Carry On Friends: The Caribbean American Experience
Carry On Friends has an unmistakable Caribbean-American essence. Hosted by the dynamic and engaging Kerry-Ann Reid-Brown, the podcast takes listeners on a global journey, deeply rooted in Caribbean culture. It serves as a melting pot of inspiring stories, light-hearted anecdotes, and stimulating perspectives that provoke thought and initiate conversations. The podcast invites guests who enrich the narrative with their unique experiences and insights into Caribbean culture and identity. With an array of topics covered - from lifestyle and wellness to travel, entertainment, career, and entrepreneurship - it encapsulates the diverse facets of the Caribbean American experience. Catering to an international audience, Carry On Friends effectively bridges cultural gaps, uniting listeners under a shared love and appreciation for Caribbean culture.
Episodes
Content note: This episode includes a personal account of infant loss, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and grief.
What happens when the funeral is over and everyone returns to their lives, but your grief remains?
In this episode, Kerry-Ann speaks with Guyanese-born, Brooklyn-raised community builder Shiyonne Chester about pregnancy and infant loss, grief in Caribbean families, and the importance of creating space...
A body disappears, a country grieves, and decades later the question still won’t rest: where is Maurice Bishop? Martine Powers, a Washington Post audio journalist and senior host of Post Reports, talk about her seven-part investigative series The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop and the reporting journey that brought her deep into Grenada’s most painful modern chapter.
Martine shares how her Ca...
A coworking space can be a desk, or it can be a lifeline. We’re talking with Johanne Brierre, a Haitian American community builder who helped scale Brooklyn Commons and then took a bold leap during COVID to launch NY Beauty Suite, a private beauty suite model built for stylists, nail techs, aestheticians, massage therapists, and other wellness entrepreneurs who couldn’t get a fair shot at traditional lea...
The pandemic didn’t just change schedules, it changed family roles, nervous systems, and the way kids act when they feel trapped, scared, or out of control. We sit down with Dr. Anne-Louise Lockhart, a pediatric psychologist, author, and parent coach originally from St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, to talk about what parenting during a pandemic really looks like for Caribbean and West Indian families, especi...
Afrofuturism gets treated like a buzzword, but Vianca helps us see it as something much more grounded: a creative practice that lets Caribbean people and the wider African diaspora imagine a future without external control. From her work at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) in East Harlem, she shows how arts and culture can move racial and social justice forward, not just talk about i...
n 1982, at just 19 years old, Dr. Donna Barrett left Jamaica in search of greater opportunities. What followed was not an overnight success story, but decades of perseverance, faith, education, entrepreneurship, and an unwavering belief that a better future was possible.
In this episode Dr. Donna shares her remarkable journey from rural Jamaica to becoming a real estate entrepreneur, author, nonprofit founder, and ed...
Jamaicans will slow wine to Michael Bolton, scream the words to Celine Dion, and two-step to old country ballads like it’s the most natural thing in the world. That “soulz” section in a dance is more than a playlist, it’s a cultural habit with rules, memories, and a sound that a lot of people outside the Caribbean still don’t understand.
We sit down with Jess, a Jamaican TV produ...
Support How to Support Carry On Friends
- Donate: If you believe in our mission and want to help amplify Caribbean voices, consider making a donation.
- Get Merch: Support Carry On Friends by purchasing merchandise from our store.
Connect with @carryonfriends - Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeA Breadfruit Media Production
Reels & Riddims is another Breadfruit Media production, where we talk about what's onscreen through a Caribbean Lens.
Experience this episode of Reels & Riddims where we discuss 'Queenie' the novel by Candice Carty-Williams and the miniseries adaptation, which is available on Hulu and Disney+.
We get into the big questions people argue about: what the series gets right, what the book does better, ...
Living across borders means more than booking flights home. It often means caring for aging parents, managing family property, navigating two legal systems, and preparing for the unexpected.
In this episode, Kerry-Ann is joined by attorney Renee Kendall of Caribbean Legal Solutions to explore the realities Caribbean families face when life spans multiple countries. Their conversation goes beyond wills to discuss elde...
Is Jamaican Patois really "broken English"? How did Caribbean languages develop, and why do debates about language continue to spark strong reactions throughout the region and the diaspora?
In this crossover episode from Breadfruit Media sister show, Strictly Facts, Dr. Alexandria Miller speaks with linguist Dr. Joseph T. Farquharson about the history, structure, and future of Caribbean languages. Together they unpac...
What happens when a first generation is told “you’re not Jamaican” in one but never fully seen as American either?
In this episode, I explore Lens 6 of the Caribbean Diaspora Experience Model (CDEM): "You're Not Either Or, You're Both And". Through stories from podcast guests, family experiences, and observations over more than a decade of podcasting, I unpack the emotional complexity of...
A school party should be simple: put on your outfit, meet your friends, dance for a few hours, go home. If you grew up Caribbean American, you already know it’s never that simple. Permission is a process, timing is everything, and one wrong tone can turn a “maybe” into an automatic no.
This is a special crossover episode from my audio storytelling series Voice Note Stories which is built aro...
A Jamaican patty can take you back in one bite, to lunch money days or some other memory. Franklyn is a Jamaican entrepreneur helping grow to Juici Patties franchises in the United States. We talk about why that nostalgia comes with real responsibility when you’re carrying a beloved Jamaican brand into cities like New York and markets across the country.
Franklyn shares his journey from Jamaica to...
Aria Collins is Grenadian-born, Brooklyn-raised, and now based in Charlotte, North Carolina. After moving south and losing easy access to Caribbean food, she started rethinking her relationship with food, health, and culture. She turned that journey into Prep and Ting, a Caribbean-centered approach to meal prep and intentional eating.
In this episode, we talk about what it’s like to crave the food you grew up o...
In Part 2 of this conversation, Kerry-Ann Reid-Brown continues her discussion with organizational psychologist Dr. Kerriann Peart about what Caribbean women experience in professional spaces.
This episode explores topics we rarely talk about openly, including how perimenopause, burnout, and ambition culture intersect with work and identity.
Together they discuss:
- Why Caribbean women often push themselves to the poi...
What happens when Caribbean cultural identity meets corporate expectations?
In this powerful conversation, Kerry-Ann Reid-Brown sits down with organizational psychologist Dr. Kerriann Peart to unpack the challenges Caribbean people - women especially, face in professional spaces. From cultural misunderstandings and workplace microaggressions to burnout, “boreout,” and the pressure to fit into corporate no...
You were taught to work hard and let your work speak for itself. But what happens when that formula stops working? In this episode, let's explore Lens 5 of the Caribbean Diaspora Experience Model and how cultural identity shapes how we show up at work.
In This Episode We Discuss:
- Why Caribbean work ethic is both strength and pressure
- The myth of meritocracy in corporate America
- Cultural mismatches between Caribbean ...
I this episode I sat down with cultural heritage reconnection coach Tami Garcia to trace a path from distance to pride. Raised in Cleveland by Jamaican and Dominican family who chose assimilation for survival, Tami grew up without language, rituals, or a map for belonging; until Howard University cracked something open: pride, proximity, and a hunger for the fullness of her story.
This conversation traces Tammy&rsquo...
What if you’re not losing your culture, just carrying it differently? In this solo episode, I unpack cultural evolution, identity shifts, and why growth is essential to preservation.
Topics Covered
- Aging and cultural relevance in the diaspora
- From consuming culture to preserving it
- Cultural guilt and letting it go
- The role of elders, adults, and youth in cultural continuity
Key Takeaways
- Cultural evoluti...
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