Confessions of a Native Son

In the following episode, Rutgers-Newark Alumni and Third Year Harvard Law School Student, Mo Light, shares his experience as a Muslim American.

What's going on everyone, Welcome to another edition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host "IRON" Mike Steadman. I'm a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought-provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business

In today's episode, I sit down with Teo Hunter, Co-Founder of Crown & Hops Brewing Co. Teo is unapologetically black. His team is dedicated to preserving culture, expansion of the palate, and community building through world-class beer. They believe it's important to create spaces for communities of color, creatives, innovators, influencers, and craft beer connoisseurs. In the following episode, Teo and I discuss the craft beer landscape for black American's, his struggles and challenges of running a black-owned craft brewing company, and the 8 trillion gain in GDP America can achieve, by closing the racial wealth gap. As always, I appreciate you for sharing your time with me and I hope you enjoy today's show.

Whether you are aware or not, last October I launched another podcast called "The Transition," where I demystify the entrepreneurial experience for veterans and military spouses. I have the privilege of hosting this podcast for Bunker Labs, a national network of veteran and milspouse entrepreneurs dedicated to helping the military-connected community start their own business. Here I am with a background in history & American Studies, yet I've found myself cultivating entrepreneurship with veterans and military spouses, through Bunker Labs, and urban communities, through IRONBOUND Boxing and our THRIVE initiative. To give you a sample of what you can expect, I've decided to release Episode 1 on this Show, released on October 1st, 2020. For the inaugural episode, I interviewed Michelle Loyd, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer for the iconic Dope Coffee, one of the sponsors for Confessions of A Native Son. And even if you're not a veteran, I believe you'll still get value from the show. So if you're a listener, and an aspiring or first-time business owner, I encourage you to Subscribe to the Transition on Itunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast hosting platform.

What's going on everyone, Welcome to another edition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host "IRON" Mike Steadman. I'm a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought-provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business.

With the legalization of recreational marijuana in 15 states and the opening of medical dispensaries all across the country, the rapidly growing cannabis industry is plagued with more questions than answers from black Americans, with regards to criminalization and equity in the space.  To get a better understanding of the landscape, I invited on the show Jacquie Cohen Roth, Founder & CEO of Tea Pad, a social enterprise and a professional networking group for the cannabis industry. Tea Pad is a change-maker, whose mission is to break down barriers to entry and to empower people to participate in the cannabis industry - no matter gender or race. Tea Pad is actively challenging the industry to walk the talk of diversity and inclusion. In the following episode, Jacquie and I discuss the history of marijuana in the United States, the criminalization laws that led to mass incarceration, and the systemic racism plaguing today's cannabis industry.  This topic is very near to my heart, as a black American who's witnessed countless young black men & women go to prison for selling marijuana. While black Americans continue to fight for representation in the military and corporate America, the cannabis industry is repeating the same pattern of systemic exclusion. As always, I appreciate you for sharing your time with me and I hope you enjoy today's show.

What's going on everyone, Welcome to another edition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host "IRON" Mike Steadman, a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought-provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business.

In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, and the riots that took place all across the country this summer, there's been increased attention to the challenges that black entrepreneurs face with regards to access to capital.  With less than 1% of venture capital going to black founders,  and black small businesses unable to access traditional bank loans without a proven track record of success. As black entrepreneurs, we face significant challenges with regards to raising capital for ourselves and our communities. To discuss this issue with me, I invited on the show Elizabeth L Carter, a social enterprise and community capital securities attorney with significant experience in business law, nonprofit law, urban planning, community development, and government relations and policy. Through her firm Elizabeth L Carter Esq, LLC she assists small businesses, cooperatives, and nonprofits with the legal compliance of raising capital from both accredited and non-accredited investors. Together, we discuss the systemic inequalities in fundraising, the current challenges faced by entrepreneurs of color, and cooperative economics. As a black entrepreneur and leader of a small business incubator in Newark, NJ, this conversation is near and dear to my heart, and I enjoyed having it with her. As always, I appreciate you for sharing your time with me and I hope you enjoy today's show.

What's going on everyone, Welcome to another edition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host "IRON" Mike Steadman. I'm a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought-provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business.

It feels good to be back on the pod after a bit of break. I've taken the last few months to do some reading, get ahead on my interviews, and get refocused. I'm excited about this podcast and the opportunity to continue creating engaging content for all of you. We're now officially in Season 2 of Confessions of a Native Son. To help me kick this Season off, I invited on the show a good friend of mine and fellow entrepreneur, Yusuf Henriques, Co-Founder of TruGenomix, a precision genomics company developing solutions for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Veterans. As a former Combat Medic, Yusuf's personally witnessed the wreckage of the “invisible wounds of war” and their effects on military service members and those around them. At TruGenomix, Yusuf and his team are studying the effects of Trauma, and how it can alter humans DNA. His research has profound implications not only for veterans but also for the black community and the hundreds of years of generational trauma passed down through the Human Genome. Like me, Yusuf has a deep love for black people. Although originally from Jamaica, After leaving the military, Yusuf attended Howard University, where he studied biochemistry. He went on to earn a Masters in Public Health from John Hopkins University. Although veterans are the primary focus of his research, he's also studying the effects of structural racism within the U.S. Healthcare system. Driven by his passion to eradicate health disparities globally, he recently launched IndyGeneUs AI, a new Genomics-Integrated Health Data Platform company based in Nairobi, Kenya. He plans to sequence 1M African genomes on the continent to develop better drug treatments for black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC). He's well versed in science and history, and we have a great discussion about the challenges black American's face from a public health perspective, the effects of PTSD within the black community, and how our elders have been right all along. As always, thanks for sharing your time with me and I hope you enjoy today's show.

What's going on everyone, Welcome to another edition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host Mike Steadman. I'm a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought-provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business.

In 1965 at the University of Cambridge, two of the foremost American intellectuals, James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr., were challenged with the question: ‘Has the American Dream been achieved at the expense of the American Negro? The following is a bonus episode featuring the debate, as well as an introduction from yours truly. I ask that you listen to the debate with an open mind, discuss it amongst your peers, and appreciate the discourse of these two-man.

www.ConfessionsofANativeSon.com

What's going on everyone, Welcome to another edition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host Mike Steadman. I'm a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought-provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business.

In preparation for Season 2 of "Confessions of a Native Son," I've decided to share with you bonus material that has shaped my perspective on how I view the world, particularly as a black male. In the following episode, I share with you a speech of the controversial civil rights leader, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, commonly known as Malcolm X. Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. He is best known for his time spent as a vocal spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X is an icon within the black community and on April 3, 1964, he delivered one of the most epic speeches of all time, "The Ballot or the Bullet." This is one of the top 10 American speeches of all-time, and I go out of my way to listen to it at least twice a year. I believe his speech is relevant just as much today, as when he first delivered it. If this is your first time listening to Malcolm X, I ask you to open your ears and open your minds.

Welcome to another edition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host "IRON" Mike Steadman. I'm a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought-provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business.

It's been a long hard road to get here, but we've finally come to the end of Season of 1 Confessions of a Native Son. For this final episode of the season, I bring back fellow Marine Veteran and Entrepreneur Mike Loyd, CEO of Dope Coffee and the Executive Producer of this show. Mike and I discuss what it means for us to be free black men in today's society, and how we've leveraged entrepreneurship, authenticity, and our unapologetic attitudes towards race, to carve out our own spaces in the world.  We don't fit inside the traditional box of black men, veterans, and business owners, nor do we want to. We believe that we change the world, and the change starts with how we show up to it.  Through our lens of unapologetic free black men, we discuss the challenges black American's face from an economic perspective, what we've learned in our own entrepreneurial journeys,  and how we can inspire others to also "Lift As They Climb." We also take some time to reflect on this season and acknowledge the growth in both of us over the course of the show. When we started this show, we had no idea where it would lead us and who would listen. Now that we've found our audience, we're excited to continue the journey with you all and push the envelope on our discussions of race, culture, and business. I make an important announcement towards the end of the show and give you a sneak peek of what you can expect from Season 2, which drops on January 7th.  Don't worry, I've got some bonus episodes I'll release over the new few months, to keep you occupied.  I also strongly encourage you to go back and listen to the first 15 episodes of this season if you haven't done so already.  I believe they are some of our best work.  As always, I truly appreciate you for sharing your time with me and I hope you enjoy today's show.

What's going on everyone, Welcome to another edition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host "IRON" Mike Steadman. I'm a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought-provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business.

In the following episode, I sat down Tracey Fetherson, a former Marine logistics Officer and current MBA Student at Northwestern's Universities Kellogg School of Business. I knew of Tracy through a mutual friend and decided to reach out to her on LinkedIn to gauge her interest in being a guest on my show.  As an African-American female Marine officer, Tracey brings a perspective we've yet hear on this platform.  As challenging as it is for a black man to be a Marine officer, I can only imagine how challenging it must be for a female. I give Tracey the space to express her truth, sharing what led her to join the Marine Corps in the first place, the wall that she held up her entire time in service, and how she's using the lessons learned from her leadership experience to uplift men and women of color in her own way.  I also ask Tracey how she handled the deaths of Michael Brown and  Freddy Gray, as an active duty Marine officer, and how feels about the recent police killings of George Floyd. Tracey and I talk a lot about how important it for us to have spaces where we can feel comfortable and be vulnerable.  Over the course of our discussion, Tracey expressed thoughts, feelings, and emotion's she's never made public until now,  and for that I am truly thankful. It was pleasure to have her as a guest and I hope that you enjoy our discussion as much as I did. As always, I truly appreciate you sharing your time with me and I hope you enjoy today's show.