Truth Be Told

One of the highlights of this show was having the late famed poet Nikki Giovanni on as a guest. It felt like we were all sitting at the dining room table, soaking up her wisdom. Giovanni tackled a challenging and important question: what do you do as a nonbinary person if the place that made you doesn't exactly accept who you are?That dilemma came from our former editor, CMD+JAZMINE, who explores their identity and faith with Giovanni. In this conversation, Giovanni shares some of her most intimate truths with CMD+JAZMINE, including her challenges with the institution of the Black church.GUESTS:CMD+JAZMINENikki GiovanniLINKS:deartbt.comInstagram: deartbtTikTok: tonyatbtEmail: tonya@deartbt.com

Ozempic and other weight loss drugs have opened up a new conversation about our nation's obsession with thinness. This episode from 2022 delves into our nation's refusal to acknowledge that the ideal, at its core, is racist. How do we get beyond the belief that bigger Black bodies are a problem? And instead, allow ourselves, no matter what size, to take up space?GUESTS:Sabrina Strings, Ph.D., scholar and author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia.Carvell Wallace, author and memoirist.Mozell Ward, trainer at Radically Fit.INSTAGRAM:@carvell_wallaceLINKS:deartbt.comInstagram: deartbtTikTok: tonyatbtEmail: tonya@deartbt.com

How do we raise Black children who feel free? One way, conscious parenting coach Yolanda Williams says, is for caregivers to face their own childhood trauma. Yolanda sat down with host Tonya Mosley in 2022 to offer some actionable tips on how to raise “free-thinking Black children” - and stop the tradition of spanking as a form of discipline. We gained so much insight from Yolanda in this episode, and you will, too.  GUEST:Yolanda Williams, Parenting Decolonized INSTAGRAM:@prntgdcolonizedLINKS:deartbt.comInstagram: deartbtTikTok: tonyatbtEmail: tonya@deartbt.com

Trauma is a word we throw around so often these days it has lost its meaning. Healer, trauma specialist, and author Resmaa Menakem reorients our understanding of complex trauma, how it manifests in our body and how to move through it to move beyond it.GUEST:Chef Kristi Brown, co-owner of CommunionResmaa Menakem, somatic therapist, author of the new book The Quaking of AmericaINSTAGRAM:@thatbrowngirlcooks @resmaamenakem  LINKS:deartbt.comInstagram: deartbtTikTok: tonyatbtEmail: tonya@deartbt.com

As of the reairing of this episode, 13 states in the US have a total abortion ban. 7 states ban abortion at or before 18 weeks' gestation. 21 states ban abortion at some point after 18 weeks.In the weeks before the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, we sat down to talk about what body autonomy and reproductive health will look like for us in a post-Roe vs. Wade world. The stress of racism and barriers to care–including abortion care–are part of a downward spiral in reproductive justice. Too often, those stressors play out in our wombs as fibroids and cancers. We talk about seeking justice and liberation with our guests.GUESTS:Anoa Changa, journalist and writer of “What's Next for Roe v. Wade?”Dr. Ashley Davis, Gynecologic Specialist at the Fibroid and Pelvic Wellness Center of GeorgiaOmisade Burney-Scott, healer and host of Black Girl's Guide to Surviving MenopauseINSTAGRAM: @thewaywithanoa@ashleydavis_md @omisadeburneyscottLINKS:deartbt.comInstagram: deartbtTikTok: tonyatbtEmail: tonya@deartbt.com

We're talking about therapy a lot more than we were when we taped this episode five years ago, but there's still a lot more to talk about. Black men are still four times more likely to die by suicide than Black women. This week's episode revisits our powerful 2020 conversation that delves into this question:  Why is therapy so taboo in the black community, especially amongst black men?Poet and writer Prentice Powell kicks off the episode by performing a poem he wrote in 2014 after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. GUESTS:Karamo Brown — Talk show host and host of Netflix's Queer Eye.Bakari Sellers — attorney, politician and author of “My Vanishing Country: A Memoir”Ron Finley — artist, designer and gangsta gardenerINSTAGRAM: @karamo@bakarisellers @ronfinleyproject LINKS:deartbt.comInstagram: deartbtTikTok: tonyatbtEmail: tonya@deartbt.com

What are the words - when there are no words?In the face of violence, death, and heartbreak, we revisit minister and writer Danté Stewart's 2022 conversation about what he calls “little experiments of liberation.”GUEST:Danté Stewart, minister, writer, and author of Shoutin' Into The Fire: An American Epistle. INSTAGRAM: @stewartdantecLINKS:deartbt.comInstagram: deartbtTikTok: tonyatbtEmail: tonya@deartbt.com

In 2020, Truth Be Told producer Isa Mendoza shared her truth about the painful impact her father's deportation has had on her life. We are revisiting this powerful conversation in light of President-elect Donald Trump's promise to deport undocumented immigrants who are primarily from Mexico and other South American countries the moment he gets into office. For this episode, we called up Adriana Alejandre, a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) and founder of the Latinx Therapy podcast, who offered advice to Isa and tools we can all use to help those we care about who have and will experience family separation. The episode ends with a powerful conversation between Isa and her father. A heartfelt thank you to Isa for sharing her story with us.  GUESTS: Isa MendozaAdriana Alejandre, licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Latinx Therapy podcast INSTAGRAM: @latinxtherapyLINKS:deartbt.comInstagram: deartbtTikTok: tonyatbtEmail: tonya@deartbt.com

Every new year, we play the same game, compiling a list of resolutions to be more productive, pushing ourselves to the limit to attain some version of ourselves that will be better than the last. This year, host Tonya Mosley is taking a different approach. Instead of giving more to the world, she plans to give more to myself. And that starts with revisiting this powerful 2022 conversation with Nap Ministry founder Tricia Hersey. Hersey says it's time we treat our bodies not as hustle machines but as living, divine beings that need rest. GUEST: Tricia Hersey, Author and Founder of The Nap MinistryINSTAGRAM: @thenapministryLINKS:deartbt.comInstagram: deartbtTikTok: tonyatbtEmail: tonya@deartbt.com

"Truth Be Told: Time to Thrive" revisits nine of host Tonya Mosley's favorite episodes, exploring crucial topics that resonate deeply with our current times. From challenging societal norms around rest and productivity to addressing the impacts of deportation, racial trauma, and body image, this collection offers profound insights and conversations with thought leaders, activists, and experts. Each episode provides a unique perspective on personal growth, social justice, and the pursuit of a more equitable world, inviting listeners to reflect, learn, and ultimately thrive.

We're back with another special bonus episode for you. The EmbraceRace Podcast brings you the best and latest advice on how to raise kids to have healthy attitudes and behaviors when it comes to race. In their first season, they counter myths about race and dive into what we actually know about how kids learn about race and what that means for how we raise them. We're excited to share the first episode of the EmbraceRace podcast, Myth #1: Young kids (especially babies) don't see race. If you'd like to listen to additional episodes or learn more about EmbraceRace you can visit embracerace.org

We're sharing a special episode in the feed this week of the APM Studios podcast What Happened in Alabama?What Happened in Alabama? is a series born out of personal experiences of intergenerational trauma, and the impacts of Jim Crow that exist beyond what we understand about segregation. Through intimate stories of his family, coupled with conversations with experts on the Black American experience, award-winning journalist Lee Hawkins unpacks his family history and upbringing, his father's painful nightmares and past, and goes deep into discussions to understand those who may have had similar generational - and present day - experiences. What Happened In Alabama? confronts the cycles of trauma for Lee, for his family, and for Black America.If you'd like to hear more episodes from the series, you can find What Happened in Alabama? wherever you get podcasts.

In this final episode of the She Has A Name series, we take you behind the scenes to delve into the making of the show and what we've discovered since the show launched. Learn more about our efforts to talk with the person of interest in Anita's murder investigation. And we answer your burning questions.

Tonya and Antonio join native Detroiter Candice Fortman to talk all things She Has A Name before a live audience at the community space Spot Lite Detroit. We hear from people involved in the story as well as listeners feeling the impact of the podcast.

Throughout this podcast, we've told Anita's story through the words of her family and friends. Now it's Anita's turn. Through a journal she left behind, we explore the last months of Anita's life, narrated by her granddaughter and namesake, Anita Brown.

After decades of searching, Anita's son Antonio has just learned the very gruesome details about how his mother was murdered. As he grapples with what he's learned, he and Tonya ask, what's next? In this episode of She Has A Name, the two take you inside their intimate therapeutic session with Dr. Robin L. Smith, co-author of The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power. They delve into the illusion of closure and how to move forward. 

Who killed Anita? Did her involvement in the drug game somehow lead to her murder? A serial killer? Or maybe the man her family says used and abused her was somehow involved?In this episode of She Has A Name, we delve into four theories, parsing out the details from the original fire report and crime scene documents, witness accounts, the family's knowledge, and interviews with the lead detective.

What does a boy hold on to when he realizes his mother is gone? The ways she taught him to survive - and the creation of falsehoods, omissions, and a version of the truth he's created to make it through each day. In this episode of She Has A Name, Tonya discovers something about Antonio's past she never knew before - one that mirrors his mother's life in the years before she disappeared. The discovery opens up insights into the depths of Antonio's pain and the life he yearns to create as he moves toward healing.

How could Tonya, Anita, and Antonio go almost a lifetime without knowing each other? We explore the tangled roots of this family tree and the man Tonya, Anita, and Antonio all have in common – O.C. Hill. 

In the late seventies and early eighties, things were looking up for Anita. She was in her early twenties and coming out of a low point in her life with the death of her mother. Antonio remembers a stable home life, a step-father that he loved and not really wanting for anything. Until Anita's life takes a downward turn with the return of a childhood friend who comes home from prison.

Who was Anita outside of the image Antonio shared with Tonya?  And how can Tonya's exploration of her short life help us understand what led to her disappearance and murder? In this episode, Tonya goes back to Anita's early years and the choices she made as a young woman in Detroit to survive.

Tonya tries to make sense of a double-whammy: news that she has a sister and the devastating discovery about her whereabouts. In this episode, Tonya begins her quest to unravel how a sister she never knew about could end up as a Jane Doe.

Host Tonya Mosley has spent most of her career telling other people's stories, now she is focusing on her own family. In the summer of 1987, Tonya's sister Anita disappeared without a trace. It took 33 years of searching and her son's DNA to connect Anita to a grave just outside of Detroit. But finding the body was just the beginning: Anita had been murdered. This isn't just another whodunit, She Has A Name peels back the layers of Anita's murder to reveal a city fighting for its own survival. 

Truth Be Told Presents: She Has A Name, a deeply personal story for host Tonya Mosley. The first episode of this family mystery podcast drops here on the Truth Be Told feed on Thursday, March 28th. 

A live conversation in Pasadena, California at the LAist's Crawford Theatre. Wise One: Casey Gerald, author of There Will Be No Miracles Here. Following the discussion, all five guests from the live event return to the stage to answer questions from the audience.

A live conversation in Pasadena, California at the LAist's Crawford Theatre. Wise Ones: Jamilah Lemeiux, writer; Nancy Redd, award winning author and podcast host; Steven Canals, screenwriter, producer of FX's Pose; Ayize Jama Everett, author & documentary filmmaker “A Table of Our Own.”

Happy Summer! We're stepping into your feed to share a conversation Tonya recently had with singer, songwriter, and producer Madison McFerrin. Madison has been on her own liberation journey the last few years, and it's evident with her new album “I Hope You Can Forgive Me." Tonya had her music on loop while writing Season 5 of Truth Be Told about using psychedelics to heal racial trauma, so you know we had to have her on the show!

We've explored the psychedelic renaissance with Black scientists, therapists and everyday people in search of healing. In this season closer, host Tonya Mosley finds her own path towards healing. Also, some parting words from our Wise Ones: Ernestine Mosley, Dr. Monnica Williams, Nicolas Powers, Undrea Wright, Camille Barton, Ayize Jama Everett.

The public's perception of drugs and drug use is changing. And with it, the decrim movement is in full swing. Soon the FDA is expected to approve psychedelic-assisted therapy. But are these steps enough for Black people in America? Enough to keep us safe in a world of racial bias and over-policing? There's the potential for liberation but also for oppression. Episode 6 explores what could happen if psychedelics become legal. Wise Ones: Dr. Carl Hart, Neuroscientist; Natalie Ginsberg, Global Impact Officer, MAPS. We want to hear what you think about Truth Be Told! You can help us out by filling out a short audience survey at deartbt.com/survey.

We're taking a break from our series to answer your questions about psychedelic-assisted therapy and the use of psychedelics to help alleviate depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

We explore the magic in magic mushrooms and the ancestral and Indigenous origins of using them to heal. What does ancestral knowledge mean for Black people disconnected from our lineage? Wise Ones: adrienne maree brown: author, activist. Undrea Wright, The Ancestor Project.

Decades after Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs, our evolved understanding of drug addiction has ushered in a new understanding of mental health and the flaws of the criminal justice system, and with it, a resurgence of an age-old medicine, once criminalized — now used as a form of healing. In Episode 3, we meet the children of the drug war and discover how they're navigating this newfound exploration of psychedelics to find personal healing. Wise Ones: Ayize Jama Everett, Educator; Mary Pryor, Detroiter, Entrepreneur.

Psychedelics work by allowing us to have an experience with ourselves — To face our biggest traumas without being retraumatized. This episode explores what that experience is like. But first, Black people (rightfully skeptical of altered states) must trust enough to let go.

Tonya Mosley is on a journey to experience the depths of freedom and liberation and discovers new research that shows psychedelics as a promising treatment for all forms of PTSD, including racial trauma. Tonya sets out to try magic mushrooms and discovers the psychedelic renaissance is overwhelmingly white despite its Indigenous and African roots. Episode 1 kicks off this 6 part journey led by Tonya which explores the latest science, the push for FDA approval, and the movement to get Black and Brown therapists trained in psychedelic therapy.    Wise Ones: Monnica Williams, Researcher; Sara Reed, Licensed Family Therapist; Jazmin Hupp, Psychedelic Guide.  Website: deartbt.com Instagram: deartbt TikTok: tonyatalks

If freedom is a birthright, host Tonya Mosley is on a journey to experience the depths of it. Season 5 explores emerging science that shows psychedelics like MDMA and psilocybin mushrooms can help to heal racial trauma, whether it's diagnosed PTSD or the kind of trauma that comes from the pain of living as a Black person in a racist world. Join us on the journey, beginning April 13th.

Hey fam, Truth Be Told will be back for a new season this spring! In the meantime, enjoy this timely encore conversation about body autonomy with journalist and abortion activist Anoa Changa. If you haven't listened to seasons 3 and 4, get on it! Season 5 of Truth Be Told is coming in April. LINKS: deartbt.com Twitter: deartruthbetold Instagram: deartbt TikTok: tonyatbt Email: tonya@deartbt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We want to turn you on to a new show that you should consider adding to your podcast queue: History is US. It's a 6-part documentary podcast from C13-Originals Studios and Jon Meacham — the team behind the 2021 Webby Award-Winning Best Podcast Series “It Was Said.“ It's written and narrated by Dr. Eddie Glaude, who is a friend of Truth Be Told. You might remember him as a Wise One from Season 2. Eddie is an award-winning author and professor of African American Studies at Princeton University – and he's such a deeply reflective and generous thinker. It's a limited series that aims to help us understand how we got here, and how we can all use history to clarify the choices before us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bad habits, toxic relationships, soul-sucking jobs — our inner voices tell us the truth, but are we listening? A moment of nakedness in the vastness of the ocean helped restaurant owner Kristi Brown slow down enough to hear what her inner voice was telling her. On this episode of Truth Be Told, we explore how listening to ourselves can lead us to joy and our ultimate purpose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#MeToo founder Tarana Burke is known as a truth-teller. In this episode of Truth Be Told she goes even deeper, revealing for the first time the depths of despair she's felt over the last few months, and the ways during these dark times she's chasing joy and renewal.  And grab your notebook! Mental health counselor Rian Roberson steps in to give us our own mini-therapy session.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are the words - when there are no words? In the face of so much violence, death, and heartbreak, minister and writer Danté Stewart joins us to talk about what he calls “little experiments of liberation.” GUESTS: Danté Stewart, minister, writer and author of Shoutin' Into The Fire: An American Epistle.  TW: @stewartdantec LINKS: deartbt.com Twitter: deartruthbetold Instagram: deartbt TikTok: tonyatbt Email: tonya@deartbt.com

Our nation's obsession with thinness refuses to acknowledge that the ideal, at its core, is racist. How do we get beyond the belief that bigger Black bodies are a problem? And instead, allow ourselves, no matter what size, to take up space? GUESTS: Sabring Strings, Ph.D., scholar, and author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia Carvell Wallace, author, and memoirist Mozell Ward, trainer at Radically Fit LINKS: deartbt.com Twitter: deartruthbetold Instagram: deartbt TikTok: tonyatbt Email: tonya@deartbt.com

As Black Americans, we've had to fight to get grocery stores into our neighborhoods, while fast-food chains were encouraged to thrive thereby federal policy. It feels like the opposite of a fully liberated life...one where access to nourishing food would be easier than the smoothest drive-thru. How can we build a future where we're closer to the source of our food? We digest that history and envision a future of liberation and nourishment with @DrMChatelain and @feedoursoul founder Adrienne Wilson. GUESTS: Dr. Marcia Chatelain, scholar, and author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America Adrienne Wilson, founder, of Feed Our Soul LINKS: deartbt.com Twitter: deartruthbetold Instagram: deartbt TikTok: tonyatbt Email: tonya@deartbt.com