Native As I Can Be: Between Two Cultures

Back once again is my very special guest, David Velarde. David is an actor, screenwriter, and life enthusiast. He’s an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and strives to bring tribal authenticity to his acting roles and screenplays. We spent our time discussing Natives roles in media, ICE and whatever else popped into our heads. Check it out! YouTube: @davevelarde8261Instagram: @david.a.velarde.3...

Back once again is my very special guest, David Velarde. David is an actor, screenwriter, and life enthusiast. He’s an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and strives to bring tribal authenticity to his acting roles and screenplays. We spent our time discussing Natives roles in media, ICE and whatever else popped into our heads. Check it out! YouTube: @davevelarde8261Instagram: @david.a.velarde.3...

Yo! Part two of my interview with Becca Flat is here! Becca Flatt is a Mixed Race, Black and white, closed, domestic infant, interracial adoptee. Becca recently lost her Dad, her birthfather, and her birth sister in the span of 3 months and is currently walking through a massive amount of grief and loss. Her Dad was a major pillar in her life and she is learning to navigate the physical loss of hi...

Yo! Part one of my interview with Becca Flat is here! Becca Flatt is a Mixed Race, Black and white, closed, domestic infant, interracial adoptee. Becca recently lost her Dad, her birthfather, and her birth sister in the span of 3 months and is currently walking through a massive amount of grief and loss. Her Dad was a major pillar in her life and she is learning to navigate the physical loss of hi...

Episode 18 is here with my very special guest, ClaireSterling. Claire is an Air Force veteran (military police!) and trans woman. We discuss her upbringing surrounded by Satanic panic and religious indoctrination. We touch on her time in the military, gender dysmorphia, secret marriages and the hazards of living inauthentically. Claire Sterling:Instagram@a.rogue.goddessGeno Ray on the internet:Ins...

Happy New Year! Episode 17 is here with my very special guest, Claire Sterling. Claire is a Air Force veteran (military police!) and trans woman. We discuss her upbringing surrounded by Satanic panic and religious indoctrination. We touch on her time in the military, gender dysmorphia, secret marriages and the hazards of living inauthentically. Geno Ray on the internet:Instagram@thunderlips_pdx@n8...

Here we are, back for part two of my interview with my Uncle Bill! He’s an enrolled member of The Klamath Tribes who grew up on a historic 160-acre homestead in Estacada, Oregon. He spent time in Germany serving his country in the US Army, has a degree in art education and is a 2x cancer survivor. Uncle Bill was also part of a tribal committee who worked to restore federal recognition to the Klama...

In this episode, I sit down with my uncle Bill Ray and record an oral history — a life lived across a lot of different worlds. He’s an enrolled member of The Klamath Tribes who grew up on a historic 160-acre homestead in Estacada, Oregon. He spent time in Germany serving his country in the US Army, has a degree in art education and is a 2x cancer survivor. Uncle Bill was also part of a tribal comm...

Part two! My guest today is my friend Pastor Kenji Nitta. Kenji’s been in ministry for over 25 years — pastoring and walking with people through all kinds of seasons. He’s got a bachelor’s in Social and Behavioral Studies from George Fox, a master’s in Theology and Leadership from Gonzaga, and a chill ass preaching style that makes him easily accessible to us non-churchy types. He loves prayer, pe...

My guest today is my friend Pastor Kenji Nitta. Kenji’s been in ministry for over 25 years — pastoring and walking with people through all kinds of seasons. He’s got a bachelor’s in Social and Behavioral Studies from George Fox, a master’s in Theology and Leadership from Gonzaga, and a chill ass preaching style that makes him easily accessible to us non-churchy types. He loves prayer, people, and...

Part two! My very special guest again this week is Dewi Sungai Marquis Houston! Dewi is a mixed-race filmmaker, was born and adopted from West Java, and we discussed her film My Name Is Not Amy, which "examines the truth of her transracial, transnational adoption into white suburban America, triggering an awakening that challenges memory, coloniality, and the adopted name she was given." We get it...

My very special guest this week is Dewi Sungai Marquis-Houston! Dewi is a mixed race filmmaker who was adopted from Borneo. We discussed her documentary film My Name Is Not Amy, which "examines the truth of her transracial, transnational adoption into white suburban America, triggering an awakening that challenges memory, coloniality, and the adopted name she was given." We got it on so well, this...

Part Two of my letter to Che. This episode has a lot of content about the death of a child, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea. Geno Ray on the internet:Instagram@thunderlips_pdx@n8ive_as_i_can_beYouTube@ThunderlipsPDXTikTok@thunderlips_pdxFacebookGeno Ray - personalGeno Ray Nativeasicanbe - show page

This is a solo episode, part one of two, and it is an idea I have been kicking around a while. Every story has a reason, and this one’s mine. I made this one for my little homie, Che — so that one day, if he ever wants to know who his old man was, he’ll have more than memories. He’ll have my voice, my truth, my story. This is the story of how every twist and turn — the Army, the acting dream in L....

We went live on location at Dante's in beautiful downtown Portland Oregon. In this episode of 'Native As I Can Be,' I talk with Jason Moore, Native drummer of Dead Animal Assembly Plant. We discussed Jason's musical journey, his upbringing on a reservation, the influence of his family, and the challenges he faced after losing his father. Jason shares how his cultural heritage shapes his music and...

This week, my guest is Dr. Beverley Jacobs! Dr. Jacobs has carried stories that most people could never bear. A Mohawk lawyer, scholar, and advocate, she has worked with Amnesty International, Native Women's Association of Canada, the Sisters in Spirit movement and pushed for a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women across Canada. Dr. Jacobs took time out of her very busy schedule talk a...

Native As I Can Be, episode 6 is here! We talked about growing up as a Native adoptee, finding her birth parents, and her connection and career communicating with relatives from the unseen world. This week, I interviewed Melissa L. Bennett. Melissa is a domestic transracial adoptee and descendant of the Umatilla, Nimiipuu, Sac and Fox, and Anishinaabe Nations. She is a writer, storyteller and stor...

I sat down with a friend I have known all the way since the early 2000s (!), Jade Jesser. Jade is an author, actor, former stand-up comedian, and a yoga instructor. Couple things to know about this episode... this was recorded via Zoom and on Jade's TikTok Live stream, and my computer couldn't handle melding those two things together. So, you are seeing the TikTok version. I also couldn't get the...

This week, I sat down with my very special guest, David Velarde. David is an actor, screenwriter, and life enthusiast. He’s an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and strives to bring tribal authenticity to his acting roles and screenplays. YouTube: @davevelarde8261Instagram: @david.a.velarde.3Facebook: David Anthony Velarde If you want to contribute to helping this podcast grow by leaps and boun...

This week I sat down with my very special guest, Crystal Nicholson. She is a biracial author from Sacramento, CA that I *kinda* share some family ties with. We had a great conversation about growing up mixed, trauma, white supremacy, and, of course, children's books. She can be found on TikTok at @the.rebel.author and her children's book Naya's Little Lionheart is available on Amazon. Go check out...

Episode 2 is here with my super special guest Shelise Gieseke! Shelise is an intercountry, South Korean, racially and culturally displaced (transracial) adoptee. She was adopted as an infant through an adoption agency and raised on a farm by a white family in rural Minnesota. She has three siblings who are her parents’ biological children. She has been to Korea to search for her family, but did no...

I'm back!! After many years away, I have decided to relaunch Native As I Can Be. Life gets heavy, but the stories kept calling me. The show will now include video, better social media presence, and better audio. I wanted to kick it off with something near and dear to my heart, so of course I chose wrestling. I couldn't have asked for a better guest, Celestial! Celestial is a luchador (Mexican prof...

I am getting around to favorite topic (besides hip hop or wrestling), cultural appropriation. What is it, what qualifies as appropriation, why (or why not) is it offensive, what can we do about it? I don't anticipate answering any of those questions definitively, but I am hoping they provoke a little conversation and thought.  I did something a little different with this episode, I decided to reco...

Guess who decided to drop a surprise episode of Native As I Can Be? Your homie Geno Effin Ray, that's who. I have been away for a long time trying to decide what to do with this podcast and if I want to keep going. Ultimately I decided to try and get a few more episodes out and give it another chance to grow and audience and hopefully provoke some thought. My very special guest today is Duane Quin...

Hey! It is Geno Ray, the host of Native As I Can Be: Between Two Cultures. This week, in honor once again of Adoption Awareness Month, I am bringing in my very, very, VERY special guest Karen Peck. What makes her so special? She is special because she just happens to be my mom. She agreed to come on the show and talk about her experiences entrusting a child in an adoption and later on adopting a c...