It Belongs To The People

Well my dear listeners, after 20 episodes of receiving amazing guests to our little programme over here, with a happy but yet sappy heart I come to inform you that our mission has reached its destiny.

When I created “It Belongs To The People” the main reason was because I was feeling discouraged and actually numb in regards to my career as a journalist and in my personal life. I’d struggle to understand why I was doing it in the first place because the traditional form of how journalism is conveyed was not appealing to me in any form whatsoever, so I decided to create a space where not only I but people from different places could get together to share their stories and opinions about topics that were influencing their lives and that deserved to be addressed properly. And most importantly, I wanted to believe in people once again and feel connected to others and at the same time interconnect us in this small space on the fantastic world that is the internet, so whenever others or I need to find someone who they can relate to on some level, they will always be capable of finding us here.

As my university course reaches its end, I’m having way more work to do than I'd have when we started this project together almost one year ago. And to my amazement, producing a podcast, when done properly, requires a lot of hard work and time, which is something I’m no longer able to dedicate myself to, at the moment.

So before we go, I’d like to thank you, my lovely listeners for giving me the opportunity to talk to you even if for only 30 minutes. Wherever you are around the world, because I know you are all scattered through this beautiful planet, from the bottom of my heart thank you thank you and thank you. And now for my guests, I believe I have no words to describe what I feel towards you all, so as a good podcaster I decided to thank you by taking us back to when it all started, together.

I once had dreams of becoming connected with others, and now I finally am. Home is wherever I can listen to you all.

xxx matt.

On today’s episode we are addressing a discussion which is one I’ve been intrigued by for years which is the dilemma - “Can you love a piece of art but not the artist?.

To help me dabble on such matters, I’m inviting my friend Robbie Read, for we both share our love of a quite famous piece of art but have mixed feelings about its author, which is Harry Potter and its author JK Rowling.

If you grew up as a kid during the 2000s you probably experienced the Harry Potter mania, the books, the films, the merchandising and everything in between. The saga spiced magical embracement for loads of people and established itself as one of the biggest film series in the world to this day.

Then came 2020. JK Rowling, the author behind the series, has gone through a barrage of controversial discussions and gender, feminism, and public policies that sparked conversations about transgender’s right, which we will delve into later on. The repercussions of JK’s comments and actions undoubtedly tainted some perspectives people had of her, for better or for worse. Amidst this rift, the Wizarding World created by her has also been under scrutiny for its lack of representation and stigmatisation of some races.

On today’s episode Robbie and I are going to use JK’s example in which to base the discussion of how and if we can support artists who once committed acts deemed to be cancelled by the public. 

As a journalism student I’ve always thought about how curious it is regarding how the media, such as news broadcasting, films, music, and art can shape a society’s perspectives of an issue, of a person and of a group. Lately we have been asking for more fairer representation within different sectors of our society and how we can change harmful perspectives that can indeed affect people in their daily lives. So for today’s discussion

I invited Anisa Omar, to help us talk through the misconceptions people have of muslin girls and how it can correlate with westernised misconception coming from the media at large. Anisa was on the cover of British Vogue last year in celebration of the effort made by essential workers during this pandemic and dear Anisa was there to represent both the supermarket assistants and muslin girls of colour.

Obviously, as a cis white man, I don’t have neither the experience nor the proprietary to address such matter alone so Anisa kindly shared with me the misconceptions people have of what Islam is and how living as a muslin girl is a constant battle against what people think you should be against what you actually are.

Today’s episode is a bit of a trip back to some years ago. In 2019, whilst covering the 50th anniversary of the events that happened in the bar Stonewall Inn in NYC, which unfolded and promulgated the fight and deep germination of the queer community, I met Mark Horn. One of the members of the group Gay Liberation Front (GLF), Mark is among the creators of the first-ever Pride Parade, back in 1970. Very fortunate of me to find back in my old cellphone, the very audio of our interview, which I’m more than happy to share with all of you. In our talk, we addressed Mark’s youth discovering his sexuality back in the day, a thorough description of the queer scene of the not-so-fabulous and rebellious NYC, dancing as a political act, his relation with Marsha P.Johnson and Sylvia Rivera two huge figures of the queer community to this day, and his reflections on our fight for the protection of our rights.

As a member of the queer community, Mark’s words have been in my heart since the day we met 2 years ago. I hope you enjoy today’s episode as much as I’ve since finding this endearing audio file.

On today’s episode, I’m receiving someone who I’ve been admiring from afar since last year. As you probably know, environmental discussions such as global warming have fortunately become massive in the last few years, due to, of course, the power of the internet and social media to bring people together to fight for a cause, whether it’s social, political or as I said in regards to nature. And our guest today exemplifies the perfect intersection of many noble causes. From the region of Fairbanks, in the frosty state of Alaska, US, Quannah Chasinhorse Potts is a protector of the Indigenous Sacred Land. Carrying a lineage of defenders within her family, Quannah is an influential protector of the Indigenous Land of, but not only, the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. You might ask “Why and from what it needs protection from?” And that is one of the reasons I invited her today. Quannah also kindly welcomed me to know her perspectives on the intersection between defending the Arctic and her indigenous heritage, the poorly made representation of Native Americans in the media, generational trauma, decolonization of the education system and how she handled it during school time, the appointment of Deb Haaland as Interior Secretary of the US, misconceptions people have of indigenous people and much more.

Quannah’s connection to the Sacred Land and her indigenous way of life enlightens everything she does and brightens the minds and hearts of those who listen to her. As it happened with me during our conversation. I hope you love our episode and take actions to help Quannah’s fight to protect the Arctic and also of indigenous rights.

LINK:

Defend The Sacred AK - https://www.defendthesacredalaska.org/

Since the beginning of our podcast, I’ve always wanted to receive a health care professional given their tremendous impact in the fight against Covid and taking the reins in the frontline work. They only deserve evermore appreciation for enduring such a difficult time whilst taking care of themselves and others.

Our guest today the Physical Therapist Brent Smith. Brent lives and works in NYC, one of the epicentres of the virus in the US. In our interview, we assessed the emotional and physical resilience of working in healthcare, Brent’s perspective of the pandemic and how it’s changed not only how we approach health professionals but ourselves, the eventuality of death, telehealth and much more.

I hope that by having Brent to share a little of his life with us can to nurture even more a meaningful and appreciative look of essential works - who so often had been overlooked by many governments and indeed society - and how they literally kept us living in and out of hospital wards for months.

Once again, only thanks to all frontline workers out there.

Happy new year everyone :)

On our last episode of 2020 (what a year), we are addressing bisexuality alongside one friend of mine who happens to be bisexual just as I am. Rhea Kamath and I met thought the company we both volunteer to, Queer Lawyers of Tomorrow. One day after chatting about our sexual orientation and how it’s sometimes sort of misunderstood so to say by both straight and indeed queer people, I’ve decided to dedicate a full episode only to this matter and Rhea kindly accepted to assist me with that.

In our talk, we candidly shared our experiences as bisexual people, the concept of bi-erasure, disparities between curiosity and bisexuality, bi representation in pop culture, how the acceptance process can be depended on gender, the needed redefinition of bisexuality, pansexuality and of course why Hanna Montana is the bi queen.

Nestle in and I hope you all have a lovely holiday season and we are going to see each other pretty soon. Stay cosy. 

On today’s episode, we’re receiving someone that I bumped on her article some months ago. Entitled “Objectivity Is a Privilege Afforded to White Journalism”, the article stated on how systemic racism is so entrenched in journalistic organisations and how individuals that represent a minority within it are scrutinized and questioned more about their work ethics.

Written by the Canadian journalist and producer Pacinthe Mattar, the article immediately caught my attention since I’m a white cisgender man and a journalist to be, given that the headline and the stories stated by Pacinthe are directly a result of racism displayed by people like me.

Today we’ll base our conversation surrounding Pacinthe’s article – which will be linked on the description of this episode – such as the concept of confirmation biases, scepticism of racism in newsrooms, emotional intelligence as a way to elevate a journalist’s reports, the objectiveness of whiteness as the norm of the day, power dynamics, and diversity within the diversity.

Thanks for coming back, hope you enjoy today’s episode.

"Objectivity Is a Privilege Afforded to White Journalists" by Pacinthe Mattar - https://thewalrus.ca/objectivity-is-a-privilege-afforded-to-white-journalists/

To start off our second season, I’ve decided to invite someone that I only met recently on Instagram. Charli Morachnick is an animal rights activist and advising assistant at Students Opposing Speciesism, or simply SOS. SOS is a PETA backed non-profit organization, a youth-led group to protest against human supremacy in many different forms within our societies.

Having turned vegetarian at the age of 11, Charli has been vocal in the past years since turning vegan to protest against animal exploitation especially in the educational field alongside SOS. In our talk we addressed how veganism can be made accessible, the concept of speciesism, activism in the modern age, her rescued rats Tofu and Tempeh, new alternatives for dissection classes and much more.

And hey, really unusual of me but yeah, I’m a proud vegan boy, so this episode is from the heart.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did to chat with Charli. Thanks for being patient. We are back!

Today's episode, I must confess, is one that hits directly home, for we will comment on a sport I utterly loved as a kid, football. Believe it or not, I even had dreams to even become a professional footballer but things happened along the way. Long-story-short, let's say my mannerism and voice (for I had a "feminine" voice compared to my teammates), hampered my success as a sportsman even though my abilities as both goalkeeper and centre-back was in the words of my coach "astounding". Abusive commentary and attitudes towards me were a daily habit I had to be accustomed to because you know, it's always just a fun game and boys will be boys. Eventually, I fell out of love for the sport when I accepted my sexuality. And happily, nowadays I'm grateful I didn't continue on the path of being a professional footballer, for reasons why we are going to comment on this episode with our interviewee Beth Miles.

Beth is a member of a marvellous football team from London, called Goal Diggers. In its five years of life, the team composed of women & non-binary people has changed the perception that many have with football being primarily a male sport. Nowadays with more than 200 associates, Goal Diggers stands for creating a place where inclusivity is the key and ability is to be developed, not as a primary reason why one should be negated entrance on the pitch.

Beth besides being a right-back she is also the social secretary of the team, which means she creates incredible gatherings outside the matches. Beth hosted an episode on the BBC  Radio 4 programme called "My name is..." where she discusses the necessity male football has to learn from female football how to add inclusivity and dismantling of prejudices, so know to us all, into their agenda. I'll leave the link for the episode in case you wanna hear it, it's of course beautifully hosted and edited.

In our talk today we're going to delve into her story with football, how the football pitch and society reflect each other, female football and inclusivity, coming out as a sportsman and why it's been taking us forever to hear of a gay or bi or transsexual footballer and how sports can become political acts.

LISTEN TO BETH'S EPISODE ON BBC'S RADIO 4 PROGRAMME "MY NAME IS..." - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dq2t