Truth Be Told Presents: She Has A Name

Our first episode of Truth Be Told is finally here and we’re going in deep to take on one of the biggest questions of our time: How can I feel joy, when the world is burning?
Families are being separated at the border, drugs are ravaging our communities, the wealth gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and parts of California are literally being consumed by flames. It feels like the end of days – and yet we st...

Do you have “a type?” What if you’re a person of color, and you only have crushes on white folks? There’s a lot of mystery about what gets our hearts pumping, but one thing is for sure, our attractions aren’t simply just our own.
From romantic movies to commercials, we are inundated with messages about what sex and love should look like. As people of color, we rarely get to see ourselves in those narratives and this ca...

Have you ever been made to feel like you aren’t enough? Not black enough, not queer enough, not Asian enough, not enough? 
In this episode of Truth Be Told, we explore how we can move beyond the question of “enough” and ask ourselves if we are doing enough, for our communities with Locatora Radio hosts Mala Muñoz and Diosa Femme.
Tonya also talks with author Jeff Chang, co-founder of CultureStr/ke and ColorLines,  ...

Allies are necessary to our collective pursuit of racial equity and antiracism, but sometimes talking across and through differences can be messy, hurtful, and downright exhausting. As people of color we ALL have had our fair share of those “unintentionally” painful encounters.
In this episode of Truth be Told, Tonya and Code Switch host Gene Demby tackle two questions from people struggling with how to deal with well-...

Before we even know who we are and what we want out of life, women are expected to mother, to ultimately be mothers. And for women of color? There are added financial and cultural pressures as well as legacies of historical trauma and present-day racism that we are often up against.
How do all these forces impact the choice to be a mother? And how might we reimagine what it even means to be a mother? In this episode of...

We’ve all had that one big question in our lives that looms over us and keeps us up at night.
Maybe you are making a life altering decision about a relationship; whether to get into one, get out of one — or stay in one. Maybe you’re one step away from leaving a job, or taking a new one. Or maybe, like our host Tonya Mosley, you are trying to figure out if you should start a relationship with your estranged father’s fam...

Truth be Told is all about building community and connecting people of color to find collective wisdom and joy in these dangerous and difficult times. We are also a podcast proudly made in the Bay Area, so we knew from the start that we HAD to do a live show and get our people together. On June 13th in downtown Oakland, over a hundred people gathered to share the love and seek advice from wise ones Ashara Ekundayo and Bari...

"How are Black Americans expected to overcome and thrive in this country without the necessary mechanisms of healing?" Tonya called on the help of two Wise Ones for this question. Ibram X. Kendi gives helpful framing on how to even start thinking about this and Kiese Laymon offers a dive deep into Black healing in America.
Episode transcript here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zf9nr4xXdA1BpIVXY7ZaK7Wh13Qlx...

Public health emergencies hit differently for people of color. Historical trauma and lack of systemic trust all contribute to deep angst. As both a medical doctor and journalist, Dr. Seema Yasmin answers your questions about living in the time of COVID-19 as a person of color, and offers some validation - “We have the right to feel whatever we feel.”
Episode transcript here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ustlU9tFXWl...

Before physical distancing, seeing loved ones through a screen was already “normal” for our producer Isabeth Mendoza. Her dad was deported 11 years ago. Since then, her family was doing their best to cope , but they have not healed. Now, Isabeth wants to work towards a future that she’s always imagined — one where her family is thriving regardless of borders. Wise One and Latinx Therapy founder Adriana Alejandre, LMFT offe...

We’re making space for something we don’t talk a lot about - the mental health burdens of black men. In this week’s episode, we have three Wise Ones - Bakari Sellers, author and CNN commentator, Karamo Brown from “Queer Eye” and Ron Finley, the Gangsta Gardener. They offer wisdom on meeting the needs of their heart and minds as black men in white America.
Episode Transcript here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qlnHaS...

Millions have taken to the streets to protest the police killing of George Floyd and systemic racism that black people are subjected to everyday. Wise One Dr. Eddie Glaude says we are seeing the accumulation of grief, disregard and contempt for black lives. He is the chair of Princeton's African American Studies Department and joins Tonya this week to parse out nationwide actions and to recenter black joy and resilienc...

How do you maintain a relationship with your homophobic family when you're financially dependent on them? How do you manage these relationships while sheltering-in-place? We talk to a queer college student who's out at school but feels unaccepted at home. Wise One Steven Canals, co-creator of FX's Pose joins us to discuss growing up gay in the Bronx, what character in the show is most like his mother and ways t...

We’ve got a special bonus in your Truth Be Told feed this week--it’s from our friends at NPR’s It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders. In this episode, Sam talks with author James McBride. McBride is the National Award-winning author of The Good Lord Bird and the best-selling memoir, The Color of Water. His latest book is Deacon King Kong, which is set against the backdrop of 1960s Brooklyn and tells the story of how one man’...

We're revisiting the first episode of Truth Be Told to take on one of the biggest questions of our time: How can I feel joy when the world is burning?

We've witnessed uprisings demand justice for Black lives; we're still living in the grips of a pandemic that is disproportionately hurting communities of color, and every industry is being held accountable for racial justice. It feels like the world is u...

This week we’re talking about friendships - how to make them better, if it's okay to take breaks and when emotional labor becomes too much. Tonya Mosley is joined by ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ hosts Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman. They share what it was like to write a co-memoir called, “Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close” and offer advice to questions from our listeners.
Episode transcript here: shorturl.at/...