Acclaimed Chef Camille Becerra on Her Puerto Rican Roots

Show Me the Body’s Julian Pratt on Becoming a Father.

In this episode of Identified, Nabil Ayers sits down with Show Me the Body's Julian Pratt to explore the people, communities, and experiences that shaped his identity. Growing up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Julian was surrounded by family. With twin mothers, a sprawling network of cousins, and a household full of music, conversation, and chaos, belonging was never in short supply. But despite that foundation, he often felt different. Struggling in school, dealing with behavioural challenges, and feeling increasingly isolated as a child, he began searching for connection elsewhere.  That search led him into New York’s punk, graffiti, and DIY communities, where he found what would become a second family. Through friendship, creativity, and collective care, Julian helped build the community that would eventually become Corpus and Show Me The Body.  Nabil and Julian explores Jewish identity, immigration, generational history, and the stories passed down through family. Julian reflects on his grandfather’s journey from Eastern Europe to New York, what it means to be a “wandering Jew,” and how those ideas continue to shape his worldview today.  At the center of the episode is fatherhood. Julian shares how becoming a parent transformed his understanding of strength, shifting him away from fear, aggression, and anger toward something rooted in love, care, and responsibility.   Guest: Julian Pratt (Show Me The Body) Host: Nabil Ayers Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji Produced by Palm Tree Island See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Betsy Lerner on Writing Your Truth and The Tension Between Honesty and Fear

In this episode of Identified, Nabil Ayers sits down with bestselling author and literary agent Betsy Lerner to explore identity, family history, and the complicated path to becoming a writer. Betsy reflects on her upbringing, the influence of her family, and how personal experiences eventually shaped both her writing and her career in publishing. Known for her work as a literary agent as well as her acclaimed memoirs and books on writing, Betsy has spent decades helping writers uncover the stories only they can tell. The conversation explores how identity, family dynamics, and cultural background can influence the stories we carry and the stories we are willing to share. Betsy also reflects on the emotional challenge of writing personal material, the tension between honesty and vulnerability, and why the most powerful writing often comes from confronting the truths we try hardest to avoid. This is a thoughtful discussion about storytelling, memory, and the role writing plays in helping us understand where we come from. Guest: Betsy Lerner Host: Nabil Ayers Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji Produced by Palm Tree Island See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Ryan Kattner on growing up between cultures and finding community through music

Have you ever found community through your art? In this episode of Identified, Nabil Ayers sits down with musician Ryan Kattner to talk about growing up in an Air Force family, moving every three years, and never quite feeling rooted in one place. Ryan reflects on being mixed race, with a Filipino mother and a white father, and how navigating different cultural spaces shaped his sense of identity. He shares what it was like to feel caught between worlds, passing in some environments while feeling out of place in others. The conversation explores how constant movement shaped his understanding of family, where friends often became family, and how music eventually became a space where he felt understood and connected. Ryan also talks about the realities of life on the road, the bond that forms between musicians, and how creativity can help process loss and major life moments.   Guest: Ryan Kattner Host: Nabil Ayers Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji Produced and Distributed by: Palm Tree Island See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Musician Damon McMahon on Processing Family History Through Music

How much of who we are is shaped before we ever have a say? In this episode of Identified, Nabil Ayers sits down with musician Damon McMahon, formally Amen Dunes, to explore how family history, inherited trauma, and cultural identity shape who we become. Damon reflects on growing up between two very different worlds: his mother’s side of European Jewish Holocaust survival and his father’s working-class Irish American roots. He shares stories of how these legacies lived quietly in his family — sometimes spoken, often unspoken — and how they influenced his sense of self from an early age. The conversation moves through complicated family dynamics, childhood instability, and the ways creativity can act as a private space for processing what’s difficult to articulate. Damon talks candidly about how his music has long been a way of exploring identity, releasing emotion, and trying to understand the forces that shaped him. They also discuss how becoming a parent reshaped his understanding of family — not as something inherited, but something actively created. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Acclaimed Chef Camille Becerra on Her Puerto Rican Roots

What does it mean to raise yourself across cultures—and carry tradition forward through food? In this episode of Identified, chef and author Camille Becerra sits down with host Nabil Ayers for a heartfelt conversation about family, identity, and the life-shaping power of memory. Born in Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican mother and Cuban father, Camille moved to New Jersey at just one year old and grew up between cultures, languages, and generations. She reflects on growing up with a single mother, navigating a distant relationship with her father, and finding connection through her Puerto Rican family’s rituals—like traveling alone as a child to visit cousins, or waking early to buy bread from the local bakery. Food became her anchor and a bridge to memory and belonging. Camille opens up about defining family on her own terms, the blurred lines between relatives and chosen loved ones, and what it means to pass down tradition through flavor. Guest: Camille Becerra Host: Nabil Ayers Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji Production by Palm Tree Island  See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.