Technology has a weird way of slowly pushing us to a future we’d only see in sci-fi movies as kids, while still maintaining and rooting us in tradition. For hundreds of years ailing people sought the help of energy healers, traveling far and wide to seek healing from “experts”. Nowadays a Google search or YouTube video can bring you the same relief our ancestors risked their lives to receive. Enter Jessica “Jet” LaShea. Listen as the Arlington native talks about her life growing up in Virginia, the winding path she took to get where she is today, and why she thinks more than ever, Black people are comfortable seeking and practicing more traditional and esoteric forms of worship.

Local Color is hosted and produced by Jason V. and is distributed by Your Public Studios.

Names hold power in our lives, and life has a weird way of moving in a circle. For A’Lelia Bundles, her name shaped her life, and in turn, her life circled back to her name. She’s the great-great granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker, but she kept that to herself because she wanted to be her own person. Listen as we talk about A’Lelia’s childhood in Indianapolis, making her own way in media and journalism, and how from graduate school to the present day, A’Lelia carries and protects the stories of her ancestors and her own story as well.

Local Color is hosted and produced by Jason V. and is distributed by Your Public Studios.