The Equity Matters Podcast

By Equity Matters PodcastSociety & Culture

The Equity Matters Podcast episodes

October 22 Is This America? (The Politics of Being Well)
I’ve long admired Fannie Lou Hamer for her courage and willingness to challenge systems that denied Black people in a voice in decisions shaping their lives. Her story has me thinking about a question we don’t often ask: What does democracy have to do with our health?
In The Politics of Being Well, a three-part Equity Matters series, we look beyond personal choices and the ballot box to explore how power, public decisions, and whose voices matter shape the conditions in which we live and our opportunities to be healthy. Because if we want to understand health, we have to ask not only how people live, but who gets to shape the world they live in. What are we missing when we talk about health without talking about power?
Because equity always matters.
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9 min
September 10 Equity Matters Media Presents In the Margins: Break Every Chain
In the Margins is a podcast series that explores stories the way they’re meant to be explored. Part of the Stop Silencing Black Stories project, each episode moves beyond summary and literary analysis to ask: What is this story really trying to show us?
In this episode, we revisit Octavia Butler’s Kindred to examine the idea of generational curses—and challenge what we think we mean when we use that phrase. What if some of the things we call “generational curses” aren't curses at all? What if they are generational consequences? What happens when the systems created by one generation shape the lives of generations that never chose them? And what happens when we stop asking, “What's wrong with them?” and start asking, “What happened to them?”
Kindred forces us to confront the ways history can become inheritance—and how the choices we make with that inheritance can determine what gets passed on.
Because maybe the question isn't simply how do we break the chain? Maybe it's what are we willing to stop passing on?
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Sign Our Petition to Stop the Silencing of Our Black Stories
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Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website
15 min
July 24 Equity Matters Media Presents In the Margins: The Blame Game
In the Margins is a podcast series that explores stories the way they’re meant to be explored. Part of the Stop Silencing Black Stories project, each episode will move beyond summary and intro analysis. What is this story really trying to show us?
In this Episode, The Blame Game, we revisit Richard Wright’s Native Son to examine race, fear, power, and the systems that shape the choices people are able to make. What happens when society defines someone before they have a chance to define themselves? And what happens we mistake individual choice for failures without examining the conditions that made those choices possible?
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Sign Our Petition to Stop the Silencing of Our Black Stories
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on TikTok
Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website
14 min
June 24 Equity Matters Media Presents In the Margins: Back Down Memory Lane
In the Margins is a podcast that explores stories the way they’re meant to be explored. Part of the Stop Silencing Black Stories project, each episode will move beyond summary and intro analysis. What is this story really trying to show us?
In this episode, Back Down Memory Lane, we revisit Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to explore trauma, memory, and the power of lived experience. What happens when stories are treated as less valuable than data? And what do we lose when we silence the very narratives that help us understand how systems shape human lives?
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Sign Our Petition to Stop the Silencing of Our Black Stories
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on TikTok
Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website
16 min
June 10 Equity Matters Media Presents In the Margins: The Introduction
In the Margins is a podcast that explores stories the way they’re meant to be explored. Part of the Stop Silencing Black Stories project, each episode will move beyond summary and intro analysis. What is this story really trying to show us?
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Sign Our Petition to Stop the Silencing of Our Black Stories
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on TikTok
Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website
10 min
June 04 The Work Between the Work Episode 2: Congrats Black Man
A day in the life of a public health professional, podcaster, and human being. Roll with me to Richmond, VA to celebrate my brother achieving a significant academic milestone.
9 min
May 12 The Work Between the Work Episode 1: Suicide Prevention, Public Health, and Praise Breaks
A day in the life of a public health professional, podcaster, and human being. Roll with me to Gaylord Michigan for the 2026 Michigan Suicide Prevention Community Technical Assistance Conference.
5 min
March 18 Respeck on My Name (Work to Do)
“Social work isn’t a profession.” “
Public health isn’t a real field.”
“Your degree doesn’t matter.”

Every time society dismisses a field, it affects funding, pay, and the people doing the hardest work: social workers, public health professionals, educators, and caregivers who sustain our communities.
In this episode of Equity Matters, Dr. James Bell III explores the history and politics of professionalism, showing how traits like formal education, licensure, and hierarchy were historically built to exclude women, Black and Brown professionals, and working-class communities. We dive into the consequences of structural inequities, including undervalued labor, disposable workforces, and narratives shaped by outsiders rather than the people doing the work.

Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
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Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website
19 min
March 16Respeck on My Name Teaser
“Social work isn’t a profession.”
“Public health isn’t a real field.”
“Your degree doesn’t matter.”
These statements might sound like casual opinions, but they reveal something deeper about how society decides which professions deserve respect, funding, and power.
In this preview of the upcoming Equity Matters episode “Respeck on My Name (Work To Do)”, Dr. James Bell III explores the history and politics of professionalism and why fields like social work and public health are often dismissed even though they are essential to the health and stability of our communities.
This full episode will look at:
The history of professional status in the United States
How race, gender, and power shaped who gets to be called a “professional”
Why care professions are often undervalued and underfunded
The impact this has on the public health and social work workforce
Subscribe and stay tuned for the full conversation starting this Wednesday.
2 min
February 25 The Moment of Truth (Intent & Impact)
Somebody said n****. Someone has a neurological disorder. Who is to blame?
Can you hold two truths at once?
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on TikTok
Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website
12 min