START HERE: Learn About Our True Colors

Welcome to Our True Colors. This extended introduction gives you the full picture of what the show is about, who I am, and what you can expect in every season.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why I started this podcast and what “racial riddle, ethnic enigma, and cultural conundrum” really mean.
• How different co-hosts join me each season — and why that rotating perspective matters.
• The kinds of stories you’ll hear, from families, professionals, and my own lived experience.
• Why belonging is at the heart of every conversation.

👉 Want to connect?

Look for the link above to send me a direct message or let's connect online! You can find the links right here in the show notes.

Welcome to the community!

If this is your first time with OTC, check out EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Continue the conversation on Instagram and find Season 5 episodes on YouTube.

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Transcript

Intro  0:06  
Welcome to our true colors, hosted by Shawna Gann. Join her as she explores the challenges of being a racial riddle, an ethnic enigma and a cultural conundrum. Let's dive in. You.

Shawna  0:22  
SG, Hey, y'all, welcome to our true colors. I'm so glad you found us. This is the podcast where we talk about the messy, beautiful, sometimes confusing experience of identity, especially when it doesn't fit neatly into a box. Whether you identify as multiracial, mixed race, multi ethnic, multi cultural, part of a blended family, in an interracial relationship, or you've ever just felt other because you don't fit into the categories that people expect. This is a place for you. I'm Dr. Shawna Gann, your host. I'm a Business psychologist, and sometimes I wear that hat here on the show. Sometimes I don't, but even when I'm not talking about work directly, I can't help but notice the way that identity shows up in the workplace. Because we don't clock in and out of our identities. We bring them with us, whether we're at home, at work or anywhere in between. So why Our True Colors? Because for those of us who are mixed, ambiguous or don't fit into neat, social categories, people often don't know what to make of us. That means we get questions, lots of questions:

Voice Over  1:36  
What's your background? What's your ethnicity? Where are you from originally? What are you mixed with? Do you always have a tan?

Shawna  1:51  
These questions or questions that are similar to that are almost universal in mixed communities. Now, sometimes those questions come from a place of curiosity. People just don't know how to ask without making it awkward. Other times they come from bias or from some need to categorize. Curiosity is human. We like to categorize. It helps us feel like we understand our world. But when your identity doesn't line up with the categories that people expect. Those questions can feel intrusive, they can feel awkward or even dehumanizing, either way, they land on us, the ones who carry identities that are complex, layered and not easily pinned down. Our identities don't come with easy answers, but that's not a flaw, it's the beauty of it, and that is why our True Colors exists.

Shawna  2:55  
Here's what you can expect when you listen to this show, every season, I bring on a different co host, so you'll always hear more than just one perspective in our conversations. In season one, you'll meet Shannon. She's about the age of my kids, and she brings a generational lens that's very different from mine. In season two, my brother Jason joins me. He brings a man's perspective. And even though we're family. We didn't grow up together. You'll hear us learning about each other's experiences in real time. And by the way, Jason's voice is also the one you hear at the beginning and end of most episodes, doing the intro and the closing. Thanks, J! In season three, my co host is Carmen. She lives in Canada, giving us a North American but non US perspective. Part of her heritage is Asian, and her family has deep connections to adoption stories, which opens up a whole new set of conversations. Her story and her family story is so interesting. In season four, Yolandie joins me. She's a fashion coach and a stage actor who offers a creative and small town lens, which contrasts with my own DC Metro experience. And in season five, I have two co hosts, Rachel, an educator and dei professional and Kat, an aesthetician with a richly multicultural and multiracial family background. At the start of each season, you'll also find a meet the co host episode where you can get to know each of the Co-hosts a little more before diving into that season's conversations.

Shawna  4:33  
Our guests are at the heart of this show. They bring their stories, their voices, their wisdom. You'll hear from Wanda booth, a mom raising mixed race kids. You'll hear from Meredith and Cindy sisters who sat down to talk openly about their mixed identity together for the very first time right here on OTC and Sarah and her dad Troy, who also shared their experiences growing up as racially ambiguous for the very first time. Right here on this show, you'll meet Cindy and Cara who talk about their choir, a community that embodies so much of what we talk about here, connection, belonging and building spaces that hold a difference. I love to have on professionals, too, folks like Dr. Kalya Castillo, Theresa Kempf and Dr. Anita foman, who help us make sense of identity from psychological, cultural and social lenses.

Shawna  5:31  
But this isn't just about other people's stories. I share my own too. You'll hear from my mom, you'll hear from my dad, you'll hear from my son, Christian, who has come on the show twice with me, and when he's in drag, you might know him as Amy amor. You'll hear from my daughter Ariana, too. In fact, the season five finale features all of us, me, my husband, Chad, Christian and Ariana, we got to sit down together and have family conversations that we also were having for the very first time right here On the show.

Voice Over  6:21  
Protesters are setting fires in the middle of the street, just setting trash on fire.

Voice Over  6:25  
I have not seen black people this upset in 20 years,

Voice Over  6:31  
and you see these police officers and patrol officers are advancing slowly through the intersection as gas is proceeding their steps, as they are walking vehicles inside as well. At this point, we're trying to stay out of their way. We're going to be over on the side here.

Voice Over  6:47  
What we're trying to do is stand up for the basic rights of humanity, and that's what we're trying to do, and we're trying to do in a peaceful way. Who do you not want to go through this anymore? Okay? I want to be able to go in the white neighborhood and feel safe. I want to be able when a cop is driving behind me, I don't have to clench and be tense, okay? I want to be able just to be free and not have to think about every step I take, because at the end of the day, being born black is a crime to them, and I don't understand why, because we're all humans, and that sickness,

Shawna  7:26  
Every now and then you'll notice special episodes sprinkled in when current events weigh heavily on us. My co hosts and I feel the need to pause and process together. These conversations are social, sometimes political, but always grounded in our humanity, because no matter our identities, the world impacts us in real ways. Identity isn't just an abstract idea. It's lived. It's personal. It's ever changing, and it's beautiful.

Shawna  8:10  
I want to hear from you too. I'd love to know your story, your reflections and even your questions. You can send me a message through the link in our show notes, or come join us on Instagram at add our True Colors underscore podcast. You'll find the links in the show notes. This isn't just about listening in it's about joining the conversation.

Shawna  8:40  
And since you're here a little extra if you'd like to go deeper, you can always connect with me outside the podcast. My work as a business psychologist often looks at identity in the workplace, and I'm also working on my forthcoming book mixed signals, what multiracial narratives reveal about hidden systems at work. If that sparks your interest, head to my website. You'll find the link in the show notes, and there you can sign up for my newsletter. That way you'll be the first to know when updates and resources are available. Welcome to our true colors. I'm so glad you're here. This is a space for curiosity, for connection, for honesty and for celebrating the many shades of who we are. Stick around. Hit subscribe, share this with a friend. Repost it. Whatever you got to do, and join us as we keep embracing our true colors together.

Outro  9:41  
You've been listening to our true colors.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai