Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda

What happens when Black women are told they have choices about childbirth, but their voices, preferences and experiences are ignored by the very healthcare systems meant to protect them? In the second and final instalment of our deep dive into Black maternal and reproductive health, Aiwan and Tamanda confront the uncomfortable realities of maternity care in Britain - and the gap between the choice...

Why are men missing from the reproductive health conversation? And what happens when we treat reproductive health as women's business alone? In the first of our two-part deep dive into Black maternal and reproductive health, Aiwan and Tamanda challenge some of the assumptions shaping how we talk about our bodies, fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and care. When we talk about reproductive health...

What was it like to grow up Black in Belfast during the Troubles? In Northern Ireland in the late 1990s, religious identity could carry life-or-death consequences: Are you Catholic or Protestant? Which neighbourhood are you from? Which school do you attend? To prepare Tamanda for her schooling in Belfast in 1997 - for what was supposed to be a three-month stay that turned into three years - her pa...

When pop star Tyla identified herself as “Coloured,” it broke the internet. For many Black Americans, the word carries the brutal legacy of Jim Crow segregation. In Britain, it’s an outdated, offensive label once used broadly for non-white people. But in Southern Africa, Coloured is a distinct, recognised cultural and ethnic identity with centuries of its own history, heritage and complex position...

Philanthropy literally means “the love of humanity.” So why does Aiwan hear something else? The “love of control”? Last week on Rigour & Flow , we explored the deeply personal side of charity. Aiwan grew up receiving it. Tamanda was socialised to give it. And what surfaced between us in the studio were visceral class differences. This week, we follow the money. After spending the past year imm...

When it comes to charity, are you the person who gives or the person who receives? That’s where this episode started. Then we got to the question we actually needed to answer: “Who is charity ultimately for?” We thought we were sitting down to have a routine conversation about charitable giving. Instead, we uncovered just how starkly race, class and colonial legacies have conditioned us to underst...

Is "Kidfluencing" the new child labour? Last week we explored the UK’s social media ban and whether kids should really consume social media at current rates. This week we dive into the multi-million dollar world of family vlogging and explore a different question: Should kids really be producing cute content on the very platforms they are now banned from? And what does it mean that some kids are n...

“Stare at a wall.” That was one teenager’s viral answer to the UK social media ban. Beneath it is a darker reality of algorithmic harm and fragmented minds.   Rigour & Flow is back for Season 6. And we’re decoding the under-16 ban, moving from a "nanny state" debate about over-regulation to some heartbreaking data and evidence from the Molly Rose Foundation. From the "moral panics" of the...

"It's almost comical that you can stand on African land and say it's yours. You're an immigrant, mate." In this special Living the Archive re-release for International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, we revisit one of the defining conversations from Rigour & Flow's first year: ‘The Land Is Still Not Ours!’. Living the Archive isn't about replaying old conversations. It's about returning...

In the next instalment of our Feedwarmer series, we’re sharing the creators and conversations currently shaping our own thinking. This week’s recommendation is a thoughtful, intellectually rich and deeply personal exploration of faith, power and knowledge. As Tamanda begins her postdoctoral research at the University of the Western Cape's Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice, she in...

"I had a group of people actually instigate a panic attack behind the decks... and I still had to finish the set. That was the closest I came to quitting." Where are all the Black women composers? It's a simple question but one that reveals just how invisible some of the most important creative work in film, television and audio storytelling still is. In this special feedwarmer episode of Rigour &...

"Who gets to decide who you are? And why do systems still shape who you are in the present?" In the first episode of our new Living the Archive series, we are revisiting one of the most significant and debated conversations from Rigour & Flow’s first year: "Are Mixed Race People Properly Black?" A year ago, this topic sparked a viral "storm." Our trailer reached hundreds of thousands, generati...

How do we move beyond stories of victimhood to stories of Black ingenuity and resistance? In this special summer Feedwarmer, Aiwan and Tamanda explore the power of audio storytelling to reshape how we understand Black history and agency. Aiwan pulls back the curtain on her experience producing "Escape the Underground Railroad" - the official companion podcast to Barry Jenkins’ acclaimed Amazon Pri...

It happened to us right here at Rigour & Flow. One of the stories we needed to tell turned out to be the one the digital world was least willing to amplify. In this Unfinished Business episode, Aiwan and Tamanda revisit some of the most powerful conversations from our Women's History Month series and ask: What happens when the systems designed to protect people end up protecting power instead?...

What happens when your white father, who’s your ultimate hero, has not lived your Black reality? In part two of our fatherhood series, Tamanda shares the intensely personal story of her father.   For years, he was the "encyclopaedic hero" of a "Disney-esque" childhood on a school campus in Botswana. But as the Tamanda of 11 years in age moved to the North of Ireland, the "invisible privilege"...

In this deeply personal episode, Aiwan shares the "three goes" she had at fatherhood and why all of them failed her.   From a biological father known only through fragments, to a step-parenting experience defined by high control religion and mushrooms growing out of tower-block walls, Aiwan and Tamanda peel back the layers of what happens when the "protector" figure is absent, abusive or cond...

DEI is under attack. But what exactly is being defended? We take on the three letters that have become everything from a flagellant workplace promise, to an impotent political punchline.   We get into Reform UK’s proposal to scrap the Equality Act, the backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion, and the class conversation that keeps being used as a wedge instead of a route to solidarity...

  Why do we let 'experts' from outside our communities decide what we need? Today, we’re talking about the politics of help, the myth of the 'hard to reach' and why genuinely community-led research has the potential to solve global crises like suicide and inequality.   From Black maternal health to Black men’s mental health, in this episode Aiwan and Tamanda explore what could happen whe...

What happens when the oppressed become the oppressor?   In this episode, taking inspiration from an article by Dr Yvon Guest, Aiwan and Tamanda pull back the curtain on the concept of the "wounded activist”, a phenomenon where unresolved trauma drives social movements, often leading to the very oppression, hierarchy and exclusion we claim to fight.   From the "untouchable founder" t...

Have you ever looked at your own neighbourhood and felt like you weren’t actually meant to be there?   In this episode, Aiwan and Tamanda reveal that it’s not in your head. It’s in the blueprints. We dive into the sobering reality that communities are increasingly under surveillance, including how the Metropolitan Police are far more directly involved in the architecture of homes, schools and...

Is body positivity dead in the wake of Ozempic? We're exploring how weight loss culture and the 'heroin chic' aesthetic are making a high-speed comeback under the guise of medical wellness.   ☕ Support the show: www.buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow   With this being Mental Health Awareness week, we couldn’t think of a better time to put the spotlight on one of the most overlooked mental h...

92% of England is off-limits to the public. And 50% of the land is owned by 1% of the population. Most people in Britain believe they are free. But are we really?   Episode description and notes: In this episode of Rigour & Flow, we move between the personal and the structural to interrogate land ownership in Britain today. We start with the film  'Our Land'  and its explor...

95% of doctors who died during COVID-19 were Black and racially minoritised. And at the height of the pandemic, while making up only 14% of the population, Black and minoritised communities accounted for 63% of all healthcare worker deaths.   Why was the risk so unevenly distributed? It’s time to stop sitting with the numbers and shift the stakes.   In this Feedwarmer edition, ...

Rigour & Flow is evolving. After a full year of weekly episodes, we are moving to a Seasonal rhythm starting with Season 5 this May. In this intimate update, we reflect on our first year through the lens of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count and our own personal Easter Monday reflections. We’re sharing the "why" behind our move to seasons, what the data from Year 1 told us, and a preview o...

Everyone has a podcast. But very few people sustain one. In this final episode of Season 4, we mark one year of Rigour & Flow - a milestone that feels both significant and, at times, improbable. Because behind the weekly releases, the conversations and the growth, there have also been moments of doubt, exhaustion, and the very real question of whether we could keep going. We reflect on what it...