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This episode features our conversation with our 100th guest, children’s book author Nikki McPhetridge, which was live-streamed on March 21, 2026.

Nikki McPhetridge is a first-time author, storyteller, and creator of Maya's Birthday Wish (Bookfox Press, August 2025). As a mother, dreamer, and believer in the power of play. Nikki brings heartfelt stories to life that celebrate kindness and imagination.

As Maya's birthday approaches, she wonders what to wish for - toys, treats, or something even more special? Maya sets off on a whimsical journey through her imagination, discovering that the best wishes come from the heart! Illustrated by Noor Zaki, Maya’s Birthday Wish received the 2025 Book Fest Award.

Learn more about Nikki and Maya’s Birthday Wish by visiting mayastoryland.com. Maya’s Birthday Wish is available for purchase directly from Nikki’s website and also on Amazon.

Watch the recording of the live broadcast here to see the book's illustrations.

Find Maya's Storyland on Instagram: @mayastoryland

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This episode features our conversation with Rosemary Esehagu, which was live-streamed on March 14, 2026.

Rosemary Esehagu is a Nigerian-American writer and poet. Her poems have appeared in different journals, including Cool Beans Lit, Genre: Urban Arts, a little poetry, Plum Recruit, African Writer Magazine, and Elephant Journal. Her award-winning novel, The Looming Fog, was published in 2006. Her latest book is the Amazon Bestselling hybrid prose and poetry memoir titled Out of the Cocoon: The Journey to Becoming (Manhattan Book Group, February 2025).  She lives in Texas and puts her psychology degree to work to explore minds to discover that which empowers us or cripples us. Her works investigate that delicate interdependent relationship between self and society, becoming and unbecoming. She is a passionate advocate for becoming our best selves by embracing all that we are and have been, both the ugly and the beautiful parts.

During this episode, we talked about Out of the Cocoon.

How would you live your life if you understood that every scar, trauma, or suffering can make you stronger and greater?

In her memoir, Out of the Cocoon: The Journey to Becoming, Rosemary shares her story of posttraumatic growth and offers a radical perspective on abuse. Despite encountering abuse as a child and racism and trauma when she immigrated to the US as a teenager, she has found her place and is living her purpose. She uses prose and poetry to express that we can overpower and repurpose others' harmful actions.

Out of the Cocoon explores healing from trauma from someone with personal experience and expertise.

Learn more about Rosemary by visiting www.rosemaryesehagu.com.

Mentioned during the episode: The Amadou Diallo Foundation ~ https://www.amadoudiallofoundation.org/

Find Rosemary Esehagu on Instagram: @rosemaryesehagu

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This episode features our conversation with Dr. Latoya Bosworth, which was live-streamed on March 8, 2026 in honor of International Women’s Day.

Dr. Latoya Bosworth, who honors her paternal great-grandfather with the shortened “Dr. Boz,”  is an author, forever educator, and "your favorite life coach" who holistically helps others connect more deeply with themselves so that they may connect more deeply with others in their work & community.  Born Latoya Bosworth, she gave herself the pen name Brenda's Child at the age of 21, in honor of her late mother, Brenda Kay Swinton. Although she experienced early childhood and adolescent trauma, Dr. Boz attributes her healing and evolution to writing as an outlet, strong mentors, spirituality, therapy and giving back.

Since 2007, she has self-published more than 15 titles in the genres of poetry, fiction, memoir, and journals. Currently, she's writing on self-help and personal growth. Dr. Boz was a longtime contributor for the monthly publication, Springfield, MA-based An African-American Point of View Newspaper, where she wrote poetry and about issues specifically impacting women of color. Her parenting and self-esteem articles have been featured on Blackandmarriedwithkids.com and ForHarriet.com. She was also an original columnist for Lioness Magazine, an online publication for women entrepreneurs. 

Dr. Boz continuously spreads her message of H.E.R.S. - which stands for health, empowerment, resilience and self-worth in workshops, as a keynote speaker, coach, in print and on stage.

During this episode, we chatted about Dr. Boz’s latest books, Quiet Strength, Loud Confidence...Reflections and Realizations of a Free Black Woman and Joyworthy... The Little Guide to Experiencing All the Joy You Deserve.

Published in 2021, Quiet Strength & Loud Confidence is an anthology of Dr. Bosworth’s personal essays, poems, and personal growth practices, arranged to guide you through the internal and external work of becoming and remaining free. If you already consider yourself free, may this book be a reminder to celebrate that freedom. If you are becoming unchained, may this book be the North Star, the moss of the north side of the tree, the drinking gourd on your way to freedom.

You can experience joy every single day. That is, once you know what joy means to you. Published in 2024, Joyworthy... The Little Guide to Experiencing All the Joy. You Deserve will guide you through the process of asking specific questions that shift your perception and beliefs about what it means to create a joyful life. Each chapter highlights practices and ways of being so that even in the most difficult circumstances, there is still joy. Take it all in. You deserve it.

Learn more about Dr. Boz by visiting www.brendaschild.com.

Purchase Dr. Boz's books on Amazon here.

Find Dr. Boz on Instagram: @brendaschild

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This episode features our conversation with Vince Hudson, which was live-streamed on February 28, 2026.

Vince Hudson is a marketing executive, author, and proud HBCU graduate who serves on the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Dillard University. Raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, Vince was blessed to grow up witnessing Black love modeled daily by his parents, a marriage grounded in faith, discipline, and devotion. That living example shaped both his worldview and his work.

With more than 30 years of global brand leadership experience, Vince has held senior roles across some of the world’s most recognized companies. He served as Chief Brand & Marketing Officer at BET, Senior Vice President of Marketing at American Express, and a global leadership role at Meta, driving brand growth, audience strategy, and cultural impact. His career has centered on building powerful brands that resonate across communities.

Now, Vince applies that same strategic discipline to relationships in his book Date Like a Brand. As a father of three daughters, he wrote the book as both a love letter and a playbook, dedicated to helping them and others navigate modern dating with clarity, standards, and self-worth.

Rooted in Shreveport. Refined through HBCU excellence. Guided by generational Black love. Vince’s mission is to help us build relationships as intentionally as we build our legacies.

During this episode, we talked about his book, Date Like a Brand: A Powerful Marketing Framework for Finding and Keeping the Love of Your Life.

Date Like a Brand, a relationship philosophy and playbook,  treats dating as a strategic marketplace, helping you attract the right partner by defining your unique value, establishing your target audience, and avoiding dead-end "situationships".

Purchase your copy of Date Like a Brand on our Bookshop.

Learn more about Date Like a Brand by visiting https://datelikeabrand.com/.

Find Date Like a Brand on Instagram: @datelikeabrandbook

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This episode features our conversation with Toni Ann Johnson, which was live-streamed on February 15, 2026.

Toni Ann Johnson won the Flannery O’Connor Award for her linked story collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste. Selected for the prize and edited by Roxane Gay, the collection was also shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize and nominated for a 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. Her novella, Homegoing, published in 2021 and linked to Light Skin Gone to Waste, was selected by Katerina Stoykova as the winner of Accents Publishing’s inaugural novella contest. Johnson’s newest linked collection, But Where’s Home?, the third book in the series about the Arrington family, was chosen by Crystal Wilkinson as the winner of the Screen Door Press Prize and published in February of 2026 (Screen Door Press is an imprint of University Press of Kentucky).

During this episode, we talked about Toni Ann’s latest book, But Where’s Home?.

But Where's Home?, Toni Ann Johnson's new collection of linked short stories, explores the sometimes painful and often humorous experiences of the Airringtons as an upper-middle-class Black family in a predominantly white, working-class community. This book follows Johnson's previous collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste. Through multiple perspectives and moments in time, from the 1960s to 2022, readers are invited into the lives of the eldest daughter, who longs for her father's affection while striving for independence; the youngest daughter, who seeks to overcome childhood pain through music and love; a father practicing psychology while engaging in affairs with the white women of the town; and a mother dealing with infidelity while raising her daughters in a place that rejects them.

Deeply emotional, funny, and unflinchingly honest, But Where's Home? lays bare the realities of Black life in America, challenging readers to confront racism, classism, colonized thinking, narcissism, abuse, and troubled parent-child relationships. Johnson's complex and interwoven characters create a kaleidoscope of truths about human nature and race relations in the United States.

Purchase your copy of But Where's Home?: https://www.kentuckypress.com/9781967165032/but-wheres-home/

Find Toni Ann Johnson online: https://www.toniannjohnson.com/

Listen to our first chat with Toni Ann Johnson from Season Three here.

Mentioned during the episode:
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Dr. Saidiya Hartman (2019): https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393357622

Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray: https://bookshop.org/a/114101/9780593638484

Check out our interview with Victoria Christopher Murray about Harlem Rhapsody from Season Five: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/black-writers-read-victoria-christopher-murray/id1627999524?i=1000698295022

Find Toni Ann on Instagram: @treeladytoniann

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This episode features our conversation with Theresa Okokon, which was hosted live and in-person on November 1, 2025 at The LAVA Center in Greenfield, MA. Special thanks to Straw Dog Writers Guild and The LAVA Center for co-hosting this event.

Theresa Okokon is an award-winning writer, storyteller, and teacher. A Wisconsinite living in New England, she is the co-host of Stories From The Stag, which has over 23,000 subscribers on YouTube. In addition to writing and performing her own stories, Theresa also teaches storytelling and writing, coaches other tellers, hosts storytelling events, and collaborates with nonprofits on narrative-driven special projects and events. An alum of both the Memoir Incubator and Essay Incubator programs at GrubStreet, Theresa’s memoir of essays about memory, family stories, and the death of her father — titled WHO I ALWAYS WAS (Atria Books, 2025). Her essay Me Llamo Theresa, which is in WHO I ALWAYS WAS, was originally published in Hippocampus Magazine and was nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize. 

Purchase your copy of WHO I ALWAYS WAS via Black Writers Read's Bookshop link here.

Please visit Theresa’s website at theresaokokon.com to learn more about her and her body of work. 

You can find The LAVA Center online at thelavacenter.org and Straw Dog Writers Guild online at strawdogwriters.org. 

Find Theresa on Instagram: @ohh.jeezzz

Find The LAVA Center on Instagram: @thelavacenter

Find Straw Dog Writers Guild on Instagram: @strawdogwriters

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Find Black Writers Read online: https://blackwritersread.com/

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This episode features our conversation with Charmaine Letitcia Wilcox, which was live-streamed on February 10, 2026.

Charmaine Leticia Wilcox is an author, independent publisher, and the creative engine behind Triangles Publishing. Based in Las Vegas, she specializes in multi-genre narratives that bridge the gap between gritty reality and vivid imagination. From the high-stakes emotional drama of the Triangles series to the world-building depths of her fantasy work, Charmaine’s stories are defined by complex characters who refuse to be defined by their pasts. When she isn’t crafting new worlds or navigating the rigors of nursing school, she is dedicated to empowering the next generation of storytellers.

During this episode, Charmaine shared an excerpt from her book,  For the Sake of Love, which is the second book of the Triangles Series. 

Learn more about Charmaine, her work, and Triangles Publishing here.

Mentioned during the episode:

Black Romance Book Fest, which is scheduled for this year from May 29 - May 31 in Atlanta, GA (it is an annual convening that usually takes place at the end of May)

Find Charmaine Leticia Wilcox on Instagram: @charmainetheauthor

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This episode features our conversation with Dr. Jenn M. Jackson, which was live-streamed on January 23, 2026.

Jenn M. Jackson (they/them) is a queer, androgynous Black woman, an abolitionist, a lover of all Black people, and an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University in the Department of Political Science. Jackson’s research is in Black Politics with a focus on Black Feminist movements, racial threat and trauma, gender and sexuality, policing, and political behavior. They are the author of BLACK WOMEN TAUGHT US: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF BLACK FEMINISM (Penguin Random House, 2024) and POLICING BLACKNESS (expected in 2026). Jackson has written peer-reviewed articles at Public Culture, Politics, Groups, and Identities, Social Science Quarterly, and the Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy. Jackson received their doctoral degree from the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago in 2019 where they also received a graduate certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Jackson teaches courses on Gender and Politics, Black Feminism, Black Politics, and the Politics of Racial Threat.

During this episode, we chatted about their book, Black Women Taught Us: An Intimate History of Black Feminism, which celebrated its two-year anniversary and the release of the paperback version of the book. 

A love letter to those who have been minimized and forgotten, Black Women Taught Us: An Intimate History of Black Feminism, repositions Black women’s intellectual and political work at the center of today’s liberation movements. For a new generation of movement organizers and co-strugglers, Black Women Taught Us serves as a reminder that Black women were the first ones to teach us how to fight racism, how to name that fight, and how to imagine a more just world for everyone.

Learn more about Dr. Jenn M. Jackson and their work by visiting their website: https://jennmjackson.com/

Mentioned in this episode:

Click here to watch Dr. Jackson's talk on Politics and Prose

Watch episodes of Season 8 of That Black Couple here; Watch past episodes of That Black Couple (Seasons 1-7) here

Watch episodes of We Published, Beloved here

Find Dr. Jackson on Instagram: @jennmjacksonphd

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This episode features our conversation with Cedric Muhikira, which was live-streamed on January 18, 2026.

Cedric Muhikira is a self-taught writer and storyteller with roots in migration, cultural fusion, and identity. Raised on stories that bridged continents and generations, Cedric has long been fascinated by the in-between spaces of belonging. He immigrated to the United States from Rwanda in 2019, and now lives in Detroit. His debut novel, Libaax: Grow Your Roots Where You Land, draws deeply from his personal experiences and the shared lives of immigrants navigating new beginnings. With themes of identity, resilience, and finding home in a foreign land, Libaax follows Ayaan's journey from displacement to self-discovery as he becomes a DJ, mixing Somali qaraami with Detroit techno. It's a story of cultural fusion, personal growth, and the universal experience of belonging.Cedric’s work explores how music, memory, and resilience help us grow roots wherever we land.

To learn more about Cedric, please visit cedricmuhikira.com.

Purchase your copy of Libaax: Grow Your Roots Where You Land here.

Find Cedric on Instagram: @iam_thecaptain_now

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This episode features our conversation with author, actress, and activist Denise Nicholas, which was live-streamed on January 17, 2026.

Nicholas's memoir, Finding Home (Agate Bolden, 2025), chronicles her time growing up in Detroit, her trailblazing acting and writing career, her personal journey, and familial loss. With eloquence, vulnerability, and resolve, Nicholas mines her six-decade journey through TV and film stardom, the complexities of her three marriages, and her reconstituting her creative life to become a celebrated novelist, reflecting on the personal, professional, and societal pressures that buffeted her throughout. Constructed of episodic reflections from both personal and professional high points and low points of her life, Nicholas navigates the intersections of love and identity, exploring how her experiences in Hollywood shaped her understanding of success, intimacy, and commitment. Her narrative is rich with anecdotes from her career in Hollywood, as an actor and, later, a successful screenwriter for television and eventually a novelist, providing a backdrop to the struggles and achievements that marked her path. She outspokenly discusses the challenges she faced as a trailblazing actress of color, shedding light on the systemic barriers and biases within the entertainment industry.

Learn more about Denise Nicholas by visiting denisenicholas.net. 

Purchase your copy of Finding Home: https://bookshop.org/a/114101/9781572843530

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