BlackTalk Podcast

About BlackTalk Podcast

Ethnic, modern, inclusive and informative, BlackTalk leaves listeners with new perspectives about anti-Black racism and Black achievement. BlackTalk is a podcast about the personal experiences of global Black experts and Black Canadians contextualized within the historical experience of being Black. Ethnic, modern, inclusive and informative, BlackTalk leaves listeners with new perspectives about anti-Black racism and Black achievement. The show is conversational, not judgmental. It provides a unique take on the Black experience to help people of all backgrounds open their eyes, reflect and challenge their thinking.

Publisher

BlackTalk Podcast

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

10 May 2021

Latest episode

1 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

28 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   1 Jul 2026

   Episode 24 - Monetta Bailey

   In this episode of BlackTalk, Dr. Andy Knight and Samira Schultz are joined by Dr. Monetta Bailey for a conversation about race, ethnicity, immigrant status, crime, Critical Race Theory, public discourse, and institutional systems. The episode focuses on how Black, racialized, and immigrant youth are governed, represented, and positioned within institutions such as criminal justice, education, immigration, public policy, and Canadian society more broadly. Dr. Bailey’s work helps frame racism not only as individual prejudice, but as something built into language, social knowledge, institutional assumptions, policies, and everyday practices. The conversation also explores her forthcoming book, The Violence of Words: The Conditions, Construction and Consequences of Racist Public Discourse, and asks how racist public discourse can shape harm, fear, belonging, punishment, and the ways young people come to understand themselves. Dr. Monetta Bailey is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Ambrose University. Her research examines race, ethnicity, immigrant status, crime, Critical Race Theory, racist public discourse, youth criminalization, and institutional systems. Her scholarship focuses especially on how racialized and immigrant youth are represented, governed, and treated within systems such as criminal justice, education, immigration, and public policy. Dr. Bailey’s work also examines how racist language and public narratives produce real social and institutional consequences, including shaping who is seen as innocent, threatening, deserving, criminal, or belonging. Her forthcoming book, The Violence of Words: The Conditions, Construction and Consequences of Racist Public Discourse, further develops this work by examining how racist public discourse causes harm and how Canada understands racism, hate speech, and institutional accountability.

2. 

   1 Jul 2026

   Episode 23 - Siv Ngesi

   In this episode of BlackTalk, Dr. Andy Knight and Samira Schultz speak with Siv Ngesi about creativity, identity, visibility, and what it means to build a life and career in post-apartheid South Africa. The conversation explores how Siv’s work across acting, comedy, presenting, producing, performance, and public life reflects larger questions about overcoming, representation, and building something from scratch in systems that were not designed equally for Black people. Through Siv’s story, the episode considers what Black Canadian youth can learn from South African experiences of resilience, self-making, humour, cultural confidence, and public visibility. It also asks how creativity can become a way of claiming space, challenging limits, and imagining futures beyond the barriers that young Black people inherit. Sivuyile “Siv” Ngesi is a South African actor, comedian, television presenter, producer, MC, performer, and public personality. He has built a wide-ranging career across film, television, theatre, comedy, live performance, and media. Siv has appeared in productions including Invictus, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and The Woman King, and is also known for his work as a presenter and entertainer in South Africa. His career reflects a broad creative range, from comedy and acting to producing and public engagement. Across his work, Siv brings a strong perspective on representation, resilience, masculinity, identity, and the role of creativity in opening space for Black stories and Black possibility.

3. 

   1 Jul 2026

   Episode 22 - Handel Wright

   In this episode of BlackTalk, Dr. Andy Knight is joined by Dr. Handel Wright. Their conversation begins with a clear and necessary discussion of anti-Blackness: what it means, how it operates, and how it appears not only in individual encounters, but also through institutions, education, public life, and history. They also discuss the denial, erasure, and forgetting of Black presence in British Columbia, the challenges facing Black youth in Canada, and the responsibilities that often come with Black leadership. This episode asks us to think seriously about what it means to build communities where Black young people can thrive. Not only through representation, but through history, belonging, solidarity, and a willingness to learn from Black youth themselves. Professor Handel K. Wright, Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity, and Education at the University of British Columbia, specializes in cultural studies, anti-racism, and multicultural education. He co-edits the African and Diasporic Cultural Studies book series and serves on several editorial boards. A former Canada Research Chair, he has published extensively on African cultural studies, anti-racist education, and qualitative research and is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Contact BlackTalk Podcast

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.