Don’t Filter Feelings Podcast: A Different Perspective on Racism

 Don’t Filter Feelings is a U.K. podcast produced by Hollyoaks, which also produces several other podcasts and a long-running popular soap opera. True to its title, the podcast deals with conversations about issues that matter to people who have stories to share. The host Lauren Layfield is an English television and radio presenter and journalist who worked mainly for CBBC and Capital FM. For the last five years, she’s been a constant presence on British TV and radio. As a podcast host, Layfield brings enthusiasm, intelligence and a willingness to listen to the show.

Unlike other shows – podcast or TV – where sharing is code for celebrities sharing about the latest rehab stint or painful breakup with a romantic partner, Don’t Filter Feelings takes the plunge into those social, personal and cultural issues that tend to bring out the best and worst in people.

In the first episode in August 2019 titled, “What Is Different” Layfield talks to a wheelchair-bound woman and a gay man about how the world interprets their “difference.”

Future episodes also strike that chord of controversy with far-right British politician Nigel Bromage speaking about extremism, Cheddar Gorgeous talking about drag culture and gender identity and suicide prevention advocate Angela Samata discussing the devastating impact of suicide.

After a break in production, the podcast returned in April with an episode about coping with the lockdown in the U.K. and then in July, the podcast presented the first in a series of special episodes about racism. In that episode, cast members from the Hollyoaks soap opera discussed their personal experiences with racism.

In the latest Don’t Filter Feelings podcast episode, Brenda Edwards, Kelle Bryan and Chelsee Healey discuss their personal experiences of racism and how it has impacted their children.

 

In the episode, Kelle Bryan discusses her children’s experiences with racism, saying “Unfortunately, my children were exposed to racism from very young. My son came home and he was really upset, and at that point I’d raised him to see people as human beings and as people, not as colors.”

Chelsee Healey discusses racism towards her daughter “I got the most vile, vile message about my daughter actually not too long ago. I just looked at them and burst out crying… There’s been another time when she came back from nursery, and she said ‘Mummy, I have brown skin. My friends say I’m brown.’ So I said, ‘Yeah, but you’re beautiful and brown. Brown is so beautiful.’ I think she’s a little bit too young now to be having the conversation with her, but just so she knows that brown is so beautiful.”

“I think it’s really important that my children understand and have pride in who they are, an understanding of where they’ve come from and the sacrifices that have been made for them to have the lifestyle that they live, to have the choices they have,” says Kelle in the episode.

The host of the episode, British actor and singer Brenda Edwards, discussed the response she received on social media after George Floyd’s death.

“I had a lot of people messaging me directly on social media saying to me to use my platform to say something, and putting me under that pressure,” says Brenda in the episode. “I thought to myself, I have no problem with saying what is on my mind, I’ve never had a problem in saying what I believe, and there was a part of me that felt a little bit of resentment. Don’t tell me how to feel.”

What is unique about Don’t Filter Feelings for U.S. listeners is that it provides a different perspective on the issues that face all of us – regardless of race, religion, where we live and what we believe. The 2019 episodes on internet trolls, gender identity, far-right extremism, autism and the modern family unit are handled by the podcast with earnestness and a modulated sense of preachiness. For American listeners, Don’t Filter Feelings proves that many nations and cultures are dealing with the same issues but may have a different and unique viewpoint that we cannot see.

In the U.S., where racial equality and social justice have been politicized, racism has unfortunately joined up with other hot button issues such as abortion and gay rights that can cause people to lose their sense of perspective and that’s putting it mildly.

Listening to the last two episodes of Don’t Filter Feelings about racism in the U.K. should make U.S. listeners realize that racism isn’t dead and, in fact, is becoming more virulent every day as those threatened by upsetting the “status quo” where they have all the power demonize people whose only crime is that they want to be treated equally with the same opportunities to find good jobs, live in safe neighborhoods and have quality education.

For Americans, check out Don’t Filter Feelings here.

Perhaps it will even melt that confirmation bias.