When the worldwide pandemic-induced shutdown began in 2020 it was quickly described as the “biggest psychological experiment in history.”  And regardless of the specific toll Covid-19 and the shutdowns may have had on you or your loved ones -  from virus death to lingering illness to economic ruin to mental health struggles to rising SUD and overdoes deaths - everyone has experienced trauma at some level. But the pandemic and the shutdowns also seemed to have helped bring about or expose some dynamics in our culture, politics and relationships.

As we enter Black History Month in 2022 we hope you’ll listen in on a timely interview with sociologist/demographer Dr. Nyesha Black.  Dr. Black shares a personal snapshot of her early life in rural Alabama, dealing with family mental health issues, her burgeoning passion for asking questions that would lead to solutions, academic life at the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) and on to her doctoral research at Penn State University.

We also get to benefit from Dr. Black's candid sharing about her own struggle with mental health challenges brought on by pandemic isolation and the weight of the dark political and cultural struggles leading up to January 6th, 2021.  We share in her excitement at the purchase of a beautiful, historic home in ‘old Birmingham’, but then are sobered by how the history of that same property simply but dramatically exposes the evil of embedded, legal racism.

BONUS!  Podcast Producer (and co-host of his own podcast, Tha Tipping Point) Ronnie Gatrey engages with Dr. Black in a masterful and meandering conversation on the history, sociology and appreciation of Hip Hop as an extrinsically American music genre.