Convo

Seventy miles east of Dallas lies the City of Grand Saline. This otherwise textbook rural Texas town is fabled to be the producer of all the pretzel salt Americans consume. But it's also a city burdened with an ugly reputation. For black Texans, Grand Saline represents a place to avoid at all costs; a city perceived to be so racist that people of color don’t even stop for gas on the way through.

Public radio has a diversity problem. In a medium that struggles so hard to be balanced, neutral, and inclusive in everything it does, it still has few black female reporters and hosts. DaLyah Jones is one of those few. Actually, in Texas, she’s the only person who can claim to be a black, female public radio host. She is a reporter, podcaster, and fellow All Things Considered host at KUT-FM in Austin. Turns out, that makes her somewhat of a pioneer. And it gets lonely. On this episode of Convo, Jones and I discuss what it means to “code switch” in Texas’ numerous white spaces, the difference between ‘intention’ and ‘execution’ in unlearning white privilege, “Eloquent Rage,” and the weight of mental illness among people of color. Note: Technical problems make for a few wonky audio moments in this episode. The content is worth it though. sm

Fear of speaking. It’s actually true that it’s a bigger fear for people than flying, bugs, and even death. For this episode of my podcast, Convo, I spoke with Eileen Sinett, a speech coach and owner of Speaking That Connects, in New Jersey.

Does the country life appeal to you? You’re not alone. Except that you might quickly become so.

Try talking about North Korea without getting into a good conversation. Go ahead, I’ll wait ….

Bitcoin has billionaires now. So everybody's suddenly paying a lot more attention to it. The problem is, not a lot of people actually know what Bitcoin is. And whether being rich with it is really being rich or it's like having Monopoly money up to your ears is still a question we're trying to answer.

The conversation about sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior isn't a casual one these days.