A new podcast hosted by local community leader Will Green called The Social Compass is available every Sunday at 5 p.m. through Up Next TV Network, a multi-media platform aimed at providing lower-cost streaming options.
Green is the founder and CEO of Mentoring Positives, a Madison-based youth mentorship program that has been working with local kids in the Darbo/Worthington neighborhood for more than 20 years.
The Social Compass podcast features Green hosting weekly guests focusing on topics ranging from mental health to dental care for youths. Some of Green’s guests have included Myra McNair, founder of Anesis Therapy, and One City Schools CEO Kaleem Caire.
Green said he wanted the podcast to amplify Black and brown community voices.
“I wanted to bring people on the show to highlight whatever business they’re in and talk about social issues,” Green told Madison365. “This is a platform to give people of color a voice.”
Green also feels the time is right to discuss social issues he believes aren’t being focused on enough. Racism in politics, youth mental and physical health, and school challenges are all topics Green has focused on during interviews for the podcast.
“I wanted to get into it without getting too political,” Green said.
But the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States helped Green decide the community needs to talk about race and morality in new ways.
“After what we’ve just seen, there is something going on in our community that we would choose for leadership someone who was convicted as a felon,” Green said, adding that the 2024 presidential election ran contrary to the messages children are taught about how to comport themselves. 
“And I’m not just talking about Donald Trump, but the things we would accept right now,” Green said. “We don’t even wanna talk about racism right now. We have put that on a back burner.”
Green, who has received many community awards for his mentorship of youths, is perhaps the perfect person to deliver messaging to kids about how to navigate their communities and the politics of Madison.
“We are at a reckoning right now,” Green warns. “We are all gonna pay the price for the leadership and the way that leadership is being presented right now.”
Green’s own leadership style involves a little bit of pizza, some salsa, financial tips and a lot of basketball. Mentoring Positives operates out of the first floor of the Ella Apartments at 2860 East Washington Ave. on the city’s East Side. Green’s mentees serve pizza and salsa and do other programming in the storefront.
It’s also where Green tapes his podcast.
In addition to running Mentoring Positives, Green is also the head coach of Madison La Follette’s girls varsity basketball program.
A recent Social Compass podcast featured an up-and-coming player from Green’s team, freshman Nyajuacni Riak.
Riak is already 6’2 at age 14 and is ranked by ESPN among the 25 best players in the nation for her graduating class. Riak is one of only five Wisconsin girls currently ranked by ESPN and is the only freshman on the list.
“She got offers from South Carolina,” Green said of Riak.
South Carolina is the premier women’s basketball program in the United States, having won 3 national championships in the last 7 years.
“I’ve known her since she was in 6th Grade,” Green said. “But I didn’t know she was going to explode to six-foot-two.”
Green was casual in his interview with Riak, who spoke of the challenges in adjusting to high school basketball as well as discussed family and community issues.
Green said he has taped 10 episodes of the podcast and, after they’ve all aired, he will begin a new set of interviews to keep The Social Compass going.
