Kinda Sorta Brown

Art does not simply “imitate” life. Art IS life, in its most unadulterated, unabridged forms. Our brightest moments of humanity and darkest hours of adversity are recorded, without fail, in a world full of color, language, movement, sound, taste, space, and time. From racial and social injustice to a world-altering pandemic, art became the life raft of many. Or, rather, it was exposed for what it...

Hopelessly romantic people are people who like to dream. Often, this means living out romantic fantasies through the film industry. But if you happen to be a Latinx person of color like this week's host, Fernanda, you might have noticed it's often hard to see yourself and the people of your community represented in romantic films. Latinx stories and characters in Hollywood have repeatedly been pus...

Where Is the (Self) Love?: Beyond Beauty Standards takes a dive into Self-Love and Beauty Standards for minority communities and looks at how geography can be intertwined in them. With numerous personal anecdotes from around the country and world this episode aims to get the scoop on the self-love journey of People of Color. Get some tips on how to continue or begin your journey, as well as confin...

On revolutionary love is an exploration of the stereotypes that often plague communities of color and how we as a collective have flipped those tropes on their heads in the past and in the present. Starting with the once deemed radical demonstration of self love with the Black Panthers to more common sayings of today, the demystification of: “black don’t crack”, “brown don’t frown”, “asian don’t r...

KSB has spent the season talking about some of the recent headlines that captivated us and significantly impacted Black and Brown communities. But why stop there? In this finale of Season 3 of Kinda Sorta Brown, we have one question: what headlines are living in our guests’ minds rent-free? Take a trip with host Lena Diasti through an imagined day of very real news stories (about everything from C...

After years of Trump’s blatantly bigoted, anti-immigrant rhetoric, a new tide has turned - or has it? In the midst of Trump-era immigration policy reversals by the Biden administration, VP Kamala Harris recently told Guatamalens “do not come,” in her first trip overseas, sending mixed signals in a situation that serves as a microcosmic example of America’s long history of hypocrisy on the subject....

In a country founded on principles of free speech, one where Fox News finished 2020 claiming the title of “most-watched cable news channel in history”, the outcry of “silenced conservatism” may sound ironic. But is there truth to this sentiment? What do Twitter and the Facebook Supreme Court have to do with it? What could it mean for minority groups, people of color, those with historically ignore...

In our haste to digitize, computerize, and distill our world into comma-separated values and JSON files, necessities of diversity, diversity in data collection, and diversity in programmers gets lost in the mix and is deemed unimportant. So, when a Black man and his friends are tagged as “gorillas” by Google Photos’ facial recognition software, when a TikTok story book semblance filter turns white...

There are numerous variations of American English, yet none suffer the amount of stigma that African American Vernacular English (AAVE) does. “Unprofessional” and “uneducated” are only some of the words that often brand those who speak it. Yet, not everyone bears the burden of this linguistic prejudice equally. While non-Black people capitalize off of AAVE under the guise of “internet slang,” Blac...

The disabled population is the LARGEST minority group in the world. But have you even heard about the Disability Civil Rights Movement or the diverse culture and identities created by people with disabilities? Probably not. We live in a world that still gives Hollywood the O.K. on “cripface” (most notably with Sia’s 2020 movie “Music”). A world where police brutality afflicts people with “underlyi...

Season 3: Color Between the Headlines -- Your favorite podcast is finally back! Spring is in the air, and our hosts have been hard at work creating new material for you all to resonate with and reflect on. Speaking of which... media overload is tooo real right now. News articles, social media posts, echo chambers, “For You” pages, content, content, content, REPEAT. But what happens to all of those...

Throughout the season we’ve discussed how different issues — from housing to policing — can bring about unrest within our communities. Despite the unrest, we’ve seen how communities build unity to address these issues and fight back against the problems they cause. Lex Thompson, our guest speaker, joins us to address what about when we are excluded from our own communities? How do we grapple with...

Who are the homeless? Maybe it’s someone you know. Housing insecurity is real, pervasive, and traumatic. As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, more and more people are teetering on the edge of homelessness. But what historical factors impact where traditionally segregated groups of people choose (or are forced) to reside in the first place? What policies have made it especially difficult for Black an...

It has been less than 70 years since the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education desegregated America’s education system, yet education still seems to be largely divided along racial lines. Achievement gaps have proven that marginalized students are being left behind--underserved, under-supported and under-resourced--and in the age of COVID-19 and online learning, this chasm is widening. Join ho...

Let's dive into the realities of the intersection of identity inherent in being a Black woman and an entrepreneur. Join Dinah as she discusses how the broader business industry treats marginalized communities and provide real and present examples of the barriers to success faced across the board. It will touch on the Black economy and how economies of color differ from the predominant white econom...

Let’s take a moment to reimagine. The police state claims the role of safety, power, and accountability in communities, with the argument that they are there for “us”. This episode will not be discussing who is included in this “us”, because, at KSB, we know it was never our communities. Get awakened with hosts Lena and Chase as they go beyond, diving into the work of building community power and...

New Year, New Episodes, Same Energy! Listen, absorb, and resonate with the intro to our NEW season, The CommuniTEA: Unity and Unrest, as the KSB Team welcomes you, our KSFam, into a roundtable discussion of home, community, and identity. Jumping off the author Taiye Selasi's question of "Where are you a local?", be present with Lena, Dinah, Chase, Daisy, Jon, and Hope as they navigate their experi...

Would you rather have a melted ice cream cone or no ice cream cone at all?” Join our hosts Chase and Jon as they ponder this question with UChicago Health and Wellness Committee Co-Chair, student Ella Bradford, as they discuss the mental health stigma and racial disparities within mental health care. Come along to learn what it means to “protect your energy,” in this season's closing reminder to t...

Election season was a wild ride, but is any of it really over? Answer: Nope, not if you're an organizer in Georgia, someone who believes that Black lives still matter, or if voter suppression in America alarms you. Join hosts Chase and Daisy with their very special guest, Liliana Zaragoza from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, as they examine the tumultuous 2020 election and the startling overlap betw...

Who is over being colonized? In this mini-episode, Lena makes the case about how our relationship with food has been colonized - sharing stories and community with Tambra Raye, an advocate for the diaspora and founder of WANDA. Tune in to be inspired to decolonize our lives and reclaim our relationships with food.

In this episode of Kinda Sorta Brown, we unpack the fight for black lives in the present day, as student activists Sydney Jackson and Sequoia Ramirez share their experiences protesting police violence, while hosts Dinah and Jon dive into America’s long history of rioting and civil unrest as a vehicle for change. This is a must listen to episode as Kinda Sorta Brown reaches its mid-season mark.

Our first mini-episode of season: The Brown Breakdown is all about HAIR! Tune in to learn more about texturism and its impact on the Black community. You’ll hear stories from Samantha Elise, a fashion blogger and stylist, and some of our listeners describing their relationships and power that is their hair.

In this episode of Kinda Sorta Brown, we analyze COVID-19's impact on POC communities and looking at the historical (and current) racist practices in medicine. Our speakers Symphony Fletcher and Dr. Aresha Martinez-Cardoso will help us further understand the systemic, underlying factors associated with implicit bias, racism, and health disparities in the medical field and how that has affected our...

Kinda Sorta Brown is kinda sorta HERE! On the opening episode of the KSB podcast, join University of Chicago undergraduates Lena, Hope, Jon, Dinah, Chase, and Daisy as they introduce their new team of hosts, new format, new season, new action segment, and a new seat at the table for (you!) their beloved listeners — the KSFam. Tune in to this roundtable discussion of intersectionality, identity, an...