Off Color

This is the first half of our conversation with Sonia Gupta (@soniagupta504), lawyer turned software engineer turned "mid-level social media influencer". We discuss Sonia's repeated run-ins with racist internet trolls, and ask whether Twitter's benefits outweigh the toxicity of its culture. Tune in on Monday August 27th to hear Part 2!

Colorado Democratic Party consultant Hashim Coates joins us in the basement to discuss the new Boots Riley film "Sorry to Bother You", the upcoming elections, innovative forms of protest, and the best place in Denver to get a bean pie.

Tonight we step out of the basement to record our first LIVE episode! Rebekah and a panel of experts discuss inequity in American education, debate the possibility of a prison-free society, and take some lively questions from the audience. Special guests: Colorado State Rep. James Coleman, Elisabeth Epps of the Denver Justice Project, and educator Fernando Branch.

We are joined in the basement by activists Elisabeth Epps (@elisabeth) and Victor Galvan Ramirez (@victorgalvan247), as well as jazz singer Danette, to discuss questions of citizenship and equity for POC in America. Whose democracy is this? What is a vote worth? What will it take to survive the struggle we see today in our cities and at our border?

For this episode we reached back into the archives to bring you an unreleased show from 11/3/2017 featuring our original co-host, the late Dr. Gregory Diggs. This is one of the demo episodes we recorded while the idea for Off Color was still taking shape, and it’s a deep discussion that breaks down racial stereotypes by revealing White James as the only person in the room who can't swim.

We welcome Emmy-winning journalist Gabrielle Bryant to the basement to discuss more racist relatives, #OurVoiceOurSchools, Spotify's R. Kelly ban, the accusations against Morgan Freeman, and the royal wedding.

Today we welcome Emmy-winning journalist Tamara M. Banks and Ugandan foreign affairs expert Maria Nagawa. We discuss the recent spate of incidents involving white people calling cops on Black Americans for no good reason, plus a lively discussion on the pluses and minuses of foreign aid to Africa.

May 6 2018: Tonight's guest is Ken McCorkell, a handsome and talented mixed-race jazz pianist who also happens to be Rebekah's husband. We discuss Kanye West's TMZ interview, the Rachel Dolezal documentary, Childish Gambino's brilliant "This is America", and Rebekah's new film All Mixed Up: Our Changing Racial Identities.

Denverite reporter Allan Tellis got his bike stolen today, but that's not the only reason he's pissed off. He joins us in the basement to discuss the infamous Starbucks incident, racism in American policing, and whether bias can ever truly be "unconscious". It's not all anger, though; we also discuss some recent good news, including Beyonce's Coachella set and Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer.

We return to the basement after an unplanned week off to discuss the influence of racism on America's public schools. Our guests H-Soul and Fernando Branch bring a wealth of expertise to the discussion, as we ask what people of color can do to take back our schools and begin to reverse America's history of unequal education.

As Off Color pushes forward without Dr. Gregory Diggs, we welcome three brilliant artists to the basement to weigh in on this cultural moment that some people are calling a Black Renaissance. First off, there’s Jeff Campbell, founder of Emancipation Theater Co. and writer/director of the new play Honorable Disorder. He brings with him Theo E.J. Wilson, a returning guest whose recent TED Talk went viral, and who plays the lead in Jeff’s play. And finally, we welcome Dr. Diggs’s brother Brian Diggs, who is an actor and dancer in his own right.

Our beloved co-host Dr. Gregory Diggs passed away unexpectedly on February 24, and a few days later Rebekah and James got together in the basement for a special episode to honor his memory. This is an honest and unedited hour of talk, recorded while the emotions surrounding our friend's death were still raw. We hope you'll join us, and stay with us as we find a way to push forward without him.

This is Part 2 of our spoiler-ific conversation about Black Panther, featuring Ugandan political economist Maria Nagawa and activist/Wakanda-skeptic H-Soul.

Black Panther is finally here, and we welcome two guests to the basement to help us talk it through: activist and Wakanda-skeptic Hasira "H-Soul" Ashemu, and Ugandan political economist Maria Nagawa. The conversation was so lit that it has to be released in two parts, and it should go without saying that there are LOTS OF SPOILERS.

Today we're joined in the basement by Kimberly Ming and Brooke Owyang Lee. They shed some light on the idea of Asians as the "model minority" and the complexities of being both Asian and mixed race. We also get into some complicated questions about raising children in the current political environment, and touch on the American government's failure to help its citizens in Puerto Rico, four months after the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

MLK Day fell on an off-week this year, but the crew still got together in the basement to record an episode to release the following week. Listen in as we discuss the Santa Clausification of Dr King's legacy, Trump's hideous comments about "sh*thole countries", James's oversized forehead, and the prospect of President Oprah. We also tackle a few listener questions posted to our Facebook page.

Our first episode of 2018 features Theo E.J. Wilson, a Denver-based poet and activist who received worldwide acclaim for his Ted Talk about going undercover in the alt-right internet underworld. We talk about that experience, as well as the state of race education in the United States, the concept of white "Diversity Fatigue", the fake Twitter uproar over Michael B. Jordan's white girlfriend, and whether white and black America can ever heal from the mutual trauma of racism.

Today we are joined by Dr. Diggs's son Langston, who offers a Gen Z perspective on black voters' role in defeating Roy Moore, the CDC's new list of forbidden words, renaming Denver's Stapleton neighborhood, and answering two listener questions.

Join us in the basement to discuss Rebekah's recent Twitter skirmish with Michael Rapaport, Time's decision to feature Taylor Swift on their "silence breakers" cover, recreational wokeness, hens and hogs, and Sharon Reed's sublime mic drop moment. 

We welcome Emmy-winning journalist Tamara Banks to the basement to discuss the controversy surrounding Ink! Coffee's gentrification-based ad campaign, which sparked protests in Denver and has led to a nationwide discussion about the changing face of American cities.