Black Adoption Stories: Building a Welcome Home Through Food & Family

This episode is a forensic breakdown of Sainsbury’s Local as a system, not a shop.What’s sold as convenience is friction. What’s sold as efficiency is unpaid labour. What’s sold as design is psychological manipulation that fails the moment you’re tired, parenting, or in a hurry.From hostile layouts and absent staff to self-checkout purgatory and inflated prices, this is a critique of how modern “local” supermarkets quietly disrespect time, dignity, and common sense.This isn’t nostalgia. It’s not brand hate.It’s a lived audit of consumer experience from the perspective of a father, a customer, and a human being who just wanted milk and left annoyed.Includes an explicit comparison with Aldi, and why Aldi consistently wins on clarity, flow, and respect. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rickie Haywood-Williams sits down with Dope Black Dads to talk honestly about health, fatherhood, lifestyle changes and the NHS Healthy Choices Quiz. In this episode, Rickie breaks down what life really looks like behind the microphone and the Instagram posts. Late nights, early mornings, family responsibilities, Liverpool stress, and the quiet signals from his body and mind that something had to change.  The NHS Healthy Choices Quiz is a free, five-minute quiz you can take online. It asks simple questions about your eating, movement, smoking or vaping, drinking, mental health and sleep. At the end, you get a score out of 10 and a plan with links to free NHS apps, tools and advice to help you take the first step. Rickie shares his experience of taking the quiz, his reaction to seeing his results, the changes he has already started making, and why small, realistic shifts matter more than chasing perfection. Watch if you want a straight conversation about midlife health, energy, mood and dad life.  Healthy Choices QuizTake the free five-minute NHS Healthy Choices Quiz here:https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/healthy-choices-quiz/ Key topics in this episode– Why Rickie wanted to support the NHS Healthy Choices Quiz campaign– How work, late nights and stress show up in his body and mood– The moment he realised he needed a more honest health check– What it felt like to answer the quiz questions and see his score out of 10– The plan he received and the first changes he has made– How fatherhood, age and responsibility shift your motivation to stay healthy– The version of himself his family sees at the end of the week– Football, Liverpool and competition as a lens on health and identity– Why he would recommend the Healthy Choices Quiz to friends and family  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does a welcome home really feel like? with  @MarvynHarrison  https://www.youcanadopt.co.uk/blackadoptersIn this special episode, we sit around the dinner table to talk honestly about adoption, family, culture, and belonging. Over food that reminds us of home, we explore what it means to create stability and love for Black and mixed-heritage children who are waiting the longest to be adopted in the UK.This conversation is part of the You Can Adopt campaign and features lived experiences from adoptive parents within the Black community. We talk about food, identity, family reactions, myths around adoption, and how a home is built through care, consistency, and culture — not perfection.This is not about having the perfect house.It’s about creating a home where a child feels seen, protected, and chosen.If you’ve ever quietly considered adoption, this conversation is an invitation to learn more.Find out more at:https://www.youcanadopt.co.uk/blackadopters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode takes you inside 10 Downing Street for a rare, direct conversation on power, policy, and dignity at work.Marvyn Harrison meets Keir Starmer to unpack the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) — described as the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.We break down what ERA 2025 actually delivers: Fire-and-rehire restrictions. The end of exploitative zero-hour contracts. Day-one sick pay. Day-one paternity, bereavement, and parental leave. New protections for pregnant women, new mothers, and families experiencing pregnancy loss.But this episode goes deeper than legislation. It asks who benefits, who is most exposed, and whether Black and working-class families will finally see real protection — or more policy without teeth.This is not spin. This is not press-release politics. This is a frontline conversation about labour, power, enforcement, and dignity.Key Themes • Employment Rights Act 2025 explained • Kier Starmer on workers’ rights • ERA 2025 impact on Black families • Working-class job insecurity • Zero-hour contracts and fire-and-rehire • Paternity leave, sick pay, and dignity at work • Policy vs lived experience Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a safeguarding episode, not a comfort episode. Children are not collateral damage for adult frustration. They are not background noise. They are not “tiny adults” who should just get over it. And they are not content. This episode pulls apart the most dangerous lie we repeat: “Kids are resilient.” There’s a difference between building strength and forcing a child to survive adult-made chaos, yelling, hitting, humiliation, neglect, manipulation, and constant instability. It also calls out the wider system: under-resourced schools, stripped youth services, safeguarding treated like paperwork, and a culture that frames children as problems to manage instead of humans to protect.If you’re raising kids, employing parents, building communities, or shaping policy, this is the line: protect children in advance, not after damage is done.8 things to consider:Children are not collateral damage for co-parent conflictKids are not background noise to adult lives“Resilience” vs forced survival: stop confusing the twoDiscipline and consistency matter more than moneyWhy yelling/hitting is adult weakness dressed as parentingSystem failure: safeguarding isn’t paperwork, it’s vigilanceChildren as content: the moral line is collapsingThe downstream cost: harmed kids become what other kids must navigate Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most New Year goals fail for the same reason: they’re fantasies, not systems.In this episode, Marvyn Harrison breaks down why “New Year, New Me” thinking collapses every time — and what actually creates change. This is not about motivation, manifestation, or vague intentions. It’s about identity redesign, constraint awareness, and building daily and weekly systems that survive real life.The conversation covers why outcomes don’t stick without identity, why willpower is overrated, how to design progress around limited time, energy, and money, and why evidence beats affirmation every time. Along the way, real life interrupts — parenting, noise, humour — reinforcing the point: growth has to work inside chaos, not in spite of it.This episode is a grounded framework for approaching 2026 without self-deception, self-punishment, or false optimism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anthony Joshua has survived a serious car crash in Nigeria that killed two close friends and long-standing members of his team. Physio Sina Ghami and personal trainer Latif “Latz” Ayodele were pronounced dead at the scene after a collision on the Lagos–Ibadan expressway.In this emergency news episode, we break down the confirmed facts, timeline, and reactions from the boxing world, including tributes from Chris Eubank Jr and statements from Matchroom Boxing. We also examine the wider context — Joshua’s recent fight with Jake Paul, his Nigerian heritage, and the deadly reputation of the expressway where the crash occurred.This episode focuses on clarity, respect, and accountability in reporting, amid widespread misinformation and the circulation of graphic footage online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is a quiet audit of Christmas, fatherhood, and attention.After two uninterrupted weeks with his children, Marvyn reflects on what it feels like when family life fully aligns — no school runs, no fragmented schedules, no performance. Just presence. The result wasn’t productivity or achievement. It was peace.The episode moves through gift-giving without panic, buying throughout the year, shifting from material presents to experiences, and what it means to fund joy without excess. It explores how children thrive when safety is consistent, how traditions are built deliberately, and why Christmas Eve now belongs to the house — not the shops.There are reflections on idleness, masculinity, hobbies, strength, and the discomfort of having nothing urgent to fix. Golf enters the picture. So does grief, gratitude, and the reality that joy and loss often sit side by side at the end of a year.This is not advice. It’s a lived reflection on slowing down, protecting what matters, and carrying the right things forward. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve been trained to treat Christmas like a performance: spend more, buy more, post more, prove more. But the truth is simpler—and harder to defend: Christmas is about family. In this episode, I’m pulling the focus back to what lasts. The moments your children remember aren’t the receipts—they’re the feeling of the home. The laughter in the kitchen. The safety of being together. The un-rushed hours where nobody’s “doing” anything, but everyone’s okay. I talk about how easy it is to slip into survival mode at the worst possible time, trying to fund a “perfect Christmas,” carrying the whole season on your back, and turning love into pressure. And I lay out a different standard: protect the atmosphere. Protect the time. Protect the relationships. There’s also a personal reflection on childhood Christmas memories and what they teach us: the gift might be exciting, but it’s the people, the warmth, and the stories that become the real inheritance. If you’re a parent feeling the weight of this season, this is your reminder: your kids don’t need a perfect Christmas. They need you. They need peace. They need family.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You were told to chase green flags.You were never taught how some of them hide the biggest red flags of your life.In this episode, Marvyn Harrison pulls five “perfect” green flags apart and shows the shadow side underneath: limerence, trauma bonds, emotional shutdown, manipulation and cruelty dressed up as “being real”. Across romantic relationships, friendships, family and work, Marvyn unpacks:Intense Chemistry From Day OneThe “we could marry right now” energy that feels like destiny.Why you feel deeply connected on almost no information.Limerence: the repeat pattern of getting obsessed, acting like it’s real and only understanding it years later.How trauma bonds, nervous system chaos and mirroring can feel like soulmate energy while your body is actually in crisis.Why neurodivergent people often feel this intensity and believe it’s “how love is supposed to feel.” People Who Respectfully Hate Everybody But You“They’re just honest, they see through everyone” – the seductive packaging.The contempt, gossip and dehumanising that’s actually rehearsing how they’ll later talk about you.The difference between feedback, sharing and constant judgement.Why “it’s us against the world” often means “you’re next when the honeymoon ends.”Extreme Independence And Having ‘No Needs’“I’m low maintenance, I’m drama free” as a brand.Emotional shutdown disguised as maturity.The triple problem: they can’t ask, can’t receive and can’t repair.How fear of abandonment sits behind “I don’t need anything from anyone.”You end up doing all the emotional labour, while they quietly protect a chaotic inner world they don’t want you to see. Total Overlap In Values, Opinions And Tastes“We’re literally the same person, we never argue” – why that feels like winning.People-pleasing and mirroring as manipulation: pre-written caring responses, no behavioural change.Why genuine adults have differences, and why tolerating disagreement is actually intimacy.The truth about “peaceful” relationships that never argue: someone gave up bringing their full self.Brutal Honesty With Zero Empathy“I just tell it like it is, I keep it 100” as a personality costume.Cruelty cosplaying as truth.Why timing is a core part of empathy: the film-premiere example where “honesty” is actually violence. How real friends hold their feedback, let the moment pass, then come back with thought, care and context.Why brutal honesty is often laziness and emotional illiteracy, not integrity.Marvyn closes by turning the lens back on you:Why you keep choosing intense chemistry, “low maintenance” partners or brutally honest friends.Why you might secretly want spontaneity, chaos and “life of the party” energy, then demand they calm down once you’ve got them.How to notice the patterns you recreate, instead of taking internet advice “cold” and blowing up relationships that could be repaired with awareness and conversation. This is not a call to go home and dump everyone.It’s a call to see what’s really happening underneath your favourite “green flags” and work out whether you’re genuinely safe, genuinely seen – or just addicted to the chaos you were never taught to name.Content WarningsThis episode includes discussion of:Trauma bonds and nervous system dysregulationEmotional shutdown and abandonment fearsManipulation, people-pleasing and cruelty in relationships Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.