New episodes explore who has the power to shape a city built for families to thrive

Memphis has always been a city defined by its neighborhoods — by churches that double as community anchors, by leaders who grew up on the same blocks they now work to strengthen, and by a deep, generational commitment to family. This month, PathBreakers turns its attention to Memphis, asking the same question we’ve asked in Detroit and will keep asking in Fresno and New Orleans: Who has power to shape what happens in their city?

In Memphis, the answer starts with people who never left.

Episode 4: Anna McQuiston, Executive Director of the MidSouth Development District

Anna McQuiston has a deep love for Memphis after moving to the city as a young child. She now leads a quasi-governmental agency that’s smashing boundaries and borders to level up collaboration across a big region. The MidSouth Development District serves six counties and 38 cities across West Tennessee, East Arkansas, and North Mississippi. The public-private partnership is rooting out competitiveness and taking a “lift all boats” approach to bringing resources to a geography that is often overlooked and is fighting the inertia of everyone looking out for themselves to do it.

Episode 3: Archie Willis III and Alex Willis Boddie, ComCap Partners

What happens when the developers redeveloping a neighborhood actually come from it and ground their work in a family legacy rooted in the city’s civil rights history? The father-daughter duo behind the South Memphis real estate development firm ComCap Partners, Archie Willis and Alex Willis Boddie, focus on affordable housing, equitable development and creative financing in the city their grandfather helped desegregate.

Episode 2: Marlon Foster, Executive Director of Knowledge Quest

Marlon grew up in South City, Memphis, and watched his neighborhood change around him. What began as a small community effort is now a sophisticated two-generation organization working across home, health and opportunity to build economic mobility for Memphis families.

Episode 1: Mayor Paul Young

We begin at City Hall. Mayor Paul Young grew up watching his parents build a church in the neighborhood — and that same community-rooted instinct now shapes how he leads the city itself. In conversation with Kresge President & CEO Rip Rapson, Mayor Young talks about what it means to bring a grassroots, community-up approach to the scale of city government, with a particular focus on expanding access to housing and youth workforce development.

Creating conditions for long-term family stability

Together, these conversations trace a through-line: family stability in Memphis isn’t built by any single institution. It’s built when city government, community organizations, developers, and regional partners all move in the same direction.

Follow along as new episodes release throughout the month, and revisit the full first arc from Detroit at http://pathbreakers.kresge.org.

PathBreakers is a video podcast from the Kresge Foundation, hosted by Tracey Pearson and Jamie Bennett, with mayoral conversations hosted by Kresge President & CEO Rip Rapson. New episodes release throughout 2026 across four American cities: Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, and Fresno. Last month, it was named the Podcast of the Year, Best Content and Best Interview Podcast at the Timbre Awards, which highlight podcasts that serve the public interest. Listen or watch on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.