View the images in order, here! https://canva.link/4eacwrp87m3qfxh

I've known Dane Baptiste for 20 years. I watched him find five minutes at the beginning of my Sunday Show when nobody knew his name. I watched the crowds not get it. I watched him come back anyway. This conversation is the full story, from his first day at Haberdashers, to being the only deadpan Black British comic in a room full of animated performers, to writing a sitcom that got picked up by Fox and Apple, to walking into Paramount and HBO alone because his seven-months-pregnant manager couldn't walk any further.

We talk about:

• Growing up as the first male in a generation of cousins — raised in a matriarchy
• The Sunday show years: following Jay Pharoah, competing with Usain Bolt's world record, going on after a biscuit eating competition
• Why admitting you take the bus was a passion killer in Black British culture
• Finding his deadpan voice when every Black comic was expected to be animated
• Steph McGovern giving him a TV segment when nobody else in the industry would
• Writing Sunny D and pitching it to Lionsgate, Fox, Apple, HBO, Paramount — with no writers, no team
• Keenan Ivory Wayans and Saladin Patterson joining the project
• The actress from Sunny D who passed away from bowel cancer
• Being misrepresented and the crisis of confidence and depression that followed
• Meeting Dave Chappelle on Valentine's Day with David Haye — the full circle moment
• Mo Gilligan: timing, craft, and why his crossover worked
• Why he left his management and what independence looks like now

This is 20 years of friendship in one sitting. If you care about Black British comedy, the entertainment industry, or what it actually takes to build something when nobody's behind you, this one's for you.

LINKS:

• Dane Baptiste: @danebaptiste on Instagram
• Marvyn: @themarvynharrisonpodcast / @dopeblackdads
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/gy3ZrUnG0RM

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She trained as a social worker. Spent 15 years watching what happens when relationships destroy people. Built a community of 250,000 women on Instagram. Wrote a Sunday Times bestseller. And then sat across from me and said: "I don't know if this is working. Nothing's changing."

This is Layla, Lalalaletmeexplain and this is not the conversation you're expecting.

We go into:

• Her dad leaving her mum for the woman who lived opposite, and what it did to her at 7 years old
• Why she resented her mother for years and idolised the man who left
• How her self-worth was built entirely on whether men wanted her, and the expensive therapy it took to undo it
• Dating apps losing 600,000 users and why in-person events aren't working either
• The confidence gap: women buying out dating events in 10 minutes, men not showing up
• Why men have stopped approaching women IRL — and why that's a misreading of what women actually asked for
• Family courts: the myth that they favour mothers (she breaks this down with 15 years of evidence)
• The manosphere as a grooming pipeline — and who's actually vulnerable to it
• The question we both carry: how do you keep telling the truth about harm when the people you're trying to reach are getting more defensive, not less?
• Why she thinks her audience radicalised her — and what she's doing about it
• I share my own experience of being in an abusive relationship at 19

This is two people doing the same work from opposite sides of the room, meeting in the middle for the first time. If you care about men, women, relationships, fatherhood, or just trying to figure out how we fix the gap, this one matters.

Layla Instagram: @lalalaletmeexplain TikTok: @lalalaletmeexplain X: @lalalaletmeexp2 Book: Block Delete Move On (Penguin)

Marvyn Instagram: @discoverwithmarvyn / @dopeblackdads X: @Marvyn_Harrison YouTube: @MarvynHarrison TikTok: @marvyn_harrison Website: marvynharrison.co.uk

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Poppy Jay arrives with no prep. What follows is one of the rawest conversations on this channel.

Director, writer, comedian, and co-host of the cult podcast Brown Girls Do It Too, Poppy walks me through ten photos from her life, and each one opens a door she wasn't planning to open.

We talk about the forced marriage she gave in to as the eldest of six daughters in a strict Bengali Muslim household. The father who once ruled the home and now sends her photos of the prawns he cooks. The nickname "Pitbull Poppy" she earned on set, and the uniform she wears so men stop scrutinising her. The year 2025, when she didn't work for twelve months despite being on billboards and buses, and ended up frying chips at her brother-in-law's Philly cheesesteak shop on the way to award ceremonies she'd been nominated for.

She got her ADHD diagnosis 24 hours before we recorded. She tells me why the NHS questionnaire didn't account for immigrant kids who weren't allowed to be disruptive. We get into the Bangladeshi heroin epidemic of the 1990s nobody covered. The grooming gangs conversation she's been afraid to have on camera. The night in a Leicester Square pub where a friendly white stranger turned the moment she used the word "racist." And the operating theatre where she looked around at every single non-white staff member keeping the NHS alive — and realised she might never support England again.

Honest, funny, sometimes uncomfortable.

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Instagram (podcast): https://instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@marvyn_harrison

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/marvynharrison

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sadiq Khan just announced £30 million to put a youth club in every single London borough. They're called Youth Lates — open evenings, open weekends, with food, mentoring, music, mental health support, all under one roof. The biggest investment in youth clubs by any Mayor. Ever.

Marvyn grew up in Hackney at a time when youth clubs still existed. His youth worker was Justin Pickett — the actor who played Sean Ambrose in Desmond's. In this episode, Marvyn tells that story for the first time in full: what it meant to have a Black man show up for him at 15, what was lost when those spaces disappeared, and what this announcement means for a generation of young Londoners who've never had what he had.

This one is personal.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarvynHarrison

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvynharrisonpodcast/

Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marvyn_harrison

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/marvynharrison?originalSubdomain=uk

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The UK government opened the biggest consultation on children's digital safety ever attempted. Social media age bans. Overnight app curfews. Restrictions on infinite scroll. Controls on AI chatbots. They want to hear from parents directly. So when the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology invited me to the Black Prince Community Trust in Lambeth to sit down with Kanishka Narayan MP, the Minister for AI and Online Safety, I brought a few questions. Not from a journalist. From a dad.

We covered:

• What to say to a parent who feels they've already lost the screen time battle
• What powers the government actually has to force platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram to change
• Whether parents should be worried about children using AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude unsupervised
• What a safer internet for children realistically looks like in two years
• Whether this consultation will lead to real, enforceable change

The consultation is live now and closes 26 May 2026. It takes minutes. Your response directly shapes what happens next.

Have your say: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/growing-up-in-the-online-world-a-national-consultation

Practical support for parents right now: https://kidsonlinesafety.campaign.gov.uk/

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This man sent a Myspace message to N-Dubz after seeing them on Channel U. Within a month he was their agent. No business card. No corner office. Just conviction and speed. Billy Wood is one of those names in UK music that if you know, you know. 20 years. Three of the biggest talent agencies in the world — WME, UTA, CAA. Artists like Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder, Wiley, Section Boyz, Run-DMC. Music Week 30 Under 30. Youngest agent in William Morris history at 24.

But the story underneath those headlines is messier. More interesting. It's about losing the act that made you. About being a young man at the biggest talent agency in the world making decisions he wasn't always equipped to make. About managing Wiley for two years and what the unmanageable teaches you about people. About walking away from music entirely to go run a non-league football club in Hastings — and somehow that being the thing that brought him back.

Now he's back with HAUS23, his own agency, five people deep, signing new acts and established names, and building something on his own terms.

We talk about: — Growing up in New Addington and Hastings with no money and no blueprint — Finding N-Dubz on Channel U and signing them from his uni bedroom — Booking 280 shows for N-Dubz and then losing them — and what that did to him — Tinie Tempah, Pass Out, and the fear of losing another act — Getting flown to LA by WME to meet Ari Emanuel, Patrick Whitesell and Cara Lewis — What Wiley taught him about patience, chaos, and genius — The burnout that took him out of music — Running Hastings United FC, breaking attendance records, and losing money doing it — Why he came back with HAUS23 and what he's building now

Billy Wood. Let's go.

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Health Secretary sat down with me. And he didn’t hold back.

Wes Streeting the man responsible for the entire NHS talks about surviving cancer at 38, the crisis hiding inside Britain’s maternity wards, why Black women are still dying at catastrophic rates in childbirth, what’s really happening with the National Cancer Plan, and why he believes the silent majority needs to start calling out racism before it’s too late.

This conversation covers:

• His cancer diagnosis at 38 — found by accident, treated by the NHS

• 100,000+ patients now diagnosed within 28 days (a stat you won’t see in the papers)

• The first ever government strategy for men and boys

• Why suicide is the biggest killer of young men — and what’s being done

• The sickle cell ward that nearly closed — and what it signals

• Black maternal mortality: “The excuses have run out”

• “I was told: I assumed you were a strong Black woman” — racism in maternity care

• Valerie Amos’s rapid national investigation into maternity (reporting June)

• Why he’s calling out the rise of open, unashamed racism in Britain

This is not a political interview. This is a human one.

🔗 Full talking points and timestamps in the show notes.

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The Marvyn Harrison Podcast. Subscribe. Share. Stay informed.

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Childcare in this country just changed. Permanently.

New government data shows that the cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under two has DROPPED by 52% in just two years — from £305/week to £149/week. Families are saving an average of £8,000 a year per child. Half a million households are now receiving 30 hours of funded childcare. And nearly a third of parents say they’ve been able to increase their working hours as a direct result.

In this episode, Marvyn breaks down:

• The exact numbers from the 2026 Coram Report

• What “funded hours,” “term-time,” and “SENCO” actually mean for your family

• The 4 structural moves government is making beyond the headline

• Why childcare cost is a gatekeeping mechanism — and who it locks out

• 5 questions every parent (and especially every dad) needs to sit with

Whether you’re paying nursery fees right now, thinking about starting a family, or employing people who are — this one’s for you.

Sources: DfE / Coram Family and Childcare Survey 2026

🔗 Full stats and glossary in the show notes below.

The Marvyn Harrison Podcast

Subscribe. Share. Stay informed.

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Marvyn Harrison Podcast, three guests — Richie Brave, Manga St Hilaire, Nii Odarte and Rehema Muthamia sit down for one of the most wide-ranging conversations we've had. The BAFTA N-word incident is dissected by someone who was actually in the auditorium when it happened. Richard shares his experience of childhood racism as a seven-year-old child actor, beaten and called the hard-R by his own chaperones. Rehema, the first Black African woman to win Miss England, talks about the racist abuse that followed her title, from doorstep journalists to being called Miss KFC, and how surviving an abusive relationship at 21 led her to reclaim her story publicly. Manga opens up about becoming a father for the first time, his journey from Roll Deep to hosting Red Bull's Mike Flex, and why grime's open-door culture is both its greatest strength and its structural weakness. The conversation moves through code-switching, carnival lineage, boarding school in Kenya, the importance of male friendship circles, meeting Prince William, and why Black men who speak with emotional clarity are constantly underestimated.

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Marvyn Harrison Podcast, we unpack one uncomfortable question: is the internet killing love? From religion and existential doubt to seasonal depression, trauma bonding, toxic relationship dynamics, and the rise of online healing culture, this conversation goes deep into how modern life is reshaping intimacy.

We explore:

• Why social media amplifies heartbreak
• The difference between passion and trauma bonding
• Whether peace is the same as silence
• The mental health impact of winter and isolation
• Why so many people feel disconnected despite being constantly online
• Whether faith still offers structure in a chaotic world
• How masculinity and femininity narratives are shifting

This isn’t surface-level relationship advice.

It’s a real conversation about connection, loneliness, identity, healing, and responsibility in modern culture.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Do You Actually Believe in God?

05:12 — Leaving Religion Without Losing Meaning

12:40 — The Existential Void After Faith

18:03 — Who Do You Call When You’re Not Okay?

22:45 — Peace vs Quiet: The Big Misunderstanding

27:52 — Is The Internet Designed To Break Relationships?

31:49 — Love Or Emotional Addiction?

35:01 — Trauma Bonding Explained

42:30 — Are We Addicted To Being Broken?

50:18 — The Attention Economy & Pain

58:44 — Therapy, AI & Healing Culture

01:07:11 — Seeing Your Parents As Humans

01:16:20 — Masculinity, Accountability & Modern Love

01:24:55 — Choosing Love Instead Of Needing It

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people say they want love, then date like they’re configuring a device: height, income, politics, trauma level, texting cadence, therapy status, “emotional intelligence,” travel appetite—tick, tick, tick. It feels safe. It feels efficient. It feels like control. 

But love isn’t mechanical. People aren’t programmable. They have grey areas: prickly parts, warm parts, avoidant parts, tender parts, contradictions, history. A checklist can’t measure inner world alignment, truth-telling, repair ability, or whether two people can actually build safety together. 

I unpack how romantic idealism can make you naïve—especially when you grew up in warmth and assume everyone else did too. Then reality hits: people don’t always tell the truth, not always under pressure, and if you don’t interrogate someone’s inner world you end up in cycles that feel “mystical” but are actually predictable scripts. 

The shift is simple: keep your values, drop the robot requirements. Choose moment-to-moment evidence. Build the skill of doing things well with people—clarity, repair, accountability, warmth. Then create a vehicle for connection that’s alive, consistent, and real.

Welcome to The Marvyn Harrison Podcast — a story-driven conversation exploring identity, fatherhood, masculinity, relationships, culture, politics, sport, and modern life.

In each episode, Marvyn Harrison sits down with leading thinkers, creatives, athletes, policymakers, and cultural voices to unpack the defining moments that shaped them. Through image prompts, structured storytelling, and revealing game segments, guests explore pivotal memories, career turning points, personal struggles, and the beliefs that guide their decisions today.

Expect honest discussions on mental health, family dynamics, leadership, equity, ambition, resilience, and the realities of navigating success in Britain and beyond.

This is a podcast about clarity, where lived experience meets sharp cultural insight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.