Introducing Me: Your Host.

There will be a day when this podcast will be bigger than me and the amazing 19 friends and TG!P Insiders who listen to my little show. On that day, the algorithmic power of the web that determines the fate of my digital existence will create a tidal wave of attention and land TG!P on someone’s top 5 list– Essence Magazine, Fast Company, Blavity, New York Times, or maybe Bozoma St. John or Yvonne Orji’s list of “Podcasts I can’t live without.” By then, it’ll be too late for me to introduce myself. By then, any stories about me will out there in the world and will be largely based on conclusions drawn by whatever I do or don’t not say in a podcast episode– and I’ll just have to accept the glowing reviews of my genius, creativity, and brilliance.

Episode 1: Why do people send me rude emails? – The Gall! Podcast

For episode 1 of The Gall! Podcast, I read an email from a sender whose bad manners and disrespectful tone made me want to throw my laptop across the room. Instead, I decided to analyze this stranger's message with my good friend and Oxford-trained linguist, Mandy Pipher, to see what we could learn about this rude sender. A Little Backstory: Five years ago, I launched GoFundMe's most successful viral education campaign. Over 1000 (closer to 1400) people from around the world showed their support and sent me their money and well wishes to pursue my dream– graduate school at Harvard. I was featured in the Boston Globe, on MTV, and CNBC… I went proper viral.  Now, 5 years later, I'm heading back to graduate school– something I would have never imagined before my crowdfunding campaign. This podcast episode is inspired by a message I shared with my supporters about the good news. Show Your Love on Patreon I looking for 25 people to support this podcast. If I hit 25, then I know I'm on to something and release the remaining episodes. Patreon supporters will get commercial free podcasts, as well as perks like a t-shirt, and the chance to hang out with me a few others on Zoom once a month. Help me join the ranks of #blackpodcasters! Support the show here.

So, before that glow up happens, I thought I’d introduce myself as I am now. Now being the moment when I’m a podcasting nobody with 19 real fans, no team, no professional set up (not even a microphone!), and no idea about how long this podcast thing will last.

From the North, but Boston-Based.

I am Toni, a thirty-something Black Canadian, living in Black Boston (hello redlining!) working in education. Culturally, I’m Jamaican-Canadian, which means my taste for comfort food and palette for home-cooked meals are as inspired by the warmth of the Caribbean sun as they are the freezing chill of the Canadian winters. Think coconut, plantains, and scotch bonnet peppers meets poutine, maple syrup, and butter tarts. My love for food, like many of the good things in my life, happened late– in my late 20’s. I’m a perpetual late-bloomer.

Speaking of peaking late, in addition to my full-time work in education, I’m also a graduate student at MIT. When I’m not hyperventilating about how I’m going to pay off $170K of student debt, I’m thinking about strategies to build resilient company cultures— ones that aren’t hostile to employees whose belief system would categorize them as “diverse” or different. I’m also interested in marrying the worlds of tech and justice as a realize the increasing need for tech companies, and the innovation economy to think about the human impact of innovation on all people, and not just the privileged middle-class.

I strive every day to work toward justice. Sometimes I get it right. Other days I get it wrong, but either way I’m always surrounded by brilliant, accomplished, and beautifully humble people. You’ll meet many of them as guests on my show. They inspire me to be a smarter, nicer, more confident, and unapologetic. I love them dearly, and you will too. If you don’t meet them as guests on my show, they probably among my first group of 19, TG!P Insiders. When you hear me talk about the 3 or 4 people listening to my podcast, I’m talking about them, my day ones.

The Motivation Behind TG!P.

I started this podcast partly because I was feeling triggered. In a world where folks believe that Black people would be better off if they just behaved better, and women would be more respected if they were just [fill in a praised male character trait that women are criticized for having] I have an inbox full of countless examples of unprovoked hostility and unwarranted rudeness that seem to happen because I’m a woman, I’m black or because I’m a black woman. In professional settings, I have learned to not react to the attacks. But there is a part of me that wants to be petty about it. I know I’m disappointing Michelle Obama with this podcast because, after years of going high, I have switched tactics to go decidedly low.

And you know what, I’m not sorry.

I Dedicate This Podcast to You.

This podcast is for people who are doing their best to respect the people around them, balance the needs of staff, colleagues, and bosses who always demand more from you– even when they have no intention to reciprocate your energy. This is for the people who grin and bear it while they grind, believing that hard work beats talent, when talent sits on their ass and acts entitled. This podcast is a mix of petty and poignant critique of email culture and the ways communication and connection between humans have changed because of this virtual medium. It’s “yaaassss, sis!” mixed with “the absence of contractions in this email suggests that this person is formal– and not your friend.”