Multiracial Family Man

Ep. 71 - Barbara Savage is a woman of many hats (and talents).  A multiracial (Black and Indian) woman who converted to Judaism as an adult, Barbara has myriad interests and talents.  She's been a LA Raiders cheerleader, worked as a private investigator, and now she's a contestant on FOX's "Master Chef."  Along the way, given her multiracial heritage and Jewish faith, she's had an interesting vantage point from which to observe society and participate in her community.  Listen as she talks about all this and about her dad's very interesting career. 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   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. 70: Michelle Maltais serves as deputy director of audience engagement. Since she joined the Los Angeles Times in 1997 as a copy editor, Michelle has gone where no one has gone before. (Yes, she’s a bit of a “Star Trek” nerd as well.) She served as the newsroom’s first broadcast producer and interactive video executive producer, in addition to occasionally writing on a variety of topics including technology and family. In her off time, Michelle geeks out on grammar, sci-fi and movie minutiae. Listen as Michelle discusses her Jamaican roots (her mother was a first-generation Jamaican immigrant), growing up multiracial, her decision to become a journalist, and life, now, as a multiracial family mom. 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   Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by

Ep. 69: Delia Douglas is proud to be Black, White and Native (Choctaw). She was born in North Hollywood California. Her parents were the first interracial couple to marry and move in to the North Hollywood neighborhood now known as the NoHo Arts District. Well after the Loving vs. Virginia ruling, the year was 1972 and the Southern California Suburb probably considered itself to be rather open-minded because there were a lot "studio" people living there however we are told that local residents had taken up a petition to prohibit her parents from moving in to the neighborhood. By the time she and her brother arrived those same neighbors had a change of heart and were happily delivering gifts, flower bouquets, and baked goods as a warm welcome to the expanding family. As a multiracial woman and mother to a multiracial child, Delia feels it’s important that we share as much about our own culture as possible and that we teach our kids to embrace and celebrate all that they are.  Delia is grateful that this new g

Ep. 68: Ingrid Rogers (http://www.theingridrogers.com/index.html) was born to Jamaican parents in Toronto, Canada and spent the first 9 years of her life in Jamaica.  She was a big fan of the tropical lifestyle and the year-round warmth.  And then… she moved back to Toronto, having never before owned a winter jacket or seen snow and yet finding herself in the middle of a winter that lasted what seemed like ten months! It was during this time inside thawing out that she became interested in the arts. When she was in high school, the acting bug bit after her theatre arts class wrote a piece called “Syanova” based on a newspaper clipping that their teacher found about Apartheid. After a short detour to the University of Toronto to study business, she found her way to The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC. For the next 3 years, she immersed herself in everything from Bette Davis to Commedia dell’arte.  Two months after leaving AADA, she landed the role of Taylor Roxbury Cannon on “All My Children."  One ye

Ep. 67: Riana Anderson is a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Applied Psychology and Human Development Division (APHD). Her current fellowship is with Dr. Howard Stevenson in the Racial Empowerment Collaborative (REC), which centers on cultural pride, coping and parenting, culturally specific parenting strategies, and other ways of reducing race-related stress. She received her doctorate in Clinical and Community Psychology at the University of Virginia and was a Clinical and Community Psychology Pre-doctoral Fellow at Yale University’s School of Medicine. Dr. Anderson graduated from the University of Michigan in 2006 with degrees in Psychology and Political Science. She then taught for 2 years with Teach For America in Atlanta, GA. She has also conducted community based participatory research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, and neuropsychological research at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Dr. Anderson aims to assist at-risk youth with practical applicat

Ep. 66 - Glenn Robinson is a White guy.  He's married to a Mexican woman, and they have 2 Biracial and Bicultural kids. Glenn is a devoted advocate for the multiracial and multicultural communities.  He aggregates and curates content for several websites aimed at the issues confronting these communities.  Those websites are: Community Village http://www.communityvillageus.us/ Mixed American Life https://mixedamericanlife.wordpress.com/ 500 Nations http://500nations.us/ Oppression Monitor http://oppressionmonitor.us/     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   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. 64: Lorie Tensen is an author.  She's also "bionic." It's not hard to see why.  Having been dealt a number of challenges in life, she's rebuilt herself stronger than ever before. She was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 7, 1966. The result of an affair between a married, Black detective and a foreigner: a woman from Honduras. Seven months later, she was adopted into a White, Dutch family and raised in a small, farming community two hours west of the Twin Cities.  At the age of 12, Lorie suffered a terrible accident, resulting in the loss of her right hand and lower arm.  This led to years of grappling with her own self-image and self-esteem. Later in life, she struggled through college, where her racial background set her apart.  Then, she was a single mom working hard to make ends meet.  She later married, but the marriage ended in divorce, and Lorie found herself struggling again.  But, by focusing on her passion, on raising her kids, and on her goal of giving back, she found herself on the right care

Ep. 63: Jordana Manchester is Biracial (White mom, Black dad).  She was raised by her her mother and her White adoptive father (he married her mother when she was 4 years old and they had her younger brother a year later). So she was raised in an all-White household.  After several years in Winnipeg, where she suffered overt racism, Jordana and her family moved back to Vancouver, which marked the beginning of her ethnic and culturally confused adolescence. She was the only Black kid in school and kids swung from expecting her to "act Black" to accusing her of being "not Black enough" or acquaintances would refer to me as the "Whitest Black person I know."  After high school, Jordana embarked upon world travel, which eventually led her to study anthropology and these two things (travel and her studies) led her to create the travel and culture website, The Urban Xenophile, which Jordana hopes will help bring own racial barriers by inspiring ALL ethnic groups to travel and exchange ideas with one another. For mo

Ep. 62: Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum loves to laugh.  She also loves purple.  She loves her husband, her family, her congregation (Shir Hadash -- http://www.shirmke.com/) and Milwaukee.  In fact, if you talk with Rabbi Berenbaum for more than 3 seconds, you will realize that she's filled with love, laughter, terrific listening skills, and, as she puts it "a love of text."  Starting out as the only child of Black Southern Baptists (including a father who was blind), Rabbi Berenbaum slowly but surely found her true spiritual home in Judaism.  Along the way, she had a front seat at the intersection of race, racism and religion, giving her valuable insights into how different groups of people see the World and helping her develop and refine tremendous powers of empathy. Listen, as Rabbi Berenbaum describes her own conversion to her childhood, her conversion to Judaism, her views on and personal experiences with racism, and her views and thoughts on the challenges facing Judaism in the 21st Century. For more on host, A

Ep. 61: Michelle Beller is a multiracial former Ironman Triathlete-turned-writer who is now pursuing work that is deeply personal.  Her book The Trouble With Virginia is a historical novel based on the true story of Michelle's great-great grandmother, Virginia, who was the daughter of a prosperous White plantation owner and his common-law wife who was herself a multiracial slave. It is a captivating story. In addition, Michelle is a vocal advocate for women's rights especially in the effort to end violence against women.  Listen as Michelle tells Alex how this issue and the issue of race are inextricably linked. 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   Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http:

Ep. 60:  Veda Stamps was born in Los Angeles, California but grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. In her late teens, she moved to Fresno, California where she attended Fresno State’s undergraduate and graduate programs. Veda spent time in Washington, DC where she served as a legislative aide and speech writer to Congressman Harold Ford, JR. Missing sunny California, she moved back to Fresno and created The Ramsay Group, LLC a community planning consulting firm. She currently lives in Valencia, California with her husband, two daughters and three little dogs. ”Flexible Wings” is her first published novel, partly inspired by her daughter’s experience on a new neighborhood swim team.  It is a contemporary middle-grade novel which explores the lives of military children. The book delves into themes of sports, community, and volunteerism as a way to support families through difficult times.  For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook

Ep. 59: Mike Brown is a comic who grew up in Harlem, NY.  A Black man with Jamaican and Cuban roots, Mike has been taking the New York comedy scene by storm with his He was named one of Rooftop Comedy’s Comics to Watch, Caroline’s Best of New Talent and a semi-finalist in NY Funniest Stand Up competition presented by JetBlue. Along with featuring at various comedy festivals (New York Comedy Festival, The San Francisco Sketchfest, The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival), he’s appeared on TruTV, Oxygen, Bravo, E!, and Adult Swim. Mike Brown regularly hosts/co-produces comedy shows throughout New York: BIG Pony Show FREE show Mondays at 8p on the Lower East Side (87 Ludlow St), Machine Gun Funk at New York Comedy Club, and COMEDY OUTLIERS a monthly standup comedy showcase featured in The New York Times, AM New York, Time Out NY, NY1, and NY Daily News. He also hosts the COMEDY OUTLIERS podcast available on iTunes.  He also is the creator and star of a new webseries called Can't Stop, Won't Stop. Mike is married to a W

Ep. 58: Naomi Kissiedu-Green is a Ghanaian, born in the UK, who now resides in Australia.  This former model who appeared on Austrailia's Project Runway is married to a White Australian, and she is the mother of 3 children, a beauty entrepreneur (operating the Shea Purity line - http://www.sheapurity.bigcartel.com/).  She also is the author of The Colourful Life children's books series, which focus on issues confronted by multiracial children and an author of children’s books (http://www.bookdepository.com/publishers/Naomi-Kissiedu-Green). Listen, as as Alex speaks with Naomi about her life and her work. 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   Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creati

Ep. 57: Vanessa Bell 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   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. 56: Swirl Nation (http://www.swirlnationblog.com/) is the lovechild of four female friends who share the common bond of living multiracial and multiethnic lives. On Swirl Nation they  explore topics that resonate with the co-founders, Jen, Jenn, Amal & Kourtney. They have had so many conversations in their private lives about their journeys of relationships and raising children; they decided they wanted to share that with other like-minded individuals.  One key feature of the blog is weekly featured posts that celebrate amazing multiracial and multiethnic families across the United States (and maybe even around the world)! Their hope is that these profiles will inspire and create a bond between families. Reading the profiles can also be a great way to ignite a conversation in your own household about culture, traditions, and how you want to raise your own children. Additionally they all share posts on other topics that are passion points for us as individuals like education, fashion, beauty, cooking,

Ep. 55: Liana Maneese was born in 1984 in Goiânia, Goiás Brazil.  She was adopted when she was 1 and aised in a Black community in Pittsburgh PA by two White Parents.  Growing up, she saw herself only as adopted and not as an orphan. She finally had to face the reality that in order to be found, you have to first be lost. Without any Afro-Latino community to latch onto, her voice and identity were lost in translation in a world that did not look like her, talk like her, or think like her. This is when the quest for true liberation started, when she began to acknowledge who she was and to begin the slow but crucial process of loving herself.  She knew that she needed to redirect her efforts to telling her own story and recovering her own voice. To Liana, being Afro-Brazilian testifies to the enormous resistance of the African slaves that had to endure and overcome a cultural force that meant to strip them of their identity, heritage, and humanity. She seeks to use her work as an act of her own resistance by re

Ep. 54: Ayanna Dookie is a comic and a very funny woman.  This native Trinidadian (who is half Black an half Indian) thought she was on her way to becoming an engineer.  But, somewhere along the way she gotten bitten by the comedy bug.  A decade later, after transitioning from her degrees in Applied Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering you can find her performing comedy all over NYC, which she now calls home, and, indeed, all over the country.  She has opened for Tommy Davidson at the DC Improv, was a finalist in the New York Underground Comedy Festival Emerging Comics Competition, appeared on Comcast-on-Demand, and helped Magooby’s Joke House earn the record of having The Longest Continuous Stand-Up Comedy Show in the World.  You can reach her on Twitter at: @ADookie Listen, as Ayanna shares with Alex her story about being one of the few Trinis in her school in Prince George's County, Maryland, about what it's like to be Black and Indian, about becoming a Black-Indian member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorori

Ep. 53: LaVera Crawley and Alec MacLeod are an interracial couple.  LaVera is a African-American doctor, who grew up in Cincinnati, received her undergraduate and medical degrees at Historically Black Colleges, worked on a Navajo reservation as a M.D., and now serves as a Palliative Care Chaplain.  In the field of medicine and ethics, LaVera is internationally known for her work on health disparities for palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care. She served as an expert on racial, ethnic, and cultural issues for the 2004 NIH State-of-the-Science of EOL Care Consensus Conference; was commissioned by the California Healthcare Foundation to conduct an in-depth summary of EOL health care delivery for California’s multi-ethnic, multicultural, and racially diverse population; and served a 3-year appointment as an ethics advisor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She was honored with the Soros Faculty Scholars Award for the Open Society Institute's Project on Death in America in 1999-2001, The Howard Te

Ep. 52: Nicola Codner is a multiracial woman (Black Jamaican, Nigerian and White British), born and living in Leeds, Yorkshire within the UK.  She is a counselor, and she feels that her background has given her a love for diversity and the ability to appreciate multiple perspectives. Prior to training as a counselor she worked in academic publishing. She is the founder and creator of the Mixed Race Feminist Blog: https://mixedracefeministblog.wordpress.com/ Listen as Nicola speaks with Alex about multiracialism in the UK, about being a mixed-race feminist, and about the interplay of African and Afro-Caribbean culture. 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   Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.

Ep. 51: Rhonda M. Roorda, M.A., was adopted into a white family and raised with two nonadopted siblings. She is a national speaker on transracial adoption and a recipient of the Judge John P. Steketee Adoption Hero Award from the Adoptive Family Support Network (MI). With Rita J. Simon, she coauthored a landmark trilogy of books on transracial adoption (In Their Own Voices, In Their Parents’ Voices, and In Their Siblings’ Voices). She works as a fund administrator at an educational advocacy organization in Lansing, Michigan.  Listen as Rhonda speaks with Alex about her own transracial adoption, her work on the topic, and about growing up as a Black child in a White family in an African-American community and living in a geodesic dome. For more on Rhonda, please see her website: http://rhondamroorda.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 Multirac