After months in the planning, I was thrilled to launch a new venture with my valued friend and colleague, Shonagh Reid, of Spotlight Inclusion, this week – the Mixed Matters podcast.
I love writing. This blog will always be my first love when it comes to sharing my learning about what’s going on in the world from my point of view as a person of colour. But I love talking too, and I enjoy listening to podcasts. I often share great conversations with Shonagh about things we’ve listened to and learned about. When chatting recently, we both agreed that we hadn’t found a podcast that truly spoke to us as mixed heritage women in our 40s, living in Nottingham in the UK, working in diversity and inclusion and very, very intentionally woke.
So that’s how Mixed Matters was born.
It’s designed to connect with women like us, to build a community of people who are interested in the world, and to amplify the voices of people doing amazing things in politics, social justice, wellness, fashion and the arts. It’s also a chance for Shonagh and I to share our chats with the world, so that we can connect with other women who don’t feel they’ve found quite the right podcast for them yet either. We hope listeners will connect with us via Instagram and Threads so that we can all share our questions and insights. We’ve also launched a private LinkedIn group for professionals to network and support each other.
There’s a lot going on in the world right now. Things have felt really heavy this Summer with racist riots across the UK. It can be hard to blog about things that are so upsetting, but I found it easier somehow, to discuss the awfulness of what we were experiencing with friends who cared and understood.
Shonagh and I launched the podcast at a time when the riots were fresh in our minds, when racism, Islamophobia and hatred was widespread and frighteningly violent. We never planned for these things to coincide, but it if the podcast can help people feel like they’re connecting with trusted friends who understand and support them through tough times, it will have achieved its purpose.
Find us on Spotify if you’d like to listen to episode one, “Talking about being the only one”. We’ll be releasing a new episode every fortnight, and we would love to hear from you, so connect with us on social media too.
Thank you as always for being here, and I hope you enjoy Mixed Matters.
thatsabitracey.com 