Behind The Story Show

Staring at a seven-page ballot full of names you don't recognize? You're not alone. In this episode of Behind the Story, host Jelani Gonzalez sits down with a Los Angeles software engineer who was born in China, became a U.S. citizen, and set out to fix one of the biggest problems in American elections: most voters have no idea who the candidates really are. Using AI to gather and summarize public records, he and a team of friends from across the political spectrum built a free, open-source s...

Zolal Habibi was seven years old when her father, a well-known human rights activist and writer, was killed in the summer of 1988, during the wave of executions of political prisoners in Iran. She found out months later, from a newspaper she wasn’t supposed to see. In this conversation, Jelani Gonzalez goes behind the headlines with Zolal to explore the personal story that shaped her life’s work. She shares how growing up in the U.S. inside an activist household led her to Congress at twelve....

Why do so many founders feel lost after selling their business? Adam Roach exited three real estate brokerage franchises in 2019, hit the number he’d set for himself, and then faced what he calls the hangover: a loss of identity no exit plan had prepared him for. Adam, founder of I Love Coaching Co., shares how he rebuilt, from an exercise that connected a wound, a lie and a vow to a question from John Maxwell and a stranger holding old cassette tapes at his father’s funeral. Questions this c...

Federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home on Oct 12, and reporting says the investigation centers on her 2000 naturalization. No one has been charged. This episode steps back from the headlines to answer the bigger question: can the U.S. government take away a person’s citizenship, and what does it have to prove? We cover what is confirmed, what is only alleged, how denaturalization works in plain English (including the Supreme Court cases Fedorenko, Maslenjak and Afroyim), and then the ...

What if you never filed a tax return again — no April 15th, no IRS — and a single 1% tax funded the entire government? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Gary Barnes, a retired tradesman turned author of Fixing America’s Broken Government, for a wide-ranging conversation about the idea he calls the “receiving tax.” Gary spent 45 years as a wallpapering artisan in southwest Connecticut, raising six children while wrestling with a tax code he describes as 12,000...

Reid Robinson was a hardworking IT infrastructure architect and father of two in Calgary when an icy-road car crash changed everything. What followed was more than a dozen surgeries, years of crutches, and a recovery that tested his patience, his body, and his determination to stay present for his family. In this conversation, Reid takes us behind the story of how he went from hospital bed to inventor. Frustrated by how hard crutches were to live with, he sketched an idea for a "crutch for yo...

What does it take to change a habit that has outlasted every attempt to break it? Connie Kwan, author of Story Habits, says the answer starts with the story you tell yourself about who you are, not with more willpower. Connie grew up between Hong Kong and Canada, trained as a computer engineer, and spent much of her career in product. Then she joined a smoking cessation company and, in her words, got a front-row seat to how habit change works. She shares what she saw: two simple self-reporte...

The word "DEI" has been demonized — but what does it actually mean? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Celeste Warren, former Global Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Merck, decades-long HR leader, author, and founder of CRW Diversity, for the clear-eyed conversation the topic has been missing. Celeste grew up in a small steel-mill town in Western Pennsylvania, the daughter of the first Black teacher and principal in her part of the state. That front-...

On Monday, September 14, 2026, the Supreme Court closed the book — at least for this election — on a fight Behind the Story has tracked across five episodes. By a 7-2 vote, the justices refused to let the Trump administration enforce a new U.S. Postal Service rule on mail-in ballots for the 2026 midterms, leaving a federal judge's nationwide injunction in place. In this series finale, host Jelani Gonzalez breaks down what the Court actually decided, why a cross-ideological majority of seven j...

Twenty-six years ago, a comedian in a yellow tracksuit and orange shades sat across from real politicians, generals, and diplomats — and they answered him seriously. That was Ali G. This fall, Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing the character back in Ali G: Who Is I? — and tens of thousands of people are trying to make sure you never get to watch it. In this Behind the Story Exposé, we go past the headline and into the real tension: a British watchdog group has driven 45,000+ emails urging cinemas ...

In 2004, Sheena Meade was a young single mother earning about $18,000 a year when an $87.26 check bounced. Two months later, police arrested her in front of her four children. She paid the check back, completed the courses, and thought her sentence was over — but as she says in this conversation, "My true sentence was just beginning." In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Dr. Sheena Meade — mother, grandmother, lifelong organizer, and CEO of The Clean Slate Initi...

He was born in Jamaica, named Robert Kennedy III by a grandfather who said it "with such glee" — and he's spent his life turning that name into a conversation starter. In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with communication coach, speaker, and self-described polymath Robert Kennedy III for an honest look at how a quiet kid who was told "you talk too much, Bobby" became a man who speaks to thousands for a living. Robert opens up about being an introvert in an extrover...

Back where we started — except this time, it's different. The same judge who was forced to lift her block on Trump's mail-ballot rule put a new one right back up, days later — and for the first time in five months, a federal court actually ruled on whether the policy is constitutional. Her answer was no. In this episode: how a "motion for reconsideration" unwound Wednesday's ruling, exactly what Judge Talwani found on the merits (including a factual finding that there's no evidence of the fr...

We told you two days ago this story wasn't over — it moved even faster than expected. A federal judge has now ruled that the Trump administration violated her own court order restricting mail ballot rules... and then declined to do anything about it. In this follow-up, we break down Judge Talwani's violation finding, the administration's two-part legal defense (including a genuinely serious argument tied directly to Monday's Supreme Court ruling), and what happens next now that the final USP...

The Supreme Court just ruled 6-3 on who controls your mail-in ballot — but by its own admission, the ruling doesn't decide if any of it is actually legal. "Time will tell," the Court wrote. So what did the justices actually decide today, and what did they deliberately leave unresolved? In this episode, we go beneath the surface of the March 2026 executive order that put USPS and DHS at the center of a fight over federal election authority — the two lawsuits it triggered, the injunctions stil...

Somewhere in Washington this week, the Supreme Court will decide something that affects your life — and you may never know why. No hearing. No explanation. Sometimes not even a signature. It's called the emergency docket, better known as the "shadow docket," and over the last decade it has gone from a quiet technical corner of the Court to one of the most powerful and most disputed tools in American government. In this edition of the Behind the Story Expose series, Jelani Gonzalez breaks down...

What happens when a man becomes so convinced of a single truth that he legally changes his name to match it? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with the author and philosopher known as One I Am — a name he took after a 2004 spiritual awakening and the book I Am That. What follows is a wide-ranging conversation about awareness, identity, and the idea at the center of all his work: the mind is all there is, and the world we see is a perceptive experience arising with...

Dr. Keith Hersey spent more than twenty years behind the pharmacy counter. Then he did something most pharmacists never do — he stopped focusing on dispensing pills and started coaching people to need fewer of them. In this episode, Dr. Keith sits down with Jelani Gonzalez to trace the full arc: caring for his grandmother after her strokes, discovering his own type 2 diabetes from a free glucose check at a pharmacy convention, opening an independent pharmacy in the middle of the 2020 pandemic...

Tom Hunter didn't plan any of this. He started as a primary school teacher in London, burned out, and Googled "how to make money without a degree." That search led him into recruitment — and nine years later, he walked away to build Story Recruitment, a firm placing the CFOs and senior finance leaders behind fast-growing startups. In this episode, Tom sits down with Jelani Gonzalez to talk about the long road from the classroom to founder: why he bet everything on storytelling, how a LinkedIn...

Manny Hernandez grew up in Caracas, Venezuela, in a world that no longer exists — and left in 2000 as the country changed around him. Years later, a routine checkup in the U.S. led to a diabetes diagnosis, and then a misdiagnosis: he was told he had type 2, when he actually had LADA, sometimes called type 1.5, a form that's often missed in adults. In this episode, Manny sits down with Jelani Gonzalez to trace the full arc — the shock of diagnosis, the pizza-and-insulin-pump meeting where he f...

Naresh built the kind of business most people are told doesn't exist: one that funds his life instead of consuming it. In this episode of Behind the Story, he sits down with Jelani Gonzalez to trace the road from a Duke degree and a coveted banking offer to becoming a self-described “laptop landlord” — a work-from-home founder running two companies, raising two sons, and owning nine investment properties he scaled up starting in 2017. He opens up about the real mechanics of a lifestyle busine...

Theresa Garcia didn't set out to become a coach — she set out to survive. After losing her fiancé and her mother six months apart, she rebuilt her life from the ground up, eventually writing the book Warrior of Light and founding Ruby's Positive Empowerment. In this conversation, Theresa opens up about the difference between survival and real strength, the years-long crisis that forced her to shut down her business and start over, and why she believes healing doesn't have to be as hard as we ...

Why do so many smart, capable, successful people still feel disconnected from their work? Sarah Aviram has spent her career answering that question — first as a director of talent development, then as the person who convinced her CEO to let her work from 12 countries in 12 months (before remote work was normal), and now as an author, keynote speaker, and leadership coach. In this conversation, Sarah unpacks the six core drivers of fulfillment at work, why raises and promotions rarely fix burn...

Sam Daley-Harris spent twelve years as a professional percussionist and a career as a music teacher before a single question changed the direction of his life: does your member of Congress know your name? In 1978, he asked 7,000 high school students, classroom by classroom, if they could name their own representative. Fewer than three percent could. That gap became the anti-poverty lobby RESULTS, and nearly five decades of work teaching ordinary citizens how to find and use their power. In t...

Dr. Neelam Perry spent over two decades practicing internal medicine and treating HIV/AIDS patients before a personal health crisis changed the direction of her life. After surviving seven strokes and fighting to access a costly medication she says her insurance wouldn't approve, she made a decision: leave medicine and try to fix the system from the inside. In this conversation, Dr. Perry talks with Jelani Gonzalez about her path from the exam room to the campaign trail, her 2024 congression...

After 27 years practicing as a pediatrician and allergist in Texas, Dr. John Poothullil noticed something in his own body that medical textbooks couldn't explain: weight that crept on every winter and refused to leave by spring. The standard answer — "improper diet and lack of exercise" — wasn't an answer at all. So he spent the next several decades building his own. In this conversation, Dr. John walks Jelani through the "fatty acid burn switch" — his alternative explanation for Type 2 diabe...

Scherrie L. Prince did not take a straight path into law. Before becoming an attorney, entrepreneur, business coach, and podcast host, she worked in operations, real estate, mortgage brokerage, and business ownership. Then the 2008 mortgage crisis hit, and she lost everything while raising two young children. In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Scherrie to talk about the personal experiences that shaped her legal work today — losing her mother at 16, watching f...

For more than 150 years, birth on American soil has been understood as one of the clearest paths to U.S. citizenship. But after President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14160 on the first day of his second term, the country was forced back into a constitutional debate many people thought had already been settled. In this BTS Exposé Special Edition of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez goes beyond the headlines to unpack the deeper history behind birthright citizenship: English common law,...

George Tinsley Sr.’s story begins in Smoketown, Louisville, where he was raised by Willie Tinsley, a woman with one leg who could not read or write but gave him the foundation of loyalty, responsibility, and resilience. In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with George to talk about the journey behind the championships, the businesses, the book, and the legacy. George shares what it was like growing up during segregation-era Louisville, discovering basketball, winning...

What happens when an award-winning vocalist and songwriter sits down with an AI music producer building a weekly online producer battle? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez is joined by Gerard Barnes and David Nichol for a timely, honest, and surprisingly personal conversation about AI music, creativity, ownership, and the future of performance. David shares how AI is helping him reimagine his music, update live shows, and explore new possibilities as a singer and f...

What does it really mean to lead people well? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Germain St-Denis, author of Empowering People Through Caring Leadership, for a thoughtful conversation about the difference between managing tasks and truly leading people. Germain shares lessons from his long career in technology, strategy, management, and executive leadership, including why leaders must train, equip, trust, empower, and genuinely care for their teams. He also ex...

Gerard Barnes is back on Behind the Story — and this time, the conversation goes deep into the world of AI music. Gerard is the creator of A-Idol, a TikTok-based AI music battle competition where producers from around the world go head-to-head using nothing but their imagination and a machine. Think American Idol — but the artists are the producers, the instrument is AI, and the competition is fierce. In this episode, Jelani and Gerard explore the real story behind A-Idol's creation, what i...

Why do so many successful people still feel stuck, burned out, or disconnected? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Daune Thompson, speaker, coach, and creator of the Soul CEO and Lighthouse Mastery approach, for a conversation about success, burnout, subconscious patterns, alignment, and self-understanding. Daune shares why she believes burnout is not simply about doing too much, but about being out of alignment with who you are for too long. She also explains...

Dr. Brian Arnold’s story is a powerful reminder that where you start does not have to define where you finish. In this episode of Behind the Story, host Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Dr. Brian Arnold to explore his journey from struggling to read as a child and being placed in special education classes, to becoming an educator, entrepreneur, leadership consultant, podcast host, and doctorate holder. Dr. Brian opens up about growing up in Colorado as one of the few Black students in his schoo...

In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Dale Novella Anderson Lee, a singer, songwriter, music producer, educator, and leader in teaching artistry. Dale shares how music became a source of healing in her own life and how that calling eventually led her into classrooms, workshops, and community spaces where young people learn to trust their voices. Through her work with Community-Word Project and the Teaching Artist Project, Dale helps artists and students use music...

What if the future of leadership is not about having more information, but accessing a deeper form of intelligence within? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani sits down with Anthony Nayagan, a modern mystic, executive mentor, author, Tamil Siddhar, and Rajarishi, whose work bridges Eastern wisdom traditions and Christian mysticism. Anthony shares his perspective on source intelligence, the difference between external intelligence and internal intelligence, and why today’s leaders need...

In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Dr. Andrea “Andi” Simon, a corporate anthropologist, culture change expert, author, and speaker who helps people and organizations learn to see, feel, and think differently. Andi explains why change is so difficult, why leaders often misunderstand culture, and how people protect identity, status, and certainty when they feel disruption coming. She also shares why true transformation begins with curiosity, listening, small wi...

What happens when your life keeps falling apart — and you decide to rise anyway? In this episode of Behind the Story, I sit down with Sandy Knight, author of Phoenix Rising Guided Journal for Your Renewal and founder of Spirit Knight, for a conversation about healing, transformation, intuition, and what it really means to rebuild yourself from the inside out. Sandy shares the deeper story behind her work, including the personal pain, spiritual searching, and emotional breakthroughs that sha...

In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Michelle Williams, founder of Scarlet Thread Consulting and host of Profit is a Choice, for a powerful conversation about what creative entrepreneurs often miss when building a business. Michelle works with interior designers, architects, builders, stagers, upholsterers, drapery workrooms, and other creative business owners to help them turn talent into profit. In this conversation, she explains why many creatives are busy, ...

What happens when you get fired at 63 and realize the math says you could be broke by 65? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani sits down with David Nassief to talk about the financial wake-up call that changed his life. After a 40-year career, David found himself facing job loss, fear, and the painful truth that making money is not the same as building wealth. Six years later, he had turned that crisis into a seven-figure portfolio and a simple framework he calls the One-Page Wealth C...

What if the future is more predictable than most people think? On this episode of Behind the Story, I sit down with world-renowned futurist Daniel Burrus to talk about how leaders, professionals, and everyday people can stop reacting to change and start anticipating it. We get into Daniel’s powerful framework of Hard Trends vs. Soft Trends, why certainty matters more than ever in a world flooded with uncertainty, and how to spot opportunity before everyone else does. We also dive deep into...

Former FBI intelligence analyst Adam Dickinson joins Behind the Story for a conversation about the hidden cost of always being the reliable one. After more than 15 years analyzing high-stakes information, Adam made a major shift into entrepreneurship and now helps high-performing professionals navigate career transitions with more clarity, self-trust, and alignment. In this episode, we talk about why smart people stay stuck even when they know something feels off, how overthinking creates it...

What happens when a career federal public servant spends decades working across administrations—and then lives through the Trump era from the inside? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani sits down with Deric A. Gilliard, author of The Longest Four Years of My Life, for a candid, wide-ranging conversation on leadership, courage, and the price of telling the truth inside big institutions. We unpack: Why “Stand Your Ground” is not courage—and how fear + power shape policing and justiceD...

On this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani sits down with bestselling and award-winning author Aaron Ryan for a deeply personal conversation about the life behind the books. Aaron opens up about the childhood spark that made him a storyteller, the emotional therapy of writing, how fatherhood reshaped both his life and his work, and why hope remains the through-line in the worlds he creates. He also shares what it means to self-publish, see his work adapted for screen, and navigate a creativ...

What really keeps business owners stuck in sales? In this episode of Behind the Story, Dr. Donna Bellinger breaks down the habits, mindset gaps, and leadership mistakes that quietly block revenue growth. She shares why business owners often become their own bottleneck, how self-sabotage shows up in sales, and why consistently communicating your competence matters more than trying to be the smartest person in the room. Donna also explains her powerful “suspects, prospects, and ambassadors” fr...

Why do so many women grow up learning to be liked, agreeable, and accommodating — but not fully themselves? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani sits down with Michelle Minnikin — author, speaker, coach, and organisational psychologist — to unpack the hidden conditioning that teaches women to over-function, people-please, apologize constantly, and shrink their voice in the workplace and in life. Michelle breaks down the concept behind her work on Good Girl Deprogramming, explains why ...

In this special edition of Behind the Story, Jelani sits down with attorney Courtney Groff and retired FBI agent Eric Robinson for a timely roundtable on the Epstein files, the DOJ response, FBI procedure, congressional pressure, and the growing crisis of public trust. The conversation breaks down how investigations actually move between the FBI and DOJ, why records are sometimes released in pieces, what redactions are supposed to protect, why victim privacy complicates public demands for tra...

Jade Simmons joins Behind the Story for a powerful conversation on purpose, reinvention, faith, leadership, mental health, and politics. Jade shares how a battle with stage fright unexpectedly transformed her career from classical concert pianist into transformational speaker, and why she now defines purpose as what happens in others when you do what you do. We also discuss youth suicide prevention, the state of the mental health conversation, authenticity, independent political thinking, im...

In this episode of Behind The Story, Jelani sits down with attorney Mark Astor for a candid conversation about addiction, severe mental illness, and why the system often reacts too late to save families. Drawing from his experience as a former prosecutor and his current work helping families navigate crisis, Mark explains what he saw inside the justice system, why untreated behavioral health issues keep leading people back into chaos, and what families can do before tragedy strikes. They dis...

What if chronic pain isn’t the end of the story? In this episode of Behind The Story, I sit down with Daniel “Dan” Esposito, creator of the Undo Method, to unpack his decade-long battle with chronic pain, multiple diagnoses, and feeling like he couldn’t fully show up for his family — and how he rebuilt his health from the ground up. Dan shares the turning points that changed everything: what didn’t work early on, the first real “breakthrough” moment that gave him hope, and the core framework ...