Real talk, Real people

Watch the YouTube version of this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvaM4JIJMbk

2021 was a good year for Real talk, Real people. Our end of the year stats from Spotify and Anchor show that the number of hours people tuned in to our podcast grew by 128 percent; we increased our followers by 57 percent; our streams have increased by 44 percent and 2 percent of our audience is located in Germany and Ireland. We introduced jameswalkermedia.com and formed a partnership with Corrinna Martin, founder and president of Mothers of Victim's Equality to produce "Adversary to Ally," a once a month conversation where men talk about domestic violence and intimate partner violence in an effort to find solutions to stop the violence against women and children. Both of these new ventures were successful. We owe it all to our listeners and we thank you for listening and downloading. We look forward to bringing you more new content in 2022. 

Watch the YouTube version of this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_BjBD2WpeA

Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill toward your fellow man and we can only hope that spirit carries into the new year. But Christmas is also the time when families gather and new memories are made and older ones are shared. Here are some of the memories my siblings and I remember. 

From brazen flash mobs carting off TVs and soap powder to a middle-aged man stealing underwear and T-shirts, large retail stores face a wave of thefts as property crimes soar in Connecticut.    

Happy Thanksgiving folks. It's that time of the year when we turn our attention to what we are thankful for in our lives. For me, it's still the little things that count.

This is the inaugural episode of Adversary to Ally, a joint partnership between Real talk, Real people and Mothers of Victim's Equality that will take place every third Monday of the month on our show.

The conversations will center around domestic and intimate relationship violence and abuse. In our research, we found that there were not many options available for men to talk openly and share their feelings about this type of violence. We felt that had to change -- and in order for there to be change, there had to be a venue where men could talk about it.

My guest this week is Ashon Avent, a professor at Eastern Connecticut State University owner of Main Avent Sports and Apparel. 

It's no secret that many senior citizens struggle financially as prices continue to go up and most live on a fixed and limited income. 

An advocacy group named "The Senior Citizens League" is lobbying Congress to issue a one-time $1,400 to seniors to help combat high prices. This is a good temporary solution but more is needed. 

Since Congress cannot control the rising cost of housing, food and utilities, I believe Congress also should consider a monthly stipend to seniors living on less than $75,000 a year. 

We have re-run older episodes the last two Mondays while we work on a new addition to the show we will unveil on our November 15th episode. We will be back with new episodes new week. Meanwhile, there are local elections this week so we are re-running an episode questioning whether or not there should be term limits on time spent in political office?

If COVID-19 taught minorities one thing, that is to take better care of your health. You do that by gaining more access to health services and by becoming more knowledgeable about health issues that affect not only you but your race.

My guests are Leandre Memborn, former New Havener living in Providence RI; Frank Taveres of Waterbury and Jim Rawlings, chairman of the board of directors for The Southern Connecticut Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and my guest is breast cancer survivor Lolita Bonilla Brooks.

Many of us know someone that has been devastated by a diagnosis of breast cancer. According to breastcancer.org, nearly 282,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S. this year, and Black women not only have the highest breast cancer death rates of all racial and ethnic groups, they have a 41 percent higher rate of breast cancer deaths than White women.

Lolita is here to share her journey on becoming a survivor. Let’s listen to what she has to say.

This is a special edition of Real talk, Real people. We are celebrating our second anniversary of turning the mic over to everyday people to listen to what they have to say about the issues and problems we face as a society.

And you guys had a lot to say.

On our first episode in October of 2019 we talked about the pros and cons of universal basic income and last week we reran an episode about domestic violence and child abuse as this month puts the focus on that topic.

Over the last two years, we have talked about issues that focused on breast cancer, guns, fatherhood, black men voting, COVID-19 and vaccines as well as gay pride, prisons and solitary confinement and term limits for politicians. We took a look at sickle cell, diabetes and health care disparities in the minority community and the overall lack of mental health services for members of the black community.

But we also put the focus on black women who started nontraditional businesses, volunteerism, growing your own food, getting kids involved in music and the arts and scholarships for black male teens in high school as well as care for senior citizens.

We highlighted local businesses, local people and local nonprofits that are making a difference in our communities. We also brought in a French hat-maker who teaches local people the art of sewing.

And we’re not through. Next month we are starting something new and I will talk about that in an upcoming episode.

It’s impossible for me to list all the topics but we are taking this opportunity to share some of the highlights of Real talk, Real people over the last two years. We hope you enjoy it.