Please, Do Tell

Good morning. This one is here for the loud week. It’s not about candidates or outcomes. It’s about how you’re holding up: how much news your body can hold, what to do with the waiting, and how to protect your peace without pulling away from the people you love. Ronnika and Jeffrey also honor the steadiness our elders carried and lead a short grounding exercise you can do right where you are. Turn...

A little late, and we’re not hiding it. We both had a rough week, so we took a few days and came back when we could be fully present. This one posts on Halloween, so Ronnika and Jeffrey look back at the costumes of their past. Then they send off a heavy, meaningful October, check in on where things really stand since the 4th quarter kickoff, and talk through the holiday season: the money, the emot...

National Day on Writing. Information Overload Day. Domestic Violence Awareness Month. October 20th is holding a lot — and so is this episode. Ronnika and Jeffrey dig into why writing matters, what it preserves that nothing else can, and who in the Black writing tradition deserves their flowers. They get into Information Overload Day with full acknowledgment of the irony. And they close with the Oc...

We don’t do Columbus Day here. What we do is October 13th — National Face Your Fears Day, Family History Month, Own Business Day, and Pet Peeve Week. All in one episode. This is the follow-up to two weeks of heavy October conversations. We talked about the stories Black families don’t tell. We talked about seasons changing and walking away from what’s toxic. Now the question is: what are you afrai...

October is National Archives Month. And the archive that matters most is not in a government building. It is in the memory of the person sitting across from you at Thanksgiving — the one who changes the subject when you ask certain questions. This episode is about the stories Black families keep locked away. Family secrets. Mental health struggles that got called something else. Financial shame. C...

Ninety-three days left in 2026. The 4th quarter is here. This is the check-in. Not the highlight reel — the honest one. Where are you vs. where you said you'd be? What got done in the first nine months and what is Q4 going to require? And on World Heart Day, with October two days away — what does it actually look like to protect your heart as the year's hardest stretch begins? The 4th quarter is n...

Football is back. The shows are back. And Ronnika and Jeffrey are fully in their TV era. This episode is the fall premiere celebration — Jeffrey breaks down his NFL season, they walk through what's premiering this fall (Grey's Anatomy S23, Abbott Elementary S6, The Voice S30 and more), give the milestone anniversaries their flowers (Fresh Prince, Martin, Moesha, The Wire, Scandal), and spe...

Recorded on the 25th anniversary of September 11th. We took a moment — then we talked about what that day has always taught us about time and seasons and knowing when something is over. This episode is about the seasons that change in your own life. Knowing when a chapter is finished. Knowing when something is toxic and you are done — not quitting, done. The signs you ignored, the cost of staying,...

Labor Day is behind us. Summer is officially closed. And Episode 126 opens fall the way it deserves — with the no-white-after-Labor-Day storytime that nobody asked for but everybody needed, and a real conversation about what September is asking of two people stepping into year seven with full intention. The fashion stories are funny. The fall intentions are real. This is Please, Do Tell putting su...

International Dog Day. The last episode of summer. The close of Black Business Month. All in one episode — and the fur babies opened the show and honestly almost didn't give it back. Ronnika and Jeffrey talk about their dogs, close out Black Business Month with one final shoutout, and send summer 2026 off the right way — with gratitude, a little nostalgia, and the specific feeling of the last...

August 25, 2001. Twenty-five years ago this month, the world lost Aaliyah at 22 years old. This episode honors her — her music, her legacy, and what she meant to a generation that grew up watching her become something rare and then grieve her far too soon. Alongside the Aaliyah tribute, Ronnika shares where her transition has landed. Something has shifted. And in an episode rooted in the past and...

August is Black Business Month. And the first full month of year seven of Please, Do Tell opens right here — with the real conversation about what it means to build something as a Black person, in a Black community, for a Black community. Ronnika tells the Story Salon story from the inside. Jeffrey speaks as someone who has watched Black businesses rise and close his whole life. And together they...

Six years. 122 episodes. One mic. Two people who keep showing up. The sixth anniversary episode of Please, Do Tell is not a retrospective. It is a declaration. Ronnika and Jeffrey sit down — together, coming off the NYC surprise that was Episode 121 — and they tell you exactly what year seven looks like. What they are building. What stories are coming. What they owe the community that has been her...

All season long the question was: is Ronnika going to New York this summer? She didn't just go. She showed up — unannounced — and Jeffrey found out she was in the city thirty minutes before they went live on the IYKYK Late Night Show. This is the crossover episode. The summer that kept asking finally answered. And the conversation that followed — about summer fun, kids outside, family reunions...

Jeffrey just got back from his 25th class reunion weekend. Epic is the only word for it. Ronnika is drawing on her favorite E-40 lyric to describe her July — out here tryna function. Both true. Both on the mic. Both in this episode. This is the catch-up — the reunion recap, the real talk about what Ronnika's been navigating, the Band and Choir Stories event woven in, and an honest look at what...

Two things happening in the lives of these two hosts right now — and both of them are asking the same question from different angles. Ronnika is stepping into a transition she didn't fully plan for. Jeffrey is walking into his 25th class reunion this weekend. One is about what's coming. The other is about what was. And somehow, sitting across from each other on this microphone, it's th...

Six months down. Six months to go. Ronnika and Jeffrey recorded this episode on the first day of the second half of the year — and the energy is locked in. This episode is two things at once: a real mid-year check-in on what the second half actually requires, and the full promotional pitch for Story Salon's Band Stories event on July 9th. Local musicians. Community history. The people who play...

Last day of June. Last episode of Black Music Month. Michigan is 60 degrees and calling it summer anyway. This episode holds what the month actually was — not the highlight reel, the real version. Ronnika barely made it through Father's Day and the music challenge kept her going. Jeffrey asked how many times people cook in a week and started a whole conversation. And Black Music Month got the...

The Knicks are NBA Champions. We had to sit in that before we could do anything else. Recorded the night before Juneteenth, premiering after the first day of summer — this episode carries all of it. The championship. The freedom. Jeffrey finally, officially in the Black Music Month challenge after three or (two) weeks on the sidelines (he had to answer for it, on air, live). This is the most celeb...

Episode 115: Checking In June 16, 2026 — Juneteenth Week So much happened this week and we needed to talk about all of it. The Knicks are still in the Finals. The Black Music Month challenge hit its midpoint — and we're finally checking in on Jeffrey's status (it's a whole conversation). Ronnika just came from Story Salon's Night of Benton Harbor Basketball Stories fundraiser at th...

On time. As promised. Unlike Episode 113. This episode turns Black Music Month outward — from personal stories to community power. The Black Music Month 30-Day Instagram Challenge is live, and this year the community submitted the prompts. The people decided what questions got asked. Ronnika and Jeffrey work through the challenge, share their answers live, and talk about what it means when the cul...

Yes, we're a few days late. And yes, Episode 114 drops tomorrow. Consider it a gift. This episode opens Black Music Month the way only Please, Do Tell can — not with a history lesson, but with a personal one. Ronnika and Jeffrey go through the songs that tell their stories. The house song. The heartbreak song. The celebration song. The one that sees them completely. The one playing right now....

Episode 112 · We Made It Through May The Mental Health Month finale. Memorial Day weekend. The community speaks — and Ronnika and Jeffrey receive. We looked back at the whole month. We wrote letters to ourselves. We closed the chapter the right way. Summer is here. We're ready. Are you? ☀️💜 💜 Resources in show notes. The work continues past May. 💜 Mental Health Resources:  988 Suicide &...

May 19th. Malcolm X's birthday. We've done the grief. We've done the healing. Now we're walking into summer knowing exactly who we are bold, joyful, and unapologetic about it. Mental Health Month isn't done yet — but this episode is the turn toward the finish line. Come ready to feel good. ✊🏾☀️ 💜 Resources in show notes. One more week of May. Let's finish strong. 💜 Ment...

Episode 110 · Dear Mama Mother's Day weekend. A tribute. A real conversation. And a name that says it all. Jeffrey lost his mother in 2020 — right before the pandemic closed the world. Ronnika, who lost her father in 2013, sits across from him and asks the questions grief deserves. Past. Present. Future. Who she was. What her loss cost. What she left behind inside of him. This is Please, Do Te...