Lena Waithe Redefines Legacy, Listening, and Radical Acceptance

The Optimist Project with Yara Shahidi

🎬 Storytellers, Builders, and Believers—This One’s for the Architects of Culture Who Speak Truth and Shape Tomorrow.

This week on The Optimist Project, Yara Shahidi welcomes Emmy-winning screenwriter, producer, and trailblazer Lena Waithe for a deeply introspective conversation on happiness, radical acceptance, and creative disruption.

From navigating emotional impermanence to embracing the daily discipline of realism-rooted optimism, Lena shares her personal practices for cultivating inner peace—like meditation and silent retreats—and challenges our assumptions about what it means to be “happy.”

Through powerful reflections on societal norms, capitalism, and representation in the arts, Lena offers a blueprint for unlearning, growth, and intentional impact. She opens up about creating new infrastructure in Hollywood, honoring the legacy of local theaters, and fostering spaces for true dialogue over divisive debate.

In this expansive exchange, Lena and Yara explore how optimism isn’t about ignoring life’s challenges—it’s about accepting the full spectrum of experience and still choosing to create, connect, and care.

🎧 From Broadway to the South Side, from storytelling to systems change—Lena reminds us that legacy is built on one radical act of honesty at a time.

📩 How do you practice optimism? DM us, drop a voice note, or tag us in your story.

📲 @optimistprojectpod // The Optimist Project Podcast

✨ Executive Producer: @yarashahidi // Yara Shahidi

✨ Executive Producer: @chocolatemommyluv // Keri Salter-Shahidi

🎙 Guest: @lenawaithe // Lena Waithe

🔔 Experience Lena’s play Trinity at Baltimore Stage Center from Feb 12–March 8, 2026.

🎧 And don’t miss her podcast Legacy Talk with Lena Waithe—a deep dive into creativity, community, and the voices shaping culture.

📞 Voicemail: [phone]

🎭 Tune in—because radical acceptance is a revolutionary act.