ya'll begged me to start a podcast.
I’m an autotheorist and a biomythographer, so I have always believed that my lived experience and my scholarship were the same thing. But I have also been looking for a way to dive even more deeply into the topics that birthed the Soulwork Newsletter. Don’t worry - this is a both/and situation. Not an either/or moment.
I’ve always said that illiteracy is a Womanist issue. If the “Source Code” for our liberation is locked behind paywalls, dense academic jargon, or 500-page textbooks that folks don’t have the capacity to sit with after a 10-hour shift, then that knowledge isn’t doing its job.
This podcast, Soulwork Explained, is my answer to that.
You asked for a more intimate way to engage with these ideas on your own time, and I wanted a way to make sure this brilliance is accessible to everyone in the collective, regardless of how they consume information.
The Transcript: Episode 01 [announcing soulwork explained]
What if the answers that we are searching for in 2026 were already written in 1983? In 1822? The revolution has always had a reading list, and freedom comes with footnotes. Period.
We know we have an illiteracy crisis on our hands, but illiteracy is about more than just the ability to read words on a page. It is about the access to information, the ability to synthesize it, and the capacity to use it to make sense of our world. Sense-making is a part of literacy. It’s the part we are struggling with—even among those of us who can look at a page and read the words on it.
That is the point behind Soulwork Explained. I’m your host and your homegirl, Bethany Nicole, and I’m obsessed with the ‘Source Code’ of our endurance. I’ve spent years building a framework I call Soulwork—my personal epistemology that sits at the intersection of four massive pillars: US Labor History, Womanism, Black Feminist Thought, and Afrofuturism.
Think of this podcast like a ‘Lore Channel’ for real life. You know how people break down every frame of a Marvel movie to understand the universe? We’re doing that with the texts that actually built our world. We’re diving into the ‘Head Writers’ of our time—the bell hooks, the Octavia Butlers, the Alice Walkers. We are going to read, annotate, and apply their scholarship as praxis.
Why Now?
Because we’re living in the future those writers imagined. The labor exploitation they warned us about? It’s in our gig economy. The reproductive justice Fannie Lou Hamer fought for is still on the ballot. The liberated futures they dreamed of are the ones we are supposed to be building right now.
What to Expect
Each episode, we’re taking one text—a book, an essay, a speech—and treating it like Scripture.
Bethany Nicole
Not in a religious sense, but in the sense that these works hold generative power. We’re asking:
- What did the authors see?
- What did they know?
- And how does that knowledge move through us today?
We’re connecting the lore. The Black Radical Tradition flowing into Afrocentricity. Womanism in conversation with abolition. US labor struggles as the backdrop for every freedom dream we’ve ever had. This is academic, yes—but it’s also deeply personal. Soulwork has always been about making theory breathe.
Where to Find Me
Soulwork Explained will live everywhere you need it:
- YouTube for the full video experience.
- Major Podcast Platforms for your commute.
- Substack for detailed show notes, reading lists, and extended thoughts.
If you’ve been following the newsletter, you know I write personal essays. This podcast is the other side of that coin. This is the space where we do the research, share the receipts, and do the lineage work.
If you’ve ever wanted to understand why certain ideas keep showing up in Black thought, how our ancestors encoded survival instructions in their work, or what it means to do intellectual labor that’s also spiritual labor—this is for you. And if you keep searching the titles of nonfiction books on YouTube and coming up blank? We’re fixing that.
Subscribe here and on YouTube. I don’t know when the videos drop yet, but if you follow on Substack, you’ll know first. I also don’t promise a full face beat or professional editing. I’m an overstimulated lady with an attitude and a Canva subscription. Lipstick and a smile is the best I can do. LOL.
Let’s get into the lore.
Love y’all. Mean it. (If you love me back, buy me a book!)
— B
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