Daily Border Crossings

Thrilled and honored to have author, attorney, law professor, public speaker, activist, Harvard scholar, critical race theorist, I’m sure I could go on and on with titles. Khaled Beydoun! His new book, The New Crusades Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims, is a global follow up to his U.S.-centric first book, American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear and has garnered awesome and impressive reviews. In this interview, Khaled's likability easily shines through, as he talks about serious subjects while weaving in wit and humor. We discuss:

Learn more about me -- producer, host, visionary and DEI technologist -- at www.samanthafletcher.com/.

Special guests: AMEER BARAKA and RESHA CONROY on the often not discussed but highly impactful DYSLEXIA. It's more common than you think, and it's impacting adults and our children. NOTE: Their audio is great. My (host) audio is off. DON'T LET THAT MAKE YOU MISS THE MESSAGE!

Welcome to Season 3 of Daily Border Crossings. TRIED UPLOADING ON FEB. 28, 2023. On this last day of Black History Month, I have one of the most powerful, intriguing shows – one you don’t want to miss.

Today I speak with the brilliant Emmy nominated actor and critically acclaimed author AMEER BARAKA (check out his IMDb), with roles in Bronx SIU, Zatima, A House Divided and more.

And the amazing and equally brilliant Resha Conroy, founder and executive director of DABC, the Disability Alliance for Black Children.

Resha has a son with severe dyslexia.

Ameer has dyslexia, which wasn’t discovered until he was frustrated w/ not being able to read at school, no one helping to find out why, his frustration turned into behavior issues, then a life of crime which led him to prison where his D was discovered and it opened up doors that took him to Hollywood and even to Congress.

They complement each other well in this discussion. They both are dropping some SERIOUS knowledge we ALL need and especially if you or someone you know has ever had challenges with reading.

NOTE: MY AUDIO IS MESSED UP!! Please note that. Ameer and Resha – their audio is superb. Mine is echo-y and was not fixable. DON'T LET THAT MAKE YOU MISS THE MESSAGE.

THIS SHOW IS DONE IN CONJUCTION WITH THE SIENA SCHOOL AND AIMS.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE IS OUR UNDIAGNOSED DYSLEXIA EPISODE ON SEASON 3. IT’S DBC

The 1st of 30 episodes in 30 days. 30 shorts, these are highlights of the most thought-provoking, talked-about Daily Border Crossing episodes.

Meet Ian Solomon of Amplify Outside – a Black man who, get this, HIKES & CAMPS & KAYAKS! Gasp! Yep, a popular stereotype and misconception is that Black folks don't really "do" the outdoors, staying away from woods and mountains and stray or woodsy animals. Out to debunk such myths, Ian -- whose motto is "Black Recreation is Black Liberation" -- takes every chance he gets to be outside. He’ll talk about ENVIRONMENTAL HEALING, a topic that is othered, especially one not discussed a lot in the Black community. And what are Sound Baths? How can we get healing from sound? From the night sky? So much to learn! 

While we're outside celebrating Juneteenth, listen up for reasons to keep being out there. It will benefit your overall health more than you might think. When there is so much mental health talk and so many of us are thinking about how to do better, live better, stress less – TRUST ME! You don’t want to miss this episode. Find out some things we've been missing out on! (Some of us, anyway.) 

Find Ian Solomon at @amplifyoutside on all the socials.

On this ep of DBC, we're talking career and tech schools and the fact that they lead to so many lucrative lifetime professional experiences and opportunities that many people miss out on because of overlooking and "othering" them thanks to stigmas. Our guests are Shelette Pleat, principal of a career and tech high school, Nikasha dicks, PR and marketing director for a community/technical college, and Katie Sievers, from credentialing organization Credly

What comes to mind when you think of career and technical schools?  Community colleges? Career and tech schools at the high school level? Some of you may refer to them as vocational and tech, many are changing names from voc to career to highlight that they lead to lasting careers. Are you considering attending? Or did you attend? And if you didn’t, why not?

Voc tech, career and tech are often looked at as the step brother to 4-year colleges and universities, but my guests today would say not so fast. You may recall Pres. Joe Biden giving praise to community colleges, where his wife has spent her career teaching. My guests are all weighing in and showing us that these schools, though often overlooked, also often lead to some quite lucrative careers – all while saving thousands of dollars spent at 4-year universities. You don’t want to miss this discussion on DBC.

Resilience and mindset expert, keynote speaker and published writer, Chazz Scott tells us how to take control of our thoughts and then control of our LIVES! Find him at www.chazzscott.com.

He has been named BE Modern Man by Black Enterprise Magazine, selected as Top 30 Under 30 by HBCU Buzz, and was a recipient of The Positive People Award by The Baltimore Times. HIs IG page is filled with insightful, helpful, encouraging messages of knowledge and wisdom to better our lives, including a post discussing the need to regularly do a mental diet. His usage of the phrase "mental wellness" is an example of his commitment to positivity and positive language. 

A scientist by trade, Chazz has the remarkable ability to understand and explain in the most practical, easy-to-grasp and understand way the power of thinking and having an awareness of thoughts to ultimately lead your life in a better direction. WHAT ELSE IS REMARKABLE: HE OFFERS THESE TEACHINGS AND SERVICES TO KIDS 11-18 AS WELL AS ADULTS!

How aware are you of what you’re thinking? Maybe you feel convinced that fear isn’t a factor in your life, but lemme ask you this: Did you not land that job? Not launch that business? Not nail that interview? What if your behavior caused those things to happen, behaviors…showing a lack of confidence or some worry. Our behaviors are connected to our thoughts. So while you’re thinking you’re not afraid or intimidated or scared, your behavior is showing otherwise BECAUSE our behaviors are aligned with our thoughts – EVEN thoughts and beliefs we’re not consciously aware that we’re holding on to. And this can ultimately get in the way of our success and achieving goals.

Deep, right? This is the kind of thing you’ll learn about from my brilliant guest on this episode of DBC! His name is Chazz Scott, and we are talking about mental wellness. But not just like it’s some buzzword. No. Specific points on healthy mind lifestyle changes YALL! That connect with you actually accomplishing big wild dreams or small daily goals, and GET THIS — not just for adults! For our children too? How to be mentally well, ways to think to be successful — in middle school?! And high school. They’re not teaching this stuff in schools, to young people! But my guest is! Who’s teaching this stuff to our kids, Black kids? My guest today…and he can teach yours too, so listen. Time flies. It’s already a month into this new year! Coming up on Black History Month. We want to get it right this time! To start that business, write that book, leave that job, try that idea!

You are tuned into the right show, you don’t want to miss the amazing Chazz Scott, a resilience and mindset expert who’s dropping gem after gem on just how powerful the mind is and then what WE NEED TO DO WITH THAT POWER to get us where we’re trying to go. And i’m like some of you, thinking I’ve heard this mind stuff before – NOPE. You ain’t heard it like Chazz Scott is delivering it. He makes goal achievement  and accomplishing things in general so practical and doable. I’m telling you! Get your notetaking apps out, get your voice recorder ready bc you wanna keep some of these tips to live by. Seriously.

And at the end of the mindsets conversation, there is a bonus portion of Chazz talking about THE legendary Dr. Freeman Hrabowski. Stay tuned for that bc whenever UMBC president and civil rights icon Hrabowski is involved, there’s always some knowledge dropping. And then you don’t wanna miss my wrap up where I tell you about the upcoming show and a new twist on career and technical colleges high schools and the long term earning potential that might make you rethink them as solid, viable options for you or your child.

Chidiebere Ibe & his passion for art and medicine was the perfect guest for DBC's 1st TIE DIE episode, where we highlight & explore the intersection of Technology, Innovation & Education + Diversity, Inclusion & Equity. We sat for a delightful convo. Tune in and find out:

I am so excited about my guest and what this young man means for the culture, our culture and for really the world in general. He’s the 25-year-old Nigerian recent college graduate who has been making news and social media headlines with his medical illustrations of Black people. I sat down with him from my cozy place in the U.S. to his cozy place in Nigeria. Wait til you hear the role he said God has played and is playing in his life! He shares why he’s doing this and what it means to him, and you’ve likely heard a lot of that, but I wanted to dig more into the makings of him. Who is he? What are his plans for his future? Is he interested in doing any studying in the U.S.? And what about his childhood? What inspired him? Parents? Siblings? An extra piece of his story that’s so special is that he’s self taught, SELF TAUGHT Y’ALL! Have you SEEN these illustrations? Google him! Imagine my shock when he told me he did not do art as a child, in terms of drawing. He was creative & would construct things. Plus he was into animals, you’ll hear about a lizard, but a thing I really wondered about was this idea of being a doctor and an illustrator. I often see one or the other – the doctor focuses on medicine and hires an illustrator; or an artist/illustrator often focuses only on drawings and not on medicine, so the fact that these 2 fit so perfectly together for him piqued my interest. He talks about that, and that also made him the perfect fit for the first TIE DIE DBC episode. Enjoy!

The incomparable, amazing educator and author Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy, visits Daily Border Crossings and gets candid, discussing everything from food and family to 19th century Black women who inspired her work to Taboo and Spades! She discusses her book including how she came up with the title, why the book -- which is grounded in the teachings from Black women in Black literary societies from long ago -- is for all students. Gholdy has made such waves, she’s now working with music super producer Pharrell Williams & shares about that. 

You may have heard about her style of pedagogy or even heard her thoughts on critical race theory —some of which she shares on this episode — but what do you know about her? What drives her? What was life like growing up and who were the special ppl who poured into her so wonderfully that they created the beautiful human she became who now pours into so many? What did she say about Jazmine Sullivan's speech at the Soul Train Awards & hear how she connects that to the long history of Black excellence & Black education. Black excellence and education are the foundation of her book — why does she think her book has been such a success and more importantly, what advice does she have for aspiring authors? Speaking of her book, a number of teachers and schools and districts are using her framework, while many schools, when it comes to antiracist and inclusive and culturally responsive teaching, say they prefer to wait for teacher buy-in to do so. Wait for Gholdys strong views on buy in and why it’s extremely problematic, harmful, and a shameful thing to do. Finally, Gholdy joins me for the new Point Counter Point, where guests get 30 seconds to discuss each item in a list of topics -- and we learn if she's a Taboo or Spades person! All that and more on this episode of Daily Border Crossings -- produced and hosted by Samantha Fletcher, music by Miles J Beats, on socials as @milesjbeats.

Season 2 opens with Episode 1, The Updates Show -- updates on the host, on past guests, & on what new/dif things & people to expect this season! This is a special rare chance for listeners to get a peek into the life of the host. I, Samantha Fletcher, am so used to interviewing people BUT this time, I will be I’ll be taking questions and sharing my journey. Listeners can expect to hear what I've been doing, including what a year at Harvard for a mid-career wife, mother, busy Black woman was like, as well as some powerful life lessons I've learned that I believe will help plenty of folks out there. I'm hoping to share valuable nuggets of wisdom I picked up from my life journey. I'm also gonna tell you about some exciting upcoming guests this season -- hello Dr. Gholdy Muhammad! -- and changes/additions to the show -- hello YouTube & more guests!

And will update you on guests from last season -- for example, you’ll hear from Marty Swaim talking about race from the perspective of a white educator and antiracism leader (from ep 1) and from the popular Asian American educator episode (ep 7), I caught back up w Cindy and Ariana, you'll find out if things have or have not changed for them. Othering continues. We will explore it, bring it to light, and learn from it. Come find out what I have in store -- and how it can help move you forward to being a better human being and inclusive member of society. Excited! I’ve missed you!

On this episode of DBC, I am beyond honored about today’s guest -- THE legendary Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of UMBC -- the University of Maryland, Baltimore County -- who is responsible for breaking barriers in Civil Rights, and responsible for countless numbers of Black students and students of color who are now working in STEM. He is brilliant, engaging, funny, and full of good advice. I am also joined by some fellow students and friends who will be a part of the interview as well:

Claribel Aguilar Whyte

Kamille Bostick

Silvana Rueda

Channing Sherman