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This MLK Day, we're passing the mic

caption: L to R: Ishea Brown, Kristin Leong, Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong, Zaki Hamid, Alison Bruzek.
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L to R: Ishea Brown, Kristin Leong, Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong, Zaki Hamid, Alison Bruzek.
KUOW Photo/Juan Pablo Chiquiza

We know public radio has a long way to go to make sure the voices you hear on the air reflect the diversity of our listeners.

So today, we're passing the mic.

Public radio is not known for its diversity of voices. A 2018 study of NPR news magazine shows found that 83% of sources were white and 63% were male. With those numbers, you have to ask yourself what — and who —you're missing.

Martin Luther King Jr. is heavily quoted, and misquoted. But before he died, he used his pulpit and platform to elevate voices and conversations that the wider society might never hear.

With this show, we've sought to do the same. The host, guests, and producers are all people of color, in frank conversation about what it means to move through the world as people of color.

Ishea and Joe

After getting off on the wrong foot at a KUOW Curiosity Club dinner, Ishea Brown and Joe Santiago came back together for a conversation about the messiness of race in America.

Mental health in the black community

Conversations about mental health can be intimidating, stigmatized... and vital. Ishea Brown speaks with two Black women therapists, Rian Roberson and Shirley Lytle, about how to normalize those conversations and find ways not just to survive, but thrive.

Carvell Wallace and Imani Sims

Being hypervisible means that everyone sees you, but no one sees YOU, says writer Carvell Wallace. He was in conversation with poet Imani Sims about performing blackness in white spaces. The discussion began with a Black Panther-inspired poem called "Better Than Captivity."

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