What happens when where you live determines how long you live? When a full-time paycheck still doesn’t cover the basics? When the cost of being poor—or being Black—comes with hidden fees that erode both health and wealth?

In this powerful series opener of Questions You Didn’t Ask Season 4, host Niasha Fray sits down with two changemakers at the intersection of equity, policy, and community impact:

• Dr. Keisha Bentley-Edwards — Associate Professor at Duke University School of Medicine, Co-Director of the CTSI Center for Equity in Research, and Associate Director of Research at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity. Her groundbreaking work examines how structural racism, culture, and gender shape health and education outcomes.
• Farad Ali — Executive leader, investor, and board member with over 30 years advancing economic mobility and wealth equity. His leadership in finance, higher education, and community development has created access to capital, jobs, and investment in Black and Latino communities nationwide.

Together, they unpack:

• Why “No Health, No Wealth” and “No Wealth, No Health” are more than slogans—they’re realities driving inequities in America.
• The “Black tax” and “poverty tax,” and how manufactured adversity keeps families and communities in cycles of struggle.
• How economic stress translates into health stress—and why health equity cannot exist without economic justice.
• Real-world solutions, from equitable investment and CDFIs to community-led economic development that is transformational, not transactional.
• What it takes to move beyond survival to true thriving.

This episode challenges assumptions, centers lived experiences, and demands a shift from charity to justice. Because health equity means more than access to care—it means ensuring every community has the resources, opportunities, and freedom to live their healthiest lives.

✨ If you believe in a future where thriving—not just surviving—is possible for everyone, this conversation is for you.