In this episode, Ray addresses how a childhood spent in the grayness of working class Black life becomes a lens for understanding who America trusts to tell its stories. Ray revisits moments that shaped him, like a mother, too embarrassed to admit she couldn’t read, coal and kerosene keeping the house warm, government cheese keeping the family fed, and exposing the quiet truth: class decides who gets heard. This episode challenges the polished, institution-approved versions of Black history and asks listeners to reconsider who they rely on to interpret our collective past. History from the bottom isn’t optional. It’s the missing piece.For more on Ray, visit <a href="https://drraychristian.com/">drraychristian.com</a>

In this episode, Ray addresses how a childhood spent in the grayness of working class Black life becomes a lens for understanding who America trusts to tell its stories. Ray revisits moments that shaped him, like a mother, too embarrassed to admit she couldn’t read, coal and kerosene keeping the house warm, government cheese keeping the family fed, and exposing the quiet truth: class decides who gets heard. This episode challenges the polished, institution-approved versions of Black history and asks listeners to reconsider who they rely on to interpret our collective past. History from the bottom isn’t optional. It’s the missing piece. For more on Ray, visit drraychristian.com

In this episode, Ray addresses how a childhood spent in the grayness of working class Black life becomes a lens for understanding who America trusts to tell its stories. Ray revisits moments that shaped him, like a mother, too embarrassed to admit she couldn’t read, coal and kerosene keeping the house warm, government cheese keeping the family fed, and exposing the quiet truth: class decides who gets heard. This episode challenges the polished, institution-approved versions of Black history and asks listeners to reconsider who they rely on to interpret our collective past. History from the bottom isn’t optional. It’s the missing piece.For more on Ray, visit <a href="https://drraychristian.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">drraychristian.com</a>

Who Gets to Tell the Story?

In this episode, Ray explores how a simple stretch of desert can turn into a place that asks bigger questions. He examines the pull of solitude, the way the land tests you, and the strange moment when the ground itself seems to rise up and remind you who you are. It’s a grounded, inviting story of heat, grit, and a man moving through his own thoughts. It’s how the mud becomes an unexpected place where everything slows down just enough for clarity to surface. For more on Ray, visit <a href="https://drraychristian.com/">drraychristian.com</a>.

In this episode, Ray explores how a simple stretch of desert can turn into a place that asks bigger questions. He examines the pull of solitude, the way the land tests you, and the strange moment when the ground itself seems to rise up and remind you who you are. It’s a grounded, inviting story of heat, grit, and a man moving through his own thoughts. It’s how the mud becomes an unexpected place where everything slows down just enough for clarity to surface. For more on Ray, visit drraychristian.com.

In this episode, Ray explores how a simple stretch of desert can turn into a place that asks bigger questions. He examines the pull of solitude, the way the land tests you, and the strange moment when the ground itself seems to rise up and remind you who you are. It’s a grounded, inviting story of heat, grit, and a man moving through his own thoughts. It’s how the mud becomes an unexpected place where everything slows down just enough for clarity to surface. For more on Ray, visit <a href="https://drraychristian.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">drraychristian.com</a>.

The Desert, the Mud and the Man

In this premiere episode, Ray details the hardships that Blacks experienced after slavery and explores the themes and patterns of struggle that continued through the generations and into his own life.

This episode contains special music by Beej Gordy Brooks and cameo "appearances" by Kevin Allison and Kristina Wong.

In this premiere episode, Ray details the hardships that Blacks experienced after slavery and explores the themes and patterns of struggle that continued through the generations and into his own life. This episode contains special music by Beej Gordy Brooks and cameo "appearances" by Kevin Allison and Kristina Wong.

WRS Classic: Life After Slavery

From food stamps to gov'ment cheese—what it meant, how it helped, how we felt about it then, and what we think about it now.

From food stamps to gov'ment cheese—what it meant, how it helped, how we felt about it then, and what we think about it now.

WRS Classic: Hunger

A literal discussion of skin color—the range of visual nuances of appearances that we consider "Black", how those divisions came to be and their many implications. From the paper bag test and one drop rule to Rachel Dolezal, who is Black and why?

A literal discussion of skin color—the range of visual nuances of appearances that we consider "Black", how those divisions came to be and their many implications. From the paper bag test and one drop rule to Rachel Dolezal, who is Black and why?

WRS Classic: Complexion

Want to know what this podcast is all about? Listen to Ray, the host, share a little of his vision and focus for the show as well as a little about himself.

Want to know what this podcast is all about? Listen to Ray, the host, share a little of his vision and focus for the show as well as a little about himself.

WRS Classic: Welcome to "What's Ray Saying?"

Storyteller Ray Christian shares personal stories as a sixty-something combat veteran, historian, and goat-wrangling father of six living in the rural mountains of Appalachia, all told through the fabric of centuries of Black history.

Arts

Storyteller Ray Christian shares personal stories as a sixty-something combat veteran, historian, and goat-wrangling father of six living in the rural mountains of Appalachia, all told through the fabric of centuries of Black history.

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