Aspiring TikTok influencer and Newport News, Virginia native Micah Temple drops by Keep Your Voice Down this week for a chat with hosts Alek Haak-Frost and Doug Sears, Jr. The trio discuss Micah's burgeoning social media presence, the fleeting nature of Tumblr fame, discovering one's people, pop cultural blindspots, and their respective Mount Rushmores of favorite films.
Poet and spoken word artist Madison “Mocha” Hunter drops by Keep Your Voice Down for a chat. Alek, Doug, and Madison discuss the poet’s current locale, Memphis, Tennessee, where she is pursuing a Master’s degree in creative writing and a certificate in African American literature, and how it compares to her previous stops in Alabama and her hometown Detroit. The trio touch on Afrofuturism, Black history and culture, fathers and their impact on us, the American South, subtle racism and the legacy of Fannie Lou Hammer. Madison also performs her piece “Fannie Lou Hamer: Appropriating Nikki Giovanni’s Rosa Parks,” which you can read on Watershed Voice.
Alek and Doug address the Georgia Bulldog in the room: Former Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford is Super Bowl bound, and they're here for it. After fawning over Stafford and what he meant to Detroit, Doug and Alek discuss rooting for a player after they leave your favorite team, silver linings from the trade that sent Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams and the Lions' ensuing rebuild, and the man standing between Stafford and his first championship, Cincinnati Bengals' sophomore phenom Joe Burrow.
Author Matthew Roberson stops by Keep Your Voice Down to discuss his forthcoming novel "Interim," set to be released in March, and all things writing. Doug, Alek, and Matt talk process, influence, young writers’ dependence on film, television, and video games in lieu of reading literature, and Central Michigan University where Matt teaches creative writing.
Malachi Carter (The Unapologetics (UN) Podcast) drops by Keep Your Voice Down to discuss, well, everything. Doug, Alek, and Malachi talk Season 2 of UN, what to expect in Season 3, Malachi’s upcoming MLK Day online event “MLK, CRT, and The Gospel,” the respective greatness of Betty White and Spider-Man: No Way Home, and much more.
It was a big year for the guys at Keep Your Voice Down, as Doug Sears, Jr. and Alek Haak-Frost published 34 episodes and interviewed 25 guests in 2021. Here are the five episodes folks listened to most.
Doug and Alek wanted to discuss all things holidays, and felt it was necessary to bring in an expert, so we called Mrs. Christmas herself, Steph Hightree. These three wise people discuss Steph's lack of egg nog experience, ridiculous Hallmark Christmas movie plots, determining whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not (it certainly is), surviving Elf on the Shelf, and their favorite Christmas songs.
Former Three Rivers Middle School teacher Russell Ball joins Keep Your Voice Down to talk about his recent resignation after Three Rivers Community Schools staff were asked to remove Pride flags from their classrooms due to an "external challenge." Ball details the events leading up to his exit, what the flag represents to members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and why the flags should remain in classrooms not only in Three Rivers but around the world.
At the top of this week’s episode Alek and Doug address Monday’s troubling news that teachers within the Three Rivers Community Schools system were asked to remove Pride flags in their classrooms in response to an “external challenge” by an unidentified party. The hosts of Keep Your Voice Down are also joined by Sarah Lee, Director of Marketing Communications at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. The trio discusses Sarah’s role at KZCF, her upbringing in Malaysia and how she became deeply rooted in Kalamazoo, the importance of being “equity-minded” when addressing matters of social and racial injustice, the foundation’s efforts to support local journalism, and the story behind the formation of the Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative.
Former TRDDA Executive Director Brian Persky joined Doug and Alek on Keep Your Voice Down this week to discuss downtown Three Rivers, his work with Discover Kalamazoo, the hierarchy of Halloween Candy, and why being a Detroit Lions fan is basically a combat sport.
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