looks like me, I remind myself that my presence is a gift to be offered and not a gap to be filled. My success comes from staying true to my authentic self because I carry a voice, imagination, and way of seeing the world that could only have emerged from my lineage, lived experience, and my own alchemy of survival and creativity.

I learned that by honoring that essence rather than diminishing it, I am bringing a frequency that doesn’t exist without me and cannot be replicated.

I believe everyone has this within them, what I would consider their own irreducible seed of creation and a part of themselves that no institution or other person can script or contain. When I honor mine, I invite others to honor theirs and that is where my confidence comes from and my power.

There is no competition because scarcity is a false manipulation and we all have divinity to contribute that will make us successful in achieving our dreams.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I work at the intersection of research-based storytelling, abolitionist thought, and spiritual imagination. My aesthetic is rooted in understanding the psychic, emotional, and material costs of surviving racial capitalism while also uncovering the ancestral power we each carry to imagine something beyond our wildest dreams.

Professionally, I am a sociologist, writer, spiritual herbalist, and creator, but more than these titles, I see myself as someone committed to celebrating portals: portals to clarity, to liberation, to remembering who we were before the world told us who to be.

What excites me most about my work is that it’s never just about analysis. It’s about transformation at a soul level. Whether I am giving talks about my new book “Carceral Apartheid,” building my healing practice by founding “Liberation Apothecary,” or crafting stories that merge history with ancestral magic, I am always inviting people into deeper truths that challenge, nourish, and expand consciousness.

My brand and creative and writing practice flow from the belief that imagination is a political tool. For example, through my online store, Liberation Apothecary, I am creating digital ritual guides, storytelling-based handmade products, and channelled herbal offerings that help people reconnect with their intuition and inner freedom. Working with fresh and dried herbs brings me so much joy and I am grateful to use both my ancestral and formal herbalism training in this way that helps my community. My writing, scholarship, and research, for instance, pushes conversations in my book projects and articles about state power, racialized punishment, and collective possibility. The written word offers so much as an art form and when not writing in this capacity, I love to fill my journal with poems.

The through-line linking all of my creations is a commitment to freedom and authenticity and healing through truth-telling.

There are several new offerings I am excited about.

I am the host of a new monthly narrative show on Apple podcasts and Substack called “Exploitation Nation,” which uncovers little known stories of exploitation and resistance in the face of rampant inequality in America. Episode 1 is now live and getting lovely feedback!

I love working with herbs and plant medicine and am currently gearing to launch a new line of handmade limited edition herbal products through Liberation Apothecary on December 21, 2025, the Winter Solstice, so stay tuned for the re-opening of my website on that beloved date. Limited edition, handmade collections will continue to roll out throughout 2026.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Learning to lean into my joy even in the face of other people’s heavy emotions or doubts has been key. This type of spiritual and energetic hygiene is not taught and in fact, women and femmes we are taught the opposite – to take on other people’s junk as our own and that is what makes us a “kind” and “good person.” I have worked very hard to consciously shake all of the misogynoir and colonial conditioning that undergirds this type of socialization so that I can live each day based on my own true feelings and emotions and be proud in my joy, rather than shrink so others can feel comfortable.

I have also learned a lot in my life thus far about the true meaning of what seems like rejection. I have always found that rejection is actually divine protection from things and people that do not deserve my time or energy and paths that I previously thought were opportunities, when the universe had something better in mind. Taking this perspective, it allows me to see redirection as a sacred, protective process that I can trust because everything always works out in my highest favor. This has also helped me in moving forward from people and situations where I can see I would have to repeat old lessons in order to tolerate remaining and I now value myself so much that I will never do that again. What’s for me is always meant for me. No chasing and no looking back, only forward with excitement for the unknown.

Finally, allowing people to be where they are and seeing them clearly will save you so much of yourself. Instead of trying to fix people or change them, focus that energy on your dreams, upgrading your life, and pouring love into your own cup. You’ll never regret it.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

I would remind myself daily that this earth is a “Pale Blue Dot,” to quote the iconic 1990 photograph taken from space by NASA’s Voyager 1 Space Probe. The haunting image of earth as a tiny dot in space puts your entire life into perspective. It inspired astronomer Carl Sagan’s 1994 book “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space” which positions our existence in the context of a vast universe with unknown galaxies and infinite reach.

Reminding myself of this daily, maybe with a copy of the image in my home, I would truly live life doing what brings me joy. All social obligations and responsibilities I don’t want would fade away because when faced with such fragility amidst infinity, the only thing that matters in this life is how we loved ourselves and others.

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