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We love Black doulas, and in this episode, we unpack why they are so vital to the Black birthing community. What we know is that Black people are three to four times more likely to die from childbirth-related complications than anyone else. What we know is that infants born to Black people are dying at twice the rate as infants born to anyone else. And no, these statistics are not due to the lack of education or socioeconomic status, research supports that no matter the education level or socioeconomic status of the black birthing person, they are still more likely to experience life-threatening trauma during their birth.

I gave birth to my first child last May, and even being a trained birth doula, being able-bodied, being "educated," of a particular economic bracket, and having a firm understanding of the English language, I still experienced a doctor yelling at me while I held my baby in the neonatal intensive care unit (continued shame on you George Washington Hospital) and felt rushed into an "emergency" cesarean which was traumatic with a long a lengthy recovery.

I, unfortunately, did not have a birth doula at my birth, but my team of post-partum doulas saved us (hi Zaynab, JoAn, and Vanessa!) and in today's episode I chat with one of my post-partum doulas Leah Hairston of Sweet Bee Doula Service! Leah is a full spectrum traveling doula who supports mostly Black families in envisioning a birth that feels safe and peaceful. We talk about why birth in the community is our ancestral right, why white parents are not thinking about dying during birth in the same way we are, and how liberation is at the core of her doula and life philosophy.

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Cannabis culture is Black culture, and in this episode, we explore the depth of that truth, because even with today's very white and very wealthy cannabis industry, it's critical that we include the story of how Black liberation and cannabis have been historically linked. For many, cannabis is ritualistic, it's a practice and a portal to rest and creativity, it's an herb that has been consumed by Black ancestors for hundreds of years, yet the stigma of consuming cannabis in a Black body has been an unfortunate barrier for most afro-descendants.

And this is by design because as we know, cannabis has also traditionally been at the center of the policing and imprisonment of Black folks in the United States, and of course, this is tied to race and racist policies which hunted down and labeled Black folks as criminals, poor parents and government leeches all in support of the ideology that when Black people use cannabis bad things happen. But for many Black people, reclaiming our space in cannabis culture is necessary and our right. One of those people is Mennlay a writer, creative, and entrepreneur who melds her creative vision with her love and respect for cannabis into Xula, the innovative brand she co-founded that "infuses ancestral herbal knowledge and modern scientific knowledge understanding" into each CBD product they offer. We discuss the anthropological connections that prove Black people have always consumed cannabis, how she loves to enjoy her weed, and what have been the highs and lows of running a cannabis company during a global pandemic.

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