This summer, The Moth and The Stoop are getting cozy and sharing stories. Today, we invite special guest, Suzanne Rust, the host of The Moth storytelling series, to share a tale she loves. This story is by Ivan McClellan, a photographer who lives in Portland, Oregon. Ivan found something very unexpected in his hometown of Kansas City, Kansas when he learns about the black rodeo. In this double feature, we also stoop it out with Suzanne about The Stoop’s episode —episode 75 —“Black don’t crack?” and how we really feel about aging.

What’s it like when everyone at home speaks a language you don’t understand? That’s the story of Claudia, a Ghanaian American who grew up not speaking her home language —her ‘Mother Tongue’. But everybody else did, including her own siblings. The effects were real: disconnect, frustration, shame, and at some point a full on identity crisis. We also ask other people in the diaspora if they speak their home languages, and Hana contends with her own kids’ lack of fluency, and what it means.

Leila travels back to Cuba —and to her 20s —in this special episode about Havana, dance, hair, proud negras, and finding your voice. This story is told in collaboration with Meditative Story, hosted by Rohan Gunatillake.

It’s a term of endearment but not everybody wants to be your “Auntie.” Today, Leila and Hana unravel some of the emotions and stereotypes tied to being an “Auntie.” They did into the deeper connections to ageism, the evolving meaning of the term, and discuss the weight of “respectability handles” within Black culture.

Interest in psychedelics is ramping up. People are even claiming that psychedelics can help heal racial trauma. But should we believe the hype? Can psychedelics bring us pleasure and joy? Or is the new psychedelic gold rush perpetuating the same old harm? Producer Natalie, takes hosts, Leila and Hana, on a sonic trip to talk to a few new and seasoned psychonauts: Tonya Mosley, host of Truth Be Told and Fresh Air, decolonized psychedelic educator and practitioner, Buki Fadipe, and psychiatric nurse practitioner and organizer, Kwasi Adusei.

Today, The Stoop has a special episode. The war in Hana’s home country, Sudan, continues. Hana has been feeling the conflict here at home in the States. Today we pause and take a moment to reflect on the music that has been holding people together, and we highlight the voices of Sudanese Americans who are living through a reality that their homes may never be the same. Many thanks to the kids of SANC School in California, musician Mazin Jamal and legendary songstress Salma Elassal for her songs of longing that carry us through these hard times.

Hana has a dilemma. As a diasporan, is she basically a diluted African? This question arises when Hana and Leila travel to conduct workshops at a conference in Kenya. Hana finds that she’s questioning her place —she’s African, but she’s a diaspora African —and she wonders how she’s seen, and what her role is, as someone who flies in from the West. In Nairobi, Hana gets some advice on diaspora privilege from Africa Podfest’s Melissa Mbugua, then in California she chats with fellow diasporans who are also asking, how should we conduct ourselves in Africa?

How do you talk about death without talking about death? Discussions about succession planning, and what the future looks like when your loved one is gone, are tough. Leila explores legacy through a conversation with her mom, Vicki, who is planning to have her work as a gallerist live on for the next 100 years. We also meet Lauren Rosa Miller, who tells her personal story about taking over her family business and explains why she’s teaching others to have hard conversations.

Broadcast journalist Joshua Johnson, comedian W. Kamau Bell, and others discuss the pressure to conform to a certain idea of blackness, the complexities of identity and code switching, the importance of supporting black art, the challenges faced by Black queer queens in the drag scene, and navigating the conflict of performing blackness to a white audience.

Hana’s writing a book of Sudanese folktales that have been handed down through generations in her family, but some questions have been haunting her. Should they be translated? Does she even own the right to retell these stories? And the biggest question of them all- a secret within the stories that she must confront. To guide her, she talks it out with African American storyteller Diane Ferlatte, and Rwandan folklore scholar Brenda Umutoniwase- plus Hana gets honest with her Aunt Sohair..