A new 10-part podcast series explores an unusual theme with prominent Black leaders: Undeserved shame.

Hosted by Teri Williams, president and COO of OneUnited Bank, and marketing executive Suzan McDowell, each interview on the “Who’s Your Ma Honey? podcast is centered on a universal question: “What parts of ourselves have we been taught to hide, and what happens when we reclaim them?”

The question is grounded in Williams’story and family legacy. She shared how she had “buried the memory of her great-grandmother, Annie “Ma Honey” Coachman, due to undeserved shame regarding her small-town, segregated South origins.”

But it also forced Williams to reflect on her origins and her connection with Ma Honey.

“I used to follow her around,” she said of Ma Honey, who had a penny candy store where Williams worked. “I loved it,” she said.

It was from Ma Honey that Williams also realized what it meant to be a businesswoman. Her great-grandmother owned apartments that she rented out. She also set up a barbecue business on weekends.

“People would line up down the block to buy her barbecue,” Williams said.

While Williams did not have the words for it as a child, she realized that her Ma Honey taught her the foundation of business, which she refers to as her “superpower,” and the source of her success in academics and later, her career in banking.

“I was learning business from birth,” Williams said.

By the time she got to Brown University and Harvard Business School, Williams instinctually knew business. “I didn’t have the academic framework for it, but I understood the underlying reasons for economics, business, supply and demand, buy low and sell high, and buy wholesale and sell retail,” she said.

Williams said her hope is that listeners discover the source of their “superpower,” to connect it to their own life journey and success.

“What I hope they get is, first of all, some reflection on who’s their ‘Ma Honey.’... It doesn’t have to be a person. It could be a place, it could be an experience,” she said.

It’s with this in mind that the Season One guests are heavy hitters in their own way. For instance, the season features Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, whose shooting death in 2012 sparked protests and helped raise awareness about racial bias and gun violence. Other guests this season include former New Orleans mayor and National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial; and Karen Hunter, an award-winning journalist and host of The Karen Hunter Show.

“Karen Hunter’s episode is out and she talks about how she thought it was her dad [who] was the source of her strength, when she really didn’t give credit to her mom. Her mom really is her ‘Ma Honey.’ She didn’t realize her strength, because it was a quiet strength.” Williams said.

She also shared the lessons she learned in making this series.

“The number one thing I’ve learned is that everyone has experienced shame,” Williams said, adding, “My goal is to make shame taboo.”

In her field of banking, for instance, Williams said that she sees a lack of financial literacy being a source of shame, to the point where people avoid going to a bank.

“I want people to understand they shouldn’t be ashamed. We were not taught financial literacy in school,” she said. “Just like if you were not taught to read, you wouldn’t know how to read.”

Williams also said it is important to have a series like her podcast where people can hear leaders share their shames or struggles.

It “was really hard for me to share my shame, I was panicking,” Williams said. “It’s one thing to talk to my friends about it, it’s another thing to share it with the world,” she said.

“But I would say it’s so important…even though it is painful. I feel the pain all over again, the shame all over again, but I don’t regret it, because I do think it is important for our community to know that they’re not alone, and that all of us have experienced this,” she said.