Father Figures Pod

Recorded August 2025 For this episode, I sit down with the man who taught me what fatherhood looked like long before I became a father myself—my dad, Allen Oliver. Together, we explore our family history, the lessons passed down through generations, and the realities of growing up under fathers who expressed love differently than many do today. My father reflects on becoming a dad at 18, the value...

Cornell Black Thomas grew up without his biological father, but he never grew up without a dad. In this first installment of a two-part Father Figures conversation, Cornell reflects on the man who stepped into his life, the lessons he inherited about work, sacrifice, and responsibility, and how those lessons carried him through some of the most difficult seasons of his life—including incarceration...

*Recorded 2025 This episode of Father Figures starts with a personal reflection on what it means to grow apart from something you once loved—and how fatherhood can reshape that relationship. Then I sit down with Dr. Jeremy L. George to really talk through what it looks like to balance being an artist and being a father in real life.  From touring stages to bedtime routines, Dr. George shares how f...

Recorded Oct 2025 On this episode of Father Figures, Keith is trying to figure out what it really means to father—after opening with a semi-autobiographical poem that reflects multiple father identities and a quiet moment of watching another dad “drop jewels” to his son. Through a conversation with Dr. Waldo Johnson, Vice Provost of Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of Social Work in the Crown...

Season 1 of Father Figures starts where it has to: with Keith Oliver telling the truth about becoming a dad — the wins, the losses, the doubts, the growth — and everything it took to reach day one of fatherhood. No highlight reel. Just the real journey. Retractions: 1. We went to Chicago Feb 2020 for auditions 2. My wife had 3 rounds of IUI (intrauterine insemination). Not as many injections and m...