We have been podcasting The Robert Wesley Branch Show for over 10 years and are currently in our 14th season.

Cosmos-conceived. Earth-incarnated. District of Columbia-born. Maryland-raised. Storyteller. Taurus. Writer. Podcaster. Television producer. Foodie. Filmmaker.
Telling our stories.
All we really have is our story. And it (our story) is ours to tell: when we want to tell it, how we want to tell it, if we want to tell it. Ms. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) taught that lesson very well.
By Robert Wesley Branch We are responsible for what we know and how we live. There are people who you see every day who don’t have a clue as to their purpose for being. They don’t know why they came here. These family members, friends, co-workers and complete strangers can more easily tell you what Read More ...
Season 5. Show #181. Said the Prince to the King.
BETHESDA – September 10, 2001. Ms. Iyanla Vanzant left a voice-mail message at my office. At that time, I was an executive producer in Primetime Programming at Discovery Networks. About a week earlier, on a Monday morning, in that very office, I watched the premiere of Iyanla, the Barbara Walters-produced national talk show featuring Iyanla Read More ...
In this series, we are cooking our way through the history and recipes of American Beach, once known as the “Negro Ocean Playground,” just north of Jacksonville, Florida.
Author Marsha Dean Phelts, in her 2008 book, The American Beach Cookbook, writes: “There are times when residents of American Beach feel that they have had too many shrimp. Other times there may be too many crabs or too much fish. When it comes to too much of an item, people often become more creative Read More ...
Did your father lay his hands on you and tell you who you are? What is the reality of raising a son and a daughter, as a single Black female, without their father in the home? And what is the reality of raising Black sons, when you are not married to, or together with, their Read More ...
WASHINGTON – October 16, 1995. In the Company of My Brothers. Words and Images by Robert Wesley Branch. My father reached into his briefcase and pulled out a red-black-and-green button: Million Man March, Day of Atonement, I Want to be in THAT Number!, October 16, 1995, it read. “It’s for you,” he told me. “I saw them Read More ...
WASHINGTON – September 6, 1992. My first (and so far, only!) published opinion piece in The Washington Post.
Meditations on Fulani and Ibo proverbs, as well as the wisdom of James Baldwin (1924-1987), Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), Jean Toomer (1894-1967), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900), Jesus of Nazareth, Lao-Tzu, Ntozake Shange (1948-2018), Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), Pearl Bailey (1918-1990), and Marianne Williamson.
Undiagnosed depression among Black men is more common than many may think. Inspired by the book, Black Men and Depression: Saving Our Lives, Healing Our Family and Friends by John Head, we did our first program on depression in our first season of podcasting. This is Brother Andre’s story.
Ms. Judy and I met in the summer of 1986, when we were both party animals on the nightclub circuit in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. These are some of our stories from that time. Having now both reached so-called “mid-life,” we reflect on whether or not the aging process has sent us into crisis.
Many people knew her as the “First Lady of Go-Go” music. I knew her as a jazz singer, spiritual teacher, a sister and my very good friend of 29 years. There are those rare and unique people who come into your life and teach you things you didn’t even know were important for your evolution; Read More ...
“The Rise, Fall and Recipes of American Beach: Part 1: Relief in Distress.” Over the summer, my brother and podcast partner, Mr. Darren Dante Bonner, turned me on to Ms. Marsha Dean Phelts, a celebrated librarian, author and historian out of Jacksonville, Florida — and he also hipped me to American Beach, on Amelia Island. Ms. Phelts is the author of three books — all on American Beach. As a foodie, her second book, The American Beach Cookbook (University Press of Florida, 2008), seductively captured my heart; as a filmmaker, her first book, An American Beach for African Americans (University Press of Florida, 1997), completely captivated my soul. Her third book, on American Beach Homes, had a limited print run and I have yet to get my hands on a copy, although this is an active and ongoing pursuit. Ms. Phelts’ work on American Beach led me, first, to Ms. Annette McCollough Myers’ book, The Shrinking Sands of an African American Beach (2008); then to Mr. Russ Rymer’s book, American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth and Memory (HarperCollins, 1998). The more I read and cook from these books, the more I hear the Ancestors speaking to my soul, the more inspired I become to create something beautiful from their ashes, and the more strengthened I Am to continue the Unfinished Work of their souls.
In this first hour of an ongoing series, we are cooking our way through the roots, history, culinary heritage and spiritual legacy of American Beach, Florida’s first Black-owned and Black-populated coastal resort, created by Abraham Lincoln Lewis (1865-1947). These are the stories and life lessons, memories and milestones, and the recipes and reminiscences of those pioneers and trailblazers whose paths we venerate and emulate.