Multiracial Family Man

Ep. 230: In this episode, Alex speak with Professor G. Reginald Daniel, Ph.D.  Professor Daniel is a Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara; Affiliated Faculty, Latin American and Iberian Studies, Black Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Asian American Studies, and History. Since 1989, he has taught “Betwixt and Between,” which is one of the first and longest-standing university courses to deal specifically with the question of multiracial identity comparing the U.S. with various parts of the world. He has published numerous articles and chapters that cover this topic. His chapters “Passers and Pluralists: Subverting the Racial Divide” and “Beyond Black and White: The New Multiracial Consciousness” appeared in Racially Mixed People in America (1992) edited by Maria P. P. Root, which was the first comprehensive examination of multiracial identity in the United States. His books entitled More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order (2002) and Race and Multiraciali

Ep. 229: John Vercher is a writer currently living in the Philadelphia area with his wife and two sons. He has a Bachelor’s in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program. His fiction has appeared on Akashic Books’ flash fiction features Mondays are Murder and Fri-SciFi. He is a contributing writer for Cognoscenti, the thoughts and opinions page of WBUR Boston. Two of his essays published there on race, identity, and parenting were picked up by NPR, and he has appeared on WBUR’s Weekend Edition. His non-fiction work has also appeared in Entropy Magazine. You can find him on Twitter @jverch75 and Instagram at johnvercher75. In this episode of the podcast, John speaks with Alex about his own biracial experience, how he is handling and preparing to handle his sons' multiracial experiences, and about representing the multiracial experience through fiction, including in his debut novel, Three Fifths. For more on John, check out his webs

Ep. 228: On this week's podcast, we speak with dancer/choreographer-turned-author, Patricia Hruby Powell about her children's books concerning folktales, multicultural, and multiracial themes, and which highlight of heroines of the culture.  In particular we speak with her about her book Loving vs. Virginia. Her books are intended to inform, educate, and excite, and they do all that. For more about Patricia and her works, please visit her website at: https://talesforallages.com/ For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://

Ep.227: Lichelli Lazar-Lea is a Multiracial, British, Afro-Trinidadian filmmaker, writer, producer and storyteller.  Listen as she describes her search for identity, reconnecting with her father in Trinidad, and how she weaves her Multiracial experience into her professional works. For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 226: Alex Carabano is restaurateur and comedian, who is originally from Brooklyn and who has roots in Colombia.  This week, he talks to us about introducing Latin vegan cuisine to the World at large at his restaurant V-Spot and about representing his ethnicity and vegan culture onstage. For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 225: Whitney Yang, the second child of Debra (white of European descent) and Philip (Asian of Chinese descent), an interracial couple who met and married in the Untied States in 1974.  Whitney was born in Hong Kong while her parents both worked for the United States government. She feels extremely fortunate to have grown up immersed in Chinese culture and to have attended international schools with peers of diverse backgrounds. Whitney loves being mixed and strongly identifies with her Chinese/Asian heritage. She admits that she feels most comfortable and free from judgement with other mixed race people who share her experiences.  But Whitney also recalls the challenges she faced as a child and adolescent — teachers who couldn’t pronounce her Chinese name, conflicting messages from people in her environment about Chinese culture and people, racist jokes and comments made at her expense, and the constant feeling of being an outsider.  Despite her international upbringing, Whitney has lived thirty years reg

Ep. 224: Ken Tanabe is a multiracial (Japanese and Belgian) designer, animator, and art director who works in motion, identity, print, experience design, and interactive media. He also is the creator of LovingDay.org - which celebrates and commemorates the landmark Supreme Court decision, Loving v. Virginia, which prohibited laws outlawing interracial marriage, and celebrated Mildred and Richard Loving, the interracial couple that vindicated. Listen to this re-broadcast of an earlier interview in which Ken tells Alex about his parents' interracial marriage, about growing up multiracial, and about the impetus behind his creation of LovingDay.org and his hopes for the growth of Loving Day as a national day of remembrance. For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to ou

Ep. 223: With 20+ years of experience as an award-winning journalist and author, Dr. Kristal Brent Zook has skills in reporting, writing, editing, teaching, public speaking, and media analysis. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Essence Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The LA Weekly, The Village Voice, and many other outlets. Dr. Zook has also worked as a producer and on-air commentator for National Public Radio, and she continues to appear periodically as an on-air commentator providing analysis of media, social justice issues, and politics for NPR, CNN, BET, Fox, TV-One, MTV, and MSNBC. Her expertise is at the intersections of journalism, cultural reporting, race, gender, and media studies. Dr. Zook has served most recently as a mentor for the Op-Ed Project in New York, and a judge for the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and The New York Press Club Awards. In 2013, she was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Alicia Patterson Foundation in Washington DC.  Dr. Zook is the founder

Ep. 222: In this episode, we revisit our conversation with Vanessa Bell.  Vanessa is a Latina of Cuban ancestry, raised in Los Angeles.  She is married to a Black man and has two biracial kids.  She also is the creator of desumama.com (http://www.desumama.com/) a multiracial motherhood website, dedicated to exploring issues of concern to multiracial families. Listen, as as Alex speaks with Vanessa about her journey. For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 221: Brenda Straka is multiracial.  She's also a doctoral candidate in Duke University's Psychology & Neuroscience Department, where she is researching social pain as it relates to intergroup interactions and behaviors. For example, how does social pain impact cross-group experiences and how can we mitigate the social pain many experience when facing prejudice and discrimination? Furthermore, she wants to extend existing research regarding cross-race interactions to multiracial groups to investigate the mixed-Latino experience. Check out this fascinating conversation! For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Intro and Outro Music is Funkor

Ep. 220: Atheer Yacoub is a New York based comedian, writer, and podcaster. Atheer's comedy draws from her personal experience growing up as a Palestinian-Muslim in Alabama. She came to the city with high hopes of making it in a respectable career, but found herself in comedy instead. She makes her traditional Arab mother proud by standing in front of complete strangers and talking about her mismatched upbringing, her misadventures in the big city, and the psychological baggage both entail. Atheer hopes to make you laugh, or at the very least, redefine what audiences think when they hear "Arab" and "bomb" in the same sentence. Inspired by everything from Lucille Ball to Dave Chappelle, Atheer wants to bring her unique perspective to the larger comedy world in the vain hopes that someone out there can prescribe her the right pills to make it all better. Atheer has appeared on Gotham Comedy Live, which aired on AXSTV and recently taped a half-hour special for Comedy Central Arabia. She is also a writer on Th

Ep. 219: In this episode, we revisit our conversation with Rae Dawn Chong. Born in Canada, Rae Dawn Chong is a multiracial (Black, Chinese, Irish, and Native American) actress who's had a fantastic career and fascinating life.  She's been in such notable movies as The Color Purple, Quest for Fire, American Flyers, and Commando. She's also had interesting experiences as the daughter of musician/comedian, Tommy Chong, spending her childhood in Detroit and Los Angeles, getting to meet musical giants like Bobby Taylor, the Jackson 5, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, and many, many others, and experiencing the Detroit riots of 1968.  Listen as Rae chats with Alex about her upbringing, her love of music and acting, her acting career, and on the very real impact that race and discrimination still play in the world of entertainment.  Her take on the multiracial experience and on race and racism in the world of film is intriguing and thought-provoking and not to be missed.  For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out

Ep. 218: J-L Cauvin is a former criminal prosecutor-turned-comedian.  He also is a Multiracial man with Irish and Haitian roots.  As a result, he has a keen eye for race, racial dynamics, and racism in the criminal justice system, in the entertainment world, and in life.  Also, after almost two decades as a comic, J-L has become very adept at addressing race, politics and other "hot button" topics onstage. J-L has been featured on The Late Late Show, NESN Comedy All Stars, Comics Unleashed, ESPN’s The Dan Lebatard Show and is a regular on The Adam Carolla Show. And, he travels the country performing in America’s most prestigious (and non-prestigious) comedy clubs. He has made a name for himself within comedy for his blog which offers a one-of-a-kind insider honesty about the business and his sketch/impression videos.  J-L’s act is incredibly diverse and has led to six stand up albums: 2006′s Racial Chameleon, 2008′s Diamond Maker, 2012′s Too Big To Fail and 2013′s Keep My Enemies Closer, 2016’s Israeli Tortoi

Ep. 217: Jennifer Acker is founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Common. Her short stories, translations, and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Guernica, n+1, Ploughshares, The Journal, The Literary Review, Ascent, Sonora Review, Harper’s, The Millions, The New Inquiry, and Publishers Weekly, among other places. She has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars, and she teaches literature, creative writing, and editing at Amherst College.   Her debut novel, The Limits of the World, is now available, and she sits down with us to talk about the novel and about her own writing journey and her own Multiracial family. For more on Jennifer, please visit her website at: https://jenniferacker.com/ For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Suppor

Ep. 216:  In this episode, we replay one of our favorite episodes, an interview with Jen Chancellor and Shadana Hurd. Jen Chancellor and Shadana Hurd are a same-sex, married, multiracial couple with a teenage daughter.  They're also former proffesional women's football players.  On this episode of the Multiracial Family Man, they talk about their experiences as gay people, how they met, the story of how they got married, and the range of issues they face as a same-sex multiracial family, including how they are addressing the dating life of their heterosexual teenage daughter.  They also provide an eye-opening account of their lives as proffesional female football players. For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins an

Ep. 215: Cory Jarvis is a stand-up comedian, actor, and writer living in New York City. He performs nightly at comedy clubs, as well as independent shows, all over the city. Cory has appeared on the Travel Channel, AXS TV, Funny or Die, and in a national Diet Coke commercial. His writing has been featured on EpicThings.com, Best Week Ever creator’s App “This Just In,” and Metropolis Magazine. His story about starting comedy in Tokyo was featured in Reader’s Digest, and he recently wrote and directed a comedic short movie about the people who dress as characters in Times Square. He was selected by the Writer’s Guild of America for an exclusive yearlong writer’s fellowship which will culminate in him pitching the screenplay and sitcom he’s working on. He was also named one of GoodDeedSeats.com’s top 40 up-and-coming comedians, and was selected to headline world famous Caroline’s Comedy Club. Most recently he released his debut comedy album (you can get it here: Buy the ALBUM. Cory’s comedy festival credits incl

Ep. 214: Meghana Indurti immigrated to the United States with her folks when she was just 8 years old.  Listen as she describes her own immigrant experience and how that has evolved and changed in a post -9/11 world and in an environment when immigration is a hot-button issue.  And, listen as she talks about how she weaves her immigration experience into her material onstage. For more on Meg, check out her website: http://www.megindurti.com/about-1 For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by

Ep. 213: Brian Jian is a very talented guy.  A son of Chinese immigrants from Taiwan, Brian grew up as an only child who loved trading "friendly" taunts with his buddies.  When he found that comedians from Colin Quinn's "Tough Crowd" were doing just that, Brian knew he had to be part of that crowd.  And, thus, a career in comedy was born.  But, Brian is not just a hilarious comedian, he's a gifted illustrator, who has been drawing since his earliest years, and he has now issued a graphic novel called Broken Toys, Extraordinary Machines.  It's a must buy, that blends his interest in Chinese culture, martial arts, and fantasy with his interest in melding cultures.  And, also, you need to check out his cartoon Bruce and Bruce Show (available on Instagram) that imagines what would happen if Bruce Lee and Bruce Banner (the Hulk's alter ego) were roommates. For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitt

Ep. 212: Christian Polanco grew up in New York City, the son of Dominican immigrants.  Now a comedian, he has become the co-host of The Cooligans Comedy Soccer Podcast.  Along with his co-host, Alex Guerreros, Christian wants to bring laughter to the beautiful game. Soccer is a growing sport in America and the goal of the Cooligans is to show that American footy fans are not like any other in the world. For more on The Cooligans, check out: http://www.soccercooligans.com/about/ For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://c

Ep. 211: Akash Bhasin is a funny guy. He's a Second-Generation, Indian-American who learned early in life how to use wit and humor to his advantage. Akash has entertained crowds in China, India and now the United States. His unique wit and no holds barred sense of humor has helped him garner a fan a fan base across the globe. Akash has been featured in the second season of the critically acclaimed series “Its A Chucked Up Life.” He can also been seen in a number of on line sketches with the acclaimed Cult Comedy Picture Show. Many of their sketches have been featured on CNN and the Huffington Post. Akash recieved 1st place in the Catch a Rising Star competition & 2nd place in Gilda’s Laugh off competition. No matter what country he's in Akash's honest and hilarious perspective on life, cultures and religion keep audiences wanting more. Listen as Akash talks about his parents' immigration story, Indian culture, and how he hopes to imbue his daughter with a deep and abiding love of their Indian heritage. Fo