Following and highlighting the experiences of people of color in the Wellness and Fitness industry.
Host Sid Baptista interviews leaders and entrepreneurs who tell inspiring stories of their journeys to where they are today and how the next generation can follow. Alongside the interview guests, Sid dissects the inequities that the industry reflects and perpetuates while discovering how to tackle issues of access, diversity, and inclusivity.
Advocating for racial representation, equity, and inclusion in the running community.
Carolyn Su (https://www.instagram.com/irunfortheglory/) first got into running to try and control an eating disorder. She used it as a weight loss tool and spent her early running days counting calories against miles run. It wasn't until much later that she started to enjoy the sport and find other runners she could connect with.
As Carolyn became deeply immersed in the online running culture, she started to notice a pattern; most of the runners featured and reposted on Instagram pages, interviewed for podcasts, reported in publications, and amplified across social channels were White and from affluent neighborhoods and backgrounds.
She started exploring hashtags like #asianrunners, #myrunninghair, #nativewomenrunning, and #latinosrun to find runners who looked like her and that she could relate to. The more she researched the more people she found that inspired her.
In 2018, Carolyn started featuring runners of color, first on her own Instagram account, tagging the posts under #diversewerun (a play on “united we stand”). Positive comments and messages rolled in and she decided to create the platform Diverse We Run as its own IG handle.
Carolyn uses the platform to write weekly features of Black, Indigenous, and Runners of Color, to advocate for racial representation, equity, and inclusion in the running community.
Carolyn's goal with Diverse We Run is to broaden perceptions of social norms, to challenge runners to discover new runners to follow and share about, and to connect with runners whose life experiences hail from different cultures.
We also talk about the current rise in Hate crimes in the Asian American & Pacific Islander community.
Donate to Stop AAPI Hate (https://donate.givedirect.org/?cid=14711)
@diversewerun
@irunfortheglory
@fitnessincolor_ (https://www.instagram.com/fitnessincolor_/)
@sidbap (https://www.instagram.com/sidbap)
@PYNRS_ (https://www.instagram.com/pynrs_/)
16 Mar 2021
#19 Wellness for ‘The Majority’ w/ Bri Thompson
Bringing premium wellness experiences to marginalized communities.
What started in the basement of a lower Manhattan gym with a few classes, has turned into a Black wellness phenomenon.
After discovering the world of exclusive boutique fitness studios in New York City, in 2016 Briana Thompson created Spiked Spin - a hip-hop-inspired soul-cleansing physical sermon moonlighting as a high-intensity spin class and Brooklyn's first Boutique Cycling Studio.
Bri grew up in Queens, NY where she danced and ran track competitively before moving to Maryland and then to Georgia. She graduated from Hampton University, an HBUC in Virginia, and landed a job in Digital Advertising back in NYC. It was during her time in this world that she found her love for boutique fitness experiences. While she loved attending the high-end and high-priced classes, paid for by her clients, she rarely saw other people who looked like her in these spaces.
Bri found her love for high-intensity cycling and combined it with her passion for rhythmic movement and hip-hop culture. She became an instructor by night while maintaining her corporate job at CBS by day. One class led to two classes, which led to a full schedule as she slowly built Spiked Spin.
Spiked has grown into a space that welcomes and represents 'the majority' of those who do not fit the perfect frame and picture that has come to define wellness in our time.
@bri.monee (https://www.instagram.com/bri.monee/)
@spikedspin (https://www.instagram.com/spikedspin/)
@fitnessincolor_ (https://www.instagram.com/fitnessincolor_/)
@sidbap (https://www.instagram.com/sidbap)
@PYNRS_ (https://www.instagram.com/pynrs_/)
9 Mar 2021
#18 Intentional Consumption w/ Chef Beanz
Be Intentional...
In an age of excessive consumption, Chef Beanz encourages you to add intent to the energy that you ingest.
Born to teen parents in Camden, NJ, once the murder capital of the country, Chef Beanz (Quan) grew up in a violent environment and was emotionally unbalanced.
He had the opportunity to go to school in a different district and started playing an instrument but still had one foot in his old, violent neighborhood. It wasn't until he was literally yanked off of a stage by a mentor while trying to show off for his friends that his life took a different turn. He started focusing on his school work and became a wrestler. It was the stability he needed to find his footing.
Charting his own path, Chef Beanz lives in Los Angeles where he spreads his love and knowledge for being present and intentional about what you consume; mind, body, soul, and spirit.
He's a creator and creative, an entrepreneur, and overall optimist that lives to inspire you to find what brings you inexplainable joy.
@Chef_Beanz
@Transparency.Series
@fitnessincolor_ (https://www.instagram.com/fitnessincolor_/)
@sidbap (https://www.instagram.com/sidbap)
@PYNRS_ (https://www.instagram.com/pynrs_/)
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