Teach the Babies w/ Dr. David J. Johns

This isn't just a podcast. This is us doing the work of protecting our babies—their minds, their futures, their right to learn truth and to live free.”The stakes are high. But so is our resolve. We're not done. We're just getting started. This year, we're going to keep building. Keep learning. Keep pushing. Keep getting free. #TeachTheBabies #TeachTheBabies Podcast. Listen. Like. Subscribe. Share...

"We Were Short on Cash, Not on Love: Liberation Psychology for the Holidays"Dr. Raquel Martin returns to the class to break down how families can resist capitalism's grip on the holiday season while building real community care. As a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in liberation psychology, Dr. Martin doesn't just help people cope—she helps them fight back. In this conversation, she ge...

Real accountability isn't comfortable—but it's how we all get free. In this powerful third conversation of our Million Man March 30th Anniversary series, Dr. David J. Johns brings together three organizers whose work centers the intersections that harm Black communities the most: Kenya Hutton (CEO of the Center for Black Equity), Oluchi Omeoga (who leads  the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project), and P...

C hemistry teacher turned law student. Editor-in-Chief of the Howard Law Journal. Juliette Stanley is getting ready to get into some good, necessary trouble—and she's teaching the babies how to do it too. In this powerful conversation, Dr. David J. Johns sits down with Juliette to explore the moment a flying ruler in her classroom changed everything. From teaching 10th graders chemistry in under-r...

Welcome to Event 2 of our Million Man March 30th Anniversary extended dialogue series: "Mentorship & World-Building."Thirty years after the Million Man March, we're asking: How do we mentor the next generation into liberation rather than conformity? How do we build radical brotherhood that includes ALL Black men across sexuality and gender expression? Hosted by Dr. David J. Johns, this convers...

The Supreme Court just heard arguments in Louisiana v. Callais—a case that could dismantle what's left of the Voting Rights Act and eliminate up to 19 majority-Black congressional districts nationwide. Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter Fund, was there on the front lines. In this urgent and essential conversation, Cliff takes us from his journey in Selma, Alab...

In this conversation, Glynda Carr—co-founder, president, and CEO of Higher Heights—joins Dr. David J. Johns to discuss Black women's unwavering commitment to democracy, even as their political power faces unprecedented attacks. From the Brooklyn café where Higher Heights was born to the dungeons of Ghana where ancestors dreamed of freedom, Glynda traces the through-line of Black women's political...

In a moment when major media companies are bending to power and silencing truth-tellers, Joy-Ann Reid is building something different. Fresh from her historic run as cable's first Black woman to host a primetime news program, Joy joins the class to talk about getting fired on her day off, launching The Joy Ann Reid Show the very next day, and what it really means to refuse fear in the face of auto...

Councilwoman Christina Henderson breaks down what's really happening with federal occupation of DC, why National Guard troops on American streets should alarm everyone, and the pattern of attacks on Black women's leadership. As an independent councilmember raising two Black daughters in DC, she speaks truth about local power, why your council member matters more than you think, and what she's teac...

In this deeply personal and politically urgent conversation, Dr. David Johns welcomes his White House family—Deesha Dyer, former Social Secretary to President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama—for a raw discussion about what we lose when power demolishes history, and what endures when community builds with intention. Deesha takes us inside the moment she saw excavators tearing down the Ea...

Four years after we lost Michael Kenneth Williams to an accidental overdose, his legacy continues to light the way forward. In this powerful Mental Health Awareness special, Dr. David J. Johns sits down with Dominic Dupont—Michael K's nephew and advocate carrying his uncle's torch—and Jonnel C. Doris, CEO of Startcare, the nation's oldest and largest Black-founded behavioral healthcare organizatio...

This is a special episode of Teach the Babies. On October 16, 2025, we celebrated 30 years since the Million Man March. To honor that anniversary, I sat down with three brothers for a conversation about what the March got right, what it got wrong, and what repair requires of us now. You're about to hear Rev. Mark Thompson (who emceed the original 1995 March), Pastor Jamal Bryant (who's leading one...

Today, sitting with us in the class of someone who's been in the thick of every significant social justice movement for the past 40 years, Reverend Mark Thompson. A political, civil rights and human rights activist who's organized everything from the 1993 DC Statehood civil disobedience campaign, where he spent 20 days in jail to the upcoming 30th anniversary of The Million Man March. He's also th...

Political strategist, journalist, and co-anchor of The Signal LIVE Karen Finney joins the class fresh from co-anchoring the launch of State of the People TV with Dr. David J. Johns. Karen reveals the origin story that drives her work—carrying incarcerated teenage girls who couldn't envision a future into every room of power—and why this moment required something different: a movement disguised as...

Host, Dr. David J. Johns sits down with Jada Capri Ward—social justice advocate, performer, and co-host of the Relentless Love Podcast—to explore what activism looks and feels like for millennials and Gen Z. This is a conversation about being a "Zillennial" straddling two worlds, living with chronic illness while doing the work, and why our generation's digital organizing connects back to ancestra...

In this essential episode of Teach The Babies, Dr. David Johns sits down with theGrio's White House Correspondent and Managing Editor Gerren Keith Gaynor for a masterclass in journalism, media literacy, and democracy protection. From becoming the first Black-owned digital news correspondent in the White House briefing room to breaking down the critical difference between journalists and influencer...

In this powerful follow-up conversation, education equity consultant Nancy Hanks returns to discuss how educators, parents, and allies can navigate the dramatically shifted educational landscape under current federal policies. Nancy provides unflinching analysis of the psychosocial toll on educators of color while offering concrete strategies for micro-recovery and sustained resistance. She shares...

While politicians push federal funding to arm teachers, Chris Chatmon and Kingmakers of Oakland (KOO) are arming Black children with something far more powerful: creativity, culture, and community. In this deeply moving conversation, Chris returns to discuss how creative expression becomes resistance, why drumming circles counter deficit narratives, and how his organization builds what children ne...

Dr. Karida Brown drops receipts on the 150-year battle for Black educational freedom in America. From the original "diss track" between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington to today's attacks on the Department of Education, she connects the dots between Jim Crow schools and modern-day educational warfare. Learn why your parents' generation had to desegregate schools as children, how billionaire...

Welcome back to class! In this powerful episode of Teach the Babies, Dr. David J. Johns teaches a transformative lesson about Black August—a month of revolutionary love, principled resistance, and the long arc of our freedom struggle. From the prison walls where George Jackson was politicized and assassinated in 1971, to the contemporary attacks on Black mayors like Muriel Bowser and Karen Bass in...

What does it mean to stand on business when it comes to our babies' education? Drin Kelly and Stevie Elem-Rogers, co-founders of BE NOLA (Black Education for New Orleans), join Dr. David J. Johns for a powerful conversation about building Black educational excellence in the Crescent City and beyond. From Hurricane Katrina's aftermath to creating "hush harbors" for Black educators, these truth-tell...

Today we're diving deep into a conversation that has been decades in the making. You know, sometimes the universe brings people together at precisely the right moment, and today feels like one of those moments. I'm here with Tourmaline. An Artivist, an activist, a filmmaker, and now the author of what I can only describe as a groundbreaking biography, Marsha, the Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. John...

Political strategist DeJuana Thompson has engaged 2+ million Black voters through her revolutionary organizing approach. From leading the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to founding Woke Vote and spearheading the State of the People movement, she shares how centering marginalized communities changes everything. DeJuana explains why she focuses on "zero propensity" voters others ignore, her philo...

Today we're diving deep into something that touches every single one of our lives, but that many of us don't always take the time to understand fully... the US census, and we're exploring it through the lens of someone who embodies the intersections of data democracy and artistic expression. Today's classroom guest is Larry Carter II, a former project manager at the US Census Bureau, who built par...

State Senator Shevrin Jones and Representative Michele Rayner take us inside "Alligator Alcatraz," Florida's controversial immigration detention center, sharing firsthand accounts of what they witnessed. From the Supreme Court's dismantling of the Department of Education to the political takeover of HBCUs, these two trailblazing Black queer legislators reveal how Florida has become a testing groun...