This 2-part conversation is the first of our new The Nasiona Podcast series showcasing the authentic voices of Women of Color writers. The Nasiona teamed up with the Women's National Book Association's Authentic Voices Fellowship Program and the Women of Color Writers organization to publish their inaugural first anthology, entitled The Roots That Help Us Grow: An Authentic Voices Anthology, Volume 1. Check our website at thenasiona.com for more information on the anthology.

For our podcast series, I interviewed everyone we published in the anthology to present you with an in-depth exploration of their individual literary journeys, their relationships to authenticity, experiences where they learned that language and their stories have power, obstacles they have experienced as Women of Color writers, the stories we included in the anthology, and much more. 

With the Authentic Voices Fellowship program, the anthology, and this podcast series, we seek to bring BIPOC women to a deeper level of inclusion in the publishing industry and the literary world at large. Through the words of these inaugural fellows, the reader and listener may understand how telling these stories – despite the tragedy, trauma, injustice, political movements, language barriers, and grief involved  – allows one to root more deeply into a heritage that helps us grow.

President Obando and I spoke on November 27th, 2021. This is the second of our two-part conversation. Thank you for listening.

***

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López @je_torres_lopez.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

For our podcast series, I interviewed everyone we published in the anthology to present you with an in-depth exploration of their individual literary journeys, their relationships to authenticity, experiences where they learned that language and their stories have power, obstacles they have experienced as Women of Color writers, the stories we included in the anthology, and much more. 

With the Authentic Voices Fellowship program, the anthology, and this podcast series, we seek to bring BIPOC women to a deeper level of inclusion in the publishing industry and the literary world at large. Through the words of these inaugural fellows, the reader and listener may understand how telling these stories – despite the tragedy, trauma, injustice, political movements, language barriers, and grief involved – allows one to root more deeply into a heritage that helps us grow.

Today's episode is special episode with the visionary behind the Authentic Voices program: a bad-ass chingona who goes by many variations of her first name – Nat, Natí, Nato, Natalie, or Natalia – but who I like to refer to as President Obando as a sign of respect. Natalia Obando has worked in the world of book publicity since 2008, is the founder of Do Good Public Relations and the grassroots organization Women of Color Writers Podcast and Programming.

She is the current national president of the Women's National Book Association, overseeing all chapters nationwide. As the first Latina president of the Women's National Book Association, her goal has been promoting diversity in publishing via grassroots efforts through both organizations. She has since been a panelist and speaker at some of the most well-regarded literary conferences in the industry, including the San Francisco Writer's Conference, The West Coast Writer's Conference, the Central Coast Writer's Conference, as well as conferences that focus on diversity in publishing, such as Centering on the Margins. When she's not championing for others in the book world, she is writing novels and screenplays rooted in Latinx folklore and magick. You can find her on LinkedIn as Natalie Obando and on Instagram as @dogooderbookgal

President Obando and I spoke on November 27th, 2021. This is the first of our two-part conversation, where we discuss her own experience in the literary world as a Latina, along with the origin story and breakdown of the Authentic Voices Fellowship Program. We then transition into a discussion on the White Gaze in publishing and how she's using her influence to transition us out of it so we can become more authentic and reflect a more realistic representation. We end Part One of the conversation dissecting the pros and cons of code-switching and how through us coming together in solidarity we can gain more power and lift each other up.

So let's get to it. I'll drop you in where President Obando is discussing some of the stories in the anthology. Thank you for listening.

***

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López @je_torres_lopez.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

Molly "Marco" Marcotte (they/them) is program designer, evaluator, and consultant in their eighth year of work in the anti-violence field. They have co-implemented and evaluated over 30 county-level sexual violence primary prevention initiatives, co-authored multiple state-level and organizational change models and corresponding evaluation plans, designed culturally relevant programming and evaluation for colleges across the Southeast, and have helped construct 50 research and evaluation instruments. Existing as a multilingual, neurodivergent, queer, non-binary femme informs every aspect of their approach, particularly in building authentic rapport and community-centered definitions of programmatic success.

With this episode we usher in our new series for 2022 on disability, mental health, and chronic conditions.

***

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López @je_torres_lopez.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

"I don't want to make sense anymore," Robin Gow wrote in Blue Blood, "I just want to exist." 

"These days we only seem to talk about trans people in the news when we talk about bathroom laws. Our bodies are made political. Somedays I just want to exist. I want to crawl into the corn fields before harvest and just be alone with my skin," wrote Robin Gow.

On today's episode, I speak with Robin Gow and showcase some of the pieces found in their new essays and poetry collection Blue Blood, published by The Nasiona.

Robin Gow is a queer and trans poet, essayist, and Young Adult author. They grew up in rural Pennsylvania and live in Allentown with their partner, best friend, and two pugs, Eddie and Gertie.

Gow is also the author of the chapbook Honeysuckle (Finishing Line Press 2019), the collection Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy (Tolsun Books 2020), and a YA verse-novel, A Million Quiet Revolutions (FSG 2022),

He is a managing editor at The Nasiona, Assistant Editor at Large at Doubleback Books, and a reader for the Young Adult magazine Voyage.

When I was first introduced to Robin's work back in 2018, I immediately wanted to publish it. After reading some of their other pieces published in different magazines, I reached out to Robin to ask if they had enough for a collection. It was at that point that we decided to create what has become one of my favorite books of the year: Blue Blood.

We all begin in water and are called back to water. Blue Blood challenges the rhetoric that trans people are "unnatural" through captivating verses about metamorphosis and meditations on the concept of home. Robin Gow invites readers to celebrate identity; to question what their own body means to them.

Essayist and editor Wren Awry, for example, had the following to say about Blue Blood:

"In a world where trans people must define ourselves over and over again in order to be seen, Robin Gow's refusal to offer neat conclusions is refreshing. Instead, these essays and poems—on everything from horse shoe crabs and bearded women to St. Francis and Georgia O'Keefe—lean into the complexities of gender, family, ecology, and mental health. If Gow's book has a thesis, it's that who we are and how we see the world are so fluid and shaped by so much that it's impossible to unravel it all on paper. The best we can do is lean into the mess and pull out what we can and my, what beauty lies there!"

With this episode we continue to pull back the layers to reveal the themes and topics and approaches and angles of Blue Blood.

We conducted the interview via email correspondence in November of 2020. Thank you for listening.

Thank you to Robin Gow for being our guest today. Thank you to Amanda Lopez for helping me produce this episode and for being the lead The Nasiona editor for Blue Blood. 

Interested in getting a copy of Robin's newest collection of essays and poems? Go here or to thenasiona.com and search for Blue Blood by Robin Gow.

***

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López @je_torres_lopez.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

• the relationship between language and identity, 
• how the concept of time can be a tool to challenge hegemonic epistemologies,
• the importance of centering and circulating thinking and art from the Global South,
• how we can stand up for our own concerns in a colonized landscape,
• the challenges of being multilingual in a society that encourages monolingualism,
• And much more.

We jump into the moment of the event when Dr. Alexandra Rodriguez Sabogal asks Julián about his own experiences. Given that Julián was born in Colombia, and raised in both Colombia and the United States, and having also lived in Canada, Chile, and Japan, she asked him how his global experience influenced or informed how he defines himself as an artist and storyteller. We start the episode with Julián answering this question. Thank you for listening.

***

We'd like to thank the Dr. Alexandra Rodriguez Sabogal and Dr. Katherine Gillen (chair of the Department of Language, Literature, and Arts at Texas A&M, San Antonio) for all of the hours of preparation they put into making this event happen. Also thank you to Myrna Garza (chair of Native American Heritage Month Committee) and Tamara Hinojosa and the President's Commission on Equity for their work and support of this event. We'd also like to thank the university's Spanish, Bilingual Education, Mexican-American and Latinx Studies, Communication, English, and First Year Experience programs for making this event possible. And gracias to the entire Texas A&M, San Antonio, cohort and everyone who attended the event virtually from around the world. 

***

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López @je_torres_lopez.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

Christine Cariño is a transformation catalyst, a queer nonbinary immigrant of Filipino heritage who's passionate about creating an inclusive and equitable global society. She is also the Founder & Managing Partner of Conscious Thrive LLC. a consulting firm that helps businesses embody the work of diversity, equity and inclusion. Christine designs and facilitates transformation workshops in-person and virtually, with notable international experience. She is a proponent of authenticity and radical self-love as resistance. Her coaching practice is centered in empowering global majority leaders reach their next level of success through healing and authenticity so they can create impact on their own terms.

Prior to her work, she has spent over eight years in corporate America as a Recruitment and Staffing strategist where she has coached professionals throughout the hiring process and advised business leaders in different industries on staffing and retention strategies best fit within their organizational needs. She holds a Bachelor's in International Studies; a Diploma in Coaching from NYU and a DEI in the workplace certificate from University of South Florida.

She believes that for us to create a thriving, loving and inclusive world, we must start the work within. To heal, love and include all parts of who we are creates the ripple of change we want to see in our family, relationships, communities and society.

consciousthrive.com

IG: @consciousthrive  

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ccarino

Christine Cariño and Julián Esteban Torres López spoke on the 17th of November 2021. This is that conversation. Thank you for listening.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López @je_torres_lopez.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

• What does it mean to decolonize and Indigenize storytelling?
• How do institutionalized Euro-centric storytelling frameworks limit creativity, understanding of stories and histories, and how we relate to others, our selves, our environment, and our art creations?
• What does it mean to center Indigenous ways of thinking, knowing, and creating in storytelling?
• How can we reimagine and redesign and free ourselves from the shackles and limitations of colonial storytelling?

He shares his story; discusses his storytelling work across various media platforms; and addresses the importance of decolonizing storytelling, affirming Indigenous traditions, and creating safe and encouraging spaces for BIPOC stories.

We'd like to thank Rigorous (a journal edited and written by people of color) for publishing Julián's poem "The Wind" in its Volume 5, Issue 2. We'd also like to thank the Dr. Alexandra Rodriguez Sabogal and Dr. Katherine Gillen (chair of the Department of Language, Literature, and Arts at Texas A&M, San Antonio) for all of the hours of preparation they put into making this event happen. Also thank you to Myrna Garza (chair of Native American Heritage Month Committee) and Tamara Hinojosa and the President's Commission on Equity for their work and support of this event. We'd also like to thank the university's Spanish, Bilingual Education, Mexican-American and Latinx Studies, Communication, English, and First Year Experience programs for making this event possible. And gracias to the entire Texas A&M, San Antonio, cohort and everyone who attended the event virtually from around the world. 

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López @je_torres_lopez.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

Guests: Sylvia Salazar, Colette Ghunim, Alondra Adame, Eva Gonzalez, Diana Castellanos, Mireya S. Vela, Liza Ann Acosta, Alexandra Meda, Christina Igaraividez, J.L. Torres, Irma Herrera, Beezy Montaña, Ra Avis, Patrick A. Howell, Carlos Carrasco, and Deborah Taffa.

[00:02 - 00:14] Sylvia Salazar: Episode 24: Tono Latino

[02:18 - 03:00] Colette Ghunim: Episode 23: Traces of Home

[03:02 - 03:54] Alondra Adame: Episode 27: To the Border Crossers

[03:56 - 04:54] Eva Gonzalez: Episode 27: To the Border Crossers

[04:56 - 06:05] Diana Castellanos: Episode 27: To the Border Crossers

[06:06 - 07:14] Mireya S. Vela: Episode 2: Mireya S. Vela's Vestiges of Courage

[07:21 - 07:40; 10:16 - 11:12] Liza Ann Acosta: Episode 36: The Sisterhood of Teatro Luna, Part 1

[07:41 - 09:16] Alexandra Meda: Episode 36: The Sisterhood of Teatro Luna, Part 1

[09:18 - 10:14] Christina Igaraividez: Episode 36: The Sisterhood of Teatro Luna, Part 1

[11:13 - 12:46] J.L. Torres: Episode 59 – The Nuyorican Hallway: Belonging & Living Between Worlds

[12:50 - 15:26] Irma Herrera: Episode 22: Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name?

[15:28 - 16:37] Beezy Montaña: Episode 48 – BIPOC Musical Artists Showcase

[16:39 - 18:30] Ra Avis: Episode 34: Incarceration and Prison Abolition, Part 1

[18:32 - 19:23] Patrick A. Howell: Episode 31: Global International African Arts Movement, Part 2

[19:26 - 20:53] Carlos Carrasco: Episode 50 – Inside the Afro-Latino Actors Studio, Part 1

[20:54 - 24:02] Deborah Taffa: Episode 39 – Kwatsáan: Ancestral Land, Myths, & Reparations

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López @je_torres_lopez.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

If you are a fan of the show The Office, you may know that Nashua is the location of one of Dunder Mifflin's branches—the very branch where Holly Flax was working out of before she got transferred to the Scranton branch. 

Others may be familiar with Nashua as having been the place where JFK launched his presidential campaign at the steps of City Hall.

Or, maybe you heard that Nashua was ranked both in 1987 and 1997 by Money magazine as the best place to live in the United States.

Some of you may even know the obscure fact that Nashua was one of the only places in the country (if not the only place, period) where you could find triangular manhole covers covering most of the city's sewer connections.

Others may remember the Good Will Hunting scene where Will tells Sean during his therapy session that he wants "to move up to Nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them." I remember being in Nashua watching this movie when it came out and everyone in the movie theatre just looked at each other and started laughing with pride, even though the movie was actually making fun of our city.

For me, however, my favorite historical fact was that the Nashua Dodgers—a farm club of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s—is believed to be the first professional baseball team based in the United States in the twentieth century to play with a racially integrated roster. The team was based at Holman Stadium in Nashua, New Hampshire, the very stadium that hosted my high school graduation ceremony in 1999. The very same stadium where Joe Sparkman and I used to play football together.

Yet, despite Nashua having the history of hosting the first racially integrated U.S. team in modern baseball, the racism in Nashua in the 1990s was still very much alive when Joe Sparkman and I moved to the city to attend Jr. High School and Sr. High School together.

So what it was it really like growing up as Black and brown in New Hampshire in the 1990s in a predominantly white state and a city that saw itself as racially progressive? That's what this episode unpacks. And to dig in, I invited one of my oldest and closest friends, Joe Sparkman, to join me for the conversation.

Joe Sparkman is an inspiration to others and has been one of the reasons why The Nasiona flourished in the first place. Back in the mid-1990s, when Joe and I were classmates in 8th grade together, Joe gave me my first social justice awakening. In this episode, along with forthcoming episodes, I want to humanize The Nasiona by introducing you to the behind the scenes conversations we have with each other here, and to the people who have made The Nasiona possible. 

Joe Sparkman joined the team last year to become our podcast's music producer, and this year he is helping us to officially make our transition into becoming a non-profit organization. In light of this, I wanted to re-introduce you to one of The Nasiona's visionaries.

Joe Sparkman decided to follow his dreams in music after he got his multiple sclerosis diagnosis. He started working with Ne-Yo and went on to produce several prominent artists, such as Rihanna, Mary J. Blige, Joe, Snoop, Christina Milian, Heather Headley, Emeli Sande, Nicole Scherzinger, Missy Elliot, Prince Royce, among others. He won several awards: Grammy, ASCAP Award, multiple Platinum and Gold plaques, and an African Music Award. After his music career, he continued to dream big and co-founded a million-dollar medical and pharmaceutical company (Medsav). He's currently an advisor to the board at Roche and The Adira Foundation,, a district activist leader for the National MS Society, a member of the Government Relations Advisory Committee, and during the 2020 elections the Georgia Democrats delegated Joe as a precinct chairman. As The Nasiona Podcast's music producer, Joe returned to his musical roots, and now he's taking on a bigger leadership role as we take The Nasiona into the next phase so we can more effectively center, elevate, and amplify the personal stories of those Othered by dominant cultures and systems of oppression.

Given that Joe and I have a friendship nearing three decades, I thought it'd be worthwhile to give you a glimpse into the kinds of situations that give rise to activists and social justice warriors like myself and Joe.

Joe Sparkman and I spoke in July of 2020. This is the 1st part or our 3-part conversation.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

His work focuses on the diasporican experience—living in the inbetweeness that forms and informs the Puerto Rican experience. He aims to go beyond issues of identity, although these are central to that experience. 

Through his writing, J.L Torres says he explores "what it means to live a life yearning for 'belongingness' at a time when you're told nation and home are empty concepts, and you have no historical memory of what they ever meant." He wants to explore what this means in a world becoming smaller and where geography cannot ground anything.

I'm very excited to share my conversation with J.L Torres. We dissect the central themes of his new book, Migrations, which is a collection of stories deeply rooted in the history of Puerto Rico, where he elevates the experiences of Othered individuals. This is a far-ranging conversation that spans colonialism, Nuyorican identity, Latine colorism, Critical Race Theory, trauma, healing, and much more.

We spoke on July the 2^nd, of 2021.

You can learn more about J.L. Torres at: jltorreswriter.com

and follow him on Twitter: @rican_writer

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

Angela Rideau is a London-based British-Indian Spoken Word Poet. She is the host of Poems From My Heart, a spoken word podcast sharing stories and poetry that explores taboos and difficult topics such as colonialism, body image, living within the diaspora, and feminism through poetry. 

Her debut autobiographical poetry collection, honeybee, is an exploration of trauma, identity, growing up within the South-Asian diaspora, healing, motherhood, and femininity.

With both Poems From My Heart Podcast and her poetry collection honeybee, Angela Rideau introduces us to the roots of her heritage, and the soil that has cultivated her grief and frustrations, her joys and her hopes. She brings footnotes to the forefront, decolonizing her heart and thoughts from those coercive frameworks that have for generations passed as common sense. With these raw and honest poems, Angela Rideau dissects the dominant hierarchies, cultures, and caste systems that have othered and devalued her, and she reimagines a world anew that includes, encourages, and elevates her, and you, us ... the collective beehive. And in the process, she sheds the skin of misogyny and proudly arms herself with her battle scars to become one with herself, her body, and her hive .. to better embrace the harmony of her new collective colony — where we learn how to live with multiple tongues in our mouths, weaving songs that heal, that soothe, and that empower the soul.

100% of the royalties from the book will be donated to Tommy's Charity (UK) who help to support families through and research the cause of baby loss.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Angela Rideau on June 17th of 2021.

Today's musical guest: Mallika Vie, performing her track, "Since My Baby Said Goodbye," which you can find in The Nasiona's compilation BIPOC musical album, Volume 1: Petrichor at thenasiona.com

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the BIPOC Music Series component of the episode, and to Mallika Vie for being our musical guest.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

Kanchan Gautam is a novice birdwatcher, myco-enthusiast, and amateur naturalist. She is proud of her Nepali heritage and she spends time exploring identity and cultural narrative in Oakland, occupied Ohlone territory. 

I had the pleasure of speaking with Kanchan Gautam on July 12th of 2020. This is the second part of our two-part conversation. 

Today's musical guest is Stephanie Henry, performing her track "Snowflakes at Midnight," which you can find in The Nasiona's compilation BIPOC musical album, Volume 1: Petrichor at thenasiona.com

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the BIPOC Music Series component of the episode, and to Stephanie Henry for being our musical guest.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

Kanchan Gautam is a novice birdwatcher, myco-enthusiast, and amateur naturalist. She is proud of her Nepali heritage and she spends time exploring identity and cultural narrative in Oakland, occupied Ohlone territory. 

I had the pleasure of speaking with Kanchan Gautam on July 12th  of 2020. This is the first part of our two-part conversation. Join us next time when we'll discuss colorism in our South Asian and Latin American communities.

Today's musical guest is Annah Sidigu, performing her track "The Lynchpin," which you can find in The Nasiona's compilation BIPOC musical album, Volume 1: Petrichor at thenasiona.com.

Annah Sidigu is a songwriter and poet currently residing in the San Francisco Bay area. Her poetry has appeared in The New England Review and is forthcoming in Penumbra. She is the recipient of a Bread Loaf Environmental Writers scholarship and has written reviews of poetry and prose books for Zyzzyva. You can listen to her music on Spotify, Bandcamp, or Soundcloud, and follow her on Facebook or Instagram at Annah Sidigu. Thank you for listening.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the BIPOC Music Series component of the episode, and to Annah Sidigu for being our musical guest.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

I had the honor of speaking with the leaders of the Blended Future Project, Maris Lidaka and Beth Chin, on June 2nd, 2021, to further discuss the hurdles of creating such a blended future and what that future may look like, as well as hearing about their own mixed-identity journeys.

Beth Chin was born and raised in the Chicagoland area and was seventeen when she co-founded her first non-profit organization with her friends in high school, earning them the President's Volunteer Service Award from Barack Obama. Being  of Chinese, German, and Polish descent, her work focuses on multi-racial identity. She is the founder of the All Related Art collective in Hamburg, Germany, as well as the author of Being Mixed: A Visual Guide on Mixed  Identity. Chin is the creator of Blended Future Project, Re-Mixed – A Multicultural Festival, and is working to create more events and bring greater community in the years ahead.

Maris Lidaka is the founder of The Blended Future Project. Born in Oak Park, IL, he is of African-American and Latvian heritage, and has spent the past 20 years working in the entertainment industry in a variety of capacities for large companies such as Disney, Warner Bros, AT&T and Verizon. He created The Blended Future Project to empower the experience of being multiracial and multicultural. With the ultimate goal to create a larger space for empathy and understanding.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

I had the honor of speaking with both Dr. Kimberly Douglass and Dr. Robin Harwick on the 9th of August, 2020. This is the second part of our two-part conversation.

But before we jump into the conversation with Dr. Kimberly Douglass and Dr. Robin Harwick, Aïcha Martine Thiam and I would like to introduce you to The Nasiona BIPOC Music Series. We will begin most podcast episodes this year by showcasing a BIPOC musical artist from our series, which you can explore at TheNasiona.com. Today's musical guest is San Palo, and she performs his track "Rainy Day," which you can find in The Nasiona's compilation BIPOC musical album, Volume 1: Petrichor.

Want to be considered for our BIPOC Music Series? Go here to learn more.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the BIPOC Music Series component of the episode, and to San Palo for being our musical guest.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

I had the honor of speaking with both Dr. Kimberly Douglass and Dr. Robin Harwick on the 9th of August, 2020. This is the first part of our two-part conversation.

But before we jump into the conversation with Dr. Kimberly Douglass and Dr. Robin Harwick, Aïcha Martine Thiam and I would like to introduce you to The Nasiona BIPOC Music Series. We will begin most podcast episodes this year by showcasing a BIPOC musical artist from our series, which you can explore at TheNasiona.com. Today's musical guest is Jinnat, and she performs their track "Enlight," which you can find in The Nasiona's compilation BIPOC musical album, Volume 1: Petrichor.

Want to be considered for our BIPOC Music Series? Go here to learn more.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the BIPOC Music Series component of the episode, and to Jinnat for being our musical guest.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

Born in Panamá City, Panamá, Carlos Carrasco has appeared as an actor on Broadway and Off Broadway in New York City, as well as appearing at many of the country's regional theaters. He appeared on Broadway in the Circle-In-The-Square's production of "The National Health" and has appeared at The Hartford Stage Co., Shakespeare & Co., Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, The Arizona Theatre Co., The Folger Theatre and The American Shakespeare Theatre. Off- Broadway he appeared with The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, INTAR, Theatre for a New Audience and The New York Shakespeare Festival.

Mr. Carrasco has co-starred in such feature films as "Speed," "Blood In...Blood Out," "Turnover," "Parker," "One Man's Hero," "The Burning Season" and "The Fisher King." On television he has been a guest on many prime time series, including "Insecure," "CSI," "Star Trek: Deep Space 9," " ER," "Seaquest," "Hunter," "The Equalizer" and the made for television movies "As Good As Dead" and "Have You Seen My Son?".

Mr. Carrasco has been active in the non-profit sector, serving for six years as Executive Director of the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors, serving for three years on the Theatre panel for the New York State Council on the Arts and currently producing a Latin American film festival, The Panamanian International Film Festival, now entering its seventh season.

As filmmaker, Mr. Carrasco has produced and directed five short films, from the documentary "Art Galleries and Back Alleys," celebrating the East Los Angeles Artists Collaborative Self-Help Graphics to the more recent "One" and "Disarm" tackling the difficult issues of police and school shootings.

I had the honor of speaking with Carlos Carrasco on the 29th of August, 2020. This is the second part of our two-part conversation. 

But before we jump into the conversation with Mr. Carrasco, Aïcha Martine Thiam and I would like to introduce you to The Nasiona BIPOC Music Series. We will begin most podcast episodes this year by showcasing a BIPOC musical artist from our series, which you can explore at TheNasiona.com. Today's musical guest is Chromic, and they perform their track "Lightless," which you can find in The Nasiona's compilation BIPOC musical album, Volume 1: Petrichor.

Want to be considered for our BIPOC Music Series? Go here to learn more.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the BIPOC Music Series component of the episode, and to Chromic for being our musical guest.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

Go on social media and type the hashtag #AntiUribista and you will find photos of cities in Colombia (and around the world) declaring themselves Anti-Uribistas as they resist and protest current state violence. Today, I cover the eight years Álvaro Uribe was president of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010, and why he is such a polarizing figure: praised by imperialist and colonial powers and multinational corporations, and scorned by anyone with a heart.

I provide a thorough overview into the many reasons behind the current Anti-Uribismo movement, and also give you a glimpse into the United States's love affair with Uribe, along with its role and responsibility in Colombia's militarized state since the turn of the century.

Like last week, I read excerpts from my book, Reporting on Colombia: Essays on Colombia's History, Culture, Peoples, and Armed Conflict. 

Today, Colombia and the Colombian people are in crisis. The Colombian government is killing, torturing, disappearing, and sexually assaulting Colombian people on the streets throughout the country. Our hearts are heavy and in pain. We need your help. Please don't look away.

To help Colombia and Colombians:

• Go here for #SOSColombia Mutual Aid
• Go here to call your US representatives to condemn the violent response to demonstrators
• Go here to help stop human rights violations in Colombian and demand the application of the Leahy Law

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

Born in Panamá City, Panamá, Carlos Carrasco has appeared as an actor on Broadway and Off Broadway in New York City, as well as appearing at many of the country's regional theaters. He appeared on Broadway in the Circle-In-The-Square's production of "The National Health" and has appeared at The Hartford Stage Co., Shakespeare & Co., Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, The Arizona Theatre Co., The Folger Theatre and The American Shakespeare Theatre. Off- Broadway he appeared with The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, INTAR, Theatre for a New Audience and The New York Shakespeare Festival.

Mr. Carrasco has co-starred in such feature films as "Speed," "Blood In...Blood Out," "Turnover," "Parker," "One Man's Hero," "The Burning Season" and "The Fisher King." On television he has been a guest on many prime time series, including "Insecure," "CSI," "Star Trek: Deep Space 9," " ER," "Seaquest," "Hunter," "The Equalizer" and the made for television movies "As Good As Dead" and "Have You Seen My Son?".

Mr. Carrasco has been active in the non-profit sector, serving for six years as Executive Director of the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors, serving for three years on the Theatre panel for the New York State Council on the Arts and currently producing a Latin American film festival, The Panamanian International Film Festival, now entering its seventh season.

As filmmaker, Mr. Carrasco has produced and directed five short films, from the documentary "Art Galleries and Back Alleys," celebrating the East Los Angeles Artists Collaborative Self-Help Graphics to the more recent "One" and "Disarm" tackling the difficult issues of police and school shootings.

I had the honor of speaking with Carlos Carrasco on the 16th of August, 2020. This is the first part of our two-part conversation.

But before we jump into the conversation with Mr. Carrasco, Aïcha Martine Thiam and I would like to introduce you to The Nasiona BIPOC Music Series. We will begin most podcast episodes this year by showcasing a BIPOC musical artist from our series, which you can explore at TheNasiona.com.  On April 26th, we had the honor of featuring the world premiere of Tre. Charles's debut single and music video for "Stressin." which you can listen to and watch on our website. Today, we'll showcase "Stressin." for you, in case you missed it.

Want to be considered for our BIPOC Music Series? Go here to learn more.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can't discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. 

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the BIPOC Music Series component of the episode, and to Tre. Charles for being our musical guests.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.

What is going on today, during the Great Colombian Uprising of 2021, is an extension of this history.

On today's episode, I read an essay from my book, Reporting on Colombia: Essays on Colombia's History, Culture, Peoples, and Armed Conflict, which dissects Colombia's historical lack of hegemony and institutionalized violence to give you 200 years of context (through the early 1990s) of what systemic, structural, institutional, policy, and cultural conditions, along with what actors and situations, have led to the current Great Colombian Uprising, which goes beyond this year's proposed tax reform.

Today, Colombia and the Colombian people are in crisis. The Colombian government is killing, torturing, disappearing, and sexually assaulting Colombian people on the streets throughout the country. Our hearts are heavy and in pain. We need your help. Please don't look away.

To help Colombia and Colombians:

• Go here for #SOSColombia Mutual Aid
• Go here to call your US representatives to condemn the violent response to demonstrators
• Go here to help stop human rights violations in Colombian and demand the application of the Leahy Law

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

Born and raised in Tehran, Parisa Mehran holds a BA in English Language and Literature, an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), both from Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran, and a PhD in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) from Osaka University, Japan. She currently teaches part-time at several universities in Japan. Her passion for social justice has led her to engage in different English Language Teaching (ELT) movements for change and is now a racial equity advocate in ELT. Follow her advocacy on Twitter: @WOCinELT.

Dr. Parisa Mehran and I spoke on July 18th of 2020. What follows is the second of my two-part conversation with Parisa.

But before we jump into the conversation, Aïcha Martine Thiam and I introduce you to The Nasiona Music Series. We begin every episode by showcasing a BIPOC musical artist from our series, which you can explore at TheNasiona.com. Today we have the honor of featuring the world premiere of Aroe Phoenix's and Mallika Vie's cover of "River" by Leon Bridges. 

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the Music Series component of the episode, and to Aroe Phoenix and Mallika Vie for being our musical guests.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

Born and raised in Tehran, Parisa Mehran holds a BA in English Language and Literature, an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), both from Alzahra University, Tehran Iran, and a PhD in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) from Osaka University, Japan. She currently teaches part-time at several universities in Japan. Her passion for social justice has led her to engage in different English Language Teaching (ELT) movements for change and is now a racial equity advocate in ELT. Follow her advocacy on Twitter: @WOCinELT.

Dr. Parisa Mehran and I spoke on July 18th of 2020. What follows is the first of my two-part conversation with Parisa. Make sure to tune in next week for the second part of the interview.

But before we jump into the conversation, Aïcha Martine Thiam and I introduce you to The Nasiona Music Series. We begin every episode by showcasing a BIPOC musical artist from our series, which you can explore at TheNasiona.com. Today's musical guest is Stephanie Henry, and she performs her track "Nocturne in G Minor," which you can find in The Nasiona's compilation BIPOC musical album, Volume 1: Petrichor.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the Music Series component of the episode, and to Stephanie Henry for being our musical guest.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

Today, she joins me again. This time we talk about how people best positioned for leadership roles may be those who have been marginalized.  We also discuss how leadership is a title you earn, like you earn trust, and where power is truly rooted in organizations; we explore how to redesign local politics to get the best results and to get people in the right roles; Vanessa dissects how to many accustomed to privilege, equality can feel like oppression; we unpack what may be behind the claim "diversity is white genocide" and how such a mindset and behaviors based on such a mindset can be damaging and threaten the livelihoods and lives of those communities marginalized by systems of oppression and dominant cultures; and she offers us a glimpse into how an experience designer like herself raises a child.

Vanessa Weathers and I spoke on August 22nd of 2020. 

But before we jump into the conversation, Aïcha Martine Thiam and I introduce you to The Nasiona Music Series. We begin every episode by showcasing a BIPOC musical artist from our series, which you can explore at TheNasiona.com. Today's musical guest is Samantha Pearl, and she performs her track "Don't Let Me Go," which you can find in The Nasiona's compilation BIPOC musical album, Volume 1: Petrichor.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the Music Series component of the episode, and to Samantha Pearl for being our first musical guest.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

This is where design thinking comes in. How do we create new environments that may assist in valuing, centering, elevating, amplifying, and including those whose concerns have traditionally been left out of the ways we have designed our workplaces, our institutions, and our communities.

In today's episode, I speak with Vanessa Weathers, Founder & Principal Consultant at Conscious Employee Experiences, to further explore design thinking and its relationship to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Vanessa Weathers is an experience designer who has spent nearly 20 years guiding and coaching leaders on becoming more human centered. She uses ethnographic techniques and journey mapping to bring visibility to the people and the issues often overlooked and ignored by dominant cultures. She is an activist, a futurist, and a pioneer who is passionate about the future of work and fostering inclusive work environments. She has dedicated her life to fighting for justice for the marginalized, which has been fueled by her own personal experiences of being in the minority in many aspects of her identity. Having always felt like an "outsider" in corporate America, she is currently embarking on her own journey of self-exploration and continuing to leverage her background in human centered design and diversity, equity, and inclusion to shift attitudes around equity in the workplace.

Vanessa Weathers and I spoke on August 22nd of 2020. What follows is the first of my two-part interview with Vanessa, where we introduce what design thinking is and how we can apply it DEI work. Specifically, we explore the importance of intentionally designing environments to cultivate inclusion, growth, and flourishing for different individuals and communities. We also critique the desire to build teams and societies based on cultural fit, and we dissect the difference between managers and leaders.

But before we jump into the conversation, Aïcha Martine Thiam and I introduce you to The Nasiona Music Series. Starting today, we will begin every episode by showcasing a BIPOC musical artist from our series, which you can explore at TheNasiona.com. Today's musical guest is Mallika Vie, and she performs her track "Bluebells Still Grow," which you can find in The Nasiona's compilation BIPOC musical album, Volume 1: Petrichor.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Thank you to Aïcha Martine Thiam for co-producing the Music Series component of the episode, and to Mallika Vie for being our first musical guest.

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

In the spirit of decolonizing our education, we introduce to Fernando González, who has been regarded at one time or another as the philosopher of authenticity, the philosopher of somewhere else, the philosopher of South America. 

Fernando González was a Colombian writer and existentialist philosopher who lived between 1895 and 1964. González is considered one of Colombia's most original and controversial writers of the 20th century. His analyses influenced literary and cultural movements during his time, and have continued to do so well into the 21st century. And yet, he is unknown in the English-speaking world.

Today, we speak with Gustavo A. Restrepo Villa, executive director of Corporación Otraparte, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and amplifying Fernando González's work, to learn more about this South American philosopher.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

But the focus of today's episode is Joe Sparkman. As a Black-Filipino United Statesian man with multiple sclerosis, Joe Sparkman talks about the "Scarlet Letter" of his diagnosis, the challenges he has faced getting a job, interactions he has had with doctors, and how his life and mental health have been impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a candid conversation about the realities and the insidious nature of intersecting systems of oppression in the United States.

I have known Joe since 1994, when he first moved to New Hampshire and I moved back there from Colombia in the middle of 8th grade, and we have a couple other episodes in store for you dissecting our experiences as people of color living in a predominantly white state. So be on the lookout later this year for those episodes.

Today's conversation in particular, however, is a special partnership with the Adira Foundation, whose mission is to invest in better lives for people with neurodegenerative diseases about living with multiple sclerosis; and with StoryCorps, whose mission is to record, preserve, and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. Toward the end of the interview, you will also hear Morgan Feigal-Stickles, a StoryCorps facilitator, who also asks Joe a couple of questions. Joe and I spoke on October 14th, 2020, and we are happy to share that StoryCorps has entered this interview into the Library of Congress and has also submitted it into the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Here's my conversation with Joe Sparkman.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

On today's episode, I share an editorial I wrote following the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol entitled, "The Right Wing May Have Lit the Fire, but the Left Wing May Dig the Grave." 

Thereafter, I play for you a 19-minute experimental audio story that takes you through the different turbulences, nightmares, countermovements, hopes, and warnings of the 20th century with the intent to disrupt us from a false sense of security and the challenge to disengage ourselves from our complicity and neutrality and comfort and privilege during turbulent times because, as Audre Lorde so aptly put it, "Your silence will not protect you."

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

Today's episode is broken up into two acts where Deborah Taffa shares with us two of her personal essays: "Moon of the Disappearing Water" originally published in The Spectacle, and "Rock Maze" originally published in YES Magazine.

In Act 1, Deborah Taffa centers us in relocation, removal, and disorientation. We've all experienced the ache of nostalgia, homesickness, and separation in our lifetime. "Moon of the Disappearing Water" tells the story of a Native woman who leaves her ancestral land, permanently, in her late twenties. She lands in St. Louis, Missouri, where a disappearing lake and the confusion of a binational marriage force her to examine the relationship between motherhood and community for the first time. 

In Act 2, death comes. How we deal with it has everything to do with the values we learn in our childhood. "Rock Maze" tells the story of a mother's cancer, and a daughter's familial connections to the land. As she leaves her mother's hospital bed for Sedona and Havasupai, the daughter reflects on healing and prayer, her tribal myths, and the injustice of tourism in her homeland.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

Teatro Luna is an ensemble of Latina/x femmes and Women of Color. It is a radical experiment and new model in the US American Theatre; an attempt to answer the needs heard in cities all around the USA for liberated, intentional, brave spaces dedicated to artistic and physical exploration. They dreamed of centers for creativity that were free of the fear of failure, and equitably engineered for the organic development of Latinx and Womxn of Color artists, leaders, thinkers, and makers who value social justice and equity as an urgent need. These ensembles work together to create social change at home and around the world.

I spoke with three of these radical culture makers and got a glimpse into Teatro Luna's history, evolution, values, and sisterhood. I spoke with Christina Igaraividez, Alexandra Meda, and Liza Ann Acosta on the 18th of June, 2020. Here's our conversation.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

On episode 34, Ra Avis joined me to discuss incarceration and prison abolition. We unpacked how prisons create many social problems, what some of the biggest barriers to prison abolition are, and what people should know about the prison system that most do not.

On today's episode, Ra Avis joins me again, this time to discuss how people do not rehabilitate via isolation alone, her experience dealing with grief and trauma while incarcerated, and the shocking aspect of realizing that one of the only women-run societies in the world is a women's prison, which was one aspect of incarceration that she found herself missing after she was out. It was, as Ra put it, "A hierarchy of women and women's needs and preferences prioritized. And the language of women prioritized as the default language. The body language of women prioritized."

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights.

Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights.

Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

We selected these pieces to share with you today for two reasons. First, because our editorial team originally nominated them, along with four other authors, for the Pushcart Prize back in 2018, during our first few months as a magazine. Second, because of the kind of inner world exploration many of us have been experiencing during the pandemic lockdowns, while simultaneously craving for a time when we can travel freely once again. Today's episode takes you into two kinds of journeys: the inner world of the Self, and the external world of traveling through a foreign land. 

Act 1: "I Saw It All," by Stephen D. Gutierrez. Read by the author.

"Beware of the spiritual journey. You may end up in a place that's not so comforting. I discovered this hard truth at a meditation retreat in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Vipassana Meditation, the time-honored method attributed to the Buddha, gave me vision, startling vision, and terror. It unanchored me," Stephen D. Gutierrez.

Act 2: "Passages," by Morelle Smith. Read by Jo Weston.

"Each time I go back to Tirana, I see big changes, but I seek out the old parts of town, the narrow streets, talk to people who live there and people who are visiting, and describe the unchanging and magnificent landscape. 'Passages' describes several visits made to Albania (after my first stay there, which I wrote about in my travel memoir Tirana Papers)," Morelle Smith.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights.

Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

In this episode, we speak with Carl Boon and showcase his poems from PLACES & NAMES, which The Nasiona published in 2019. This week marks The Nasiona Magazine's 2nd anniversary, and Carl was included in our first and second issues. During the next week, we'll showcase some of the original work from those first issues from 2 years ago as a way to celebrate our origins.

For PLACES & NAMES, we included 30 poems Carl had previously published elsewhere, and then he wrote 30 new ones specifically for this collection. I've never read a Carl Boon poem I didn't like, and I'm happy to share some of those with you today. If you like what you hear in the next hour, you can get a copy of Places and Names as paperback or ebook on Amazon. You won't regret it!

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights.

Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

"Here's To Life with Tori Reid" podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Dispatches from the Vanguard: The Global International African Arts Movement Versus Donald J. Trump, by Patrick A. Howell.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights.

Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

Both Tori and Patrick — with Victory & Noble, with their podcast and books, and all of their projects under development — move us forward with a critical optimism rooted in both the real struggles of our past and our present, but also a futurism grounded in the belief that we have the power to not only imagine but also harvest a tomorrow that is brighter than today.

"Here's To Life with Tori Reid" podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Dispatches from the Vanguard: The Global International African Arts Movement Versus Donald J. Trump, by Patrick A. Howell.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights.

Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

We ended the first part of our conversation in the last episode on how poets are the soul of our societies, and that fascist regimes tend to come for the poets first because they are the truth-tellers. Here's the second part of our conversation, where we discuss how our existence is resistance, and how sharing our personal stories in a variety of ways are forms of strike, are forms of individual and collective protest.

Consider this our protest against the publishing industry's white gaze.

This 2-part conversation is part of our Deconstructing Dominant Cultures Series. In this long-form discussion we aim to disrupt the publishing industry's 'old white boys' club, and to center, elevate, and amplify Black and other People of Color writers, especially women.

As we try to impact equity in publishing and writing, one critical thing we can all do is buy and read books written by Black and other people of color. Read this editorial by Lisa D. Gray for her critique of the publishing industry and her book recommendations.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights.

Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

This is part 1 of a 2-part series where we aim to disrupt the publishing industry's 'old white boys' club, and center, elevate, and amplify Black and other People of Color writers, especially women.

As we try to impact equity in publishing and writing, one critical thing we can all do is buy and read books written by Black and other people of color. Read this editorial by Lisa D. Gray for her critique of the publishing industry and her book recommendations.

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights.
Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.

The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona's Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-Fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support.

"Cruzando Fronteras" was an event that hoped to provide a safe space to talk about the seeking of refuge and the many harsh trials and tribulations that our families have gone through, in order to inform others and each other on why anyone would want to take on the treacherous task of crossing (multiple) borders. CAFÉ wanted to provide these perspectives in an effort to better understand different experiences of struggle. Because more than that, it's about one being able to persevere, about crossing that border, that boundary, in your own limitations and overcoming what has personally kept you back.

On this episode, we showcase the following four poets out of dozens who took the stage during the "Cruzando Fronteras" event to share their personal stories: Alondra Adame, Eva Gonzalez, Gustavo Martir, and Diana Castellanos. Then, Julián shares his keynote speech, entitled, "To the Border Crossers: It's Time to Start Biting Their Tongues Instead of Ours."

The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Our theme song is "Lat Dior" by Abdoulaye Mboup.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

This episode was edited and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JE_Torres_Lopez

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

The podcast series is the companion to Zelniker's book, Mixed, published by The Nasiona and available in paperback on Amazon, on Amazon Kindle and on Barnes and Noble's website. In both the book and the podcast series, Zelniker spoke to dozens of mixed-race families and individuals, as well as experts in the field about their own experiences, with the hope to fill a gap in the very important conversation about race in the US today. We shared with you discussions regarding relationships, adoption, education, parenting, disability inclusion, activism, intersectionality, family, passing as white, among other topics. Last October, Aïcha, Nicole, and Julián had a post-production conversation about the podcast series: what hit home for us, what we learned, and what surprised us. Today's episode is that conversation.

This episode was edited and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Tono Latino is a progressive platform that informs and educates Latinos about politics in the United States and encourages them to become more involved and vote.

In this interview, we explore why Sylvia felt the need to create Tono Latino in the first place, why she thinks it is important that our community gets more politically involved and the potential consequences if we do not, what she would like to see in the media to further include and better represent the Latinx community, and much more. It was a pleasure speaking with Sylvia. We bonded from the moment we first met, and not just because we are both Colombian compatriots. Her passion is palpable, her knowledge is deep, and her do-it-yourself ethic and sense of social responsibility are admirable and inspiring.

You can follow Tono Latino on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

This episode was edited and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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Colette is currently working on Traces of Home, her first feature-length film documenting her journey back to Mexico and Palestine to locate her parents' original homes, which they were forced to leave decades ago. She is also the co-founder of Mezcla Media Collective, a nonprofit organization to support women of color in film in Chicago. Colette strives to be a change-maker for communities worldwide, documenting powerful stories of individuals that often go unnoticed.

Filmmaker Colette Ghunim on her first feature-length documentary: "Traces of Home tells the story of what happens when we as first-generation Americans go back to our roots to find out how where we come from shapes our identity. Through Traces of Home, I am telling my own personal story. I'm half Mexican and half Palestinian and both my parents were forced to leave their homes as children, and they both never returned since then. So through my film, we're going back to Mexico and Palestine to try to find the original houses and to talk about why people are leaving and immigrating and why refugees are leaving as well, during a time when we need to hear it the most."

You can follow the Traces of Home project on Facebook and Instagram.

This episode was edited and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

In this wide-ranging interview we explored many topics, such as the difficulty to access safe spaces for those of us deemed second-class citizens, her Chicana identity, colorism and racism, linguistic isolation, cultural hybridity, internal refugees in the United States, class migration, how her play is relevant to our current socio-political and cultural climate, and we glimpsed into the many reincarnations of Irma—lawyer, director of a social justice organization, journalist, playwright, and more.

For those of you interested in seeing Irma's play live and you happen to be around San Jose, California, on November 15th and 16th, prepare your Sunday's best to attend her critically acclaimed show at MACLA (Movimiento de Cultura y Arte Latino Americana) in downtown San Jose. Click HERE for ticket information.
MACLA
510 South 1st Street, San Jose, CA

This episode was edited and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

Race is still something we don't teach in school unless it's firmly placed in the past, like the trans-Atlantic slave trade or the Civil Rights Movement. When race is taught, it's contained, like in an African American literature course or a class on the history of Japanese American internment. Going against the grain, both James Shields from Guilford College and Sean Frederick Forbes (listen to episode 16) from the University of Connecticut teach about race, just in very different ways.

Historian James Shields has worked in the Bonner Center for Community Learning, a community service scholarship program, since 2001. Our interviewer, Nicole Zelniker, was a Bonner Scholar at Guilford from 2013 to 2017. During James's tenure as director, the center has been nationally recognized for its innovative community service programs. He's a sought-after speaker on anti-racism, community engagement, and Underground Railroad history. Here he is, discussing his experience teaching race in higher education.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López, Aïcha Martine Thiam, and Nicole Zelniker.

Check out our Being Mixed-Race series, inspired by Nicole Zelniker's book, Mixed.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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As a child, Nishta grew up as one of the only Indian children in a predominantly white neighborhood, something she talks about in her book, Brown White Black. Now, she's writing about her own experiences, both as a first-generation Indian-American and as part of a larger multiracial family.

Nishta J. Mehra is the proud first-generation daughter of Indian immigrants and the author of two essay collections: The Pomegranate King and Brown White Black. Mehra currently lives with her wife, Jill, and their seven-year-old, Shiv, in Phoenix, Arizona.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López, Aïcha Martine Thiam, and Nicole Zelniker.

Check out our Being Mixed-Race series, inspired by Nicole Zelniker's book, Mixed.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

David is a retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant who didn't realize until reaching his forties that he was a writer. He has contributed to The Good Men Project, Task & Purpose, and Your Tango. His debut novella, "Los Chocolates de Esperanza Diamanté," has changed the course of his writing career, sparking a series of follow up books based on the characters he created. 

In a future episode we will discuss his literary pursuits, but today we focus on David's extraordinary life to get a better glimpse into the world of minimalism. Is it really as great as some claim it to be? How do van life minimalists, for example, deal with boredom and the potential demons that will inevitably haunt you as you spend hours and hours a day in silence with your own thoughts? How does one become a minimalist? And what kind of person becomes one?

David and spoke to us back in July, and today we share that conversation. Join us as we explore van life minimalism.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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Interwoven with her own story of being born to a Jewish American father and an Ecuadorian mother in La Paz, Bolivia, Naomi also proposes her own strategies for how to fight racism and introduces readers to what it is that exacerbates systemic racism in the US.

Naomi Raquel Enright is a native English and Spanish speaker and was raised in New York City. She has published several short essays, has a blog where she writes about race, and published her book, Strength of Soul, in 2019. She resides with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López, Aïcha Martine Thiam, and Nicole Zelniker.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

https://thenasiona.com/

This, in a country where people of color are expected to make up more than half of the population by 2044 according to The Center for American Progress. For this reason, writers like Anika Fajardo, who is Colombian and white, and F. Douglas Brown, who is African American and Filipino, are more important than ever. Both were contributors to The Beiging of America, mentioned in our last episode.

F. Douglas Brown an author and educator who currently teaches English and African American Poetry at Loyola High School of Los Angeles. He is co-founder and curator of un::fade::able - The Requiem for Sandra Bland, a quarterly reading series examining restorative justice through poetry as a means to address racism.

Anika Fajardo was born in Colombia and raised in Minnesota. She is the author of Magical Realism for Non-Believers, about discovering her Colombian father and Colombian culture. Her first novel, What If a Fish, will tackle very similar themes.

Still, books about race, especially about being mixed-race, are few and far between. In this collection, nearly 40 authors told their stories about being mixed-race in the U.S.

Sean Frederick Forbes is an Assistant Professor-in-Residence of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Connecticut. He has co-edited two collections of personal narratives titled What Does It Mean to be White in America? Breaking the White Code of Silence: Personal Narratives by White Americans and, of course, The Beiging of America. His specialties include world, Afro-Caribbean, African American, and ethnic American literature.

Tara Betts is the author of Break the Habit and Arc & Hue. She's a co-editor of The Beiging of America and editor of the critical edition of Philippa Duke Schuyler's memoir Adventures in Black and White. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López, Aïcha Martine Thiam, and Nicole Zelniker.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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Mireya S. Vela is a Mexican-American storyteller and visual artist. Addressing the needs of immigrant and Mexican families, and the disparities they face every day, is a core aspect of her work. Vestiges of Courage, Mireya's debut book, is a collection of essays. She has received four Pushcart nominations. Her work can be found in Hippocampus Magazine, Noble/Gas Qtrly, Not Your Mother's Breastmilk, The Nasiona, Miracle Monocle, Blanket Sea, and Collective Unrest. An inspiring speaker and expert research specialist, Mireya holds a bachelor's in English from Whittier College and a master's in creative writing from Antioch University. She is found on www.mireyasvela.com.

Julián Esteban Torres López is a Colombian-born journalist, publisher, podcaster, educator, and editor. Before founding the nonfiction storytelling organization The Nasiona, he ran several cultural and arts organizations, edited journals and books, was a social justice and public history researcher, wrote a column for Colombia Reports, taught university courses, and managed a history museum. He's a Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions nominee and has written two books on social justice. Torres López holds a bachelor's in philosophy and in communication and a master's in justice studies from the University of New Hampshire and was a Ph.D. candidate at University of British Columbia Okanagan, where he focused on political science and Latin American studies. He is found on He is found in https://jetorreslopez.com/.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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In many spaces, people with disabilities aren't welcome regardless of race, often unintentionally. Even Ali Stroker, a white woman and the first person in a wheelchair to win a Tony Award in 2019, had to wait backstage because the venue for the ceremony wasn't built to accommodate someone in a wheelchair getting to the stage. Mia Ives-Rublee is a transracial adoptee and the founder and coordinator for the Women's March Disability Caucus, through which she helped coordinate services for over 40,000 people with disabilities. She has also worked with the Science March, Climate March, and March for Education to make them more accessible to all.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López, Aïcha Martine Thiam, and Nicole Zelniker.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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Not all passing is intentional, however. Sam Manas, for example, is white and Panamanian, although because he is much lighter-skinned than most people from Panama, people tend to think he's only white.

Sam Manas is a reporter from Baltimore, Maryland, currently studying investigative journalism at the University of Missouri. He writes about local politics and his interests include technology and society. At the time of this interview, he was an intern at The Conversation.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López, Aïcha Martine Thiam, and Nicole Zelniker.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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In 1964, the couple sued the state of Virginia. Their case reached the Supreme Court in 1967, and the court struck down all state laws forbidding mixed-race marriages. Several decades later, this ruling allowed people like Zyda Culpepper Mellon, who is African American, to marry her white husband, and for Ricardee Franks, who is mixed, to also marry a white man.

Zyda Culpepper Mellon is an African American operatic soprano based in North Augusta, South Carolina. She is a recent graduate of the Maryland Opera Studio program where she earned a Master of Music degree at the University of Maryland College Park. Zyda currently lives with her husband, Jacob Mellon, and their two cats, Autumn and Tony.

Ricardee Franks was born in California and raised in Maryland by a single mother from Trinidad. She moved to Trinidad at nine years old when her mom remarried and has since moved back to Maryland, graduated college and grad school in the U.S., and started a family of her own.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López, Aïcha Martine Thiam, and Nicole Zelniker.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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Katie Bullard, who is Chinese, lives with her parents, both white, and her younger brother Jacob, who is Vietnamese, in Brevard, North Carolina. Her two older siblings, Gio and Jessie, are both mixed-race and also adopted. Bullard graduated with a degree in English from Guilford College in 2017, and hopes to soon teach English abroad.

Jesse Chen is a DJ from Hartford, Connecticut. He is Asian and white as well as Jewish, and has worked at Temple Sinai as a song leader and URJ Eisner Camp as a camp counselor. He currently works at Powerstation Events.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López, Aïcha Martine Thiam, and Nicole Zelniker.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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It is for these reasons that interviewees Justyn Melrose's and Danielle Douez's experiences are becoming more common. Justyn is Costa Rican and Irish, while Danielle is African American, Colombian, and white. Both of them are mixed-race, and both of them have lived in several states up and down the east coast. Danielle, especially, has traveled back and forth from the U.S. to France, where her father, who is white and African American, lives.

Justyn Melrose is a mixed Latinx writer and journalist. A product of a queer, interfaith, and multi-racial family, he came into news writing to share the common stories that are uncommon to the spotlight. Melrose was born in Tampa, Florida, grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts, and now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. Here, he discusses his own experiences being mixed and from a mixed-race family:

Danielle Douez spent three years as a politics editor for The Conversation, where she focused on covering immigration policy, the criminal justice system, and race. Douez, the daughter of immigrants, is originally from Washington D.C.

This episode was produced by Julián Esteban Torres López, Aïcha Martine Thiam, and Nicole Zelniker.

Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona

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And so we keep prying underneath that mystery, hoping that it will make our own puzzles click into place, eventually.

Act 1: "Embracing the Subjective," by Susanna Barlow and read by Lannie Stabile. Published in The Nasiona, 29 September 2018.

Susanna Barlow does what is most difficult for writers: namely, she lets go of the certainty of truth. By recounting her complicated childhood and fundamentalist upbringing (along with the deception it necessitated), she nonetheless manages to ground herself in another form of authenticity.

Act 2: "Swallow," written and read by Emma Faesi Hudelson. Published in The Nasiona, 29 December 2018.

Emma Faesi Hudelson takes us to a seminal day in her life: an afternoon of teenage drunkenness collapses into chaos, and her mother's ensuing attitude to it changes the dynamic of their bond. This account is a haunting glimpse into the boundaries we test with our mothers and, conversely, into what our mothers inadvertently let us get away with. The consequences of their reaction—or lack thereof—often determine the way we bring them into the fold of our trauma going forward. It also paves the way for how we appraise the mistakes we made, the ones currently unfurling, and the ones to come.

Act 3: "Finding Jean Palmer," by Hannah Huff and read by Anuja Ghimire. Published in The Nasiona, 7 February 2019.

Generations of mothers and daughters collide in this next piece, when Hannah Huff and her mother undertake a journey to find the grave of the former's great-grandmother, on her grandmother's birthday. The quest reveals itself to be somewhat baffling, testing the women's bond and their faith in one another.

Act 4: "My Mother's Suitcases," by Jacqueline Doyle and read by Aïcha Martine Thiam. Published in The Nasiona, 10 February 2019.

Jacqueline Doyle juggles feelings of remorse and acrimony for her mother, during a strained phone conversation with her. This piece is an incisive examination of the ways mothers and daughters often engage in exchanges fraught with tension, exchanges that sometimes take on a more bittersweet connotation, with the benefit of retrospection and indulgence.

Produced by Julián Esteban Torres López and Aïcha Martine Thiam.

Author, educator, psychologist, and social entrepreneur Su Su Maung was born in Burma, grew up in Singapore, immigrated to Canada, and settled down in California. Her professional training was in Counseling Psychology. She teaches courses on psychology at Myanmar Clinical Psychology Consortium. She currently runs the Myanmar-based, social enterprise Citta Consultancy.

 What emerges from the following four stories is this precise push and pull, that aforementioned ambiguity, pondered through the lens of devotion and loss, of privilege and resentment, of injustice and forgiveness. More so than the way they were raised or the choices they make, the way these women approach that ambiguity often sets the tone for the kind of mothers they are, were, or could be. These stories do not seek the closure at the end of that long string of questioning: rather, they acknowledge that sailing the tricky waters of life with a daughter is a series of half-certainties that aren't meant to be answered, but merely re-asked, and re-examined over and over again, until it makes or breaks you.

Act 1: "Miscarriages of Social Justice," by Kelly A. Dorgan and read by Candy Bryant. Published in The Nasiona, 20 December 2018.

Act 2: "About Chains," written and read by Holly Pelesky. Published in The Nasiona, 10 January 2019.

Act 3: "Diptych: Origins, Neurodivergence," by Deborah Elderhorst and read by Jo Weston. Published in The Nasiona, 13 February 2019.

Act 4: "Wedding Portrait," by Jennifer Bostwick Owens and read by Monique Shutt. Published in The Nasiona, 22 January 2019.

In 2015, after a landmark medical study proved that the early inclusion of peanut in the diet of infants prevents peanut allergy, Ron Sunog, MD, set out to develop a great first peanut food for infants. When most physicians and parents did not embrace this important new information, Dr. Sunog was determined to understand why. Eat The Eight, examines how difficult it is to acquire and understand good medical evidence, the complex web of reason and emotion through which people filter medical information, and the imperative to thoughtfully temper the science of medicine with the art of medicine. 

We discuss side-effects, critiques, misunderstandings, and assumptions surrounding transracial adoption, as well as the beauty of being in a mixed-race family. We get a glimpse into Whetten-Goldstein's struggle to find an identity growing up in a predominantly white community as an adoptee, and she shares the wisdom she's gathered along the way.

Vestiges of Courage is a collection of personal essays that explores inequities and injustice. Raised between two cultures and two languages, Mireya S. Vela discusses how the systems in her family and in society worked to create an abusive environment that felt crushing, confusing, and hopeless. In her book, Ms. Vela delineates her experience of living through sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. This book is much more than a collection of experiences, though. Ms. Vela wants to know how and why abuse thrived in her family. She digs deep to understand why these things happened and how she survived.

In this episode, we share four essays included Mireya S. Vela's forthcoming book, Vestiges of Courage, Collected Essays.

Act 1: "Legacy of Rape," originally published by Not Your Mother's Breast Milk and read by Andrea Auten.

"Legacy of Rape" is the story of a family that is built on rape—and how that family, the women in particular, make rape expected and acceptable.

Act 2: "Doctores," originally published by The Nasiona and read by Monique Shutt.

When people are marginalized, their doctors are, too. In "Doctores," Ms. Vela remembers her childhood and the decisions she and her family made.

Act 3: "The Bridge," originally published by Collective Unrest and read by Anuja Ghimire.

"The Bridge" is an essay about how a language splits a person and splits a family. This story is also about the inequities families undergo in the United States.

Act 4: "Touch : Tocar," originally published by Miracle Monocle and read by Aïcha Martine Thiam.

In "Touch : Tocar," Ms. Vela contemplates the word "touch", what it means in Spanish, what it means in English, and how they come together for a girl and her body.

At the heart of the issue are the mixed-race families. Many mixed-race children have had difficulties fitting in, whether with one race or the other. In mixed-race relationships, one partner may face racism, while the other may not, or else they will experience racism in different ways. Children who have been adopted into families that identify as a race that is not theirs often find that they struggle to fit in with their families as well as with people who identify as their own race. Not only are these families navigating US American culture at large, but they also must navigate their own family structures and what it means to be mixed.

Journalist Nicole Zelniker, author of Mixed, takes us on personal journeys to help us glimpse into overlooked worlds so we can more fully grasp what it means to be mixed. Zelniker spoke to dozens of mixed-race families and individuals, as well as experts in the field, about their own experiences, with the hope to fill a gap in the very important conversation about race in the US today.