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In this episode of Our True Colors, Dr. Shawna Gann and Season 6 cohost Marcel DeJonghe sit down with Teressa Plammoottil, a first generation Indian American whose story explores identity, racial ambiguity, religion, family dynamics, and the complicated search for community. Raised in a traditional South Indian Catholic household and shaped by both life in India and the United States, Teressa reflects on the experience of living between cultures while constantly navigating how others perceive her.

Together, they unpack everything from language and representation to beauty standards, colorism, mixed identity assumptions, and the emotional impact of exclusion within one’s own community. Teressa also shares how leaving home as a teenager transformed her understanding of family, belonging, and resilience, ultimately shaping the compassionate and culturally aware person she is today.

As a discrimination complaint investigator for the State of California and commissioner on the City of Elk Grove’s Diversity and Inclusion Commission, Teressa brings both lived experience and professional insight to this deeply honest conversation about identity, empathy, and connection.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why racial ambiguity often creates both curiosity and exclusion
• The impact of colorism and Eurocentric beauty standards in South Asian communities
• How language can create a sense of home and belonging
• What it means to build chosen family after feeling disconnected from your own community
• The difference between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation

Dr. Shawna Gann also shares reflections from her ongoing research into mixed identity experiences and belonging. Her upcoming book Mixed Signals: The Multiracial Case for Civility and Belonging at Work releases in early Fall. Visit the website to sign up for updates, book news, and upcoming conversations.

Connect with Teressa Plammoottil on Instagram @terenovah

Listen, subscribe, and share your thoughts with us. We’d love to hear how this conversation resonated with your own experiences of identity and belonging.

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!

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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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Five years after his first appearance on the show, Joshua Grant returns for a deeply layered conversation with Dr. Shawna Gann about transitional justice, systemic inequity, activism, media manipulation, and what it means to be human in a time of fractured realities. Together, they unpack how movements born in moments of collective trauma continue shaping communities today, from Minneapolis organizing efforts after George Floyd’s murder to ongoing conversations around race, privilege, identity, and institutional power.

Joshua reflects on his experiences studying law and navigating spaces where justice and politics collide, while Dr. Shawna Gann challenges listeners to think critically about propaganda, accountability, and the choices people make in the information age. The episode also explores liminal identity, intersectionality, whiteness as a social construct, and how systems of power shape the stories we tell ourselves about fairness, equality, and belonging. This conversation is thoughtful, emotional, intellectually rigorous, and deeply human.

Listeners will hear discussions about:

• Transitional justice and reconciliation
• Race and systemic inequity in America
• Media algorithms and political polarization
• Activism and community care in Minneapolis
• Intersectionality and liminal identity
• The difference between equity and equality
• The role of honesty in social change

If this episode resonates with you, share it with someone who values courageous conversation and thoughtful dialogue. Subscribe, leave a review, and continue the conversation with us online.

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 does it mean to live in between?

In this episode of Our True Colors, Dr. Shawna Gann sits down with scholar and thought leader Dr. Marc Johnston-Guerrero for a powerful conversation about liminal identity, multiracial experiences, and the systems that shape how we are seen and understood. From his personal journey navigating identity through something as intimate as his name, to his groundbreaking work defining monoracism, Marc offers language and insight for experiences many people have felt but struggled to name.

Together, they explore how identity is shaped not just by who we are, but by the structures around us—from higher education to the workplace. Marc shares how his own experiences led him to study multiraciality, the importance of both specificity and shared experience in research, and why building community often happens later in life or outside traditional spaces. The conversation also dives into leadership, highlighting how navigating complex identities can influence empathy, perspective-taking, and the way we show up in the world.

This episode is a reminder that identity doesn’t have to fit neatly into predefined boxes—and that there is real power in embracing complexity, creating space, and building community where it doesn’t yet exist.

Connect and Learn More:

• Learn more about the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association
  
• Listen to the episode about the CMRSA Conference
  
• Learn more about Dr. Shawna Gann’s work and sign up for updates on her upcoming book Mixed Signals:
  

If this conversation resonated with you, share it with someone who might need it—and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review 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.

Consider joining the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association!

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What if something as simple as vitamin D could unlock deeper conversations about health equity, research gaps, and advocacy? In this powerful episode, Dr. Shawna Gann and Season 6 cohost, Marcel DeJonghe, are joined by Lauryn Walker, a patient recruitment associate in clinical research, who is passionate about translating science into real world impact. Together, they explore the link between vitamin D deficiency and racial health disparities, including the disproportionate prevalence of fibroids in Black women and the gaps that still exist in research for mixed heritage populations.

Lauryn shares how her academic journey led her to uncover critical insights about vitamin D and fibroids, and why awareness is still so limited even within medical spaces. The conversation expands into real lived experiences, from being dismissed in healthcare settings to the importance of self advocacy, representation, and rebuilding trust. This episode is both eye opening and empowering, offering practical ways to advocate for your health, ask better questions, and support the people in your life.

Lauryn Walker is a patient recruitment associate working in clinical research with a background in medical physiology. She is deeply committed to educating her community about vitamin D deficiency and its broader health implications, while promoting more inclusive and representative research practices.

Connect with Lauryn:
Instagram: @thesunnyvitamin

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 does it really mean to belong when your identity doesn’t fit neatly into one box?

In this powerful and deeply human conversation, Dr. Shawna Gann and cohost, Marcel DeJonghe, chat with somatic psychotherapist, coach, and educator Raina LaGrand to explore the layered realities of mixed race identity. Together, they unpack the tension between fitting in and truly belonging, the emotional weight of code switching, and the complexity of navigating spaces that were never designed with multiracial people in mind. Raina shares her personal journey, including unexpected discoveries about her ancestry, and how those moments reshaped her understanding of identity, healing, and wholeness.

The conversation also dives into what Raina calls the “mixed race belonging wound” and how it shows up in relationships, self-worth, and the ability to take up space. From racialized trauma and complex trauma to the surprising power of community and shared language, this episode is both validating and expansive. Whether you identify as mixed race or simply feel like you exist between worlds, this conversation will leave you thinking differently about identity, connection, and what it means to feel at home in yourself.

About Raina LaGrand
Raina LaGrand is a somatic psychotherapist, coach, and educator who supports mixed race adults in healing belonging wounds and reconnecting with their innate wholeness. She offers one-on-one and group programs worldwide and maintains a psychotherapy practice in Michigan, where she specializes in complex relational trauma, chronic pain, and racial identity. Raina lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan with her dog, Willa, and enjoys cooking with friends, reading books by women of color authors, and indulging in reality TV.

Connect with Raina
Instagram: @mixedracebelonging
Podcast: Mixed Race Belonging Podcast
Website: mixedracebelonging.com
Therapy practice: roottorisesomatics.com

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.

Consider joining the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association!

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Content note: This episode includes strong language and explores childhood abuse, sexual abuse, and the lasting impact of trauma on identity and self worth.

In this powerful and layered conversation, Dr. Shawna Gann and co-host, Marcel De Jonghe sit down with Tara Moore, intuitive coach, empath, energy healer, host of the Rooted & Rising podcast, and founder of Soul’d Spaces. Together, they explore what it means to deconstruct identity, release inherited stories, and rebuild from a place of deeper truth. Tara reflects on growing up mixed race, feeling caught between worlds, and spending years trying to become who others expected her to be before beginning the work of reclaiming her own voice, worth, and sense of self. This episode moves through race, belonging, trauma, motherhood, healing, and the tension between how the world sees us and how we learn to see ourselves.

But the conversation does not stop there. In a deeply honest follow up, Shawna and Marcel revisit one of the episode’s central questions: what happens when personal agency meets structural harm? Tara then responds with a vulnerable reflection rooted in her own lived experience of abuse, survival, and the decision to stop cycles of harm in her lineage. What unfolds is not a neat conclusion, but an invitation to stay with complexity, hold multiple truths, and keep asking better questions.

If this episode moves you, share it, subscribe, and send it to someone who values courageous conversations.

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.

Consider joining the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association!

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In this episode of Our True Colors, Dr. Shawna Gann sits down with returning guest Ashnie Butler for a rich conversation about identity, belonging, and the power of asking better questions. Together with Marcel De Jonghe, they explore what happens when curiosity crosses the line into assumption, why certain questions about race and ethnicity can feel intrusive, and how mindful inquiry can help us communicate with more care, honesty, and connection. Ashnie shares how her lived experience as an Indian Trinidadian woman has shaped the way she understands identity, marginalization, and the layered realities of fitting in and standing out.

Drawing from her work as a certified professional diversity coach and creator of The Art of Mindful Inquiry, Ashnie offers a grounded framework for slowing down, noticing what is happening in the body, and asking questions from genuine curiosity instead of confirmation bias. This episode speaks directly to anyone navigating racial ambiguity, workplace tension, difficult conversations, or the everyday challenge of building authentic relationships across difference. One of the biggest takeaways is this: questions can either open a door or slam one shut. Mindful inquiry invites us to pause long enough to choose connection.

If this conversation resonated with you, subscribe, leave a rating or review, and share this episode with someone who cares about identity, communication, and building deeper human connection.

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.

Consider joining the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association!

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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 Ashlee (session excerpt)
• Dakota Duffy (Mixed Alumni Association at UCLA)
• Chandra Waring
• Deja Goodwin
• Wendy Ashley and Nolan Krueger
• 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.

Consider joining the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association!