The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: Culture, Identity & Fatherhood

He built the sound of a genre from pirate radio. Then addiction almost took all of it. Mak 10 — the DJ behind Nasty Crew — on the rise, the fall, and coming up to three years clean.

He talks about why "I had to be a bit delusional" to make it, the ADHD he's still waiting 18 months to have diagnosed, what fatherhood taught him about himself, and the night Wiley and Dizzee Rascal stood on the same stage for the first time in 20 years.

Chapters:

0:00 The Power of an Iconic Voice

0:57 Finding Inspiration in Grime Roots

2:22 The Legacy of Nasty Crew

4:43 Ranking the Greatest Crews

5:48 Navigating Life Without a Map

8:26 Does Marcus Nasty Get His Flowers?

11:10 The Evolution of a Solo Career

14:33 Neurodivergence and ADHD

23:39 The Beautiful Complexity of Fatherhood

38:11 The Long Road to Recovery

Listen on Acast wherever you get your podcasts.

#grime #podcast #recovery

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marvyn Harrison and Samantha Porter sit down with South African playwright and screenwriter Amy Jephta to unpack her acclaimed play "A Good House." The conversation covers gentrification, class mobility, colonial language, the psychological cost of being "the first" in predominantly white spaces, and the tension between political blackness and coloured cultural identity in post-apartheid South Africa. Jephta discusses the personal experiences behind writing "A Good House," her London run's reception versus South Africa's, comedy as a tool for dissecting race, and her two upcoming plays — one set against a Kenyan genocide backdrop, the other a Caribbean period piece about a Black slave owner.

Show Notes / Topics Covered:

• "A Good House" premise: a Black couple navigating a gated community dispute in Johannesburg
• Buying property in a gentrifying, historically coloured neighbourhood
• Reconciling capitalism with Black identity and community obligation
• London audience reception vs. South African audience reception
• "Politically Black, culturally coloured" — navigating identity terminology across contexts
• Comedy and satire as vehicles for examining race
• Survivor's guilt and the psychology of upward mobility
• Reflections on South African xenophobia and the Zimbabwean embassy queues
• Upcoming work: a play on inherited trauma tied to the Kenyan genocide; a Caribbean musical about a Black slave-owning entrepreneur

Guest: Amy Jephta — South African playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker. Writer of "A Good House" and "Barakat." and Romantha Botha — Cultural Archivist and Filmaker

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christine Lahti the Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe and Emmy winner sits down to unpack the autobiographical solo play that's been packing out London's Marylebone Theatre this summer: The Smile of Her. Known for Chicago Hope, Swing Shift, Running on Empty, Law & Order: SVU, and CBS's Evil and Fire Country, Lahti traces her journey from a repressive 1950s Michigan household to becoming one of second-wave feminism's most vocal torchbearers.

In this conversation: growing up under a father who treated emotion as weakness, watching her mother silenced for decades, the internalized patriarchy she still fights at 76, why she believes love and dominance cannot coexist, the backlash she sees driving today's manosphere, and the night Robin Williams saved her Golden Globes win with an improvised stand-up routine while she was in the bathroom.

\The Smile of Her ran at Marylebone Theatre, London, 10 July – 29 August 2026, directed by Mêlisa Annis, produced by Nina Tassler, Jenny Warburg and Wild Yak in association with Gloria Steinem.

https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Margz (No Behaviour Podcast, Filthy Fellas) sits in the hot seat for a rapid-fire football quiz — Premier League trivia on Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland, West Brom, Derby County, Portsmouth, Wigan and Blackburn, played under a 10-second clock across two escalating rounds. The episode closes with a wide-ranging World Cup conversation covering predictions, underdog nations, the Argentina/Messi legacy narrative, and watching tournament football from different parts of the world.

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew Tate is trending again, but the bigger story isn't him, it's what made him possible. In this episode we break down anti-intellectualism: why comprehension is collapsing, why people trust vibes over evidence, and who actually benefits from keeping populations uncritical. We go back to Hofstadter's three strands of anti-intellectualism, cover South Africa's Bantu education system as intellectualism weaponised as policy, unpack the difference between academia and intellect, and ask whether you can be an intellectual without empathy.

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every generation gets called soft by the one before it. But is this time different? We dig into the case that young people have lost resilience — less unsupervised play, more helicopter parenting, safe-space culture — against the case that the real story is economic: unaffordable housing, insecure work, and a mental health crisis that's more visibility than fragility. No easy verdict. Just the argument, both sides.

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A UK campaign group wants Universal Credit claimants to do four hours of litter picking a month or risk losing their benefit. Supporters call it fair contribution. Critics call it workfare — a policy with a documented history of failure, unpaid labour, and exemption gaps for disabled claimants. We break down the proposal, the precedent, and who gets left out of the conversation.

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Your partner isn't ignoring you, isn't cold, isn't careless — they might just be wired differently. This episode breaks down 7 neurodivergent traits (ASD/Asperger's, ADHD, ADD, OCD, NVLD, sensory processing differences, alexithymia) with plain-language explanations, phonetic pronunciations, and what each one actually looks like inside a relationship. Not a diagnosis. Not an excuse. A map.

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michelle Gayle actress, singer, and one of the most recognisable black British faces of the 90s, joins Marvyn for a conversation spanning her Harlesden childhood, her friendship with a young Naomi Campbell, the Jodeci vs Boyz II Men debate that defined 90s R&B fandom, and the real story behind why she walked away from EastEnders at the height of her fame. Along the way: grandmother wisdom, cod liver oil, hygiene rituals, and rebuilding her dream black British TV family.

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marvynharrisonpodcast TikTok (Dope Black Dads): https://www.tiktok.com/@dopeblackdads Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast Instagram (Dope Black Dads): https://www.instagram.com/dopeblackdads Instagram (Marvyn personal): https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrison YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@marvynharrisonpodcast Substack: https://marvynharrison.substack.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvynharrison

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He was in your living room every night. He played the first gay character most of us ever saw kiss another man before watershed on Channel 4. Men still message him today saying his character saved their life.

Behind the scenes, he was drinking alone on his kitchen floor on a Tuesday afternoon, waiting for someone to deliver drugs, freshly divorced, trapped in a cycle he thought was freedom.

This is James Sutton. And this conversation went somewhere neither of us expected.

We talk about:

• Growing up in Staffordshire — working class, post-industrial, no investment, no future
• Moving to Liverpool and becoming John Paul McQueen on Hollyoaks
• Playing TV's most iconic LGBT character as a straight man — and the weight of that responsibility
• The guy who watched in secret in his bedroom, and is now married with two adopted children
• "I was sat on the kitchen floor with a bottle of wine. Someone was going to deliver drugs. My wife had left me."
• The gradual collapse — not a rock bottom, just the same bad day on repeat
• Leaving Hollyoaks after 22 years — why autonomy mattered more than safety
• Building Protocol: weekly letters, keynote speaking, a course for men, and a book called How To Become Reliable Again
• The man crush segment that broke us both — Michael B Jordan, Ryan Reynolds, Declan Rice, Xabi Alonso, Paul Brunson, Henry Cavill
• Casting a UK Friends — Alan Carr, Zach Polanski, Paloma Faith, Olivia Dean, Lauren Lo Sung
• Dating at 43: "I like redheads. I'm terrified. I don't know what I'm doing."
• Marvyn offers to matchmake him live on air
• Three tips each for men who feel stuck — gym, talking, service, self-trust, and making peace with your parents
• "Stop making promises to yourself that you're not going to keep"

This is the best podcast I've ever done. His words. Not mine.

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: culture, identity and fatherhood, hosted by the founder of Dope Black Dads.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1456522027

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cIh6ejnk3lUUVhqSKzPUS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

Partnerships and sponsorship: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.