My name is Richard Dodds, host, producer, and creator of Still Talking Black. In 2020, George Floyd’s murder and all of the other atrocities that have been committed against my race really started to wear me down to a point I had never been. I wanted to speak out, to do something, to protest in a way that felt authentic to me.

I had been hosting another podcast at the time, Relationship Talks with Rick and Namon, and I saw how much of a difference one voice could make. That’s when I knew that the best way for me to make even the smallest difference was with my voice. On June 1, 2020, I recorded a speech titled Is it Because I’m Black?. That was truly the birth of Still Talking Black.

I have a unique group of friends. Friends of different races, religions, and backgrounds, and I felt compelled to share my perspective as a Black man living in America. A lot of times we aren’t concentrating on things that don’t affect us, so for my friends that weren’t Black, I wanted to give them a perspective that they may not be thinking of on a regular basis.

On a podcast (Not Your Enemy: Speak Out Sessions) I recounted the story of a conversation I had with two of my nonminority coworkers. I talked about how different it would be for me to get pulled over by the police versus if they got pulled over. Explaining to them the weight of the worry minorities often endures during those interactions caused a visual shift of their facial expressions. I could tell it was the first time they had ever considered how different their experiences are versus the experiences of minorities, including someone like me, a person that they know, someone they would call a friend.

My mission for this podcast is to have needed, sometimes uncomfortable conversations about topics and issues that minorities face, and to talk about them from a minority perspective. I want to grow and learn by interviewing people with their own unique perspectives and my hope is that others will grow, interact, and take this journey with me.