Эпизоды
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In this rich conversation, Eboni takes us on her journey from a young girl who was "playing president, not playing with baby dolls," to a woman who discovered that motherhood could be her unexpected mojo pouch – that sacred vessel of African protection and power. She shares how choosing motherhood on her own terms has expanded rather than limited her options, and why she refuses to do anything "by committee" – whether it's integrating the cast of Real Housewives of New York or raising our daughter Liberty Alexandria.
We explore how Eboni draws and respects her boundaries in spaces where she's often the first or the only, her reflections on representation in media, and the ancestral wisdom she's reclaiming. From Fox News to Revolt TV, from courtrooms to television courts – Eboni shares lessons that will challenge you to bet on yourself and honor your own authentic path.
Spoiler Alert: Our conversation includes references to the film "Sinners" – so if you haven't seen Ryan Coogler's masterpiece yet (and seriously, what are you waiting for?), you might want to bookmark this episode and come back after your viewing.
Mocha SMC Podcast
Bet on Black The Good News about Being Black in America Today
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In this soul-nourishing episode of "Teach the Babies," host Dr. David Johns sits down with doula, author, and maternal health advocate Latham Thomas, founder of Mama Glow. Together, they explore the revolutionary act of reclaiming birth as a sacred, communal experience deeply rooted in ancestral wisdom.
Latham shares her journey to becoming a doula after her own transformative birth experience, which led her to create Mama Glow, an organization that has trained over 3,000 doulas nationwide. In a healthcare system where Black women face dramatically higher maternal mortality rates, Latham's work stands as both resistance and restoration.
The conversation delves into how doulas serve as modern-day midwives, holding space for birthing individuals while helping them access their ancestral magic during this powerful transition. Latham illuminates how birth is meant to be experienced in community rather than in isolation, with profound insights on how even non-birthing individuals physically change to support new life.
From the power of language as a tool for healing to the alchemy that transforms trauma into joy, this episode offers wisdom for anyone interested in reproductive justice, community building, and reclaiming African ways of being. As Latham beautifully articulates, "It's not enough to survive—our birthright is transcendence.
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Пропущенные эпизоды?
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In this profoundly personal season opener, host David Johns sits down with his first teacher—his mother, Edith Johns—to explore the foundations of advocacy, resilience, and love. Mama Johns shares her journey from experiencing childhood trauma to becoming a fierce advocate for her children, fighting educational injustice with lawyers in tow when necessary. With remarkable candor, she discusses her path to acceptance, the challenges of single motherhood, and her recent discovery of peace at age 68.
This conversation starts our season 'Rooted Resistance: Ancestral Wisdom for Revolutionary Times,' centered on lessons from mothers and maternal figures who've shaped us. Through laughter, vulnerability, and generations of wisdom, this episode reminds us that our collective liberation begins with healing our relationships and showing up fully for one another, especially in challenging times.
Whether you're a parent, a child, or both, this episode offers powerful lessons about advocating for the next generation while finding your path to peace. As fascism threatens our communities, Mama Johns reminds us that fierce love is our most powerful weapon.
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In this season finale of Teach The Babies, Dr. David J. Johns welcomes power couple Michelle Molitor and Caroline Hill for a profound conversation about the revolutionary potential of community. These visionary educators and equity champions share their journey from meeting in a principal training program to becoming partners in both purpose and love. Together, they explore how to "flatten hierarchies without flattening people" and remind us that in times of political uncertainty, our collective power remains undiminished.
This capstone conversation weaves together the season's central themes: the courage to dream in Afrofuturistic colors, the necessity of equitable education, and the radical potential of loving community. Listeners will leave inspired by their practical strategies for "seeding disruption" and creating environments where everyone is seen as enough because they exist. Join us for this inspiring finale as we close Season 2 and look ahead to new explorations in Season 3. As Caroline reminds us, "We cannot take our humanity for granted" - a fitting conclusion to a season dedicated to defending democracy and expanding equity through education.
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I bet cash, US dollars, that you’ve heard “Don’t Say Gay,” but have you met the leader behind the truth-anchored reframing of a Florida bill (HB 1577) designed to prevent us from honoring that people be gay (in my Quinta Brunson voice). Civil Rights activist Nadine Smith stops by class to talk about how much we’ve gained in the fights for racial equity and LGBTQ+ equality, why she founded Equality Florida, a statewide advocacy organization she continues to lead, in 1997, and she drops gems to help us all get closer to freedom including the importance of returning home to lead and having a local and state political strategy, looking to history for lessons to win the future, and organizing in community.
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Leave it to the babies to stop by class to teach us the importance of staying woke. Hobbes Chukumba is a STEAM-loving scholar who helped organize the national trans prom when he was sixteen. Hobbes and his father, Stephen, provide a master class on the importance of sacrificing to do our part so that the opposition does not win and the importance of appreciating one another’s humanity. They want us to remember that when we come together, there’s nothing we can’t do and provide tangible strategies to get closer to freedom and center joy in the process.
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Daniel Trujillo is a seventeen-year-old Chicano high school student from Tucson, Arizona, who is most known for being one of the creators and four organizers of Trans Prom. He’s been advocating for trans rights for most of his young life. Daniel and his rockstar momadvocate stop by the class to talk about the toll that forced political interruptions take on a family, the importance of supporting trans joy in action, and what it's like to be required to teach your peers while trying to be educated at school.
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What do you know about trans joy? On this podcast episode, we’re joined by Vanessa Ford, an award-winning educator, author, and parent and Rebecca Kling, an educator, organizer, storyteller, and advocate for social change. The two talk about their collaboration to publish “The Advocate Educator’s Handbook: Creating Schools Where Transgender and Non-Binary Students Thrive” and the lessons they’ve learned working with educators, parents, and adults to encourage expansive resistance, remembering the importance of community and the politics of passing.
Trump Is Rolling Back Protections for Transgender Students. What Educators Can Do https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-trump-is-rolling-back-protections-for-transgender-students-what-educators-can-do/2025/01
www.jrandvanessaford.com
www.theadvocateeducator.com
VanessaFordDC
www.RebeccaKling.com
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Rainbow In Black is a non-profit organization that provides unwavering support, resources, and advocacy for Black families of transgender and gender-diverse youth. Sonia Murphy and Keisha Bell, two of the organization's three founders and operators, join the class to discuss the importance of creating community, advocating and showing up for all the babies, and addressing church hurt and hypocrisy. They remind us that acceptance does not require understanding, break down what “gender diverse” means, and talk about organizations like Gender Cool that work alongside Rainbow In Black and NBJC to ensure that YOU have everything you need so we all get free!
https://www.rainbowinblack.org/
https://gendercool.org/
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If you’re still thinking about the significance of home or getting a DNA test to know where your people are from, this episode is for YOU. Dr. Gina Paige, co-founder of African Ancestry Inc., joined the class to discuss the company's pioneering efforts to ensure African descendants throughout the diaspora are empowered with information about the communities we come from and can contribute to, what distinguishes them from other companies that profit from selling our genetic information while also lacking the range to provide us with meaningful information in the exchange, and the power we can draw from having meaningful information about who we are and where we draw strength from.
African Ancestry is offering a 10% discount on its DNA testing kits as a gift to the class. Visit AfricanAncestry.Com/Discount and use the code “TeachTheBabies” to activate the offer
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Are you at the point where you’re ready to flip tables? If not, what will it take for you to grow there? Our sister, Alencia Johnson, the self-proclaimed accidental entrepreneur, stops by the class to talk to us about the lessons learned from producing her debut novel, “Flip The Tables, a guide for everyday disruptors to find the courage, disrupt the status quo and create a better world, right where they are.” We discuss what she learned working on four presidential election campaigns, creating the “Stand With Black Women” branding and framework at Planned Parenthood, how the personal is political, and our responsibility to play BIG!
www.Flipthetables.com
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Andre 3000 told us the South has something to say, and Dr. Christina Greer wants us to heed the lessons that Black women political leaders from the South are teaching us. Dr. Greer stops by the class to talk about her latest publication, “How to Build a Democracy. From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams,” and what it means to grow beyond fear, to build upon foundations established by our ancestors, being prepared to thrive at Historically White Colleges and Universities, the importance of political tithing and not waiting for America to grow up fully–she may never.
How to Build a Democracy. From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/how-to-build-a-democracy/F34AB82F40A6FFD835D39C8AF46DA530
Instagram: @dr_cmgreer
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Too often, we celebrate moments like holidays without holding space for the grief that comes for many of us. Advocate, attorney, and herstory making Florida State Representative Michel Rayner stops by the class to talk about how love shows up in her work, learning to live without your parents as anchors in the physical form, and the importance of having chosen family–folks who create space for you like attorney Ben Crump who wrote a check for Michele’s future and post-dated it for when she was brave enough to bet on herself.
E-mail [email protected] “GTN: Good Trouble Network” for more.
Michel Rayner For Florida https://micheleforflorida.com/
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If James Baldwin and Toni Morrison had a literary baby, it would be Robert Jones Jr. He stops by the class to discuss what he learned about love from writing his debut novel, The Prophets. The New York Times Bestselling book shares the romance and love between two enslaved same-gender loving men on a plantation in the American South and a parallel story of Kosii and Elewa, who live and love in a place farther than the past on the African continent.
Robert discusses the importance of permitting yourself to love and interrogating the pleasure in bigotry. He also discusses the importance of witnessing, writing, and harnessing our superpowers. The episode celebrates caring and compassionate adults who invest in us, open windows, and expose us to mirrors so that we can explore who we are in this world we didn’t ask to be born into.
Witness Substack: https://robertjonesjr.substack.com/ Jordan Neely
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jordan_Neely
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In case you missed it, as the new Texas state legislative session commenced on Tuesday, Jan. 14, Jones, one of the first Black same-gender loving men to serve in the state house, got down on one knee and proposed to his longtime partner, Gregory Scott Jr., moments after being sworn in at the State Capitol in Austin. Rep. Jones stops by the class to talk about the responsibility of elected office,, the importance of going back home to lea,d, the importance of love, afrofuturistic dreams that include family, and finding and creating safe and soft places. There’s some School House Rock revisiting how a bill becomes a law and the importance of sustained legislative and civic engagement. This episode is bound up on knowing love–love of yourself, love of community, and love of family. We pray you know love.
E-mail [email protected] “GTN: Good Trouble Network” for more.
Rep. Jones, Venton - District 100 https://house.texas.gov/members/4275
Venton Jones: https://www.ventonfor100.com/
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Warning" This episode discusses self-harm.
On April 18, 2019, 15-year-old Nigel Shelby died by suicide in response to constant homophobic, anti-Black bullying at school. His mother, Camika Shelby, stops by the class to discuss keeping Nigel’s legacy as he celebrates his 21st birthday (2/1) with our ancestors. Camika reminds us of the importance of everyone using every available resource to support our babies. She says that if a child doesn’t have a safe space at home, they will go looking for it elsewhere. She provides lessons she’s learned, including through loss and in grief, for caring and compassionate adults. Listen to the episode and read her book, “A Need for Nigel.”
National Suicide Hotline 988
Camika Shelby- Facebook
@longlivenigelshelby- Instagram
Iamnigelshelby- Facebook group page
Website. www.thenigelshelbyfoundation.org
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Ask anyone in DC for recommendations for disability advocates, and they’ll likely name Dara Baldwin. She works within the Disability Justice movement to end racism and systems of oppression. She served as the Director of National Policy for the Center for Disability Rights, Inc., and Senior Policy Analyst at National Disability Rights Network. She has worked on over 25 bills signed into law by five Presidents. She stops by the class to discuss the most important lessons learned in fighting for disability justice for all!
Baldwin, Dara. To Be A Problem: A Black Woman’s Survival in the Racist Disability Rights (July 2024).
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Survival, friendship, acceptance, and love are themes that thread this episode together. Angela Rye, political strategist, culture architect, entrepreneur and Dr. Johns’ twin, joins the class to process what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s life and legacy have to teach us in this moment: the importance of engaging in rituals that soothe and restore you, including building with friends who challenge you. The two Capitol Hill veterans discuss lessons they learned, including the critical role of the Congressional Black Caucus and building IMPACT to increase political, civic engagement, and economic empowerment among young professionals. The friends and political strategists debate if there are limits to liberal progressivism, how we ensure the safety of every member of our beautifully diverse community, and how we will measure success toward collective freedom and liberation.
#MLK: But, If Not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-kgkeuNOB4
Native Land Pod: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/native-land-pod/id1724078118
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Brother Brother Baba Ron Walker has more than 50 years of experience as a teacher, principal, staff developer, and consultant. He is the founding and retired executive director of the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color. He joins the class to discuss lessons learned from educating Black Boys and being educated by Black people who love Black people.
Walker, Ron. Solomon’s Plan’s A Gift of Education from a Father to His Son. https://www.americanreadingathome.com/bookstore/book/9781640532809/
Walker, Ron. Delores’s Dream. https://www.americanreadingathome.com/bookstore/book/9781648515842/
Website:ronwalkerbooks.com
Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Colo
coseboc.org
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Brother Baba Christopher “Chris” Chatmon is the visionary founder and CEO of Kingmakers of Oakland, an award-winning nonprofit that elevates Black boys' educational and life outcomes nationwide. He stops by class to talk about the work he pioneered as the inaugural Executive Director of African American Male Achievement at Oakland Unified School District, the first of its kind nationally within a public school district, and lessons learned along the way–including the importance of making space to support non-binary and gender-expansive young people. We also celebrate the life and legacy of Civil Rights & Education Advocate Oscar C. Wright.
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