Episodes

TRIGGER WARNING. This episode details one woman’s story of religious trauma and emotional abuse and may be triggering for some. Please proceed with caution. Religious trauma is a condition experienced by those who are struggling with leaving an authoritarian religion and coping with the mental and emotional damage of indoctrination. Janine Maryland is included in that number. She stopped by the virtual studio to share her story with the SOS and fam, and it is by far one of the most most real and...

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? That’s what the world would have you believe, but the reality is …what doesn’t kill you makes you build a wall. Tearing down those walls is what makes you stronger. You gotta tune into this week’s episode as we show you how to tear them down brick by brick. But, we don’t just stop there, we’re giving you a secret hack on how NOT to build the wall. If you need support as you start to peel back the layers, head over to Shades of Strong and leave us...

I really wish I had ended it sooner. I wish we could have made it wok. How could I have been so stupid? Why didn’t I see the signs? Did I even try? Any of this sound familiar? Breakups suck BIG TIME, right? Whether you’re the breakup -er or the breakup -ee, it stings a little… …nah — Scratch that! It stings A LOT. And you just want the pain to go away, right? But, here’s the good news, sis, there is life after the breakup. It may not feel like it while you’re still in the thick of it, but you’l...

Dear single black mom, you DO NOT have to cook and clean and wash everything … … be everything … do everything! Mama, gotta have a life too, right? Before we dive into the cooking and cleaning of it all, how bout we talk about the guilt that often comes with being a single black mom who has little to no help from the child’s dad. Single black moms often find themselves paralyzed with guilt because they don’t have the support of the dad, but today we’re disrupting the madness. If you’re going to ...

We’re taking a break from our regular topic (well kinda sorta) and interrupting this forced pause with a bonus episode to share some words of encouragement on navigating disappointments when life happens unexpectedly. Join us as we talk about how to keep moving when life lets you down.

Not all fatherless black girls come from broken homes and not all fatherless black girls have daddy issues so let’s stop with the stereotypes. When we hear those words, we automatically go to the place of single parent homes, but being fatherless comes in many forms. You can be deemed “fatherless” even when your father is in the home Lacking a father’s protection and support Not knowing the identity of one’s father Not having a father living Shirl and Natty have two very different experiences,...

Stop letting people tell you that you gotta fake it til you make it. …because YOU DON’T have to do that, sis. There is nothing cute or praise worthy about faking anything. Listen, I get it. Life will suck the happy right out of you. As a matter of fact, it will suck YOU out of your life. Anger, sorrow, grief, guilt, shame, feelings of abandonment and rejection — all of that will eat away at your capacity to live a good life if you don’t process those feelings and emotions. And just in case you’r...

Hey y’all! Season 3 is about to be LIT because we’re talking ALL THINGS healing. If you’re ready to set yourself free from the guilt, shame and blame of unfortunate circumstances (past or present), you don’t want to miss any of season three’s episodes!

How do you teach your Black Son how to thrive in a country where modern day Jim Crow laws and the school-to-prison pipeline are very serious realities? Randi B and I both know from personal experience that rearing a black son is a daunting task in and of itself. Couple that with raising him in a world that ridicules, dishonors and discounts him simply because of the color of his skin, and you have an even greater challenge on your hands. In today’s episode take a deep dive into how black moms d...