Bassey Ikpi and Dr. Michael Andrews have a lot to work through.
As children of immigrant parents, xennial creatives, and parents raising sons in competitive soccer, they bring the full complexity of their lives to every conversation.
The Idea Of… is where Black culture, family, art, and mental health intersect—explored with equal parts intellect, ratchet joy, and righteousness.
Nothing is too nuanced. Nothing is off limits.
These are the conversations that don’t fit neatly anywhere else.
New York Times bestselling author Bassey Ikpi and Dr. Michael Andrews invite you in.
Pull up.
After two seasons, The Idea Of… is coming to an end. Well... sort of.
In the final episode of The Idea Of… as we know it, Mike and Bassey reflect on where they've been, where they are, and what happens when you realize it's time to become more intentional about where you're going.
The conversation begins with the complicated reality of raising Black sons in American soccer and expands into something much bigger: what it means to be Black Xennials approaching 50 without much of a blueprint for this stage of life. We're raising children while watching our parents get older. Careers are shifting. People are starting over. Our relationships with ambition, creativity, culture, and even ourselves are changing. And somehow, we're still figuring out what growing up is supposed to look like.
Mike and Bassey also wrestle with context, cultural memory, the freedom to be wrong, and why nuance doesn't always mean balance. Sometimes wisdom isn't having the right answer. Sometimes it's simply having lived long enough to understand that there was a before, a now, and hopefully, a next.
That realization has also changed what they want this podcast to be.
So, The Idea Of… is taking its final bow. Mike and Bassey will take a hiatus before returning in January 2027 with a new name, a tighter focus, more guests, deeper conversations, and a clearer sense of what they want to add to the culture.
This isn't goodbye.
It's the end of the beginning.
26 Aug 2026
The Idea Of... The Fall Out
After a few weeks away, Mike and Bassey hit record with no real plan other than to catch up. What follows is less a return episode than an honest reckoning with what happens when the life you knew—and the version of yourself you knew how to be—starts to fall away.
Bassey opens up about going quiet, isolation, aging, creativity, and a realization that what she thought was being stuck in the past was actually something different: an inability to imagine the future. That revelation leads Mike and Bassey into a deeper conversation about approaching 50, mourning old versions of ourselves, watching opportunities pass, and figuring out how to rediscover the joy that once seemed to happen without effort.
They wrestle with the difference between grind and intentionality, the danger of isolation for creative people, and what happens when the things that once gave us life—community, performance, friendship, movement, being outside—stop happening naturally. Maybe getting older isn't about trying to become who we used to be. Maybe it's about intentionally building the conditions that allow whoever we're becoming to actually live.
And, inevitably, they talk about The Idea Of… itself: why they're doing it, whether it still matters, and what it would mean to stop treating something meaningful like another obligation on the calendar. Because maybe the fallout isn't the end.
Maybe it's what happens right before you figure out what survives.
29 Jul 2026
The Idea Of... Three Mirrors: A Hovchella Weekend (An Extra Innings Episode)
Three concerts. Three cities. Three completely different versions of the same question:
Where do I belong now?
Mike takes listeners on a deeply personal journey through one unforgettable weekend—seeing J. Cole in Charlotte, Chris Brown and Usher in Washington, D.C., and Jay-Z's historic Extra Innings concert at Yankee Stadium. But this isn't a review of the shows. It's a reflection on what happens when music becomes a mirror.
As he moves from city to city, Mike wrestles with something many of us experience but rarely name: getting older without feeling old. Some concerts remind him he's no longer the target audience. Others make him feel more at home than ever. Along the way, he reflects on friendship, fatherhood, New York, hip-hop, fashion, nostalgia, and the artists who have quietly narrated the chapters of his life.
What emerges is a conversation about identity—not just who we've been, but who we continue to become. Because sometimes the most memorable part of a concert isn't the setlist. It's recognizing yourself somewhere in the crowd.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
20 ratings
Spotify
4.6 / 5
9 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 45 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
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