What does it take to change a habit that has outlasted every attempt to break it? Connie Kwan, author of Story Habits, says the answer starts with the story you tell yourself about who you are, not with more willpower.

Connie grew up between Hong Kong and Canada, trained as a computer engineer, and spent much of her career in product. Then she joined a smoking cessation company and, in her words, got a front-row seat to how habit change works. She shares what she saw: two simple self-reported numbers, motivation and confidence, predicted who would quit better than how long or how much someone had smoked.

In this conversation:
• Why the word "habit" originally meant a monk's robe, and what that says about identity
• Clement, a longtime smoker whose father died of lung cancer, and the new story that changed his quit
• The "manipulation fries" reframe that helped an exit founder stop reaching for fries
• Why smokers who eventually quit often needed about seven serious attempts
• Connie's own years-long struggle with late-night binge-watching, and the replacement habit that finally worked
• Why the people closest to you may quietly resist your change, and how to find your champions
• How AI is reshaping product roles, and what it means to be a builder

Timestamps:
00:00 The story you were handed about who you'd become
02:12 From engineer to product leader at a quit-smoking company
05:57 Who actually smokes, and what it taught Connie about people
09:50 Motivation and confidence: the two numbers that predicted success
13:29 Clement, and the new story that helped him quit
15:49 The "manipulation fries" reframe
20:48 Why discipline and willpower miss the point
21:05 The monk's habit: where the word comes from
23:42 The magic number seven
25:38 Four a.m. binge-watching and the replacement habit that worked
34:17 Amplify Her and The Dim Sum Club
36:15 "I'm not a writer" and the writing hat
39:27 When the people around you want you to stay the same
46:30 Will AI replace product managers?
50:14 Connie's hope for readers of Story Habits

About Connie Kwan:
Connie Kwan is the author of Story Habits, arriving in November 2026, and is building a companion app, the Story Habits Coach. She is a former product leader at a smoking cessation company and co-founder of Amplify Her and The Dim Sum Club.

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Behind the Story is a video podcast hosted by Jelani Gonzalez. Every story has a deeper story.

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The word "DEI" has been demonized — but what does it actually mean? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Celeste Warren, former Global Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Merck, decades-long HR leader, author, and founder of CRW Diversity, for the clear-eyed conversation the topic has been missing.

Celeste grew up in a small steel-mill town in Western Pennsylvania, the daughter of the first Black teacher and principal in her part of the state. That front-row seat shaped a career spent making the business case for equity at the highest levels of corporate leadership.

Together, Jelani and Celeste unpack what most people — and even many executives — get wrong about equity. Celeste explains why "diverse" and "qualified" are not mutually exclusive, breaks down her "acts of equity" framework and the now-famous rocks-and-fence illustration, and shares the "five whys" method she uses to surface unconscious bias in real hiring conversations. They also dig into the history behind today's backlash, why equity ultimately benefits everyone regardless of identity, and the difference between DEI and nepotism.

As Celeste puts it, doing this work isn't a program with a start and end date — it's leadership 101, management 101, and business 101.

Connect with Celeste Warren:
 Website: https://www.crwdiversity.com
Her book on equity is available on Amazon.

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On Monday, September 14, 2026, the Supreme Court closed the book — at least for this election — on a fight Behind the Story has tracked across five episodes. By a 7-2 vote, the justices refused to let the Trump administration enforce a new U.S. Postal Service rule on mail-in ballots for the 2026 midterms, leaving a federal judge's nationwide injunction in place.

In this series finale, host Jelani Gonzalez breaks down what the Court actually decided, why a cross-ideological majority of seven justices agreed, what Justice Kavanaugh's swing vote really turned on, and why Justices Alito and Thomas dissented. He walks through what the USPS rule would have required, how the case reached the Court, and the one big constitutional question the justices deliberately left unanswered.

As always, no side-taking — just the arguments, from both directions, laid out with equal rigor so you can decide for yourself.

What it means for you: for November 2026, mail voting works the way it always has.

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Twenty-six years ago, a comedian in a yellow tracksuit and orange shades sat across from real politicians, generals, and diplomats — and they answered him seriously. That was Ali G. This fall, Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing the character back in Ali G: Who Is I? — and tens of thousands of people are trying to make sure you never get to watch it.

In this Behind the Story Exposé, we go past the headline and into the real tension: a British watchdog group has driven 45,000+ emails urging cinemas worldwide to refuse the film — before almost anyone has seen a single scene. Is that protecting people from harm, or censoring art we haven't judged yet? We lay out the strongest case on both sides, the 1998-vs-2026 history most people forget, and a twist about who's actually funding the campaign that changes the whole conversation.

No lectures. No easy bow. Just the story behind the story — and four questions worth sitting with: Have we become too sensitive, or finally honest? Where's the line between a boycott and a ban? Is there a bridge too far? And who actually gets to decide?

Listen, then tell us where you land.

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In 2004, Sheena Meade was a young single mother earning about $18,000 a year when an $87.26 check bounced. Two months later, police arrested her in front of her four children. She paid the check back, completed the courses, and thought her sentence was over — but as she says in this conversation, "My true sentence was just beginning."

In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Dr. Sheena Meade — mother, grandmother, lifelong organizer, and CEO of The Clean Slate Initiative — for an honest conversation about being criminalized for poverty and building a national movement for redemption.

Raised by union organizers in South Jersey, Sheena went on to help restore voting rights to 1.4 million Floridians through Amendment 4, then took the blueprint national. Today, Clean Slate has passed in 14 states and DC, putting 18 million people on a pathway to a second chance by automating the record-clearing process most people never even know they qualify for.

We talk about the $87 check, the ripple effect of a record on families and the economy, her honorary doctorate from Cheyney University, marriage and mission alongside her husband Desmond Meade, and the message she has for anyone who feels their sentence will never end: "You are not defined by your record."

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He was born in Jamaica, named Robert Kennedy III by a grandfather who said it "with such glee" — and he's spent his life turning that name into a conversation starter. In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with communication coach, speaker, and self-described polymath Robert Kennedy III for an honest look at how a quiet kid who was told "you talk too much, Bobby" became a man who speaks to thousands for a living.

Robert opens up about being an introvert in an extrovert's profession ("our job isn't to get rid of the butterflies — it's to get them to fly in formation"), his winding path through teaching, news anchoring, voiceover, and a gospel project that left his whole group in tears before the first song. He breaks down his 3M framework — Moment, Meaning, Message — and the science of why we forget most talks the moment we reach the car. Along the way: what AI still can't fake on camera, why family is the source of his best material, and the real reason money should come last.

A thoughtful, funny, deeply human conversation about connection, reinvention, and the courage it takes to be heard.

Free resource from Robert — the 3M Story Builder: amplifiedvoiceHQ.com

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Back where we started — except this time, it's different. The same judge who was forced to lift her block on Trump's mail-ballot rule put a new one right back up, days later — and for the first time in five months, a federal court actually ruled on whether the policy is constitutional. Her answer was no.

In this episode: how a "motion for reconsideration" unwound Wednesday's ruling, exactly what Judge Talwani found on the merits (including a factual finding that there's no evidence of the fraud USPS cited to justify the rule), the administration's strongest counter-arguments, and what happens next now that the case is headed to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals — with a September 3rd hearing already on the calendar.

 THE THROUGH-LINE
For five months, this fight has been almost entirely about *when* courts are allowed to rule — not *whether* the policy survives. This week, for the first time, a court actually answered the second question. That answer is now being appealed, and the fight isn't over.

CATCH UP ON THE SERIES
Part One — Who Controls Your Ballot?:
Part Two — They Violated the Order, Now What?: 

SOURCES
This episode draws on reporting from Bloomberg, Votebeat, The Epoch Times, Legal Insurrection, the Baltimore Sun/AP, and Judge Talwani's own August 28 court order. Full timeline and sources in the pinned comment.

Behind the Story doesn't tell you who's right. We go beneath the surface so you can decide for yourself.

#SupremeCourt #MailInVoting #USPS #ElectionLaw #BehindTheStory

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We told you two days ago this story wasn't over — it moved even faster than expected. A federal judge has now ruled that the Trump administration violated her own court order restricting mail ballot rules... and then declined to do anything about it.

In this follow-up, we break down Judge Talwani's violation finding, the administration's two-part legal defense (including a genuinely serious argument tied directly to Monday's Supreme Court ruling), and what happens next now that the final USPS rule is officially public as of today.

THE THROUGH-LINE
Three separate legal fights are now running at once: whether the violation carries consequences, whether the injunction itself survives a Supreme Court-driven challenge, and whether new state lawsuits succeed where the first round couldn't. All of it has to resolve before ballots start going out in October.

🔗 WATCH PART ONE FIRST
Who Controls Your Ballot? The Original USPS Mail Voting Explainer: 

SOURCES
This episode draws on reporting from Axios, Democracy Docket, TIME, NationofChange, Oregon Capital Chronicle, OPB, KATU, and Judge Talwani's own August 25 court filing. Full timeline and sources in the pinned comment.

Behind the Story doesn't tell you who's right. We go beneath the surface so you can decide for yourself.

#SupremeCourt #MailInVoting #USPS #ElectionLaw #BehindTheStory

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The Supreme Court just ruled 6-3 on who controls your mail-in ballot — but by its own admission, the ruling doesn't decide if any of it is actually legal. "Time will tell," the Court wrote. So what did the justices actually decide today, and what did they deliberately leave unresolved?

In this episode, we go beneath the surface of the March 2026 executive order that put USPS and DHS at the center of a fight over federal election authority — the two lawsuits it triggered, the injunctions still standing, and exactly what today's Supreme Court ruling changes (and doesn't).

THE THROUGH-LINE
This is the second time this year we've watched the Supreme Court's emergency docket shape how a live election runs, before the underlying legal question is ever fully argued. If that sounds familiar, check out our companion episode on the Shadow Docket, linked below.

RELATED EPISODE
The Supreme Court's Shadow Docket, Explained:

SOURCES
This episode draws on reporting and primary documents from TIME, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, NPR, Axios, The Hill, Issue One, and the Federal Register. Full source list and timeline in the pinned comment.

Behind the Story doesn't tell you who's right. We go beneath the surface so you can decide for yourself.

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Somewhere in Washington this week, the Supreme Court will decide something that affects your life — and you may never know why. No hearing. No explanation. Sometimes not even a signature. It's called the emergency docket, better known as the "shadow docket," and over the last decade it has gone from a quiet technical corner of the Court to one of the most powerful and most disputed tools in American government.

In this edition of the Behind the Story Expose series, Jelani Gonzalez breaks down what the shadow docket actually is, where the name came from, and why the numbers behind it have exploded in recent years. He walks through the difference between the Court's normal "merits docket" and these fast, often unsigned emergency rulings — and the landmark June 29, 2026 decisions in Trump v. Cook and Trump v. Slaughter that reshaped the limits of presidential power in a single day.

Then comes the honest question legal scholars on both sides are now asking out loud: is the Court simply managing an overwhelming caseload, or is the deck stacked? Jelani lays out both arguments — the case for bias and the case that this is a bigger structural problem Congress and the lower courts created — and leaves the verdict to you. He closes with what all of this means for your life, and the one lever ordinary citizens actually have.

Every story has a deeper story. This is the one behind the headlines you never see.

Listen now, then follow Behind the Story for more conversations that go beyond the surface. If this episode made you think, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it genuinely helps the show grow.

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