Truth Be Told: Time to Thrive

Introducing Truth Be Told, Hosted by Tonya Mosley

KQED’s Truth Be Told is a brand-new advice show made by and for people of color. If Miss Manners tells you how to behave, Truth Be Told explores how you can be you in a world that doesn’t always want you to…just be.Through unfiltered advice, host Tonya Mosley takes on listener questions, digging into what it means to not just survive, but thrive, as a person of color in our country.Our first episode drops May 16, 2019 with new episodes every Thursday. You can hear the trailer right now and subscribe to Truth Be Told for free on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, or anywhere you get your podcasts. Don’t miss a minute.We see you, we feel you, we hear you.

Joy

Our first episode of Truth Be Told is finally here and we’re going in deep to take on one of the biggest questions of our time: How can I feel joy, when the world is burning?Families are being separated at the border, drugs are ravaging our communities, the wealth gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and parts of California are literally being consumed by flames. It feels like the end of days – and yet we still want to laugh, dance, and love.In this inaugural episode of Truth Be Told, host Tonya Mosley travels to her hometown of Detroit to talk with her grandmother, Ernestine Mosley, and New York Times best-selling author, adrienne maree brown. The three share captivating conversation and life lessons on how we all can and should cultivate joy.Why the Strength Tarot Card? The Strength card in tarot is a reminder that we have the power to overcome any obstacle. As we learn from our Wise Ones in this episode, it is our inner strength and our willingness to work through our fears that enables us to feel and embrace full, unabashed joy. 

Colonized Desire

Do you have “a type?” What if you’re a person of color, and you only have crushes on white folks? There’s a lot of mystery about what gets our hearts pumping, but one thing is for sure, our attractions aren’t simply just our own.From romantic movies to commercials, we are inundated with messages about what sex and love should look like. As people of color, we rarely get to see ourselves in those narratives and this can have some real consequences.In this episode of Truth Be Told, we talk with Dr. Amy Sueyoshi about love, interracial dating, and how an interrogation of our desires can lead to healthier relationships with ourselves and each other.Why The Lovers Tarot Card?The Lovers card in tarot signifies the possibilities of soul-connecting love. It can also suggest our attempts to figure out personal values, beliefs and attractions. For this episode all about colonized desire and how we can all interrogate the complexities of who we love and desire – The Lovers card just makes sense.

Enough

Have you ever been made to feel like you aren’t enough? Not black enough, not queer enough, not Asian enough, not enough? In this episode of Truth Be Told, we explore how we can move beyond the question of “enough” and ask ourselves if we are doing enough, for our communities with Locatora Radio hosts Mala Muñoz and Diosa Femme.Tonya also talks with author Jeff Chang, co-founder of CultureStr/ke and ColorLines,  about the complicated history behind the term “people of color” and how we need to reclaim intersectionality to strengthen our solidarities.Why the Wheel of Fortune Tarot Card?When you pull the Wheel of Fortune card, it’s the universe telling you to get ready because big changes are coming. Just like life, our identities and how we identify are very much in flux, more of a journey than a destination. For this episode about what it means to be Latina, or a person of color, there’s no tarot card more apt than the Wheel of Fortune.

Well-Meaning White Folks

Allies are necessary to our collective pursuit of racial equity and antiracism, but sometimes talking across and through differences can be messy, hurtful, and downright exhausting. As people of color we ALL have had our fair share of those “unintentionally” painful encounters.In this episode of Truth be Told, Tonya and Code Switch host Gene Demby tackle two questions from people struggling with how to deal with well-meaning white folks, at home and at work.Why the The Tower Tarot Card? The Tower card is rarely a welcome sight because it signifies chaos, destruction and turmoil. However, the Tower can also signify transformation and the building of new systems and modes of being. The Tower card represents this episode of Truth Be Told because it speaks to both the systemic pain “well-meaning” white folks can inflict on people of color as well as our power to overcome the limiting structures that make that possible.