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Dr. Shawna Gann travels from Washington, DC to UCLA for the 2026 Critical Mixed Race Studies Association (CMRSA) Conference, themed Critical Healing. Before the first keynote, a grounding experience at the Fowler Museum’s Fire and Kinship exhibit reframes the weekend through an unexpected through line: fire as renewal, not destruction.

Across two workshops (Resonant Voices and Fault Lines and Bridges) and hallway conversations with scholars, artists, organizers, and first-time attendees, Shawna explores how mixed race experiences illuminate both personal inheritance and institutional architecture. From stories of ancestry, assimilation, and microaggressions to insights on systems, belonging, and community as oxygen, this episode asks what it means to heal without denying heat, and to steward the burn instead of fearing it.

In This Episode
• Traveling to UCLA for CMRSA 2026 (Critical Healing)
• Jackie Robinson’s legacy at UCLA and the pressure of integration
• Fowler Museum: Fire and Kinship as a frame for healing and renewal
• Resonant Voices: four interviews on lineage, identity, and lived experience
• Fault Lines and Bridges: a World Café on conditional belonging and structural shifts
• “Healing within inherited systems of power” and the turn toward institutions
• Hallway energy: why CMRSA feels different, and why community matters
• Closing reflections from LAX: carrying the fire without burning down

Featured Voices (as heard in this episode)
• Hedy Tripp (Resonant Voices)
• Galia Recinos (Resonant Voices)
• Jessica LeCap (Resonant Voices)
• Alicia del Prado (Resonant Voices)
• Steve Castro (session excerpt)
• Aeriel Ashley (session excerpt)
• Dakota Duffy
• Chandra Waring
• Deja Goodwin
• Wendy Ashley and Nolan
• Jordan Adams
• Joy DuVivre

Organizations and Places Mentioned
• Critical Mixed Race Studies Association (CMRSA)
• Fowler Museum at UCLA
• Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC)
• Resonant Voices & Fault Lines and Bridges (True Culture Coaching & Consulting)

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.

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What would people assume about you if they could only hear your voice? In this expansive and thought provoking episode, Dr. Shawna Gann and Marcel sit down with global cultural commentator Joy DuVivre to explore identity across borders, histories and lived experience.

Born in Romania to a Romanian Romani mother and an Angolan father, and raised primarily in Angola, Joy brings a deeply layered perspective shaped by colonial history, colorism, migration and disability. From the legacy of Romani enslavement in Europe to the impact of colonial borders in Africa, this conversation moves across continents while staying grounded in one powerful truth: identity is fluid, contextual and constantly evolving.

Joy shares reflections on colorism using the framework coined by Alice Walker, the historical reality of Romani persecution including during the Holocaust, the parallels between Romani experiences in Europe and Black experiences in the United States, and what it means to become disabled after building a career rooted in physical expression. She also introduces her playful yet powerful identity markers like "West Coastian" and "Sunsetter", reminding us that belonging can be self-defined.

In this episode, we explore:

• How perception and voice shape racial assumptions
• The global roots of colorism and colonial hierarchy
• Romani history, enslavement and ongoing discrimination
• Afro Romani communities in the American South
• Assimilation, survival and generational silence
• Disability as identity
• Why mixedness is not a box but a lived experience

Joy mentions her excitement about attending the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association Conference taking place February 19 through 21 at UCLA in Los Angeles. Click here to learn more about the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association. Consider becoming a member!

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.

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No guest today, no polished lesson, no neat ending. Just Dr. Shawna Gann and Rachel, one of last year’s co-hosts, sitting down for an unfiltered, unscripted conversation about what it feels like to be alive in this moment. They jump from media to power, faith to language, survival to community, and the constant mental whiplash of trying to stay grounded while everything feels loud. The through line is voice, not the perfect kind, but the kind that helps you name what you’re noticing, process out loud, and remember you are not the only one holding this tension in your body.

Together they talk about how we got here, how information gets curated, how language gets manipulated, and why proximity to wealth and authority has never been proof of intelligence or morality. They reflect on growing up in church, the ways religion and politics get tangled, and how systems shape what we believe about gender, race, and who is seen as human. It’s funny in places, heavy in others, and above all honest. A reminder to protect your voice, protect your energy, stay connected, and stay engaged where it counts, especially locally.

Content note: adult language and discussion of politics and current events. This is not a news report or definitive analysis, it’s two people thinking out loud in real time.

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.

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Host Dr. Shawna Gann and co-host Marcel welcome their first guest of the season in this powerful conversation of Our True Colors. They are joined by the founder of Lonewolf District Ali Blair Caplan, known as "AB". In this discussion, they explore what it means to live between identities and still claim a sense of belonging. AB shares her lived experience as a biracial Black and white woman adopted into an all-white family, and how that journey shaped her understanding of race, contentment, and self-trust.

This episode moves through stories of being labeled, questioned, and reduced by others and how those moments can fracture identity or become catalysts for healing. AB reflects on the moment she realized society would always see her as non-white, regardless of proximity to whiteness, and how that reckoning led her toward spiritual practice, integrity, and creating spaces where people feel safe to be fully themselves. The conversation weaves together race, adoption, wellness, cultural responsibility, and energy work, offering grounding rather than escape. A central reminder echoes throughout. Love and good intentions are not always enough. Integrity, responsibility, and tending to ourselves matter if we want to stay human in uncertain times.

More to Check Out:

• The Aimee Amour - Best Bar DJ in New York City
• How frogs went from right-wing meme to anti-ICE protest symbol

To explore Shawna’s work and sign up for updates about her upcoming book Mixed Signals, visit TrueCultureConsulting.com.

If this episode resonated, subscribe to the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who might need it.

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.

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Season 6 is here—and we’re starting with a Meet the Co-Host episode. Shawna welcomes back Marcel De Jonghe (joining from Birmingham, UK) for a warm, funny, and deeply reflective conversation about what it means to live in complexity. Marcel shares why being mixed isn’t a neat “half-and-half” story. It’s more like ingredients baked into something entirely new. Together, Shawna and Marcel talk about how identity often gets filtered through other people’s assumptions, how microaggressions can feel “frosted” in the air, and why belonging can be hardest in that in-between, liminal space where you’re moving… but never quite “arrived.”

Marcel also opens up about well-being and the importance of men speaking honestly about mental health—especially when pain can stay hidden for years until it demands to be addressed. He introduces the concept of sonder—the reminder that every person you pass is carrying a whole life of their own—and invites us to move through the world with more curiosity, care, and humanity. This season, Shawna and Marcel are leaning into honesty, nuance, and the courage to show up as our full selves—without shrinking into whatever version feels easiest for the room.

Connect with Marcel:

• The Belonging Lab
  LinkedIn
  
  

If this episode resonated, here’s your CTA:

• Share this episode with someone who’s ever felt “in-between.”
• Subscribe/follow Our True Colors so you don’t miss the conversations ahead.
• Leave a review—your support helps more listeners find the show.

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.

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Welcome to Our True Colors. This brief introduction gives you the full picture of what the show is about, who I am, and what you can expect in every season.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why I started this podcast and what “racial riddle, ethnic enigma, and cultural conundrum” really mean.
• How different co-hosts join me each season — and why that rotating perspective matters.
• The kinds of stories you’ll hear, from families, professionals, and my own lived experience.
• Why belonging is at the heart of every conversation.

👉 Want to connect?

Look for the link above to send me a direct message or let's connect online! You can find the links right here in the show notes.

Welcome to the community!

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.

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If you’re new here, this short trailer will give you a taste of Our True Colors. You’ll hear how the show explores identity, belonging, and life in the in-between spaces.

Subscribe now and then check out the full Start Here episode for a deeper dive into what we’re about.

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.

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For the first time, I’m joined by my full family—my husband Chad and our kids, Christian and Ariana—in a double-length finale to close out Season 5 of Our True Colors.

We get into it all:

• Identity, hair, and insecurities
• What people assume about us as a couple
• Family culture, music, and travel
• How our kids make sense of their biracial identity
• What it really means to belong

It’s funny, vulnerable, unscripted—and filled with moments we’ve never shared, even with each other.

Let's stay in touch!

• Shawna on LinkedIn
• True Culture on LinkedIn
• The Culture Clinic Newsletter
• True Culture Coaching and Consulting
• Our True Colors on Instagram
• Season 5 Episodes on YouTube
• Contact Me Directly

Stuff to Explore and Learn More About:

• Our True Colors "Start Here" episode
• W.E.B. Du Bois & Double Consciousness
• J.D. Vance...calls Kamala Harris a chameleon

Previous Episodes with Christian Gann/Aimee Amour:

• Intersecting Communities: BLM and Pride
• Hey, Queen! Talking Racial Ambiguity with Christian Gann and Aimee Amour
• Follow Aimee Amour on Instagram and TikTok
• Check out this special edition Culture Clinic featuring Christian and Aimee

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!

Interested in being a guest? Head to this link to share your story with us!

Our True Colors is powered by True Culture Coaching & Consulting. Head to our website to find out how True Culture Coaching and Consulting can support you and your organization, and subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter, The Culture Clinic, for more great content.