Season 1: Foundations - "How Did We Get Here?" An introduction to our show where we discuss our story, how we got here as a book club and how Bermuda got to the state we currently find ourselves in as a nation. Aired live on Hott 1075: July 3, 2024

Season 1: Foundations - "Radical Unlearning" A deep dive into "The West and the Rest of Us" by Chinweizu to understand how colonization created the foundations of Bermudian society; influencing our political autonomy, economic independence, and cultural identity. In order to find solutions to our current issues we have to first understand how these systemic problems came to be in the first place. Aired live on Hott 1075: July 17, 2024

Season 1: Foundations - "Radical Heritage" In this episode, we take our first look at Dr. Eva Hodgson's book "The Experience of Racism in Bermuda and in its Wider Context". Her series of written reflections outlines the oppressive racial systems throughout Bermuda's history and the impacts they've made. Aired live on Hott 1075: August 17, 2024

Season 1: Foundations - “The Politics of Personality” We explore how party politics and the Black elite influenced the fight against racism in Bermuda, question whether party politics has caused division in the Black community, and discuss Dr. Hodgson’s critiques of Black leadership. Aired live on Hott 1075: September 11, 2024

Season 1: Foundations - "Radical Context" In "Destruction of Black Civilization," Chancellor Williams highlights the importance of context in understanding history, arguing that it's not just about dates and battles but about the people, patterns, and lessons that shape our experience. In this episode, we use Williams' insights to explore the preconditions necessary for building strong Black nations, examining the strengths and weaknesses that contributed to the decline of African civilizations. Ryan also shares his own reflections on his motivations for accepting the Rhodes Scholarship and following in Chancellor Williams' footsteps as a student at Oxford University. We challenge the focus on only one type of narrative, such as Eurocentric vs. Afrocentric, and emphasize the need to critically examine the Western and other cultural perspectives of us as a people, but with an Afrocentric grounding, in order to aid in our own self-reflection and analysis. Tune in to discover how learning from our past can inform our future. Aired live on Hott 1075: September 25, 2024

Season 1: Foundations - For our final episode of Season 1, we break down the strengths of Black civilization that contributed to Africa’s development and the weaknesses that led to the continent’s destruction. This solidifies the foundation we set in examining the question asked in Episode 1, “How did we get here?”. Now that we've answered the question, we can start to get a deeper understanding of how learning history from an African perspective has a direct impact on Black identity and issues today. Aired live on Hott 1075: October 9, 2024

Season 2: Perception & Reality - "Subconscious Limitations" (Part 1) In Season 1: Foundations, we asked the question, “How did we get here?” as a people and a nation - exploring the origins of our struggles through episodes like Radical Unlearning and the Politics of Personality. Our goal was to show that the first step toward nation-building is understanding how the past has shaped the present. This season, we’re exploring how race, identity, and psychology intersect to shape the way Black individuals see themselves - and how those internal perceptions influence how we move through the world. In Episode 1, we begin with Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon, a foundational text in understanding the psychological effects of racism and colonialism. Fanon examines how Black identity is formed and fractured under white supremacy - not just externally, but internally. Through his lens, we explore how harmful belief systems have justified inequality, and how these narratives continue to shape how we think, feel, and govern today. This episode sets the foundation for the season, inviting us to question the inherited narratives we live by - and the unconscious limits we place on ourselves and each other. Aired live on Hott 1075: May 7, 2025

Season 2: Perception and Reality - Grounded in the Bermudian experience, "Death Spiral" (Subconscious Limitations Part 2) continues our exploration of Black Skin, White Masks by connecting Fanon’s analysis to the lived realities of Black Bermudians. We unpack how colonial legacies have shaped our sense of self, worth, and possibility - and how those distortions still echo in our institutions, social structures, and daily interactions. By applying Fanon’s insights to our local context, we confront the barriers to self-determination unique to our island. We ask: how do these internalised systems of power show up in our communities? And how do they affect our ability to imagine and build liberated, empowered Black spaces in Bermuda? Each episode is an invitation to reclaim our agency - and begin the work of reshaping reality on our own terms. Aired live on Hott 1075: May 21, 2025

In this episode of Roose’s Book Club, we continue our season 2 on Perception and Reality by turning to the book “Black Power: The Politics of Liberation” by Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton - a foundational work on Black autonomy, political strategy, and revolutionary consciousness. This conversation centers around a difficult truth: that before we can build something new, we must be willing to confront and dismantle the systems, beliefs, and models of leadership that are failing us. Drawing on the authors’ concept of political modernization, we explore three strategic steps toward liberation: 1) Questioning old values and institutions; 2) Defining new systems rooted in our own history and needs; and 3) Building political and economic power through self-determination. But before any of this can happen, we must return to the beginning: building trust and community on our own terms - a psychological and cultural process deeply tied to Fanon’s analysis of identity under colonial rule. This trust is foundational. Without it, no system we build will last. We take a hard look at the state of our institutions today. Many of the organizations that once represented Black power and collective action have lost their influence - not because their missions were flawed, but because the communities that built and sustained them have fractured. The leadership that once held moral weight no longer commands the same respect. The key power drivers behind those institutions have disappeared, and the result is apathy, mistrust, and disengagement. Ultimately, before we can reclaim our power to embark on the process of nation-building, we must first confront the outdated values, institutions, false leaders and harmful patterns that are holding us back. As Lauryn Hill sang: “We must destroy in order to rebuild". Aired live on Hott 1075: June 4, 2025