Daily Border Crossings

The Alma Film Festival, happening March 17-22, 2026 in the Dominican Republic, is unlike any other film festival in existence. Pt 2 of a 2-part episode features guests in Finland, Lesotho, and Atlanta; one of the Atlanta guests being one who's the backbone behind the festival and the other being one who is directing a conversation unpacking a powerful documentary by a Swiss woman who traveled...

The Alma Film Festival, happening March 17-22, 2026 in the Dominican Republic, is unlike any other film festival in existence. Pt 1 of a 2-part episode features guests in Fiji, Jamaica, the Gambia and the DR. Learn more about these insanely talented people below. What is this episode? A Global Dialogue on Storytelling, Identity, and “The Necessity of Something New”The brainchild of Festival Founde...

Daily Border Crossings partnered with The Siena School for this special edition episode on Transracial Adoption: A Conversation about Parenthood and Family when Love Race and Identity Intersect where panelists give relevant, thoughtful, necessary tips and pointers for navigating successfully across cultures and difference . Host Samantha Fletcher has an insightful, must-hear conversation with este...

Revealing, insightful, necessary, candid conversation with the incomparable Jerry Craft, NYT bestselling author of the groundbreaking book New Kid.* Craft is the ONLY PERSON IN THE HISTORY OF EVER to have a book win the:Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature* New Kid was the FIRST graphic novel to receive the prestigious Newbery M...

Dr. Anthony Jack -- author of the critically acclaimed, award-winning book The Privileged Poor -- is back with a new book. Class Dismissed is out on Aug. 13, 2024. The follow up to his breakout success first book, he continues to shed light on a subject area that litte research had existed for: how elite colleges, with all their promises of support and their huge endowments, were failing disadvant...

Final day of Black History Month, phenomenal episode w/ phenomenal guests!! Research told Black students long ago that they lacked reading proficiency and were below reading level. Decades later, research is telling the same story that they're still woefully behind. What is going on with research? With teaching practices? What should parents or teachers be watching for or doing differently? Wh...

Black geeks, Blerds, Cosplayers they affectionately & proudly call themselves. Just in time for Black History Month, #28daysofcosplay Think dressing up in costumes, Marvel, superheroes, TV & movie characters, loving sci-fi, fantasy & space shows, talking science and technology -- think all that is only for white people? THINK AGAIN. Meet this panel of only a handful of the thousands of...

Guests: Kendra Shae-Marie Mullings and Victoria Ennis @blacksaturdayschool on Instagram We're talking about Black Saturday School. Yep, you heard me right. Saturday School. Based in Canada, it’s something that Kendra started a few years ago that is still going strong. And you might be thinking “My kids don't want to go to school during the week, no way would they go to school on Saturday!”...

The new The Color Purple movie is OUT -- and broke box office records on day 1 when it was released on Christmas day 2023! One of my favorite moves of ALL TIME – we’re talking about THE COLOR PURPLE! Why do you, your grandma, your auntie, cousin, niece and nephew ALL know lines from this movie? Why is it so timeless? What's the magic that makes it connect people across regions, generations, ge...

We’re talking Palestinians, Israel and Gaza on this episode of Daily Border Crossings (DBC) and an expert on the region, author and law professor Khaled Beydoun is here to help us break things down and understand what’s really going on. Israel, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, genocide, cease fire, occupation...the places, the people, the events, the terminology– If you’re like many Americans, myself included, y...

Thrilled and honored to have author, attorney, law professor, public speaker, activist, Harvard scholar, critical race theorist, I’m sure I could go on and on with titles. Khaled Beydoun ! His new book, The New Crusades Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims , is a global follow up to his U.S.-centric first book, American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear and has garnered...

Special guests: AMEER BARAKA and RESHA CONROY on the often not discussed but highly impactful DYSLEXIA. It's more common than you think, and it's impacting adults and our children. NOTE: Their audio is great. My (host) audio is off. DON'T LET THAT MAKE YOU MISS THE MESSAGE! Welcome to Season 3 of Daily Border Crossings. TRIED UPLOADING ON FEB. 28, 2023. On this last day of Black History Month, I h...

The 1st of 30 episodes in 30 days. 30 shorts, these are highlights of the most thought-provoking, talked-about Daily Border Crossing episodes.

Meet Ian Solomon of Amplify Outside – a Black man who, get this, HIKES & CAMPS & KAYAKS! Gasp! Yep, a popular stereotype and misconception is that Black folks don't really "do" the outdoors, staying away from woods and mountains and stray or woodsy animals. Out to debunk such myths, Ian -- whose motto is "Black Recreation is Black Liberation" -- takes every chance he gets to be outside. He...

On this ep of DBC, we're talking career and tech schools and the fact that they lead to so many lucrative lifetime professional experiences and opportunities that many people miss out on because of overlooking and "othering" them thanks to stigmas. Our guests are Shelette Pleat , principal of a career and tech high school, Nikasha dicks , PR and marketing director for a community/technical college...

Resilience and mindset expert, keynote speaker and published writer, Chazz Scott tells us how to take control of our thoughts and then control of our LIVES ! Find him at www.chazzscott.com . He has been named BE Modern Man by Black Enterprise Magazine, selected as Top 30 Under 30 by HBCU Buzz, and was a recipient of The Positive People Award by The Baltimore Times. HIs IG page is filled with insig...

Chidiebere Ibe & his passion for art and medicine was the perfect guest for DBC's 1st TIE DIE episode, where we highlight & explore the intersection of Technology, Innovation & Education + Diversity, Inclusion & Equity. We sat for a delightful convo. Tune in and find out: the big role his Christian faith plays desire to "normalize" & response to negativity thoughts on studying...

The incomparable, amazing educator and author Dr. Gholdy Muhammad , author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy , visits Daily Border Crossings and gets candid, discussing everything from food and family to 19th century Black women who inspired her work to Taboo and Spades! She discusses her book including how she came up with the title, wh...

Season 2 opens with Episode 1, The Updates Show -- updates on the host, on past guests, & on what new/dif things & people to expect this season! This is a special rare chance for listeners to get a peek into the life of the host. I, Samantha Fletcher, am so used to interviewing people BUT this time, I will be I’ll be taking questions and sharing my journey. Listeners can expect to hear wha...

On this episode of DBC, I am beyond honored about today’s guest -- THE legendary Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of UMBC -- the University of Maryland, Baltimore County -- who is responsible for breaking barriers in Civil Rights, and responsible for countless numbers of Black students and students of color who are now working in STEM. He is brilliant, engaging, funny, and full of good advice. I a...

How do you observe Black History Month? Thinking of your (or your child's/friend's/relative's) school, was it celebrated at an individual or school-wide level? In a time when so many are unsure of what to do, Capitol Hill Day School (CHDS) has figured out ways for all students and faculty to participate in month-long activities and celebrating, that's woven into the curricula. Meet Leslie Sinsay a...

What started as a potential paper for a Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) final project became this special edition of DBC: *an audiovisual podcast campaign (PodPaign, yep I coined that!) that also has a YouTube version . The project -- which features many unheard of Black women Civil Rights greats as well as current Black women voices -- "Black Women: The Need for Centering vs. the Cons...

Richa Gupta and Vedant of India dared to dream big and work hard. Today, the fruits of their labor are exceeding even the dreams they had, and they hope to continue helping even more children in schools. They are 2 of 3 founders of Labhya Foundation, an India-based foundation  whose work in social/emotional curriculum now reaches 2.5 MILLION students across 20,000 schools. And they only start...

November is Native American Heritage month. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Loyola Rankin and Isaac Moore, who candidly share about life as indigenous people in this country, from family structures different from what mainstream America has taught as the traditional family to having to navigate code switching starting in elementary school, to addressing stereotypes -- hmm, do they pay taxe...

How are Asian American educators faring today? On today’s episode, 2 really thoughtful, wise educators share what it’s like being Asian in America. We get a little into the era of Covid and Black Lives Matter, but mostly life in general today and what it was like growing up. For Cindy, who identifies as Chinese American, hear about some traumatic childhood experiences caused by well-meaning people...