My guest today Dr. Ngozi Edi-Osagie, a Consultant Neonatologist and Associate Medical Director at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester.

Dr. Ngozi is the clinical lead for the development of a single hospital service across the city of Manchester and is involved in external investigations and peer review of services. Dr. Ngozi is also the Co-Chair of the community collaborative partnership between Manchester University Foundation Trust and the Greater Manchester Caribbean and African Health Network.

Born in Manchester to a Nigerian father and Caribbean mother, Dr. Ngozi left the UK aged 11 to live in Nigeria, where she later trained and qualified as a Doctor at the University of Benin.

We discuss her early life, health and wellbeing in the Black community, and since we’re in the middle of a global pandemic, we will talk about Covid.

Check out Dr. Ngozi's weekly health sessions on the Caribbean & African Health Network channel on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/caribbeanafricanhealthnetwork

On this episode, I have the pleasure of hosting Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu.

Dame Elizabeth Anionwu spent 40 years as a nurse and is the Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London as well as a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing.

Her career began aged 16, working for the NHS and has since been distinguished by her pioneering work in the understanding of sickle cell disease - bringing better treatment and support to the thousands living with it. She was the first sickle cell specialist nurse in the UK.

She has worked tirelessly to address racial inequalities in her profession and was honoured with a Damehood in the 2017 Queen’s New Year’s honours list for her services to Nursing and the Mary Seacole statue appeal. All of this despite a difficult childhood, partly spent in care.

In this episode we will discuss Elizabeth’s contributions to the NHS, her pioneering work in the treatment of sickle cell, and of course, her published autobiographies: Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union and Dreams From My Mother.

For more details about Dame Elizabeth and her published works, visit: https://www.elizabethanionwu.co.uk/about-me/

On this episode of Igbopedia join me in conversation with Nnamdi Emelifeonwu, Founder and CEO of Define, an award-winning startup in the LegalTech space. Define launched in 2019 and impressively, secured £1m in Seed funding last year, despite the challenges of the pandemic. One of the key investors included Moonpig founder and former Dragon’s Den investor, Nick Jenkins.

Today, Define is used by some of the world's largest organisations including Dentons (the largest law firm in the world), Allen & Overy (one of the prestigious Magic Circle law firms in the UK), Barclays and Deloitte. Earlier this year, Define was selected as one of the 10 most exciting early stage scaleups in the UK by Tech Nation, an influential growth platform for tech companies and leaders.

Nnamdi trained as a solicitor at Freshfields and is a graduate of Queen Mary University and King’s College London. Today we will talk about his legal career, Define, and raising a million during a pandemic.

On this episode, join me in conversation with Uju Asika, British-Nigerian writer, blogger and author of Bringing Up Race.

Uju is a former journalist for publications such as The Guardian, Time Out and Salon.com and she has been a fixture on the parent blogging and influencer scene for years, known for her popular blog, Babes About Town.

Uju is a published poet and screenwriter. Her latest book, Bringing Up Race, details her experiences of raising two boys in London and draws on often shocking personal stories of prejudice along with opinions of experts, influencers and fellow parents to give prescriptive advice to raising happy and kind children.

Today we discuss her blog, her journey to writing and Bringing Up Race.

My guest is Nigerian writer, Chigozie Obioma. He is best known for writing 'The Fishermen' and 'An Orchestra of Minorities', both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015 and 2019 respectively. His debut novel, 'The Fishermen' also won the inaugural FT/Oppenheimer Award for Fiction and the NAACP Image Award .

In a review by the New York Times he was called ‘the heir to Chinua Achebe’.

Chigozie graduated from the University of Michigan and is now James E. Ryan Associate Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In this episode we discuss how he became an author, his latest novel and Igbo Cosmology.

My guest is Justin Onuekwusi. Justin is the Head of Retail Multi-Asset Funds at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), leading a team that is responsible for managing over £50bn.

As well as leading LGIM’s retail multi-asset funds, Justin is one of the co-founders of the #talkaboutblack movement which is dedicated to discussing the issues affecting black people. Since then he has been instrumental in a number of initiatives to encourage representation and inclusivity, including the Diversity Project.

On this episode, we talk about Black and driving societal change.

We are switching things up this Valentine's Day by polishing our knowledge of Igbo love languages. My special guest is Oby Okpala, founder of the Supu Project, an Igbo language channel dedicated to teaching the Igbo language. We talk through how to express love and praise in Igbo. What are the Igbo equivalents of bae, boo, sweetheart and darling? We've got you covered on this Igbopedia episode.  

Follow the Supu Project on Instagram and Twitter to learn Igbo (https://twitter.com/okpalaoby).

My guest is Obinna C. Obilo, Wall Street executive and poet. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and he has an MBA from Wharton.

In this conversation, we delve into his career on Wall Street, his latest published work, ‘Memories of the Future’, and Hashtag Igwe.

Obinna is on the board of the Wharton Black MBA Association and he is also a board member of the Nigerian Healthcare Foundation.

For more information on Obinna's work, visit www.hashtagigwe.com

In Part 3 of the Igbopedia Igbo Authors Series, I'm in conversation with award-winning writer, Chika Unigwe. Her novels include On Black Sisters' Street, Night Dancer and more recently, Better Never than Late. Chika writes in Dutch and English, and her work has been published extensively in journals and papers around the world, including the New York Times and the UK Guardian. In this episode we talk about her journey from Nigeria to Belgium, her writing, and the importance of language. Visit www.chikaunigwe.com for more information about Chika.

Okechukwu Nzelu is a writer and teacher. In 2020, his debut novel, ‘The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney’, a story about youth, race, sexuality and belonging. This novel won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and the Polari First Book Prize. In this episode we discuss his life, his debut novel and the surrounding themes of race, family and identity.

Visit www.nzelu.org for more information about Okechukwu and his work.