Learning to Take Up Space: How I Stopped Making Myself Smaller to Fit In

Learning To Occupy Spaces Without Representation

In this episode of Wait, I’m Black?!, Michael sits in conversation with Christine Kinnear – award-winning Founder and CEO of With Insight Education – about growing up Black in the UK, the lasting impact of early racial experiences, and the quiet ways underrepresentation shapes what people, especially young people, believe is possible for them. Christine reflects on encountering racism at a painfully young age. But this conversation also explores something less obvious: the impact of what isn’t present – the absence of representation, visibility, and affirmation in the spaces young people grow up within. They discuss how children absorb messages about belonging, value, and potential long before they fully understand race, and why seeing yourself reflected in positions of possibility matters more than many realise. This is a thoughtful conversation about identity, aspiration, and the subtle ways the world teaches people where they do, or do not, belong. If you would like to follow the journey, you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram (@wibpodcast). And if you – or someone you know – has a “Wait, I’m Black?!” moment you’d like to share, you are welcome to reach out.

Learning to Take Up Space: How I Stopped Making Myself Smaller to Fit In

In this episode of Wait, I’m Black?!, Michael sits in conversation with Fizza Qureshi – CEO of a migration charity, campaigner, and mother of two.   Growing up as a Pakistani girl in a predominantly white working-class area in the UK, Fizza reflects on the subtle and overt ways race shaped her childhood long before she had language for it.   From school experiences and neighbourhood hostility to feeling pressure to hide parts of her identity in order to fit in, she explores what it means to grow up learning how not to stand out.   This conversation touches on belonging, racialisation, assimilation, and the journey of reclaiming identity – not only for yourself, but for the next generation.   If you would like to follow the journey, you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram (@wibpodcast). And if you – or someone you know – has a “Wait, I’m Black?!” moment you’d like to share, you are welcome to reach out.

Too Much of One Thing, Not Enough of Another – My Experience of Belonging

In this episode of Wait, I’m Black?!, Michael sits in conversation with Martha Awojobi – a consultant, coach, and creator of Uncharitable Political Education.   Martha reflects on growing up navigating identity without always having the language or clarity to make sense of it.   She shares what it felt like to exist between worlds as a mixed-race person, where belonging wasn’t always straightforward, and where external perceptions didn’t always align with her internal experience.   As the conversation unfolds, she explores how those early dynamics shaped her understanding of race, power, and the systems we move through, and how that awareness has evolved over time.   This episode explores complexity, contradiction, and the ongoing process of making sense of who you are when the world doesn’t always make space for nuance.   If you’d like to follow the journey, you can subscribe and follow us on Instagram (@wibpodcast). And if you – or someone you know – has a “Wait, I’m Black?!” moment you’d like to share, you are welcome to reach out.

When a Bank Asked Me a Question I’d Never Been Asked Before

In this episode of Wait, I’m Black?!, Michael sits in conversation with Wellington Makala – a Chief Nurse in the NHS and an experienced, passionate healthcare leader.   Wellington grew up in Zimbabwe with a strong sense of who he was – shaped by family, belonging, and purpose, not race.   When he moved to the UK, something shifted.   He reflects on the moment race stopped being abstract and began to carry weight – and how that realisation has shaped his experiences of work, belonging, and identity ever since.   This episode explores what it means to lose a certain kind of ease, to become newly aware of how you are seen, and the ongoing effort to hold on to who you are in the face of it.   If you’d like to follow the journey, you can subscribe and follow us on Instagram (@wibpodcast). And if you – or someone you know – has a “Wait, I’m Black?!” moment you’d like to share, you’re welcome to reach out.

Welcome to Wait, I’m Black?!

This introductory episode sets the stage for Wait, I’m Black?! — a podcast about the moment when race stops being abstract and starts to matter. These are stories about the moment when race stops being abstract and starts to matter. It’s a reflective space with moments of warmth and humour, and honest conversations that make visible how race shows up in everyday life – sometimes quietly, sometimes suddenly, sometimes in ways people only understood years later. In this episode, I share why this series exists, what inspired it, and what you can expect from the conversations ahead. The first guest episodes are coming soon. If you’d like to follow the journey, you can subscribe and follow our page on Instagram (wibpodcast) or on YouTube (www.youtube.com/@WIB-Podcast [http://www.youtube.com/@WIB-Podcast]). And if you or someone you know has a “Wait, I’m Black?!” moment you’d like to talk about on the podcast, you are welcome to reach out.