Strange Fruit

As a cisgender person, you might pride yourself on your transgender wokeness. Your email signature includes your PGP (Personal Gender Pronoun), you address groups of people as “y’all” instead of “guys “or “ladies and gentlemen,” and you’ve even got a #BlackTransLivesMatter bumper sticker with a t-shirt to match. This week’s first guest, trans college student Zayn Singh, says it’s easy for allies to perform wokeness within progressive bubbles like college campuses – in a sea of people who mostly hold similar beliefs. But Zayn says what really matters is our readiness or reticence to be outspoken and keep that same woke energy when we see transphobia occur outside the bubble. Later in the show we talk with Gabby Ryan from Melbourne, Australia about her journey to coming out as asexual. Gabby is seven years into what she describes as, “a happy straight-passing relationship with a cis-het man.” We had lots of questions, and Gabby was gracious enough to help us and our listeners learn more about what asexuality me

In the 5th grade, Ola Ojewumi was diagnosed with a heart condition that made it difficult for her heart to properly pump blood throughout her body. By 11 years old, Ola was a double transplant recipient, with a chronic illness and limited mobility who relied heavily on a wheelchair. She became a person living with disability. For many years Ola despised being disabled and tried to hide her disability. Now, she is the founder of the global education nonprofit organization, Project ASCEND, which provides college scholarships and and civic engagement opportunities to low-income and disabled youth. This week we speak with Ola about her disabled black girl magic--her struggles, triumphs, and how she shows the world what it means to live with disabilities, not in spite of them. And in Juicy Fruit: A Harvard professor says that if you eat more than six french fries at meal time then you've been overeating. And PETA wants us to start feeding two birds with one scone.

To us, World AIDS Day is a day to commemorate those we've lost to HIV/AIDS, uplift those who are living with the virus, and a reminder for us to fight like hell together to end both the stigma and the epidemic. We’ve dedicated this week’s show to discussing where we are now when it comes to HIV/AIDS awareness. First up, we hear from a wonderful young man named Chad about his journey with HIV, from his recent diagnosis, to the ensuing depression, and his eventual path to resiliency and empowerment. His story is moving, powerful and awe-inspiring. Later in the show, Rhonda Cowan and Ryan Benningfield from Volunteers of America (VOA) join us to drop some HIV 101 knowledge and talk us through what to expect when going to get an HIV test. Volunteers of America offers free, anonymous HIV testing at their office at 933 Goss Avenue. More information at (502) 654-8389 or on their website. 

Happy Belated Turkey Day! We’re keeping it light this week with a full episode of Juicy Fruit, featuring a hodgepodge of hot topics. Did the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos-flavored turkey make your Thanksgiving menu this week? Speaking of flavors, the FDA is moving to ban the sale of all menthol-flavored cigarettes and restrict sales of flavored vapes and e-cigarettes. More than 88 percent of African-American smokers prefer menthol cigarettes. Is this an appropriate attempt to improve public health or simply misguided government overreach? In music news: It might be NSFW, but if the viral Jill Scott video has you clutching your pearls or shaking your head, well then you’ve got this all wrong. And by popular request, #TeamStrangeFruit reveals our selections for our Holiday-inspired mixtape.

November is National Adoption Month, a designation intended to raise awareness of the need for permanent families for children in the foster care system. How much does race matter when it comes to giving a child a loving adoptive home? How important are racial heritage and cultural traditions for a child who is racially and ethnically different from their adoptive parents? And what is it like being adopted by two moms or two dads? Morgan Rumple is a black woman who was adopted as an infant by a white lesbian couple who lived in a nearly all-white community in Indiana.  She joins us to discuss her experiences as a transracial adoptee and how her parents navigated homophobia, racism, and cultural differences.

No matter how you spell it, say it, or intend for it to be received, the N-word remains a hot button issue. The rules seem pretty clear for white people - don’t say it, ever. But it gets more complicated for non-black people of color. Writer and podcaster Olga Marina Segura joins us this week to discuss the complicated relationship between Latinx folks and the N-word. Even though she identifies as Afro-Latina (her father is a black man), Segura says she’ll never feel comfortable using the word as a term of endearment and challenges other Latinx folks to think more critically about using the word.

A teenager named Cameron Terrell was arrested in October on suspicion of murder in an alleged gang killing in South Los Angeles. Before you try to guess where this story is going, you should know: Cameron Terrell is a white, and from a wealthy L.A. suburb. Terrell was able to make bail: $5 million. At trial, he was acquitted of the charges, leaving some to wonder how differently Terrell's story might have ended had he been black, poor, and actually from the neighborhood where the shooting happened. Did the jury give him the benefit of the doubt because he was white? Nicole Santa Cruz covered the story for the L.A. Times. She joins us this week to tell us more about the case. And in Halloween-related hot topics, a woman and a ghost get on an airplane...stop us if you’ve heard this one. (Photo by Al Seib, Los Angeles Times)

This week actors Crystian Wiltshire and Neill Robertson join us to discuss their roles in the current production of “Dracula” at Actors Theater of Louisville. Actors Theater has been producing this vampire tale, based on Bram Stoker’s gothic vampire fable, each Halloween season for more than 20 years. In Juicy Fruit, NBC News host Megyn Kelly offended just about everybody when she defended blackface and other racist costumes. Commentator Don Lemon weighed in and, of course, so do we!

Author and historian David Williams joins us this week to talk about his new book "Secrets of Old Louisville" which is filled with the forgotten lore, hidden treasures and shocking secrets that are a part of the enchanted Louisville neighborhood’s history. In 1982, Williams also founded one of the largest LGBTQ+ archives and libraries in the country, the Williams-Nichols Collection, which is now housed at the University of Louisville and contains more than 1,700 books, buttons, bar flyers and other LGBTQ+ memorabilia related to Louisville and the country. Later in Juicy Fruit, Jai and Doc discuss rapper Remy Ma’s controversial stance on the use of the N-word by white rapper Lil Xan and other non-black people of color, including Robert Ortiz, the gay and Puerto Rican New Yorker who got caught on video using the word to insult his black Lyft driver. And finally, Jai teases that Doc and her wife Missy have something very interesting planned for their Halloween costumes.

This week on Strange Fruit, Doc finally gets to interview one of her faves: Zoie Fenty, better known online as GotDamnZo. Zoie has over 4 million followers on Instagram, where he's carved out a niche. He edits viral videos (especially videos of kids being funny) to make it look like he's having a conversation with the subject on Facetime. He also watches outrageous hair and nail tutorial videos and posts his reactions. Zoie joins us to talk about his work, how he got his start, and his favorite things about internet fame.

Why does the cost of basics at Kroger vary depending where you are in Louisville? It's an issue of supply and demand, but it's one that ends up affecting low-income people across the city. In this week's episode of Strange Fruit, we talk to Bailey Loosemore of the Courier Journal about a recent story that looked at the cost of grocery staples at Kroger grocery stores around Louisville.

After a week where talk about sexual assault was inescapable to anyone near a radio, TV, newspaper, the internet, etc., it might seem like jokes about rape are the last thing anyone would want to hear. But Cameron Esposito's stand-up comedy routine promises just that. In fact, that's the title of her latest special. "It's a deliberately incendiary title," Cameron explains. "Rape jokes are a concept that exists in stand-up comedy, and I wanted the number one Google result, if you put in 'rape jokes,' to be an hour of really funny stand-up about sexual assault from my perspective as a survivor." (Esposito's special is indeed now the number one Google result for that search.) She's donating the proceeds from the special, and her tour, to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). And speaking of her tour, it's bringing her to Louisville on Sunday. She joins us on this week's show to talk about her work, and how good comics skirt the line between funny and too far.

Aunt Vi, the matriarch of the family on Ava DuVernay's Queen Sugar, knows her way around a kitchen. Not only can she cook, but she bakes a mean pie -- a skill that becomes a side business. Aunt Vi's pies became like a character unto themselves. She's in sort of a second act in her life, finding love again after an abusive relationship. Dr. Tanisha Ford is an associate professor of Black American Studies and History at the University of Delaware -- and a huge Queen Sugar fan. She says Aunt Vi's story line started her thinking about what pie making has meant for black women, and what it means for a woman like Aunt Vi in particular. She joins us this week to talk about how food is central to how we understand community, and how Queen Sugar uses food as a way to have deeper political conversations about capitalism and appropriation.

A recent article called him "the most vocal queer, black voice on the radio." Sam Sanders has been a journalist with NPR since 2009, and he hosts the podcast It’s Been a Minute. It's safe to say he has a lot in common with #TeamStrangeFruit. He joins us this week to talk about his work on the show, and authentically representing black and queer voice to an audience who is, largely, neither.  We also chat with author Tiffany Tso about her recent essay, "Nail Salon Brawls & Boycotts: Unpacking The Black-Asian Conflict In America."

Nobody's perfect--even people who are committed to social justice. But activist Leslie Mac has been noticing a pattern when mistakes are inevitably made by people who consider themselves allies. She recently described it in a piece on Medium: White person/organization/group ****s up royally. Usually by stepping out of their lane and commenting on someone or something they shouldn’t  or screwing over someone they claim to be in solidarity with . Public outrage is expressed, coupled with many Black Women giving detailed reasons why & how they ****ed up. The offending party claims they didn’t “intend to offend” and appears unable to hear what anyone is saying to them. After receiving push back on their initial response, an “apology statement” centered on themselves is issued (“we never meant to harm anyone” “I would never do what I’m being accused of” “we are so sad about how this was received”) while failing to take actual responsibility for their actions. When their meek, ineffective apology isn’

We've heard way too many Barbecue Becky and Permit Patty stories in the news lately. White people see black people selling lemonade, cooking on a grill, sitting in Starbucks, etc. They decide they shouldn't be doing whatever they're doing, and call 911. Usually someone starts taking a video, which eventually makes its way around the internet. What we don't get to see is what happens in the 911 dispatch center. What do the people who take those calls think about these frivolous calls? What do they tell the police about the situation? Rachel Herron was a 911 operator in Oakland, California, and she's written about how she had to respond to racist calls every day. Rachel joins us this week to tell us what happens on the other end of those calls. A lot of those frivolous calls are based on minor ordinances -- so-called "quality of life laws" that dictate who can use public spaces and how. History professor Andrew Kahrl studies the history of segregation. He thinks of these laws as the North's version of

"Theo, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life!" It's the big laugh line from a famous scene in "The Cosby Show" pilot, delivered by the show's patriarch just after his teenage son makes a heartfelt plea for acceptance, even if he doesn't follow the life path his dad wants for him. For writer Kieran Scarlett, it's just another example of the worst kind of black TV dad: Rigid. Impatient. Always policing their sons' performance of masculinity. Kieran finds more recent examples in "Black-Ish," and recently wrote about the phenomenon for Rewire News, in a piece called ‘Black-ish,’ Cliff Huxtable, and Me: The Problem of TV’s Cruel-to-Be-Kind Black Father. Kieran joins us this week to talk about how pop culture portrayals affect -- and reflect -- real-world fatherhood. But it's not just dads who struggle (and sometimes fail) to get parenting right all the time, as illustrated by an Instagram post by Olivyah Bowens. The photo shows 23-year-old Olivyah with her 2-year-old dau

Dylan Marron describes his childhood self as "a brown and queer kid trying to break into the entertainment industry." People told him he was very talented but was unlikely to get work, because of how he looked and who he was. Dylan started paying attention to the movies and TV shows he consumed. "I noticed there was a representation problem," he said. "Universal stories were being told, but not using bodies that reflected universal stories. Universal stories are told, by default, with white bodies." He wanted to bring attention to it in a way that wasn't preachy but factual. That's how he came up with his YouTube series, "Every Single Word." It shows popular movies edited down to only include words spoken by characters of color. In the "Every Single Word" universe, the movie "E.T." is nine seconds long. It consists entirely of a character credited only as "Van Man," saying, "Hey, who are you?" and "Open the door, son." T

Soraya Zaman's "American Boys Project" is a photography collection (and upcoming book) featuring portraits of transmasculine people throughout the country. Through it, Soraya hopes to expand our ideas of who trans men and transmasculine people are, and can be. Soraya joins us this week to tell us more, along with Lazarus Letcher, whose portrait is included in the work.  And poet and choreographer Uwazi Zamani joins us with the story behind his phenomenal spoken-word piece, "Parades." (Content Note: There is strong language in the poem, which is recited at the link, and also played in its entirety about 29 minutes into our show this week.)

People with HIV and AIDS are living longer thanks to advances in the way we manage the disease with medicine. That also means the need for services to assist this population is actually bigger than before. The Kentuckiana AIDS Alliance provides help with housing, medical/dental care, co-pay assistance, educational workshops, counseling, and public transportation to and from medical appointments. They also support monthly HIV testing, social retreats and a summer camp for children who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. But all this was a very serious way to get into the fun part of this week's episode: Chocolate Fest! It's an annual fundraiser for the KAA, featuring chocolate desserts from Louisville restaurants.  Andrew Shayde from the KAA joins us to talk about what we can expect at Chocolate Fest this year. We also take a trip through this week's headlines in our Juicy Fruit segment, and kick off Leo season by wishing happy birthdays to Jai and Missy.