Too Extra Ordinary Podcast

After the passing of Notorious RGB the Supreme Court and this country are mourning, fighting and processing what happens next. Johnna and Alexis are processing the good but also the nuanced parts of her time as one of the justices for the highest court in the land. What is her lasting impact and how will history remember this inarguable Giant?

After a summer charged with racial unrest the nation paused this week to wait for the verdict on the Breonna Taylor case. After a summer of memes, calls to leaders and outcry the verdict seemed like the final gut punch to steeped each of us into  devastating rage. This is 2020. It’s so bad that we had to stop feeling sad and reclaim our mics once more for another season of Too ExtraOrdinary.

During a traumatic incident, our thought processes can become scattered and disorganized in such a way that we no longer recognize the memories as belonging to the original event. Instead, fragments of memory, dispersed as images, body sensations and words are stored in our unconscious and can become activated later by anything even remotely reminiscent of the original experience. Unconsciously we could find ourselves reacting to certain people, events or situations in old, familiar ways that echo the past.

For the next episode of Too Extraordinary we want to talk trauma. Trauma in the black community has been researched, studied, disproven and proven since the 1800s. On this latest episode we unpack a turbulent history and trauma that continues to go unaddressed.

We have invited Dr. Denor, a neurophysiologist, who has studied this form of trauma on an intimate level. Johnna had the honor of meeting Anne during her time working in Philadelphia as an AmeriCorps member. Anne is a graduate of Temple University and holds a PhD from Adler University.

A and J talk about them changes. The ladies navigate the politics of being pregnant in 2019. American mothers die in childbirth at higher rates than in any other developed country — and those most at risk are mothers of color.  Despite medical advancements and published research women of color continue to suffer negative outcomes at the hands of medical professionals. Alexis and Johnna talk trauma, infant mortality and why there is much more to pregnancy then being pregnant.

You will not believe when the safest time for a woman of color to give birth was?

In this episode, J+A debrief the Kavanaugh episode which leads to a discussion about the time, place, and effectiveness of anger. How do we move well-intentioned people? Ourselves? How do we hold the time and place for passion and anger? And, it wouldn’t be TEO if we didn’t debrief the recent House elections and the current state of politics.

A and J get real. In an attempt to truly explore intersectional feminism, J and A try something different this time. You’ll first hear a solo session from each women about their reaction to the Kavanaugh hearings. After, the two lament (with no wine this time) over the installation of Brett Kavanaugh and the (stark) differences between the two reactions.

After the testimony of Dr. Ford, the nation watched in dismay as Congress moved forward instate Kavanaugh to the highest court in the land. Alexis and Johnna discuss their concerns, fears and sheer disbelief with this decision. What it means for the future statements of women? And what it may mean for cases which come through the court going forward. Trump’s America means minimizing women.

We open season 3 with a poem by Gil Scott-Heron called “Whitey on the Moon.” He sets the tone appropriately as J+A tackle whiteness and dominant culture and how it impacts us all negatively. J+A dig into white fragility, and how white folk’s inability to talk about, tackle, and educate themselves on whiteness and racism (and their role in it) perpetuates systems of racism and oppression.

For more information, and the article referenced in this episode: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-kegler/the-sugarcoated-language-of-white-fragility_b_10909350.html

Kick off your flip flops, pour the cold kind of cider cause It’s been a while.

The ladies get fancy (with new mics) chatting it up after a long hiatus about everything from work life balance, new projects and summer time books that are bringing them healing. In this season’s final episode the women wrangle with the criminal justice system and gentrification in a new way. These matters are starting to hit home and as always the ladies try to make peace with them (as best as possible) – together.

This is the last episode for Season 2. Don’t forget to join us back here (flip flops kicked off) for Season 3.

Johnna and Alexis have seen Black Panther (actually, J has three times…) and they are pumped to talk about both the joy, and the intensity that came along with their viewing experiences and post-viewing analysis. They compare their own personal analysis and experiences through the lens of whiteness, colonization, feminism, and liberation.

In this episode, Johnna and Alexis attempt – what was supposed to be a an easy and lighthearted – conversation comparing the HBO shows Girls and Insecure. Listen as they discuss similarities, differences, and racial undertones of each show. True to form, the conversation takes an [un]expected turn as J and A struggle through some exposed biases and assumptions about what is “white culture” and what is “black culture”.