I have been podcasting for over 10 years, currently in my 13th season.

Cosmos-conceived. Earth-incarnated. District of Columbia-born. Maryland-raised. Storyteller. Taurus. Writer. Podcaster. Television producer. Foodie. Filmmaker.
A roundtable of wisdom, where people from all across the planet, from all walks of life, and from all religious and sacred traditions, convene for spiritual conversation.
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 ...
I have been podcasting for over 10 years, currently in my 13th season. Playlist: Brother to Brother. Over the 12 seasons, I have had some really good conversations with a handful of brothers that I have asked back time and again, to continue digging deeper into their journey. Playlist: “Conscious” Fatherhood. What does it mean to be Read More ...
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.
BETHESDA – September 10, 2001. Iyanla 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 Vanzant. And Read More ...
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.
These are some of the brothers I have met, and stayed in dialogue with, over the years, on this podcasting journey.
Soul talking with my “sisters from another mister.”
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 ...
Because he refused to “snitch” on his co-conspirators, 18-year-old Reno was sentenced (under the felony murder rule) to life without the possibility of parole, and he has been serving his time for over 20 years now, at one of the 27 “correctional” institutions in the state of Maryland. Revisiting the history of the Lorton Reformatory Read More ...
Recorded just a few days after the executions of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, we are processing the pain, grief, anger, and outrage at the deaths of those brothers at the hands of police. I begin by sharing the story of 1973 New Orleans sniper Mark James Robert Essex, comparing his killing spree to that of the 2016 Dallas 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.
3:49 A.M. I woke up in the middle of the night this morning. And cried. And prayed. And remembered. And pledged to God. And danced. And sang. And felt sorry. And regretted. And buried old bones. And dug them up. And threw them around the room. And was quiet. Then hopeful again.
This is a story about “The Ballad of the Sad Young Men,” a song from the 1959 stage play “The Nervous Set,” with lyrics written by Fran Landesman and music composed by Tommy Wolf, Jr., inspired by the 50s Beat generation. On this journey, we travel with this song through the 1950s-1960s-1970s and experience the different musical and vocal interpretations of the tune throughout those decades by several artists.
Let me tell you a story. “Djehuti: The Origin and Mastery of Thought.” This is some backstory on the idea of Thought.
Let me tell you a story. “Hidden Manna: The Discovery of The Essene Gospel of Peace,” the backstory of the collection of four books known to the world as The Essene Gospel of Peace.
Let me tell you a story. “The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest,” a famous sermon from way back in the day. Here’s some backstory.
Is it possible to have “bad blood” between father and son? And just what is bad blood? This is a story of Marvin Gaye and how his very own father took the life of the Motown soul singer.
This is the story of The Grapevine Telegraph – the informal, spontaneous word-of-mouth communication system used by Negro slaves in Civil War America to keep up-to-date on current events, and to stay one step ahead of their white slave masters. This is also the story of how the Motown song “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” came to finally be released as a single, back in 1967.
This is the story of the distinction between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat – the Capitalists who actually OWN the means of production and reap surplus value from that production (profit made by the Proletariat, but not given to them!) VERSUS those folks who trade their physical and intellectual labor for living wages. This is also the story of the teachings of Karl Marx.
This is the story of the roots of race in America, beginning in Europe, with Carl Linnaeus, Johann Blumenbach, then moving stateside with Thomas George Morton, and Louis Agassiz – and their scientific racism. This is also the story of race, class, and poverty in the United States. This is the story of the Age of Enlightenment (1700-1800) and the birth, development, and expansion of Scientific Racism – by white European men. This is also the story of Swedish-born botanist Carl Linnaeus and his 1735 grouping of humans into four categories.
This is the story of German-born anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, whose craniological research led him (in 1779) to divide human beings into five categories, based upon the size and shape of the human skulls he studied. This is also the story of the Age of Enlightenment (1700-1800) and the birth, development, and expansion of Scientific Racism – by white European men.
This is the story of a Philadelphia-born man, considered by many to be the American father of Scientific Racism – Samuel George Morton, author of Crania Americana (1839), also known as A Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America. This is also the story of his second book – Crania Aegyptiaca, also known as Observations on Egyptian Ethnography Derived from Anatomy, History, and the Monuments (1844). These two books provided part of the ideological foundation on which Scientific Racism thrived in the 19th century.
This is the story of Swiss-born biologist Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) – one of the fathers of Scientific Racism – known, among other things, for commissioning the photographing of African-American slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, to document racial differences, in an effort to prove to the world (in 1850) the physical and anatomical inferiority of Black folks to white Europeans.
For the brother, Fred Hampton, who ain’t here. This is the story of the U.S. government policy of the No Knock Warrant – which allows law enforcement officials to make forced entry into your home without first announcing or notifying you of their presence and intention. This is also the story of Fred Hampton, a member of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party during the civil rights movement in the late 60s and early 70s. This is also the story of COINTELPRO – a secret and sometimes illegal FBI program of covert operations, designed to surveil, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt the civil rights and Black Power movements.
This is a story of Saint Augustine and his journey to Consciousness.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “A Knock at Midnight.”
This is the story of Mark Essex, who murdered a score of New Orleans police officers and citizens in 1973.
In July of 1961, Mr. James Baldwin sat down with Mr. Studs Terkel to discuss the release of Mr. Baldwin’s 1961 book, Nobody Knows My Name.
This is a story about the 9th Ruler of the Mali Empire in the 14th century.