On Becoming and Redefining Reality: Podcasting as Narrative Disruption with Talib Jasir

October 28, 2026

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“I hope listeners understand that social justice is embedded in how you build, who you hire, who you cite, who you pay, and who you archive.

I want us to question the narratives we’ve accepted about ourselves and about others. I want us to examine where we have power, even if it’s small. And act accordingly

Concrete actions? Kaizen approach to self-improvement and self-awareness. Fund independent creators. Support local institutions. Build something instead of waiting for permission. Audit your own assumptions. Pay attention to who disappears from public record.

Justice is operational. And we participate in it every day, whether we realize it or not.”

–Talib Jasir

Talib Jasir understands narrative as infrastructure and uses storytelling to build narrative power, reclaim agency, and take ownership of the stories told about us without us.

To him, podcasting is a barrier-free path back to the tradition of sharing oral histories, where Black people can create a living record of our experiences for future generations, at a time when our stories are actively being co-opted and erased.

He shares how he founded the Afros & Audio festival and ecosystem to connect Black independent podcast creatives and audio professionals, and invites listeners to own their agency, decolonize their thoughts, and use their voices to help build a more just future.

Important considerations from this Personal Journeys segment include:

Talib Jasir founded Afros and Audio to create a space where Black audio creators feel seen and belong.
Using podcasting to preserve living memory and reclaim our narratives.
The belief that narrative functions as infrastructure and must be used intentionally to disrupt harmful systems.
The importance of doing the mental work of decolonizing belief systems, healing trauma, and claiming personal agency.
The need to turn critical thought inward and hold ourselves and each other accountable to avoid us-versus-them thinking.

Meet Talib

Talib Jasir is a creative strategist, audio producer, and cultural convener who has spent the last decade building platforms that center independent voices and expand access to storytelling. He is the founder of Afros & Audio, a seven-year podcast festival and ecosystem that connected creators, audio professionals, and industry leaders across multiple cities before evolving into new community-based and strategic initiatives.

With a background in audio fiction, live events, and narrative development, Talib approaches social justice through story architecture. He believes that who gets to speak, who gets archived, and who gets funded are political questions. His work focuses on helping creators and organizations clarify their narratives, build sustainable infrastructure, and document lived experiences as part of the public record.

As a Black American man raised between rural farmland and suburban Maryland, Talib brings a lived understanding of movement across worlds. His work is informed by personal trials, entrepreneurial risk, and a commitment to intellectual rigor and self-examination. He sees storytelling as both an economic tool and a civic responsibility.

Whether facilitating conversations, producing podcasts, or advising institutions, Talib’s throughline is simple: stories build power. When communities control their narratives, they expand what is possible for themselves and for the generations that follow.

More from Talib

I’d like to talk about narrative as infrastructure. Social justice conversations often focus on protest, policy, or philanthropy. My lane has been story, media, and who controls distribution. I want to highlight the politics of visibility, the economics of storytelling, and what it means to build platforms without institutional backing. I also want to talk about entrepreneurship as justice work. When you build spaces where marginalized creators can earn, be archived, and be heard, that’s structural work that changes outcomes.

I learned early that context determines how you are perceived. Same person, different room, different assumptions. That realization sits heavy when you’re young. Later in life, being laid off, navigating depression, and confronting betrayal in my personal life forced me to examine power in intimate and public spaces.

The pivotal shift came when I realized that the stories we accept about ourselves can imprison us more effectively than any external system. I felt anger, grief, and eventually clarity. I stopped waiting for permission to be positioned and started building platforms instead. The truth I discovered is simple: if you do not author your narrative, someone else will. And they may not have your best interest in mind.

Initially, my awareness of social justice was emotional. It was about unfairness and harm. Over time, it became structural. I started seeing how funding flows, gatekeeping, and cultural capital shape who thrives and who disappears.

Running Afros & Audio for seven years without deep industry backing changed my understanding. I saw how “diversity” is often celebrated rhetorically but underfunded materially. My work now focuses on sustainability. Justice without economics is symbolism. Justice with infrastructure becomes legacy.

I’ve moved from reacting to systems to building parallel ones. That shift matters.

Reflections on Influences

My great-grandmother is the root of it. She taught me patience, kindness, and humanity in ways that did not require performance or applause. From her I learned that dignity is a daily practice and that how you treat people reflects what you believe about their worth. That foundation shaped my understanding of integrity long before I had language for it.

James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Gloria Naylor sharpened that foundation intellectually. Baldwin reframed Black rage with clarity and gave me permission to examine the power of critical thought and cultural analysis. Morrison showed me that language builds worlds and that storytelling carries responsibility. Naylor revealed the epic scale inside ordinary Black life.

My lived experience as a neurodivergent Black American required me to question systems that were not designed for my wiring, which cultivated a habit of structural analysis rather than self-blame. Mentors who challenged me rather than simply affirmed me helped refine that thinking. As a result, I value rigorous dialogue because growth requires friction.

Reflections on Internalized Oppression

In the past I’ve absorbed narratives about limitation. About who gets to lead, who gets funded, who gets taken seriously. There were seasons where I minimized myself to avoid being perceived as threatening or “too much.” ADHD plays a major factor in this as well especially before I was diagnosed.

My relationship with Internalized oppression and shrinking to survive was effectively managed with awareness and self-concept. It still surfaces, especially around money and visibility. But I interrogate it instead of obeying it. I ask: who benefits if I stay small?

Reflections on Internalized Patterns of Power/Superiority

I identify as a man, and while gender carries social power in many contexts, I do not see maleness alone as the core of my privilege. There are billions of men navigating oppression, poverty, and exclusion. The privileges that most shaped my trajectory were being born in America, receiving a quality education, graduating from college, working in Corporate America, and having the opportunity to lead and found organizations. Access to infrastructure, networks, and institutional credibility created mobility that many people, including many men, never experience.

That kind of access can produce assumption, particularly the belief that everyone has equal proximity to achieving their goals or “living their best life,” as if aspiration alone closes structural gaps. It can obscure the systemic, familial, and environmental barriers that keep people distant from realizing their dreams regardless of race, gender, or identities. Those of us who were not raised in abject poverty or constant violence can unintentionally universalize our pathway and misread it as merit alone. That realization required scrutiny.

My relationship to that awareness now is intentional. I examine the rooms I enter, the opportunities extended to me, and the capital I have accumulated. When privilege is left unexamined, it hardens hierarchy and can feed a us versus them mentality. When it is acknowledged, it becomes a tool for widening access, redistributing opportunity, and building structures that do not depend solely on people like me to sustain them.