The Marvyn Harrison Podcast: Culture, Identity & Fatherhood

Başak Erten is a creative strategist, radio and brand consultant, and founder of The Art of Audacity — a cultural platform for women in creative industries, as featured in Forbes. She's spent over eight years producing content across the BBC, Sony Music Entertainment, and branded work for Vanity Fair, Bloomberg, and Nike.

In this episode she brings three sharp takes on where culture, media, and consumer behaviour are heading — and why the old rules no longer apply.

She argues that audiences have moved past passive consumption and are demanding participation; that the era of aspirational, polished living is collapsing under its own weight; and that the third space — not the boardroom, not the bar — is now where the most meaningful professional and personal relationships are being built.

Honest, direct, and occasionally incendiary.

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 Kojo go back. Two decades of parallel paths, community builders, event makers, fathers, who were never quite in the same room long enough to have the real conversation. Until now.

In this episode, they cover everything. The g:hop era. The Sunday Show years, Ed Sheeran performing there eight times, Drake, Jay Cole, Wretch 32, Nicki Minaj, Omarion, Boys II Men. How the show grew from a Clerkenwell warehouse to Leicester Square to 2,000 at Proud. The unspoken tension between Sunday Show and Kojo's Funhouse that both men address for the first time. The people who tried to put them against each other. And why they wasted years not collaborating because of it.

Then it gets personal.

Marvyn on being in South Africa and genuinely believing his children didn't need him. The phone call from his mum that changed everything. The men in LA who told him being absent was just "the grind." Why he flew home and rebuilt his life around his kids. Why men's happiness is structurally treated as an oxymoron, and what it costs us when we accept that. And what it actually looks like to build a life where your no is powerful and your presence is enough.

This is two brothers. One conversation. Twenty years in the making.

🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Acast: https://shows.acast.com/discover-with-marvyn-harrison Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1531924169 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0vgJd0NT9uEUYYON5k2RDf YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DiscoverWithMarvyn

📲 Follow Marvyn: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discoverwithmarvyn Dope Black Dads: https://www.instagram.com/dopeblackdads TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marvyn_harrison X: https://x.com/Marvyn_Harrison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvynharrison Substack: https://marvynharrison.substack.com Website: https://marvynharrison.co.uk

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.

Tyler West opens up about PTSD, witnessing violence at 14 & going back to therapy. Dr Amos explains anxiety conditions. NHS Talking Therapies: https://www.nhs.uk/talk

In this episode of The Marvyn Harrison Podcast, Marvyn sits down with Dr Amos Ogunkoya and Tyler West for a raw, honest conversation about mental health, masculinity, and what it really takes to ask for help.

62% of people can’t recognise the symptoms of common anxiety conditions. 58% of those affected put off seeking help because they thought it “wasn’t serious enough.” This episode is about closing that gap.

Tyler shares his story of witnessing a murder at 14, the PTSD diagnosis that followed, and how years of unprocessed trauma manifested as social anxiety, OCD behaviours, and suicidal ideation before therapy changed the trajectory of his life. Dr Amos breaks down the difference between stress and clinical anxiety, explains conditions including PTSD, OCD, social anxiety, phobias, body dysmorphic disorder and panic disorder, and makes the case for why talking to a professional matters.

They discuss why men aged 30–50 struggle to seek support, how cultural and generational attitudes in Black communities create additional barriers, and what actually happens inside a therapy session. 

NHS Talking Therapies is free, confidential, and available to everyone in England.👉 

Self-refer — no GP appointment needed: https://www.nhs.uk/talk👉 

Find your local service: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-👉treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies/

If you or someone you know is in crisis:

Samaritans: 116 123 (free, 24/7) | https://www.samaritans.org

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.

Show details: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDayAfterTNB

You probably know Marvyn Harrison from Dope Black Dads. Or from Jeremy Vine. Or from Good Morning Britain. But do you know where he started?

In this episode, Marvyn takes the room on the full journey — from g:hop, the lifestyle movement that tried to do for grime what hip hop did for itself, to Sunday Show where Ed Sheeran performed most of his early Black community shows, to building Dope Black Dads out of a moment of personal crisis in fatherhood, to developing BELOVD as a human strategy organisation, to Men's Circle, the free space for men he considers his most important work right now.

Then the conversation goes somewhere else entirely.

What does it mean to be a Black leader without becoming a Black Messiah? Why does Marvyn refuse that role, and why does he think most leaders who accept it get destroyed? What happened when he burned out for three years and stopped feeling safe in football media spaces? What does forgiving an absent father actually look like — and why does it have nothing to do with the father? And what happens when someone in the room defends hitting their children, and Marvyn pushes back — live, on camera, without flinching?

This is a rare full conversation. No filter. No agenda. Just a man who has thought deeply about community, capacity, identity, and what it costs to build something real.

🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Acast: https://shows.acast.com/discover-with-marvyn-harrison Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1531924169 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0vgJd0NT9uEUYYON5k2RDf YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DiscoverWithMarvyn

📲 Follow Marvyn: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discoverwithmarvyn Dope Black Dads: https://www.instagram.com/dopeblackdads TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marvyn_harrison X: https://x.com/Marvyn_Harrison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvynharrison Substack: https://marvynharrison.substack.com Website: https://marvynharrison.co.uk

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.

Arsenal Football Club are Premier League champions for the first time in 22 years. A generation of fans who weren't born the last time this happened are now old enough to drink, vote, and cry in the streets of North London. And that's exactly what tens of thousands of them did on the night of May 19th, 2026.

Marvin was one of them.

In this episode, Marvin breaks down everything, the night itself, what he saw at Emirates Stadium, why this title hits different to any trophy, and what it actually took to get here. From Arteta's first press conference ("commitment is essential, there's no way you're going to survive here without giving 100%") to three consecutive runner-up finishes that would have broken a lesser squad, to the nine-point lead that nearly evaporated in eleven days, this is the full story.

He also gets into: the squad rebuild needed this summer, why Zubimendi might be a problem next year, why Saliba and Gabriel need to stay for at least three more years, the Trent Alexander-Arnold question, what David Raya's golden glove means, why the Arsenal fanbase is unlike anything else in London, and why Kroenke, once booed by every fan in the ground, might be the hidden asset nobody's talking about.

Plus: Marvin accidentally ended up on Australian breakfast TV celebrating in the streets. Nobody has the clip. Yet.

If you've been waiting 22 years for this, this episode is for you.

Acast: https://shows.acast.com/discover-with-marvyn-harrison

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-marvyn-harrison-podcast/id1531924169

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0vgJd0NT9uEUYYON5k2RDf

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DiscoverWithMarvyn

Instagram (main): https://www.instagram.com/discoverwithmarvyn

Instagram (Dope Black Dads): https://www.instagram.com/dopeblackdads

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marvyn_harrison

X: @Marvyn_Harrison

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvynharrison

Substack: https://marvynharrison.substack.com

Website: https://marvynharrison.co.uk

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.

Scary Movie didn't just parody horror it gave a generation permission to laugh at the things that scared them. Then the Wayans left. And we all felt the difference.

Now they're back. Marlon. Shawn. The original crew. And in this conversation, Marlon reveals the moment that made it happen: a promise made to his father, hand to hand, on one of the last times they were together. We talk about what it's like to work with your brother again after 26 years, the difference between bullying and looking out for someone (Marlon claims it's the same thing), how they kept the scenes grounded while giving each other room to go completely off-script, and which films sat at the centre of this one. Marlon also gets into why he thinks laughter is a political act right now — and why audiences are desperate to feel good again.

Scary Movie is in UK cinemas from 5 June.

MARVYN HARRISON YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | LinkedIn

MARLON WAYANS Website | Instagram | X | TikTok | Facebook

SHAWN WAYANS Website | Instagram | Facebook

ROMANTHA BOTHA Instagram | Threads | Facebook | LinkedIn

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.

Julie Adenuga and a South African guest join Marvyn for the most chaotic, unresolved, and genuinely entertaining TV parents debate you'll watch this year.

Aunt Viv. Claire Huxtable. Peggy Mitchell. Moira Rose. Jack Pearson. Uncle Phil. Logan Roy. Walter White as a dad candidate. Nobody agreed. Nobody backed down. This is what happens when three people with completely different cultural references try to build a consensus top five. It doesn't work. It's brilliant.

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 broke Kanye West in the UK before College Dropout dropped. He filmed Drake's first ever UK interview in Hyde Park — paid the cameraman £50 out of his own pocket because the station didn't care. He flew to New York to sign Fatman Scoop and got aired for a week until a 4am diner meeting sealed the deal. Ghostface Killah called his book the Bible of hip hop. Chuck D wrote the foreword in five minutes.

And before any of that, he was an 8-year-old kid in North Manchester who discovered what the N-word meant because there was a game in the playground called "Catch The N****r." This is DJ Semtex. And this is the conversation I've been waiting to have.

Semtex: Instagram · X · TikTok · YouTube · djsemtex.com

Marvyn: Instagram · Podcast IG · X · TikTok · YouTube · marvynharrison.co.uk

Dope Black Dads: Instagram · dopeblackdads.com

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.

View the images in order, here! https://canva.link/4eacwrp87m3qfxh

I've known Dane Baptiste for 20 years. I watched him find five minutes at the beginning of my Sunday Show when nobody knew his name. I watched the crowds not get it. I watched him come back anyway. This conversation is the full story, from his first day at Haberdashers, to being the only deadpan Black British comic in a room full of animated performers, to writing a sitcom that got picked up by Fox and Apple, to walking into Paramount and HBO alone because his seven-months-pregnant manager couldn't walk any further.

We talk about:

• Growing up as the first male in a generation of cousins — raised in a matriarchy
• The Sunday show years: following Jay Pharoah, competing with Usain Bolt's world record, going on after a biscuit eating competition
• Why admitting you take the bus was a passion killer in Black British culture
• Finding his deadpan voice when every Black comic was expected to be animated
• Steph McGovern giving him a TV segment when nobody else in the industry would
• Writing Sunny D and pitching it to Lionsgate, Fox, Apple, HBO, Paramount — with no writers, no team
• Keenan Ivory Wayans and Saladin Patterson joining the project
• The actress from Sunny D who passed away from bowel cancer
• Being misrepresented and the crisis of confidence and depression that followed
• Meeting Dave Chappelle on Valentine's Day with David Haye — the full circle moment
• Mo Gilligan: timing, craft, and why his crossover worked
• Why he left his management and what independence looks like now

This is 20 years of friendship in one sitting. If you care about Black British comedy, the entertainment industry, or what it actually takes to build something when nobody's behind you, this one's for you.

LINKS:

• Dane Baptiste: @danebaptiste on Instagram
• Marvyn: @themarvynharrisonpodcast / @dopeblackdads
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/gy3ZrUnG0RM

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.

She trained as a social worker. Spent 15 years watching what happens when relationships destroy people. Built a community of 250,000 women on Instagram. Wrote a Sunday Times bestseller. And then sat across from me and said: "I don't know if this is working. Nothing's changing."

This is Layla, Lalalaletmeexplain and this is not the conversation you're expecting.

We go into:

• Her dad leaving her mum for the woman who lived opposite, and what it did to her at 7 years old
• Why she resented her mother for years and idolised the man who left
• How her self-worth was built entirely on whether men wanted her, and the expensive therapy it took to undo it
• Dating apps losing 600,000 users and why in-person events aren't working either
• The confidence gap: women buying out dating events in 10 minutes, men not showing up
• Why men have stopped approaching women IRL — and why that's a misreading of what women actually asked for
• Family courts: the myth that they favour mothers (she breaks this down with 15 years of evidence)
• The manosphere as a grooming pipeline — and who's actually vulnerable to it
• The question we both carry: how do you keep telling the truth about harm when the people you're trying to reach are getting more defensive, not less?
• Why she thinks her audience radicalised her — and what she's doing about it
• I share my own experience of being in an abusive relationship at 19

This is two people doing the same work from opposite sides of the room, meeting in the middle for the first time. If you care about men, women, relationships, fatherhood, or just trying to figure out how we fix the gap, this one matters.

Layla Instagram: @lalalaletmeexplain TikTok: @lalalaletmeexplain X: @lalalaletmeexp2 Book: Block Delete Move On (Penguin)

Marvyn Instagram: @discoverwithmarvyn / @dopeblackdads X: @Marvyn_Harrison YouTube: @MarvynHarrison TikTok: @marvyn_harrison Website: marvynharrison.co.uk

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.