The Invisible Men

This week, Ian and Nique are joined by Dr. Irvin Scott – director of the Leadership Institute for Faith and Education at Harvard University and former deputy director for K-12 education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with over twenty years of experience working as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and chief academic officer. Dr. Scott describes the core elements of what it means to raise three African-American boys: Bibles, books, and balls – all of which transcend race and help affirm one’s place in the world.

Dr. Scott believes fatherhood is critical to human flourishing and explains that policymakers need to address what is causing the absences of fathers, particularly in African-American communities. Watch the full episode to hear the impact that a ninth-grade English assignment had on his academic development and to hear his words of advice to “Darryl.”

Note: If you would like to see all episodes of The Invisible Men, please go to: www.invisible.men

In this episode, Ian and Nique are joined by Shelby Steele – author, columnist, documentary maker, and Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Shelby shares how growing up in the milieu of the civil rights movement caused him to be intellectually engrossed in debates about race and America from an early age. His father, despite lacking even a high education himself, pushed Shelby to believe that black people could overcome barriers and achieve great things in life with the right opportunities and the proper attitude.

Later, Shelby describes how white guilt – the idea that white people today are guilty of all past historical injustices – is the most powerful force in western culture. Watch the full episode to hear Shelby describe the impact this has on black America and to hear his words of advice to “Darryl.”

In this special episode, Ian and Nique engage in a one-on-one conversation about key takeaways from the Tokyo Olympics. They also share their reaction to a recent bill signed by Oregon Governor Kate Brown that eliminates the need for students to test proficient in reading, writing, and math in order to graduate high school. Their discussion centers around “Darryl’s” likely reaction to both events. Watch the full episode to hear how Ian and Nique would explain these events to “Darryl.”

In this episode, Ian and Nique are joined by James Hill — software development architect, entrepreneur, U.S. Army veteran, and inventor of a new crypto technology called BracketChain. James and his wife started a company in 2014 called Alambda systems, a successful venture that currently has partnerships with Boeing, Microsoft, and Peraton. James runs a software-developing academy and focuses his efforts toward helping implement traditional approaches of investing, like short-selling, by using crypto technology.

James shares how his upbringing in a majority white neighborhood inspired him to “bulldoze through” any misguided racial stereotypes and fueled his desire to succeed in both technology and business. Watch the full episode to hear James describe the impact that a summer job had on his personal development and to hear his words of advice for “Darryl.”

In this episode, Ian and Nique are joined by Scott Hilton-Clarke — the founder of Inspiration Laboratories, a firm devoted to inspiring leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives to step into their greatness and realize their visions for the future. Scott is a Founding Member of the Board of Governors for the University of Trinidad and Tobago and a graduate of Harvard Business School. He has spent over 25 years helping companies raise their levels of impact through cultivating leadership acumen and enhancing workplace synergy one department, one manager, one contributor at a time.

Scott's passions go beyond the workplace. He imagines a world where children are encouraged to dream and cultivate their own greatness so they can confidently bring what makes them extraordinary to the world. Watch the full episode to hear Scott describe how a near-death experience shaped his perspective and to hear his words of advice for “Darryl.”

In this episode, Ian and Nique are joined by Barry Johnson — the chairman and founder of Bedowin360 Capital with over thirty years of experience spanning Wall Street, Media, and the Obama Administration. Barry shares how his experience of growing up in segregated Alabama during the 1960s “living a foot in two worlds” shaped his path toward becoming a “possibilitist”— someone who uses his or her appreciation for human difference to celebrate the prospect of future opportunities.

Originally on track to become a professional violinist, Barry switched gears and attended Yale University after a friend explained that he could share stories using his art in ways that do not necessarily appear to be about art. Following a few years on Wall Street, Barry attended Harvard Business School where he wondered what would happen if he intersected his business training with the world of story-telling. This sparked his beginning at The Walt Disney Company and later at Black Entertainment Television as President of a Microsoft joint venture. Watch the full episode to hear Barry describe why “the journey of life” is about being content with not always knowing what comes next, and to hear his words of advice for “Darryl.”

Join Ian and Nique this week for the second half of their two-part discussion with Harvard professor, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, and early-stage investor Roland Fryer. In this episode, Roland shares how, following the murder of Walter Scott, he was inspired to build the best dataset possible to assess how race shapes police interactions in America today. Roland assembled a team to partner with police departments across the U.S. and build a state-of-the-art dataset on policing. His findings shocked many. While large racial gaps persisted on lower-level uses of force during police interactions, even after accounting for potential causal factors apart from race, Roland’s team also found no racial differences in rates of police shootings across race. Roland shares how, in the wake of this research, he encountered resistance within academia as he sought to give an accurate telling of full the story painted by his data analysis, being encouraged by elite economists top exclude unpopular findings from his published papers. Watch the full episode to hear about Roland’s groundbreaking research on the determinates of successful charter schools and how he used that research to launch a new curriculum, “Reconstruction,” which seeks to teach kids a proper understanding of their place and potential in this world.

This week, Ian and Nique launch a two-part discussion with Harvard professor, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, and early-stage investor Roland Fryer on Roland’s journey to academia (part 1) and why his principled approach to research has disrupted long-held assumptions within the social sciences about policing, mobility, and race (part 2). In this first part of the conversation, Roland shares how his exposure to economics in college sparked an academic passion in him that had lay dormant until that point. Roland became enthralled with economics because it empowered him to use the best research tools available to study the most important and difficult social questions — topics such as policing, education, health, and the drug epidemic. Later, Roland shares how a pivotal encounter with one of his economics professors at the University of Chicago, in which he engaged in a “no holds barred” debate on race, inspired the intellectual honesty he approaches his research with today, as well as the teaching methods he has used in his classroom. Watch the full episode to learn more about Roland’s story and to hear his words of advice for “Darryl.

In this episode, Ian and Nique are joined by Theodore (Ted) Johnson — director of the fellows program at the Brennan Center for Justice, White House Fellow, and author of “When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America.” Ted’s upbringing mirrored the duality that animates the discussion in his new book: Ted was raised in a majority-White neighborhood but attended a majority-Black school, his father modeled a desire to “wrestle” with injustice in the world but his mother emphasized individual kindness and intellect, and his grandparents were sharecroppers in “Jim Crow” era South Carolina and yet they fiercely believed in the promise of the American Dream. This duality inspired Ted to advocate a love for America that, in his words, “chastises and then goes off and dies in wars for her.”

Later, Ted shares his concern that, today, terms like “structural racism” and “critical race theory,” which originated in the academy and have very specific meanings, have been weaponized by both sides of the political aisle and used to divide Americans. He also explores why institutions like faith, family, and education have lost the trust of so many vulnerable Americans and how we can restore strong institutions that propel the uplift of a new generation. Tune in to the full episode to learn more about Ted’s story and hear his words of advice for “Darryl.”

Note: If you would like to see all episodes of The Invisible Men, please go to: www.invisible.men

In this episode, Ian and Nique are joined by Ward Connerly — a former member of the Board of Regents at the University of California, owner of a family business, and a self-described “child of the color-blind God.” Ward began his work in the public square early as the student body president of California State University in Sacramento, where he fought against housing discrimination and contributed toward the passing of the Rumford Fair Housing Act. From there, a career of accomplishment in the private sector, and periodic work with former California Governor Pete Wilson, paved the way for Ward’s appointment to the University of California Board of Regents. It was here that Ward first learned about affirmative action, which he quickly recognized as a violation of the civil rights movement and the constitution. Ward was instrumental in banning several forms of race-based discrimination across the state of California in the 1990s, and he continues to fight for equality under the law today.

Ward shares the core principles that led him to fight for equal rights for all Americans, and he shares why he is deeply concerned that affirmative action policies have reinforced the wrongful belief that black Americans’ accomplishments could not have existed outside of preferential treatment under the law. Later, Ward argues that growing conversations centered on “equity” are undermining our nation’s commitment to “equality” as the founders understood it. Tune in to the full episode to learn more about Ward’s story and hear his words of advice for “Darryl.”

Note: If you would like to see all episodes of The Invisible Men, please go to: www.invisible.men