The Equity Matters Podcast

In the Margins is a podcast series that explores stories the way they’re meant to be explored. Part of the Stop Silencing Black Stories project, each episode will move beyond summary and intro analysis. What is this story really trying to show us?
In this Episode, The Blame Game, we revisit Richard Wright’s Native Son to examine race, fear, power, and the systems that shape the choices people are able to make. What happens when society defines someone before they have a chance to define themselves? And what happens we mistake individual choice for failures without examining the conditions that made those choices possible?
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Sign Our Petition to Stop the Silencing of Our Black Stories
Follow us on Instagram
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Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website

In the Margins is a podcast that explores stories the way they’re meant to be explored. Part of the Stop Silencing Black Stories project, each episode will move beyond summary and intro analysis. What is this story really trying to show us?
In this episode, Back Down Memory Lane, we revisit Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to explore trauma, memory, and the power of lived experience. What happens when stories are treated as less valuable than data? And what do we lose when we silence the very narratives that help us understand how systems shape human lives?
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Sign Our Petition to Stop the Silencing of Our Black Stories
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on TikTok
Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website

In the Margins is a podcast that explores stories the way they’re meant to be explored. Part of the Stop Silencing Black Stories project, each episode will move beyond summary and intro analysis. What is this story really trying to show us?
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube 
Sign Our Petition to Stop the Silencing of Our Black Stories
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on TikTok
Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website

A day in the life of a public health professional, podcaster, and human being. Roll with me to Richmond, VA to celebrate my brother achieving a significant academic milestone.

A day in the life of a public health professional, podcaster, and human being. Roll with me to Gaylord Michigan for the 2026 Michigan Suicide Prevention Community Technical Assistance Conference.

“Social work isn’t a profession.” “
Public health isn’t a real field.”
“Your degree doesn’t matter.”
 
Every time society dismisses a field, it affects funding, pay, and the people doing the hardest work: social workers, public health professionals, educators, and caregivers who sustain our communities.
In this episode of Equity Matters, Dr. James Bell III explores the history and politics of professionalism, showing how traits like formal education, licensure, and hierarchy were historically built to exclude women, Black and Brown professionals, and working-class communities. We dive into the consequences of structural inequities, including undervalued labor, disposable workforces, and narratives shaped by outsiders rather than the people doing the work.
 
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on TikTok
Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website

“Social work isn’t a profession.”
“Public health isn’t a real field.”
“Your degree doesn’t matter.”
These statements might sound like casual opinions, but they reveal something deeper about how society decides which professions deserve respect, funding, and power.
In this preview of the upcoming Equity Matters episode “Respeck on My Name (Work To Do)”, Dr. James Bell III explores the history and politics of professionalism and why fields like social work and public health are often dismissed even though they are essential to the health and stability of our communities.
This full episode will look at:
The history of professional status in the United States
How race, gender, and power shaped who gets to be called a “professional”
Why care professions are often undervalued and underfunded
The impact this has on the public health and social work workforce
Subscribe and stay tuned for the full conversation starting this Wednesday. 

Somebody said n****. Someone has a neurological disorder. Who is to blame?
Can you hold two truths at once?
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
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Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website

Dr. Bell has something to say.
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube 
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Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website

What happens when silence becomes a survival skill and survival becomes a sickness?
In this episode of Equity Matters, we examine the crisis of Black men’s health in America, where strength is too often defined by endurance and silence. From heart disease and diabetes to colorectal cancer, Black men face some of the highest rates of preventable illness yet many avoid care altogether, shaped by fear, stigma, and a history of systemic neglect. We trace how cultural expectations, mistrust, and racial bias collide to create deadly outcomes — and how breaking the silence could be one of the most radical acts of care. This isn’t just about health. It’s about what happens when a society teaches men to carry pain quietly and calls it pride.
The Sound of Silence now streaming wherever you listen to podcasts.
Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on TikTok
Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad
Visit Dr. Bell’s Website
Join the Equity Matters Circle