“How do people who identify as Black but have a white parent identify with that part of them? What are the complicated issues, if any? How do you manage day to day?” These are the questions posed by listener Janice Solek-Tefft that we’ll seek to answer in this episode of Homegoings. Myra Flynn shares her own experiences and speaks with three other biracial individuals as they discuss what it’s like to hold two of the world’s most opposing races in one body.

***A heads up: This episode contains strong language and unbleeped swearing*** Forget about aging in place, how about aging in paradise? For the launch of season two, Homegoings goes out of the country, to Mexico, for a conversation with Angel Clouthier and her grandmother Jean, a duo who are defining elder care in their own creative and colorful way.

Homegoings is a show that invites listeners to be a fly on the wall, privy to candid and genuine conversations about race. Host and musician Myra Flynn explores themes that fearlessly straddle that line between necessary and uncomfortable, as she speaks with artists, experts and regular folks all over the country about their literal skin in the game — of everyday life. Homegoings is storytelling — with a heartbeat. No topic is off the table, and there’s no such thing as going “too deep.” These are the conversations that are our birthright to have, and the stories we are lucky to hear.

Rachel Anne Dolezal became infamous when, in 2015, while deep in her work as an activist for Black and civil rights, a local TV news crew interviewed her and asked: “Are you African American?” Rachel froze. Turned from the camera and walked away. At the same time, Rachel's parents, Larry and Ruth Dolezal, outed Rachel as being born biologically white. While Rachel acknowledged this was true, she doubled down on her chosen identity, which she describes “racially as human and culturally as Black.” In this two-part final episode of season one of Homegoings, we catch up with Rachel to hear what’s changed in her world since then, and what hasn’t. And challenge the idea of race as a social construct — can it be deconstructed?

Rachel Anne Dolezal became infamous when, in 2015, while deep in her work as an activist for Black and civil rights, a local TV news crew interviewed her and asked: “Are you African American?” Rachel froze. Turned from the camera and walked away. At the same time, Rachel's parents, Larry and Ruth Dolezal, outed Rachel as being born biologically white. While Rachel acknowledged this was true, she doubled down on her chosen identity, which she describes “racially as human and culturally as Black.” In this two-part final episode of season one of Homegoings, we catch up with Rachel to hear what’s changed in her world since then, and what hasn’t. And challenge the idea of race as a social construct — can it be deconstructed?

Sweeney Grabin wants to know how to maintain her family’s Indian and Jewish cultures for her 2-year-old daughter, Maya, while living in Vermont, a predominantly white state. This episode originally appeared on Vermont Public’s show Brave Little State – and now we’re sharing it here with you.

***A heads up: This episode contains real conversations about suicide..*** Grief. It’s a word with certain acceptable adjectives attached. Words like: layered and complicated, hard and complex. Sad. But there are other words some might feel too scared to admit belong in the conversation describing grief. Words like: liberation, ease and even relief. In this episode, we speak with three Latina women in southern California who have lost someone recently. In a lot of ways, these stories are about the people they lost. But in many ways, they’re also about the them they have found after.

Powdered wigs, white men, aristocracy — these are just a handful of images and stereotypes historically associated with the world of classical music. But what if we’re wrong? In this episode, guest hosts James Stewart and Adiah Gholston talk with teenagers, composers and professors to unpack some of our assumptions around classical music. Where do its roots really lie? Who’s it made for, and where is it headed?

***A heads up: This episode is gonna get real. There will be some unbleeped swearing, and conversations about mental health issues and suicide..*** Ash Diggs is funny. So funny in fact that one of his jobs is to make people laugh. He’s a stand-up comedian who grew up in the South, moved to Queens, New York in 2021 but hails from Vermont. We speak with Ash about the relationship between comedy, addiction and depression, and how art can be both an enabler and a healer.

Audra McDonald, singer, broadway and television star — is a household name. As well as being the winner of six Tony Awards, two Grammys and an Emmy, The 53-year-old is also a bit of a truth-teller, to say the least. Earlier this summer, we sat down with Audra for a conversation on life, activism and navigating an artistic career in traditionally white spaces.

***A heads up: This episode contains strong language and unbleeped swearing*** In America, birth is a business; a cultural, political and for-profit system. And currently that system, for Black women, is in crisis. In this episode, host Myra Flynn speaks with a midwife, a doula, and swaps birth stories with two Black women. Together they discuss the joy, the trauma and the needed reckoning to address the racism baked into the pregnancy-industrial complex.

Host Myra Flynn sits down with artist Stephanie Wilson in her first interview since her double mastectomy and breast cancer diagnosis. Together they talk about her ongoing journey toward healing, and her work to break the generational cycle of secrets she believes made her sick in the first place.