Being On The Inside

In this episode I chat with Glasgow-based artist and activist Karlie Wu, her work delves into the identity of being British/Scottish-Chinese, its expectations and misconceptions, and the reality of this lived experience exploring ‘cultural identity.

Karlie is also one of the six founding members of besea.n (Britain’s East and South East Asian Network), a non-profit, anti-racism grassroots organisation that tackles negative stereotypes and advocates positive media representation of East and South East Asian people in the UK.

This episode is about the rise in reported racism towards East and Southeast Asian people. It's about the history of how Sinophobia has been reported in the media, it’s about six women that came together to create a positive platform out of negative experiences.

But this is also an opportunity to listen in to a conversation between two people. Two women of colour who were born in the UK examining their own identity. Listening, sharing, and bringing both our journeys into the space. Too often debates about race can be over intellectualised, sanitised, and led by oppressive agenda, which can lead to those who are sharing having their experience dismissed and dehumanised. This is not that conversation. This a raw and honest unfinished version of our own events, lived experiences, and interpretations. The emotional labour of sharing your identity and racism story is a heavy load, and with that, I acknowledge this is not an easy endeavor.

This episode is about those unanswered questions of belonging, it’s about a link between racism and trauma and mental health, Gaslighting, internalised suppression, being mixed race, it’s about 80s Hong Kong meets Glasgow, the Hakka language, and the importance of finding a place to pass the baton of ritual that enrich our lives

If you want to find out more about Karlie Wu’s amazing work you can find her over at Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/wukarlie/?hl=en

The petition discussed in the episode can be found here: https://www.change.org/p/stop-depicting-east-south-east-asians-in-coronavirus-related-media

And at her website: https://www.karliewu.co.uk/Home

Besean: https://www.besean.co.uk/

Ed Accura, Filmmaker, hip hop star, podcast host, co-founder of the Black Swimming Association has just released his first film/documentary. A Film Called Blacks Can ́t Swim.

Inspired to teach the world to Swim, Ed is on a mission to enable Black Asian and Minority ethnic people to get into the water.

There is a disproportionate amount of non-swimmers in the BAME communities. Sport England found that 95% of black adults and 80% of black children don't swim.

Swimming is my passion, the idea that there are so many barriers to being in the water is saddening. I was so pleased to see that Ed and others from the Black Swimming Association, with the support of one of the founders, Teams GPS only black swimmer, Alice Dearing have made this an essential conversation, for the swimming world. And to everyone who should have access to learning this essential life skill.

Still, in lockdown, this podcast was recorded whilst all indoor pools were still closed, but swimming outside possible, but not doable for all. Recording the podcast still on Zoom from a distance being the new normal. You will hear what prompted Ed to learn to swim, how his first swimming lesson went, and what inspired him to make a film about his story. You will also hear about some of the myths, stereotypes, and stigma around talking about the lack of black participation in swimming.

This episode is in collaboration with The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festivals online 2020 program . I meet and chat with Emma Jayne Park off cultured mongrel whom along with Emily Furneaux and other artists have brought us Eat, Move, Sleep, repeat. This is a creative collaboration that was developed as a response to Covid-19 as part of the festival.

Emma as part of her practice, curates spaces and in this conversation we examine how those spaces effect us physically, emotionally and how they impact our connections. We discuss the importance of permission for those showing up, how this is done face to face with body language and how difficult it is to read and recreate in 2D online interactions.

We get into what it means too Emma and others to be an artist right now and how the pandemic is shaping the creative landscape and how she hopes it may will look going forward. We also talk about how we maybe confronting our sense of identity challenging our work role identities whilst being furloughed and how we look at our systems of productions in general and the creative industries.

This interview took place in week 650 of lockdown the weekend after Dominic Cummings flew in the face of lockdown restrictions and caused a ripple of anger and unsettlement and before the essential and urgent conversation about race equality, justice and identity became more heard in the mainstream voice.

Emma hosts daily dance sessions and in this episode you hear me trying to show up for one and why I find being online more socially intimidating than offline.

This podcast is all about the relationship we have with our physical bodies. It’s about Fatphobia, the body positivity movement, fat bias, demonising of the bigger body in our media, in our advertising, the social stigma of obesity. It ́s about how to learn to acknowledge and challenge our own preconceived notions. Where it comes from, how its internalised and develops our own core beliefs relating to our body and how we then interact with the world.

I chat to Danni Gordon the founder of the Chachi Power Project, she’s a body-positive activist, body image and body confidence advocate & speaker based in Scotland. She is a blogger, podcast host, social media creator and generally inspiring human.

Danni and I explore and unpick how we as individuals and society have grown this quiet abhorrence towards weight gain. Danni shares how she has overcome her own body hatred and why she set out up the Chachipower project to enable and give space to those who suffer from enduring body hatred and for anyone who wishes to live beyond these thoughts feelings and behaviours. She also tries to persuade me into some naked swimming as part of my move towards body acceptance.

This subject can be a minefield as plays into profoundly unquestioned fears and socially accepted hate speech, it’s also deeply sensitive to speak aloud and verbalise the voices of the trolls that reside in our own minds. Before the episode interview, Danni gave me an exercise she uses to help others imagine what life would be like without these thoughts and feelings. This is something I found challenging and emotional. During the episode, we speak about these for the first time and I share my own personnel journey.

Danni gives us her top three things to do now to begin a better relationship with your body. We also discuss the medias obsession with the thin narrative and Adele ́s recent weight loss being the latest spotlight.

This episode covers some sensitive topics please take care of yourself in listening. If you need help and advice regarding eating disorders you can reach out to a number of places here are some.

BEAT: 0808 801 0677

EATING DISORDER NI: 02890 235959

MIND: 0300 123 3393

In this episode I have the pleasure of chatting with Bethan Taylor- Swaine. Bethan is a PhD student at Birkbeck, University of London where she studies the representations and identities of women in ultra running.

This episode we delve into what it means to be a woman in sport, the history of how we are encouraged to participate. How early years sports can be taught through shame and humiliation and how men are better facilitated to achieve success. That essentially men still dominate sport and are also the gatekeepers to it. We chat though how the female body is seen and still policed within sport. How we are hyper sexualised in the media and how this impacts how we participate.

Women still receive messages around how and why we should be moving our bodies. Bethan believes short termism and low priority in policy change is why things are slow to change. The broadcast media's interest and commentary of female athlete's are still geared around their physical body, personal life and sexuality.

Bethan walks me through ultra running, what it means to her and how she participates, she beautifully describes ultra running as a moving picnic. She unpicks some of the myths and my beliefs around participation. We discuss Bethan's research and how ultra running is not as much an elite sport as you may imagine. Bethan advocates for the participation of physical activity for all. We discuss the common approach to sport and how it can be from the emphasis on high performance, metrics and stats.

Bethan is also a wellbeing consultant and she gives me a formula for stress and energy and we talk about awareness and why there needs to be a culture shift in how we approach rest.

Being On The Inside has been nominated for a People’s choice podcast award, it would be amazing if you could spend a few minutes voting. The podcast is listed under Health and Best Asian hosted podcast, you can vote in both categories. To vote please visit: https://www.podcastawards.com/ and register to vote. You have until July 31st to help Being On the Inside win. THANK YOU!