Strange Fruit

As a cisgender person, you might pride yourself on your transgender wokeness. Your email signature includes your PGP (Personal Gender Pronoun), you address groups of people as “y’all” instead of “guys “or “ladies and gentlemen,” and you’ve even got a #BlackTransLivesMatter bumper sticker with a t-shirt to match.

Later in the show we talk with Gabby Ryan from Melbourne, Australia about her journey to coming out as asexual. Gabby is seven years into what she describes as, “a happy straight-passing relationship with a cis-het man.” We had lots of questions, and Gabby was gracious enough to help us and our listeners learn more about what asexuality means to and for her and her partner.

In the 5th grade, Ola Ojewumi was diagnosed with a heart condition that made it difficult for her heart to properly pump blood throughout her body. By 11 years old, Ola was a double transplant recipient, with a chronic illness and limited mobility who relied heavily on a wheelchair. She became a person living with disability.

For many years Ola despised being disabled and tried to hide her disability. Now, she is the founder of the global education nonprofit organization, Project ASCEND, which provides college scholarships and and civic engagement opportunities to low-income and disabled youth.

This week we speak with Ola about her disabled black girl magic--her struggles, triumphs, and how she shows the world what it means to live with disabilities, not in spite of them.

And in Juicy Fruit: A Harvard professor says that if you eat more than six french fries at meal time then you've been overeating.

And PETA wants us to start feeding two birds with one scone.

To us, World AIDS Day is a day to commemorate those we've lost to HIV/AIDS, uplift those who are living with the virus, and a reminder for us to fight like hell together to end both the stigma and the epidemic.

We’ve dedicated this week’s show to discussing where we are now when it comes to HIV/AIDS awareness.

First up, we hear from a wonderful young man named Chad about his journey with HIV, from his recent diagnosis, to the ensuing depression, and his eventual path to resiliency and empowerment. His story is moving, powerful and awe-inspiring.

Later in the show, Rhonda Cowan and Ryan Benningfield from Volunteers of America (VOA) join us to drop some HIV 101 knowledge and talk us through what to expect when going to get an HIV test.

Volunteers of America offers free, anonymous HIV testing at their office at 933 Goss Avenue. More information at (502) 654-8389 or on their website. 

Happy Belated Turkey Day! We’re keeping it light this week with a full episode of Juicy Fruit, featuring a hodgepodge of hot topics. Did the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos-flavored turkey make your Thanksgiving menu this week?

Speaking of flavors, the FDA is moving to ban the sale of all menthol-flavored cigarettes and restrict sales of flavored vapes and e-cigarettes. More than 88 percent of African-American smokers prefer menthol cigarettes. Is this an appropriate attempt to improve public health or simply misguided government overreach?

In music news: It might be NSFW, but if the viral Jill Scott video has you clutching your pearls or shaking your head, well then you’ve got this all wrong.

And by popular request, #TeamStrangeFruit reveals our selections for our Holiday-inspired mixtape.

November is National Adoption Month, a designation intended to raise awareness of the need for permanent families for children in the foster care system.

How much does race matter when it comes to giving a child a loving adoptive home? How important are racial heritage and cultural traditions for a child who is racially and ethnically different from their adoptive parents? And what is it like being adopted by two moms or two dads?

Morgan Rumple is a black woman who was adopted as an infant by a white lesbian couple who lived in a nearly all-white community in Indiana.  She joins us to discuss her experiences as a transracial adoptee and how her parents navigated homophobia, racism, and cultural differences.

No matter how you spell it, say it, or intend for it to be received, the N-word remains a hot button issue. The rules seem pretty clear for white people - don’t say it, ever. But it gets more complicated for non-black people of color.

Writer and podcaster Olga Marina Segura joins us this week to discuss the complicated relationship between Latinx folks and the N-word. Even though she identifies as Afro-Latina (her father is a black man), Segura says she’ll never feel comfortable using the word as a term of endearment and challenges other Latinx folks to think more critically about using the word.

A teenager named Cameron Terrell was arrested in October on suspicion of murder in an alleged gang killing in South Los Angeles. Before you try to guess where this story is going, you should know: Cameron Terrell is a white, and from a wealthy L.A. suburb.

Terrell was able to make bail: $5 million.

At trial, he was acquitted of the charges, leaving some to wonder how differently Terrell's story might have ended had he been black, poor, and actually from the neighborhood where the shooting happened. Did the jury give him the benefit of the doubt because he was white?

Nicole Santa Cruz covered the story for the L.A. Times. She joins us this week to tell us more about the case.

And in Halloween-related hot topics, a woman and a ghost get on an airplane...stop us if you’ve heard this one.

(Photo by Al Seib, Los Angeles Times)

This week actors Crystian Wiltshire and Neill Robertson join us to discuss their roles in the current production of “Dracula” at Actors Theater of Louisville. Actors Theater has been producing this vampire tale, based on Bram Stoker’s gothic vampire fable, each Halloween season for more than 20 years.

In Juicy Fruit, NBC News host Megyn Kelly offended just about everybody when she defended blackface and other racist costumes. Commentator Don Lemon weighed in and, of course, so do we!

Author and historian David Williams joins us this week to talk about his new book "Secrets of Old Louisville" which is filled with the forgotten lore, hidden treasures and shocking secrets that are a part of the enchanted Louisville neighborhood’s history.

In 1982, Williams also founded one of the largest LGBTQ+ archives and libraries in the country, the Williams-Nichols Collection, which is now housed at the University of Louisville and contains more than 1,700 books, buttons, bar flyers and other LGBTQ+ memorabilia related to Louisville and the country.

Later in Juicy Fruit, Jai and Doc discuss rapper Remy Ma’s controversial stance on the use of the N-word by white rapper Lil Xan and other non-black people of color, including Robert Ortiz, the gay and Puerto Rican New Yorker who got caught on video using the word to insult his black Lyft driver.

And finally, Jai teases that Doc and her wife Missy have something very interesting planned for their Halloween costumes.

This week on Strange Fruit, Doc finally gets to interview one of her faves: Zoie Fenty, better known online as GotDamnZo.

Zoie has over 4 million followers on Instagram, where he's carved out a niche. He edits viral videos (especially videos of kids being funny) to make it look like he's having a conversation with the subject on Facetime.

He also watches outrageous hair and nail tutorial videos and posts his reactions.

Zoie joins us to talk about his work, how he got his start, and his favorite things about internet fame.