The Story with Charu
What are the stories we are told and what are the stories we believe? In most newsrooms across the world there is a morning meeting where reporters discuss the most important stories of the day and which ones to put resources into covering. We live in a time where information comes at us fast. It’s hard to take a breath or know what to trust. Knowledge is power, and when you know better you do better. I want to explore the questions we need to be asking, the stories we need to hear and what exactly is the truth.
Episodes
Natalie Weaver became a sudden advocate for those with facial deformations, the profoundly disabled and the medically fragile when her own daughter (who suffered from all three) was at risk of having medical benefits cut. The journey has taken her to congressional hearings and meetings with other activists around the country.
It has also made her the target of online trolls.
In this interview she talks about becoming a mom to Sophia...
Moshitadi Lehlomela is a counselor and life coach based in South Africa. She launched Temple Beautiful, a service to help men and women heal their mother wound so they can live their best lives in 2017.
Lehlomela had no idea when she started her work the impact she would have, and the interest from people outside of her own African culture.
The “mother wound” is a theory in psychology that states if a mother is not able to meet th...
Brad Stoehr has always liked helping people, but becoming a kidney donor wasn’t necessarily on the list.
That all changed when he saw a social media post about a high school friend in need of a kidney.
On January 25, 2021 Stoehr gave Petra Herzog (part 1 of this story) a kidney.
The process lead them both to create the non profit Odd Kidneys.? In this interview he talks about what in his life lead to the living kidney donation.?
Find ...
Petra Herzog developed Type 1 Diabetes as a child and has struggled with the harsh effects of this disease for decades.
In 2020 as the Covid pandemic raged across the globe, Herzog was hospitalized because of the effects from the disease. That’s when she found out she’d have to be on dialysis until she could get a kidney transplant.
After months of tests - high school friend Brad Stoehr was approved as a match. On January 25, 202...
Annesa Tabassum’s message is a simple one - “just one survivor trying to help the other”. She has turned her story of domestic abuse into a huge social media following on Instagram and TikTok - where she helps others see the way out. Go to @thestorywithcharu on Instagram to be linked.
Some links for more information:
http://www.ncdsv.org/ncd_linksasian.html
https://www.thehotline.org/
www.charukumarhia.com
www.charukumarhia.com
The best advice the guests of this last season had to offer...
www.charukumarhia.com
www.charukumarhia.com
In this interview, Isis Bey talks about how to come at the world from a place of power.
More info on the community center she started:
www.harmonyhealthpllc.com
How to support Harmony Health:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/harmony-health-mental-health-fund
Bey’s Bio:
Isis Bey is the founder and owner of Harmony H...
Ron Potts grew up in Smithville, a historic Black section of Cornelius, North Carolina. Cornelius is a town north of Charlotte, they share the same county. For decades Smithville was not incorporated into the mostly white town. Right now, it is the largest - still in tact - historic Black community in Mecklenburg County, NC.
Potts went off to college, worked in other parts of the country and even served in the Vietnam war. He ca...
Byron Ballard grew up wild and “unchurched” in the mountains of rural western North Carolina.? That lack of religious structure allowed her to grow her own spiritual practices - which later she would identify as Paganism/Wicca, a collection of earth based spirtual practices.? ?
Such beliefs manifested around the world with similar ideas.? Ballard is a folklorist specializing in the cultural history of the Scotch/Irish who immigrated...
Dara King, who is Black, grew up in an all consuming white experience.
Her family became active in an evangelical white church when she was a child. She attended several times a week, even going to the church school. Hearing racist interpretations of the Bible and cruel things from other members started to wear thin on King, who (even at a young age) was Black and proud.
In this interview - she talks about the last 4 years in Am...
Patsy Keever is a school teacher turned political servant.? She was a county commissioner and state legislator in North Carolina for years.
In 2010 Keever ran for Congress.? That year North Carolina’s political districts were so out of whack, her district was redrawn and gerrymandered to the point that she couldn’t vote for herself (even though she had lived in that district for decades).
?In 2019 a 3 judge panel would rule that the...
Tom Johnson has had an interesting career. Starting out at a local newspaper in Macon, Georgia to working for President Lyndon B. Johnson to heading up CNN in its early years. (Full bio below)
In this interview - writer Charu Kumarhia talks to Johnson about his career, his thoughts on politics and journalism today - and why everyone should have a dog. Tom Johnson is also candid about his struggles with depression.
Follow @thest...
As a young child, MacLeod would experience premonitions then be stunned that they would come true.? He says he would also see spirits.? Later, after years of being an atheist and non believer (and after a rather in your face encounter with a deceased relative at a Borders bookstore)? he embraced his talent for communicating with “spirit guides”.
MacLeod embraces the concept of reincarnation - the idea that your soul is born and born...
Brittany Kelly’s family has been part of the Rock Hill, South Carolina community for generations - the good and bad parts of its past.
Rock Hill is the small southern town were civil rights icon and former Georgia congressman John Lewis was beaten and bloodied by members of the KKK.
Kelly returned to her hometown and married another local. In 2018 they opened The Mercantile, a local retailer that sells all sorts of cute goodies - an...
In this episode writer, speaker and preformer Hannah Hasan talks about how the last part of 2020 is still affecting most of us and how we all go forward from here, especially since we may not be able to find common ground.?
Hasan feels one of the most actionable things we can do is find joy in everyday activities and in small random acts that bring joy to others we love.
You can find out more about her here:
https://www.facebook.com/...
Kelly Rowe was a comic booking emcee and hosting gigs across the country when she met and married the love of her life, Terran Walker.? Then they received the news of his cancer diagnosis. ?
The next several years she dropped out of an extroverted life to help him manage until his death in March of 2019.? Rowe who never believed much in spirtual things says she started receiving signs through the process that haven’t stopped.? She t...
Journalist Charu Kumarhia talks about how the lofty goals many of us set at the beginning of each new year might be kept more in check at the start of 2021.
For great mental health care tips Kumarhia recommends:
https://www.nedratawwab.com/
https://www.instagram.com/dr.marielbuque/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/southasiantherapists/?hl=en
https://www.sylvestermcnutt.net/
www.charukumarhia.com
www.charukumarhia.com
Season 5 of The Story with Charu podcast wraps up with the host’s thoughts on the oddest year in most people’s lives.
www.charukumarhia.com
www.charukumarhia.com
Journalist Charu Kumarhia talks to Tammy Gibson who works to fund her travel passion.? She uses those travels to educate those who follow her about Black and African culture.
Find out more about Sankofa TravelHer here:
Tammy Gibson, Entrepreneur, Travel Historian & Author
Purchase my book:? https://www.sankofatravelher.com/book-honoring-the-legacy
Sankofa TravelHer
Black History Traveler & Blogger
"Black History Is More Than ...
Archna Malhotra Becker grew a passion for home cooked, authentic Indian meals into a family business, and then a personal business.
Her restaurant Bhojanic is wildly popular in the Atlanta area - and has grown to include cooking classes, a food truck and other avenues. ?
Find more about the chef here:
https://www.bhojanic.com/
www.charukumarhia.com
www.charukumarhia.com
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