Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda

About Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda

The show where business meets love, and culture meets critique. We’re Aiwan and Tamanda, two Black women with 20 years each in entertainment, research, and social justice. We’re also a married couple figuring out what it means to build a life and two businesses together. We'll talk about the realities of running a business, making creative work that matters, and navigating research with integrity. What You’ll Find: Honest conversations on entrepreneurship, research, and creativity. Unpacking the intersections of business, leadership, relationships, and identity. Hot takes on media, culture, and social change. Guest insights from entrepreneurs, researchers, and artists. If you’re navigating business, love, and the messiness of life while trying to do meaningful work, you’re in the right place. Episodes drop every Tuesday! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda

Category

science · society & culture · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

30 Mar 2025

Latest episode

3 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

80 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   3 Nov 2026

   The Illusion of Choice | How UK Hospitals Fail (Black) Mothers

   What happens when Black women are told they have choices about childbirth, but their voices, preferences and experiences are ignored by the very healthcare systems meant to protect them? In the second and final instalment of our deep dive into Black maternal and reproductive health, Aiwan and Tamanda confront the uncomfortable realities of maternity care in Britain - and the gap between the choices women are promised and the care they actually receive. While Black women continue to face some of the starkest inequalities in maternal healthcare, the experiences they share expose much wider questions about the treatment of all women during pregnancy and childbirth. From coercive care and medical bias to the dismissal of women's pain, we ask whose voices matter, who gets to make decisions and what meaningful choice really looks like. Drawing on Tamanda's personal experiences and her collaborative research with Birmingham's Maternity Engagement Action (MEA) and the Maternity Ambassadors for Change (MACs), we explore what Black mothers themselves revealed about their experiences of maternity services - and what happens when communities take the lead in investigating the systems that shape their lives. From pressured medical interventions and the transformative role of midwives to the findings of the Ockenden Review, we examine why being seen, heard and believed can make all the difference. But we also turn the spotlight on research itself. Why are Black women repeatedly asked to share their stories of trauma, only to see funding withdrawn, research shelved and too little meaningful change? And what would it take to move beyond documenting inequalities towards transforming the systems responsible? 🎙️ In this episode: The Illusion of Choice: Why some women are pressured towards inductions and caesarean sections while others are denied interventions they actively request. From coercive care to the findings of the Ockenden Review, we examine what happens when women's choices, pain and concerns are ignored. The Corporatisation of Childbirth: How the logic of “profit over people” shapes maternity care in America and why pressures to medicalise, control and accelerate childbirth raise uncomfortable questions about women's autonomy in the NHS. The Midwife Success Factor: Why continuity of care and trusted relationships can transform women's experiences of childbirth - and the contradiction of under-resourcing midwifery while governments worry about declining birth rates. Research With Us, Not On Us: What happens when Black mothers take the lead in researching their own experiences? From analysing data with babies on chests to integrating trauma-informed spaces with Sankofa Healing Arts, we explore what research looks like when it serves communities rather than academic careers. Funding Pulled Overnight: How the abrupt withdrawal of long-term funding disrupted Black-led community research, exposing the realities of unfunded labour and the gap between institutional commitments to racial equity and the resources needed to deliver change. Turning Testimony into Theory: Celebrating medical anthropologist Princess Banda and her Black feminist scholarship, we explore why documenting Black women's trauma is not enough - and why research must help explain the structures producing inequality and inform meaningful change. Because the question isn't simply whether women have choices. It's whether those choices are real - and whether the healthcare system is prepared to listen when women tell us otherwise. 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/glWYU7XhvJ4 (https://youtu.be/glWYU7XhvJ4) 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts 🔁 If Season 6 has challenged, comforted or inspired you, please share this Season Finale episode with a friend and leave a review ☕ Support the channel: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@rigourandflow) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/rigourandflow) LinkedIn (https://uk.linkedin.com/company/rigourandflow) AiAi Studios (www.aiaistudios.com) Roots & Rigour (www.rootsandrigour.org) This is an AiAi Studios (https://open.acast.com/networks/67d57addaaba807fb7eb365a/shows/67d57d23b3ef7ea352b50da3/www.aiaistudios.com) Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   27 Oct 2026

   Why Are Men Missing From the Reproductive Health Conversation?

   Why are men missing from the reproductive health conversation? And what happens when we treat reproductive health as women's business alone? In the first of our two-part deep dive into Black maternal and reproductive health, Aiwan and Tamanda challenge some of the assumptions shaping how we talk about our bodies, fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and care. When we talk about reproductive health, the conversation almost always centres women - and often begins and ends with pregnancy and childbirth. But where does that leave men? Not just as fathers, partners and advocates, but as people with their own reproductive health needs, experiences, fears and vulnerabilities? And what does this narrow framing mean for women, whose reproductive lives extend far beyond pregnancy and motherhood? Drawing on deeply personal experiences, research and the Disney+ documentary Aftershock, we explore the silence, shame, medical inequalities and intergenerational experiences that shape reproductive health across our lives. From endometriosis, fibroids and fertility struggles to men's sexual and reproductive health, pregnancy loss, birth trauma and the responsibilities we share, this conversation asks what we miss when reproductive health is treated as somebody else's business. 🎙️ In this episode: What About Men? Why men are so often missing from reproductive health conversations - and why their role extends far beyond supporting women through pregnancy and childbirth. Men's Bodies, Men's Health: Breaking the silence around male fertility, erectile dysfunction, prostate health, medical examinations and the stigma that prevents men from discussing their reproductive experiences. Fathers, Partners & Shared Responsibility: Exploring the emotional experiences of men and partners navigating pregnancy, childbirth, loss and medical care - and why reproductive health should never be an individual burden. The 28-Year Diagnosis: Tamanda reflects on her experiences of endometriosis, fibroids and fertility investigations, challenging the tendency to reduce women's reproductive health to pregnancy and motherhood. The Silence We Inherit: From periods and puberty to fertility, sexual health and family trauma, we examine how shame, secrecy and intergenerational experiences shape our relationships with our bodies. Lived and Family Memories: From carrying a full-term pregnancy loss across borders to the enduring trauma of witnessing birth complications and clinical apathy firsthand. Beyond the Mortality Statistics: Drawing on Aftershock, campaigns like Five X More, and the Black maternal health crisis, we explore why reproductive health conversations so often begin and end with death, rather than the much wider need for accountability across disparities in health. Reproductive health isn't just women's business. It's everybody's business. 🔜 COMING NEXT - PART 2: We turn our attention specifically to Black maternal health in Britain, exploring racial inequalities in NHS maternity care, the experiences of Black mothers, and what our own community-led research reveals about medical bias, women's choices and the urgent need for systemic change. Share your reflections in the comments or send us a voice note. We'd love to hear from you. 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tMQgE4-JEJk (https://youtu.be/tMQgE4-JEJk) 🔁 Share with someone who believes reproductive health is everybody's business ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow (https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow) Content note: This episode discusses maternal death, stillbirth, pregnancy loss, medical trauma and reproductive healthcare experiences. Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@rigourandflow) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/rigourandflow) LinkedIn (https://uk.linkedin.com/company/rigourandflow) AiAi Studios (www.aiaistudios.com) Roots & Rigour (www.rootsandrigour.org) This is an AiAi Studios (https://open.acast.com/networks/67d57addaaba807fb7eb365a/shows/67d57d23b3ef7ea352b50da3/www.aiaistudios.com) Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   20 Oct 2026

   "Tell Them You're Muslim!" | Growing Up Catholic, Protestant & Black in Belfast

   What was it like to grow up Black in Belfast during the Troubles? In Northern Ireland in the late 1990s, religious identity could carry life-or-death consequences: Are you Catholic or Protestant? Which neighbourhood are you from? Which school do you attend? To prepare Tamanda for her schooling in Belfast in 1997 - for what was supposed to be a three-month stay that turned into three years - her parents sat her down with anxious tongue-in-cheek advice: "If anyone asks if you're Catholic or Protestant, don't say you're either. Tell them you're Muslim." Entering Hunterhouse College - a mixed-faith school perched right on the boundary line where red, white and blue painted curbs ended and the Catholic neighbourhood began across the traffic lights - she became the only student of colour in the entire school. In a divided society that ran on instantly categorising people based on religions and political allegiance, nobody had a script for where a Black mixed-race girl belonged. In this episode, Aiwan and Tamanda explore the realities of living through the end of a 30-year sectarian conflict and the beginnings of the peace process. Tamanda recalls the surreal, triggering experience of watching Derry Girls and realising parts of it had been filmed inside her actual secondary school in Finaghy - from Sister Michael’s office - the exact room where Tamanda was once hauled in front of the headmistress and suspended - to the dining hall where she ate lunch every day. But behind the teenage friendships, romances and school exchanges lay the realities of sectarian division: painted kerbs, flags, bomb alerts, military presence and classmates whose families had experienced devastating violence. Together, we explore how conflict shapes identity and belonging, the contradictions of Britain's colonial narratives, and how trauma travels across generations. As Northern Ireland confronts contemporary racism and anti-immigrant violence, we ask: What happens when peacebuilding addresses one form of division but fails to equip future generations to understand others? 🎙️In this episode: Life in Belfast (1997–2000): Moving to Northern Ireland in the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement. School on the Borderline: Hunterhouse College, painted kerbs, Union Jacks and sectarian boundary lines. The Only Black Girl in the Frame: Isolation, boarding-school photographs and being reduced to stereotypes about Africa. Neither Catholic nor Protestant, But Both: How being Black complicated the sectarian categories through which people understood belonging. Derry Girls and Cultural Memory: Revisiting a childhood shaped by conflict, and how younger generations inherit its legacies. Britain, Ireland and Colonial History: What we learn — and fail to learn — about empire, violence and national identity. Beyond Green and Orange: Contemporary anti-Black racism, anti-immigrant sentiment and why peace education must move beyond Catholic–Protestant dialogue to include racial literacy. 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/U7muZw2ZIsw (https://youtu.be/U7muZw2ZIsw) 🔁 Share with someone who wants to hear the untold stories of growing up during The Troubles ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@rigourandflow) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/rigourandflow) LinkedIn (https://uk.linkedin.com/company/rigourandflow) AiAi Studios (www.aiaistudios.com) Roots & Rigour (www.rootsandrigour.org) This is an AiAi Studios (https://open.acast.com/networks/67d57addaaba807fb7eb365a/shows/67d57d23b3ef7ea352b50da3/www.aiaistudios.com) Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Who has been a guest on Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Tessa Sanderson
• Liv Little
• Scarlett Curtis
• Kelvin Frimpong
• Dr Alex Blower

Reach and audience

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

YouTube views

4,430

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

19 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 41 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

53

Social presence

0

YouTube

74

Engagement

0

Contact Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda

Guest appearances

Books guests

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

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