S2E10: Healing and Understanding Intergenerational and Collective Traumas
Diverse Joy’s May 2025 episode: “Healing and Understanding Intergenerational and Collective Traumas”
Coming soon, 5/7/2025.
A selfie Amber took while recording this episode of Diverse Joy.
To celebrate Star Wars Day ("May the Fourth be with you!)", Will and Amber dress in their favorite colors (pink and green) as "Star Wars" characters, and share "Star Wars" related joys. Amber's joy is attending one of Disneyland's After Dark Nites for "Star Wars" last year - with her mom, Will, and producer Eric Roman. Will's joy is the fun "Star Wars"-inspired details producer Eric Roman has added to their house. Before they get into the main discussion topic, Will shares some "bonus science" about aggression research.
The episode's Diverse-Joy-Episode-Capsules-Season-2-Episode-10 focuses on Intergenerational Trauma, with the conversation ranging from epigenetics and genetics, to how the self-talk of parents can affect their children, corporal punishment and Stacey Patton's book "Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won't Save Black America", and how events such as the Pulse nightclub shooting and the murder of George Floyd create collective trauma for members of related communities. And, importantly, they discuss steps to take to help heal from these intergenerational and collective traumas.
The anecdotes from Story Time include a negative story from Will and how the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 directly affected his family and lead to his great-grandfather, who was Chinese and Native Hawaiian, to abandon his Chinese last name. Amber shares about how she helps Black youth in the predominantly White state of Oregon.
The question this month is about how to "be better" when you grew up in a very racist space, and the short answer is that if you're already thinking about how to be better, you're on the right path! Put in the effort, use the tools you've learned from listening to "Diverse Joy", and keep at it.
Amber and Will in a promotional image for this episode of Diverse Joy.
This month's bias habit-breaking skill is a spin on a classic: Broaden Your Input, but this time via Images in the Environment. Amber and Will discuss many great ways to increase representation in your physical and digital environments.
The episode wraps up with Will's joyful recommendation of Fire Island (2022) as part of the lead-up to Pride next month! This movie is a gay, Asian-American take on "Pride and Prejudice" focusing on a group of friends who go to Fire Island for the summer, and all the shenanigans that ensue! This movie is particularly important for its representation of diversity in the gay community, since a lot of LGBTQ+ media focuses on White folks, and the two main characters in Fire Island are Asian-American (played by the amazing Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang), with Margaret Cho showing up as their group's queer auntie. It's a lot of fun; check it out!
The episode can be found below, by following the podcast wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, RSSFeed, Amazon/Audible, or by subscribing to @BiasHabit on YouTube.
