People Interacting with People
A podcast about People Interacting with People. In April 2015, I became homeless. I decided to embrace this homelessness and what followed was five years of nomadic life, over 250 moves in Canada and the United States, on an average budget of roughly $22 a day.
While sitting in a 24 hour diner in Toronto on my first two homeless nights, a young man sat beside me and when I told him about my experience - spending 9 hours each night at the diner, getting a free coffee and a brownie on my second night - he turned to me and asked:
"Do you think you'd be having the same experience if you were Black?"
Over those next five years, I had a series of "chance" encounters with Black people and had some very interesting conversations. I documented some of them in writing but when I compiled them into a 300 page script during the pandemic, I realized that - in writing it myself - I had lost the authenticity of the other person's voice.
And so, I decided to hit the road and reconnect with some of these wonderful people while also leaving myself open to meeting new ones. These are our conversations.
People Interacting with People
S2 EP6: Guns, Getting Shot, Disability Culture, The Grammys, Working with Snoop Dogg & Being Ahead of One's Time with Namel in Harlem
In this episode, I sit down with my friend Namel to talk about how he combines Hip Hop Culture with Disability Culture after being shot and paralyzed in the Bronx in 1999 and starting a Hip Hop Duo called 4 Wheel City.
We talk guns, the Grammys, working with Snoop Dogg and Yo Gotti, speaking at the White House, writing a letter to Stevie Wonder, finding motivation from Kobe and inspiration from prophets like Nas and Tupac, and about RAMPD - the organization Namel co founded to advocate for music professionals with disabilities.
We hope you enjoy our episode.
To see photos of Namel, please visit us at
https://www.instagram.com/peopleinteractingwithpeople/